#also please god let zelda come back to the present. like seriously i am at my LIMIT with this woman

[nexttothelamp]

....

[aurimeanswind]

Post Microsoft E3 2017 Write Up

Another E3 press conference, another write up of my thoughts and opinions, feelings, all the things.

Shoutout to the IP Boys and some special guests who got together without me to discuss and breakdown the Xbox E3 briefing. You should definitely check it out!

So let’s get into it.

Xbox One X

So personally, as I said in my predictions piece, I thought they’d go the Xbox One Elite route for things, since it’s consistent with their branding up until now, especially with the Xbox 360. But the Xbox One X is a fine name. It sounds kind of cool, it plays into that whole “X is cool” branding which I think is a little bit old school. It feels very much in the vein of a “my system is better than yours” branding philosophy, almost harkening back to Sega vs Nintendo. It at least gave me those vibes without being overly patronizing or talking down to the consumer. I get frustrated when I see people saying that they wish it’d been named Scorpio, that that was a cooler sounding name. It really wasn’t. It was a name we’ve been used to, and as people on the inside of things, codenames appeal to us. It’s like spies: they have that secretive nature, making them feel more like exclusive or secretive ideas. But that name means nothing to the consumer that doesn’t follow along with these insider pieces of news and rumors. The Scorpio, as a public product, would be confusing and branding. The “X” sitting alongside the “S” is easy to understand, and makes one stand as an elite or stronger piece of hardware, and I think it’s easy to see and understand.

As for $499. Yeah, it’s expensive, and it’s a bummer, and I feel the same way about the PS4 Pro. At the very least I feel like I’d get a significant difference out of the X than I would from the Pro. Also, I’m not disappointed because this has what I’ve thought the price would be from the absolute beginning. It’s a tall ask, and obviously I think it’ll not sell as well as the Xbox One S, but I feel that after the protracted opening to the conference, Microsoft made a good pitch as to why you should just get in on the Xbox ecosystem of consoles in general.

The Games

I really loved the series of games that came through. There were quite a few that I am very interested in, and I know there has been a lot of lukewarm talk around the games they showed, but many of them are what I’d call “Alex O’Neill-ass picks”. I don’t want to go through all of them, but I’ll discuss the ones that stick out.

The top two are the Life is Strange Prequel and a new Ori game. Seriously, hearing there is a new Ori game coming is maybe the best announcement, for me personally, from that conference. That is a game that genuinely touched my soul, and is one of my all time favorite Metroidvanias. It skyrocketed itself to the number two spot on my favorite games of 2015 list, a year that was very competitive. It even outpaced The Witcher 3. Life is Strange was the number one for me that year, so just going back to that story with Chloe and Rachel this time has me so excited. It’ll be interesting to see that world through the lens of a new character without superpowers, but boy am I excited to see it at all.

After that is Tacoma, which is one of my most anticipated titles now that we’re out of the Persona 5/Zelda torrent that was early 2017. Gone Home wrecked me and hit me in ways that I’ve never seen in a game before, and Tacoma is so within my realm and I’m just endlessly excited to see not only what Fulbright has learned from Gone Home itself, but the several games that have followed in its footsteps in the years since. It’s so close too, and it’s one of those titles that I just want to lock myself in a room with and not speak to anyone until I’ve finished.

Assassin’s Creed Origins actually looks interesting to me. The combat looked like a big step up for that series, and loot/RPG mechanics, while generally overplayed in most modern games today, do still have a strong appeal to me. I’m really interested in what a new, take-your-time AC game looks like in this day and age. Still a lot of unknowns there, but a Bow is a big get for me.

I am all aboard the Anthem bandwagon. Like, all the way. As a complete and total Destiny-convert, I got both Destiny vibes of that, with a little big of wide-scale Titanfall feel to the way the exosuits looked and feel. While I can only hope the game plays as well as it looks, and it looks outstanding, I wonder what the story of that world will be. Bioware are obviously infamous for their design, narrative, and storytelling, but we only got such a small taste of that in this Anthem demo. It looks, at its most base, like a game I want to get lost in and explore with friends, something I love doing in Destiny, and hopefully there is something very deep behind that too. This was a total showstopper for me.

All those games super appeal to me, and here are some quick fires:

Metro looks amazing. At least, graphically, and a possibly-open-world Metro could be good for that series. It makes me wish I had taken the time to get into it, but we’ll see what happens.

Forza is real pretty. Still don’t care about cars.

Sea of Thieves still looks incredibly promising. I don’t want to get too excited yet, but man does it appeal to my swashbuckling adventurer side.

I really, really want State of Decay 2 to be good. I reeeeeally do. I hope it is.

Player Unknown Battlegrounds is a massive get for Microsoft. Xbox Games Preview is working in their favor here. Can’t wait to play it.

Cuphead has a date, let’s hope that game is dope.

Dragon Ball FighterZ, at least visually, looks INCREDIBLE. Man those Guilty Gear folks know how to make anime in motion.

I am now more interested in Crackdown 3 than I was before, even if it was still, overall, underwhelming.

I will play Black Desert Online, if only to make a bunch of anime-ass characters.

Super Lucky’s Tale looks SO FUCKING CUTE OH MY GOD

Looks like Shadow of War got quietly delayed?? I’m really bummed about that, since I thought it’d be a perfect summer game. It had a ton of personality though, and I can’t wait to play it.

The Pitch

I think the pitch for Xbox One X is rough. It’s just another higher-end version of a console you can get for cheaper, and as much as I do want it, it’s always a hard sell when you know you can save a bunch of money for games by buying the weaker, more affordable piece of hardware. But this appeals more to me than the PS4 Pro does. I think it was just presented better, announced better, and utilized in a Presser better. And that honestly goes a long way.

The pitch to get into the Microsoft ecosystem of consoles was really strong. Microsoft didn’t lean on any of their easy-hitters. No Gears. No Halo. Nothing cheap, nothing big on crowd pleasing, and they even said their brining original Xbox games into the backwards compatibility program. It really unifies their consoles into one thing, and I imagine that compatibility will continue on forever into the future. They look poised, and consumer-friendly, and I think they had a game up there for everyone.

Even if the Xbox One X doesn’t appeal to you, I think generally they strengthened the appeal for the Xbox in general. While I agree with some sentiments out there that there was no “home run” here, save for maybe Anthem, I think Xbox really kicked ass as a show in general.

Stay tuned here for all my written thoughts on all of the press briefings, and come back Tuesday where I am finally going to do a Sunday Chats, just on a Tuesday. I’m off to go watch Bethesda’s conference now!

[sage-nebula]

what did you think of e3? any standouts?

The only presentation I actually watched was Nintendo's (although I heard about Bamco showing only one game and have not stopped laughing since, smh Bamco), and to be honest I was underwhelmed. Nintendo at least showed a lot of games (especially compared to Bamco, who followed them oh my god), but most of them are ones I'm just passively interested in, if not disinterested. Like for instance, I am actually interested in Metroid Dread and will probably pick that up when it comes out, but it's not one I'm super excited for. Super Monkey Ball Bananarama (is that what it's called?) looks okay, but not something I'd pick up at launch. And the Zelda segment . . . oh my god don't get me started.

First of all, while I know there are small children who might not have experienced Skyward Sword, I would say most of the audience already knows all the answers to the questions posed during the explanation of Skyward Sword, because it's a game that has been out for ten years and the story isn't changing a bit. Small children probably aren't even watching E3, so for Nintendo to act like the information about Skyward Sword was anything new was kind of embarrassing.

Aonuma once again said that Age of Calamity precedes the events of Breath of the Wild when it absolutely does not, so I guess he's just really stuck on lying when it comes to that game. Doesn't surprise me when he kept promoting A Link Between Worlds as if it was the first ever direct sequel to A Link to the Past when A Link to the Past had three sequels already (Link's Awakening, Oracle of Seasons, and Oracle of Ages), but it still makes me mad.

Despite Mario getting a massive anniversary campaign for its 35th anniversary, it was confirmed that Zelda is getting nothing beyond the same game we got for the 25th and a little Game & Watch gimmick with ports of games we can already play if we have Nintendo Switch Online (or have the updated remake). To say I'm salty about it is an understatement.

The only good thing to come from the Zelda segment was the glimpse of Breath of the Wild 2, and while it is nice to see it, it really didn't tell us anything new about the game except that we'll get to explore some sky areas (fingers crossed there's actually stuff to explore up there, unlike in Skyward Sword) and that there are some new powerups. Oh, and that Zelda is likely damseled, despite her being the first princess in the series to be the one to lock Ganon in the castle in the first game. (Because seriously guys, Zelda was not trapped in there with Ganon. He was trapped in there with her. It was kind of the whole point.) I'm also not thrilled with the implication that this story is taking steps back from Breath of the Wild . . . Zelda being damseled, Ganon having human form again, possible lengthy dungeons . . . please don't go backward, Nintendo. Go forward. The entire reason I wanted a Breath of the Wild sequel was because it broke away from a stale formula. Please let my worries be baseless here.

All in all, it was very okay, and pretty underwhelming. We didn't even get an update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and honestly that's perhaps what hurt the most, even more than the lack of Zelda 35th fanfare . . . it seems like ACNH really is in its final build despite missing so much content that was present in past titles and there being nothing to do anymore (at least for people like me who've completed the museum and everything), and it's just so disappointing. In fact, going back to the Zelda 35th, they couldn't even give us Zelda items like they did for Mario? They couldn't even do that bare minimum? Smh.

On the plus side, this is not the last Direct that Nintendo will ever have, and I expect another one in a few months anyway. Here's hoping that one will be more exciting, and that we'll have an ACNH 2.0 update on our way soon. Please, Nintendo. This game really needs it. Please.