Typically, after watching the E3 press conferences, I’m left with this tingly feeling of anticipation.
That didn’t happen this year. I suppose Nintendo could still shock the hell out of me, but they haven’t managed to do that in a long time. I think the bottom line is that without at least a few surprises, the shows are more about fulfilling entrenched expectations as opposed to fueling good ol’ tension and wonder.
I said a while ago that all the E3 leaks leading up to the trade show were really detrimental to excitement levels, and I stand by that. It’s all the more evident after the ho-hum feeling I have after yesterday’s conferences.
It’s not that they were bad, per se, because I wouldn’t say that. I’d just say they showed off everything we expected, and most of it we’ve seen before. Yes, new footage is nice but again, we’ve seen a lot of footage for the big games, haven’t we?
Watching the conferences, going down the checklist
That’s really all I was doing. If you’ve been following gaming news for the past few months, you were probably doing the same thing. Yep, there’s Far Cry 4, Assassin’s Creed: Unity, Destiny, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Batman: Arkham Knight, Battlefield: Hardline, etc. Yep, kinda figured Sony would end with a look at the new Uncharted because we’ve been hearing that this would happen for weeks and weeks.
I mean, we all pretty much knew what was coming, didn’t we? That’s the really awful part of constantly following the news and scouring the Internet for fresh information and media concerning the latest and greatest. By the time you get to E3, it all sorta feels like chewed meat. As amazing as many of those games looked, I’d not only known of their existence for a while, I’d also seen them in action several times over. We all have.
It’s just tough to get excited about stuff you know is coming.
I’m not discounting the new IPs, though…liked seeing those
There weren’t enough of them, IMO (although Sony presented more PS4 exclusives, I think; Let it Die, Abzu, No Man’s Sky, Bloodborne, etc.) but they’re always good to see. It’s interesting that both Sony and Microsoft tend to keep their mouths shut concerning new IPs; we didn’t see many leaks for any of those games heading into E3. Honestly, these were more exciting than any of the super huge games we already knew about.
It’s too bad that The Last Guardian didn’t show up – Sony says they’ll show it off “when it’s ready” – but otherwise, it was nice to see fresh IPs from both Sony and Microsoft. At the same time, it’s clear that they were not the stars of the show, as the manufacturers placed a clear emphasis on the heavy-hitting, AAA crowd-pleasers. One may also notice that several – if not most – of those exclusives on display were smaller in scope. Not that that makes them unappealing, but it’s obvious that we’re in an age where huge productions require multiplatform availability to make the necessary money.
Needed more surprises, period
Despite all the leaks going into the show, there’s no reason why Sony and Microsoft couldn’t have withheld an ace up their sleeve until it was time to get busy. It didn’t happen, though, as just about everything went according to plan. I think this is one of the big reasons why the crowd at both conferences definitely sounded a little subdued. It’s not that they weren’t happy with what was being presented, it’s that they all knew it was coming, and it’s hard to get all excited about what you already know.
There were a few small surprises during each conference, but nothing to really write home about. A few exclusive betas for the PS4 isn’t really making me jump for joy, you know? I just remember when E3 used to be such an anticipatory time; now it feels like we only watch to confirm the countless headlines that we’ve already seen.
However, I will say that the emphasis on games is always good. For a while there, some of these conferences were starting to focus a bit too much on stats and numbers; nice to see them revert to the full-blown focus on games.
