Nintendo E3 Direct 2018, Nintendo Treehouse 2018, Nintendo Invitationals 2018, and Other Platform E3 Nonsense (God Bless)

Solid stuff from SE's presentation. Nothing earth-shattering, on the flip side most of the games they showed off are actually coming out in the next twelve months. Might check out Dragon Quest 11, and that medieval platinum games game has my eye (alas it was one of the two games with no release date).

Better than MS's? Honestly I'm tempted to say it was. Mostly because Microsoft's quickly devolved into a "here's a peek at what's coming to every system!" with a sprinkling of the same old same old shooters racers and so on (that cute-sy side-scrolling action game looked fantastic though, I'll give them credit where it's due. If they pumped out a lot more of that sort of game I might even be tempted to buy a xbone). In terms of pulling power SE held the torch.

That said I doubt Sony's going to be much better either. They've repeated their E3 presentations two years running now and none of the headline games from either year has released yet (can't wait for Spidey though!) so unless they've got a bundle of unnannounced exclusives they've been hiding ready for release in the next twelve months... *Shrug*

I think this E3's up for Nintendo's taking. All they've gotta do is bring the goods. Smash is a-given but not enough on its own. Hoping we see Metroid Prime 4, some Fire Emblem (and it'd better be more like Conquest and less like Echoes/Awakening, the masochist in me needs feeding!), maybe some in-depth Pokemon Lets Go, and hopefully a surprise or two.

It might be a tall order to expect all of that but if they pull through I think this is their E3.

Drunkalilly wrote:

I also watched Devolver's "Press Conference". It was similar to last year's, and still kinda funny. The announcement that they're bringing Metal Wolf Chaos to the west is batshit and brilliant though. And Mech America Great Again is gold.

Athrun888 wrote:

I genuinely cannot stand Microsoft.  I can't even think of a single positive thing they've done for the industry, but I can think of several damaging trends they helped to start.  

With Halo they pretty much created modern console shooting controls, and XBOX Live set the standard for online play which is pretty much still in use. I don't love them as a company, but they've had some good games.

I'll admit that back when I was a young teen I did actually kind of want a og xbox, there was some good stuff on there and a friend of mine would bring his over every few weeks for a day of gaming (we need a modern day Mechassault). That said they haven't brought their A game for a very long while now, and they don't seem to have the intention to do so either.

Wasn't it confirmed to be from Namco? Metroid Prime 4

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Square Enix just finished with a direct like showing and it was an odd one as they showed a lot of things but half it I saw yesterday at Xbox.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider, this could be a surprise GOTY contender from what it looks like.
Dragon Quest XI, I forgot this one coming, just the PS4 version shown, so you've got to wait for that Switch version to show up.
Babylon's Fall, just a CGI trailer but it's from Platinum for PS4.
Just Cause 4, Don't care much for it.
Octopath Traveller, more of what we've seen from the Switch exclusive.
Captain Spirit, same as yesterday.
Nier Automata, same as yesterday talking about Xbox version and it is digital only.
The Quiet Man, live-action trailer into what might have been gameplay and seems you play a deaf character, only PS4.
Kingdom Hearts III, same as yesterday.

Some updates on mobile Final Fantasy and that FFXIV is getting Monster Hunter World content.

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From Athrun
That said they haven't brought their A game for a very long while now, and they don't seem to have the intention to do so either.

I think last night shows they do have the intention to do that, they know they've got the studios so they went and got some and some the make good games, they're letting others handle IPs such as Battletoads, that I'm not sure what else would be there A game as you back at the OG Xbox and 360 the 3rd party exclusives have gone and that's the same on PS4 really part from Japan.

My hot and spicy E3 takes so far:

The games

Cyberpunk 2077: Game of the show for me so far. I adore cyberpunk and with the pedigree of CDPR behind it, I'm confident it's going to deliver.

Fallout 76: Man, this game has been a rollercoaster for me. To being initially concerned thanks to the rumours that it was a multiplayer survival game like Rust to feeling assured that it seemed to be a normal Fallout game to being utterly concerned about it being confirmed to be a multiplayer survival game. The multiplayer gameplay they showed off looked pretty damn janky all told and I'm concerned it's going to strip away the best bit of Fallout - which is VATS - and leave us with an average multiplayer FPS survival game.

The Elder Scrolls VI: Well, it's coming. I'll enjoy this in 4 years time.

Devil May Cry V: At first I thought they were doing a weird DMC/mainline Devil May Cry cross over game but it seems as though short haired lad is actually Nero of DMC4 fame. Well, I'm always down for more Dante.

Dying Light 2: Probably the game I'm most excited about so far behind Cyberpunk 2077. It seemed like a great step-up from the first game in regards to story and the parkour action. I hope it's keeping the multiplayer component as it seems to be geared towards a single player experience from what they've shown so far.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice: Genuinely thought this was Tenchu at first. Yeah, I'm down for this. I'm glad to see From deviating from the Souls-like combat whilst still retaining some of the mechanics from that sub-genre. I'd like to see more, but it's looking good.

EA: hahahaha who cares

Microsoft: I enjoyed that conference, although the criticisms that a lot of the games they showed off that garnered attention were third party games isn't exactly unfounded criticism.

Bethesda: Bethesda's conferences always seem to be a bit too self-congratulatory for my tastes. Also, what was that bizarre Andrew WK performance all about?

Not checked out Devolver or Squeenix yet. So far, E3 has been simply just fine. Save us, Smash and Nintendo.

I liked the Cyberpunk trailer, right up until the point where I realised there was going to be no gameplay at all. Nut. Couldn't give much of a damn about Square's, no TWEWY or new Switch games means no interest really. When did they announce Tales of Vesperia on Switch? I could get behind that. Devolver's banana game looked... interesting.

Ooh, another game I liked from MS': that adorable fox Zelda game! Definitely occupying The Lady's PC to play that one.

Drunkalilly wrote:

The third is Metroid Prime 4 mate, believe!

Aren't they more swordplay specialists? Give them a Zelda spin-off!

Tales of Vesperia was shown at Xbox but then Namco announced its coming to PS4 and Switch. Tunic, the Fox Zelda is only timed that you might get away with waiting for it on Switch.

on both counts.

UbiSoft's dancing panda is frying my brain.

Balla wrote:

Aren't they more swordplay specialists? Give them a Zelda spin-off!

The worlds they build are basically metroidvanias so they'd be a perfect fit for Metroid, as mas mentioned though that isnt happening.

Seems like I made the right choice sleeping through Squeenix and Ubisoft.

Watching Playstation just now, it's some weird multi-room Treehouse-like experience thing or whatever? Or is the conference finished/ later?

EDIT: So, the all trailers no nonsense show was cool, but stringing everything else over this sub-par, wannabe Treehouse, fake banter bullshit is pretty tedious. The games, though:

Spider-Man
The scripted stuff looks really on-rails, but the New York looks beautiful and swinging around as Spidey is always great. I will say it's a little too quick, the slow pendulum swing of a webswing is where the heart really stops and I didn't see that. We won't know until we're playing it though, really.

Death Stranding
Dark, surreal, horrifying and I still have no idea what it is. Perfect.

Ghost of Tsushima
Looks fucking gorgeous. Between this and Sekiro it's gonna be a damn good time to love samurai.

Resi 2 and TLOU2
Look like pretty much what you'd expect. I'm always up for a game about a murder-lesbian.

Nioh 2
I haven't played the first one yet either, but see above for my feelings on playing lots of samurai games

Oh and FROM's new game is a melancholy VR thing about a fairy.

Not feeling Control? I'm always up for a new Remedy game and this one looks suitably banging.

The Inception/ Doctor Strange visual stuff was funky, but I don't think I've played their previous stuff so I didn't really have a clue what was going on there. The trailer alone wasn't enough for me.

Yesterday's recap but not PC Gaming Show also not much on Limited Run part from Yooka-Laylee is getting a physical version.

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Ubisoft:

Just Dance 2019, opened the show with a dancing panda for a game coming to Wii, Wii U still along with Switch and the others.
Beyond Good and Evil 2, amazing trailer and I've now got so many questions also I wouldn't be shocked this as a next-gen game also JGL.
The Division 2, I'm playing the first at the moment due to game pass and it's better then I thought and this second one looked good.
Skull and Bones, looks like Sea of Thieves but has the realistic art style and might have content from day one.
Starlink: Battle for Atlas, thought it looked like a kid no man's sky then bam Switch version with Star Fox characters.
Trials Rising, never played one but this time it's coming to Switch.
Transference , the VR game Elijah Wood is somehow part of but it seems now they announced it can be played without VR.
The Crew 2, this looked good but Forza Horizon 4 is coming.
Assassins Creed Odyessy, does look good.

Then we got updates for Mario + Rabbids, Rainbow Six and For Honor.

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PlayStation

well last years was much like Drunka said basically like Treehouse (all do some sort of streaming and did do it before Nintendo), not this shambolic presentation that made PSX 2017 look good from how that was shown but the games though.

The Last of Us Part 2, looked so good and can hear the people going mad already about Ellie.
Ghost of Tsushima, wasn't that keen on this as not sure I'll get on with the combat.
Death Stranding, we got gameplay and I still don't know whats happening but like drunka said its perfect in its own way, we also got two female characters and seems we got the wrong actress from Inglourious Basterds.
Marvel's Spiderman, looks great and only a few months away.
Resident Evil 2 Remake, I went nuts for this and seems using RE4 controls.
Nioh 2, not played the first.
Control, looks like Quantum Break which I still need to play and this year E3 has reminded me about that for so many games.
Trevor Saves the World, PSVR game from the Rick and Morty team.
Déraciné, we now all 3 From Software games but where is Armoured Core, oh and yeah this is for PSVR.
Kingdom Hearts III, for the 4th time this E3.

That was it apart from updates on Call of Duty Black Ops IIII and the 3rd is now available to download on PlayStation Plus, Destiny 2, God of War New Game+, Dreams nothing that special.

Control - This looked like it could be a fun sci-fi force powers shooty game.

Nioh 2 - I really should get the first game as I did enjoy the beta but I think I just had Souls fatigue at the time so I never did, Sekiro isn't until sometime next year so it could fill the gap nicely.

Ghost of Tsushima - The open world aspect of this puts me off a fair bit but mostly this will live or die on the combat so if that is interesting then I can get over the open world stuff.

EDIT: This Mutant football league on Switch looks like it could be good.

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/06/mutant_football_league_will_chainsaw_upfield_for_a_touchdown_on_the_switch

Honestly a snoozefest.  Me and games that aim to be as dark, gross, and violent as possible without due cause do not get along*, and that was most of what was being served up.  I still stand by my previous sentiments that Death Standing looks like sanctamonious claptrap that's so up itself it doesn't even feel the need to tell us what it even is.  And it even has a buddy now in Control (there's a point where you go too far with the attempts at mindf***ery and produce something that looks so incoherent it becomes utterly unengaging, that teaser did exactly that).

Ghost of Tsushima was about the only new title that caught my eye.  Visually striking setting + samurai, can't really go wrong with that concept.

Spidey was spidey.  It's going to be good, the only questions hat remain are "how good?" and "are they truly going to off Peter and switch in Miles so early?"  I doubt they'll pull the trigger on the latter, but it'd definitely be pretty ballsy of them if Peter actually does die in that cliffhanger.  Also squee they've basically made a Sinister Six game!  

*Not to say I dislike darkness, just that if you're trying to sell me something and only showing me it I'm not going to be interested.  DMC5 is how you gotta handle that stuff if you want my engagement.  Speaking of which it's great to see DMC alive and well again.  

Ball's in your court Nintendo, please do something good with it.

The_Jaster wrote:

Nioh 2 - I really should get the first game as I did enjoy the beta but I think I just had Souls fatigue at the time so I never did, Sekiro isn't until sometime next year so it could fill the gap nicely.

Ghost of Tsushima - The open world aspect of this puts me off a fair bit but mostly this will live or die on the combat so if that is interesting then I can get over the open world stuff.

EDIT: This Mutant football league on Switch looks like it could be good.

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/06/mutant_football_league_will_chainsaw_upfield_for_a_touchdown_on_the_switch

Agree with pretty much all of this. I will get Nioh at some point, I will probably enjoy it, but I'm not currently in the mood to try it.

I'm also not really a fan of open world, but that was an excellent trailer for Ghost of Tsushima so I'm quite interested in it. I wonder if it'll be anything like the old Way of the Samurai games, which were open world but set during a week cycle and so you had quite a small sandbox that you were meant to try interacting with in a bunch of different ways over several playthroughs. Probably won't be anything like that but whenever I hear open-world Samurai, that's the model which hits me.

Mutant Football League is exactly the kind of arcade American football game I've been looking for god knows how long. I'm more likely to pick up the Steam version one day, but this sort of game definitely fits really well on the Switch and if it runs well and I get decent wifi I'd be quite tempted to pick it up one day.

So . . . the hour approaches.

Do we have a skype chat yet?

I'm posted in the last Nintendo Direct Chat and was going to add people into it.

Muss wrote:

I will get Nioh at some point, I will probably enjoy it, but I'm not currently in the mood to try it.

It's on sale on psn at the minute for like 15 quid.

No meeting for me, so I'm ready to watch at 5pm!

Has anybody done any predictions for Nintendo's Direct? I'm hoping for more from Animal Crossing, ARMS and Yoshi, expecting more from Super Smash Bros, Super Mario Odyssey and Metroid Prime 4, have a feeling that we might see something from Kid Icarus and Starfox, and I'm holding a pish in for Fire Emblem.

If we don't see Animal Crossing I don't even know, man.
We're gonna spend an obnoxiously long time on Smash and Splat2n Octo Expansion.
I still reckon we'll see Pikmin 4 and an HD collection.

Actually, I don't think we'll see much that's "new", but we'll see stuff we've never seen for games we know about.

Drunkalilly wrote:

We're gonna spend an obnoxiously long time on Smash and Splat2n Octo Expansion.

True, sadly. Any time on DLC is too long. I reckon we'll see another Wii U port as well.

Not much of interest from Sony, although the Death Stranding trailer was indeed interesting (both interesting and interesting, if you get my drift). As for UbiSoft, nice Star Fox crossover, nice seeing Grant Kirkhope on stage, and nice seeing how keen they are for the end of civilisation...

I love Smash, and I really wanted Ridley, but... that was too much old Smash, poorly delivered.  I guess you win this year, Microsoft.

Daemon looked class though. Easy to forget that after everything else.

Truthfully, I don't have much to say about that Direct. I think I'm disappointed because I thought I'd see more.

I was anticipating more new things, so colour me a little underwhelmed. It was still a good showing of things I'd like to own though so there's that. There'll be more Directs in the future with more stuff though.

Nintendo have been a step or two removed from the E3 machine for quite a few years now, but people still wind up disappointed every year. We've got a cool new robot game, a gorgeous new Fire Emblem, a new Pokemon, Smash, lots of great looking indie stuff and some fun bigger third party stuff. 2018 (and early 2019, maybe) isn't looking bad!

Then going forward we know we have Metroid Prime 4 and Bayonetta 3, and a full new Pokemon generation. And even though it hasn't been announced, Animal Crossing is inevitable.

Overall, Nintendo are still the big boys.

Microsoft did the old-school E3 conference well, but there wasn't much I was super bothered about, and nothing first-party that will make me rebuy an Xbox.

Sony did a shiter of a show, but I'm up for some Spider-Man and that Samurai game.

Overall, my feelings towards this year's E3 are pretty mild, but I wasn't overly hyped until a few hours before the Nintendo show.

Two weeks off the internet was really healthy, lads.

Nintendo automatically "win" E3 for me every year out of the big boys because they've got the only format I enjoy sitting through. I do agree though; take a step back and Nintendo have a lot of stuff to look forward to and Directs tend to happen whenever Nintendo are ready to show more things off so there's still more to come.