My thoughts on the EA conference, in terms of the good, the bad and the ugly.
Good:
EA CEO claiming a new strategy of trust and fun (obviously just words, we need proof from the games) but it's a start. Battlefield 5: no loot boxes, tanks going through buildings and genuine passion from the rep. Battlefront 2: news and "apology", the rep did well, a small hope that there's nothing more negative we can say and that future innovations will be better, if not great. Unravel 2 - looks nice, not exactly hyped for, but shows Indie gaming and one to play with the misses maybe. Sea of solitude - another nice, interesting game. I think keep expectations low and we might get a nice positive surprise from this one. I think the rep was fine, although nervous, she had a lot of genuine passion. PC gamer love - putting more games on pc, it's a good thing, even if I can't imagine many sports gamers loving the pc version. Anthem: possible as single player, apparently made for bioware fans like me, not Destiny fans, like I thought it was.
Bad:
Heavy emphasis on sports games. The audience looked pretty commatose, especially when Jo (show me the money) NFL champion came out, sounding like the stereotypical high school jock bully who previously beat up half the audience members. Im not sure how many people watching or at the event love sports games, I guess it's a big part of what EA does, but it definitely got too much airtime. I use to love sports games myself, but got to a point where I didn't see much value in the next year's upgrade or the money/time pressure of new releases. Anthem: It still makes no sense to me, why Bioware are part of EA. EA is confusing it's audience, wanting mainstream mobile, sporting and shooting games, like also dabbling with Indie studios and beloved RPG creators. It's like when British airways tried to say "we're a low budget airline too"... If you truly want it all, make sports games for sport fans, rpgs for RPG fans and show us a glimpse of dozens of indie studios, not just two.
Ugly:
Interview with Respawn CEO about star wars - he basically just kept grinning and saying amazing. I didn't see any passion and just kept thinking this star wars game will be even further away from classics like KOTOR. Command and conquer rivals- "for a new generation"... This is what happened to my beloved childhood series?! Command and conquer has so much more potential than this.. they could either do a Beamdog and put a fully fledged game on pc and mobile, or do a Bethesda and use the mobile game to influence and effect the main game. Anthem: Casey Hudson looked pretty deflated and nervous, especially when they mentioned he left for 2 years during Anthem's development and when they talked about making games for the amazing Bioware fans.
Good: Halo infinite tease, 50 games with 18 exclusives, 15 premiers. Nice exclusives: Ori, Sea of thieves (more content), Session, Black desert, Great exclusives: Forza horizon 4, We Happy Few, Battlegrounds Great looking premiers: Sekiro, Fallout 76, Captain Spirit - life is strange (free), Metro exodus, Kingdom Hearts (1st time on xbox), Battlefield 5, The division 2, Shadow of the tomb raider, Devil May Cry 5, Jump Force, Dying Light 2, Just Cause 4, Gears tactics, Gears 5, CYBERPUNK. New studio: The Initiative, Undead labs (bought), Playground Games (bought), Ninja Theory (bought), Compulsion games (bought). Hardware/software: developing AI, streaming, cloud, multiple devices/location, working on next console.
Bad: More online focus- Forza, Fallout - means more updates, lagging for those of us on tentative family wireless internet connection. Gamepass subscriptions -will it push up price of non gamepass, physical copies? I don't want to pay monthly.
Ugly: Pretty great conference, not much ugly. Heavy focus on games, with half a dozen decent exclusives, but no "must buy an Xbox" exclusive. BUT with 5 new studios- def watch this space. Very light in software/hardware details... VR, AI examples, graphics, power, console size, price. Lack of PC focused games.
The Bethesda presentation summed up the true future of gaming pretty well. A venerable single-player franchise ditching (from what I can tell) all it's RPG elements and becoming essentially an online survival game. A focus on "free" mobile games. And a promise of what everyone here is probably interested in WAY down the line (Star Field, Elder Scrolls VI).
Doom Eternal will be good because I assume it will be more of the same magic that made the last one probably the best video game reboot of all-time. Rage 2 looks....fine (not sure anyone was pining for this title).
It will be amazing to see what CD Project Red can do with Cyperpunk 2077 after they essentially made the best game possible with The Witcher 3 and it's DLCs. The trailer was the best possible impression of what I would imagine that game could be shaping up to be. It's either going to blow everything else out of the water when it comes out, or be one of the most fascinating messes of all-time.
I hope Cyberpunk 2077 is successfull, because that means Square-enix doesn't have to let Deus Ex die. I thought EAs presentation was terrible, but oh well...
But yeah the preview for Cyberpunk 2077 should be great, looks like there's a ton of classes for it as well.
I have no words for how excited I am for the Resident Evil 2 remake. That's probably my favourite game in the world. I seriously need to buy a PS4 now.
Don't know what to make of the Cyberpunk trailer. I'm certain CD Project Red will deliver a good game. I got some heavy GTA vibes from watching it. Would have wanted it to be a bit darker, more gritty.
The console games, especially the PS4 looked promising: Sekiro, Trials, and although the trailer didn't really show anything, Nioh 2 is probably a safe bet. GoT looked amazing, and very casual gamer friendly (difficulty), however judging by Sucker Punch studios previous games, this game could be all looks and flashy gameplay with no substance. Time have to tell.
As a huge Crackdown fan, i'm hugely disappointed. It really looked lackluster. So empty, with 360 gameplay and features. The only xbox games that looked good, was non exclusive titles, that i will buy on PS4 (including a PS4 Pro).
Fallout 76 was meh. Not very interested in online only games, with emphasis on multiplayer. So i'll pass.
I thought the Bethesda press conference was pretty good.
Bethesda have earnt my respect, like Bioware use to. So, like mass effect multiplayer and The Old Republic... I'll give Fallout 76 a go. Like Andromeda, I'll give Rage a look at too. Legends, Blades, card game... I'll probably give them a go too. Normally, I wouldn't dare speak for everyone in these forums, but I think it's safe to say everyone hear would love a fallout 5 or elder scrolls 6 with a huge epic single player story, multiple endings, choices, rich replayable roleplaying, BGnstyle companions, interesting story, along with all the usual crazy and amazing world building we're use to with Bethesda.... We didn't get this, but I haven't given up hope yet, and like Fallout 4, no matter how many elements it lacks, there's just something about Bethesda game world's which draws me in, like no other non-rpg can.
Elder Scrolls online... I really want to try it, I just think where will I find a spare 1000 hrs to try a game like that. Obviously, im exaggerating, but like The Old Republic, I just found it too big. I haven't even played Skyrim in ages. For me, I think 30 hours of main quest and 20 hrs of side quest is optimal for a great story/rpg game.
Quake and Prey, any thoughts? I haven't played quake for about 20 years, but it's still looking pretty old visually. Prey looks a bit like Half Life, maybe they should actually copy Half Life more, but I didn't see anything exciting enough to bring in a new player.
Anyone playing on VR? I still feel like it's too early to buy VR, but Bethesda are the only company I've seen to tempt me to try it.
Comments
Good:
EA CEO claiming a new strategy of trust and fun (obviously just words, we need proof from the games) but it's a start.
Battlefield 5: no loot boxes, tanks going through buildings and genuine passion from the rep.
Battlefront 2: news and "apology", the rep did well, a small hope that there's nothing more negative we can say and that future innovations will be better, if not great.
Unravel 2 - looks nice, not exactly hyped for, but shows Indie gaming and one to play with the misses maybe.
Sea of solitude - another nice, interesting game. I think keep expectations low and we might get a nice positive surprise from this one. I think the rep was fine, although nervous, she had a lot of genuine passion.
PC gamer love - putting more games on pc, it's a good thing, even if I can't imagine many sports gamers loving the pc version.
Anthem: possible as single player, apparently made for bioware fans like me, not Destiny fans, like I thought it was.
Bad:
Heavy emphasis on sports games. The audience looked pretty commatose, especially when Jo (show me the money) NFL champion came out, sounding like the stereotypical high school jock bully who previously beat up half the audience members. Im not sure how many people watching or at the event love sports games, I guess it's a big part of what EA does, but it definitely got too much airtime. I use to love sports games myself, but got to a point where I didn't see much value in the next year's upgrade or the money/time pressure of new releases.
Anthem: It still makes no sense to me, why Bioware are part of EA. EA is confusing it's audience, wanting mainstream mobile, sporting and shooting games, like also dabbling with Indie studios and beloved RPG creators. It's like when British airways tried to say "we're a low budget airline too"... If you truly want it all, make sports games for sport fans, rpgs for RPG fans and show us a glimpse of dozens of indie studios, not just two.
Ugly:
Interview with Respawn CEO about star wars - he basically just kept grinning and saying amazing. I didn't see any passion and just kept thinking this star wars game will be even further away from classics like KOTOR.
Command and conquer rivals- "for a new generation"... This is what happened to my beloved childhood series?! Command and conquer has so much more potential than this.. they could either do a Beamdog and put a fully fledged game on pc and mobile, or do a Bethesda and use the mobile game to influence and effect the main game.
Anthem: Casey Hudson looked pretty deflated and nervous, especially when they mentioned he left for 2 years during Anthem's development and when they talked about making games for the amazing Bioware fans.
Good:
Halo infinite tease, 50 games with 18 exclusives, 15 premiers.
Nice exclusives: Ori, Sea of thieves (more content), Session, Black desert,
Great exclusives: Forza horizon 4, We Happy Few, Battlegrounds
Great looking premiers: Sekiro, Fallout 76, Captain Spirit - life is strange (free), Metro exodus, Kingdom Hearts (1st time on xbox), Battlefield 5, The division 2, Shadow of the tomb raider, Devil May Cry 5, Jump Force, Dying Light 2, Just Cause 4, Gears tactics, Gears 5, CYBERPUNK.
New studio: The Initiative, Undead labs (bought), Playground Games (bought), Ninja Theory (bought),
Compulsion games (bought).
Hardware/software: developing AI, streaming, cloud, multiple devices/location, working on next console.
Bad:
More online focus- Forza, Fallout - means more updates, lagging for those of us on tentative family wireless internet connection.
Gamepass subscriptions -will it push up price of non gamepass, physical copies? I don't want to pay monthly.
Ugly:
Pretty great conference, not much ugly. Heavy focus on games, with half a dozen decent exclusives, but no "must buy an Xbox" exclusive. BUT with 5 new studios- def watch this space.
Very light in software/hardware details... VR, AI examples, graphics, power, console size, price.
Lack of PC focused games.
Doom Eternal will be good because I assume it will be more of the same magic that made the last one probably the best video game reboot of all-time. Rage 2 looks....fine (not sure anyone was pining for this title).
It will be amazing to see what CD Project Red can do with Cyperpunk 2077 after they essentially made the best game possible with The Witcher 3 and it's DLCs. The trailer was the best possible impression of what I would imagine that game could be shaping up to be. It's either going to blow everything else out of the water when it comes out, or be one of the most fascinating messes of all-time.
But yeah the preview for Cyberpunk 2077 should be great, looks like there's a ton of classes for it as well.
The console games, especially the PS4 looked promising: Sekiro, Trials, and although the trailer didn't really show anything, Nioh 2 is probably a safe bet. GoT looked amazing, and very casual gamer friendly (difficulty), however judging by Sucker Punch studios previous games, this game could be all looks and flashy gameplay with no substance. Time have to tell.
As a huge Crackdown fan, i'm hugely disappointed. It really looked lackluster. So empty, with 360 gameplay and features. The only xbox games that looked good, was non exclusive titles, that i will buy on PS4 (including a PS4 Pro).
Fallout 76 was meh. Not very interested in online only games, with emphasis on multiplayer. So i'll pass.
Bethesda have earnt my respect, like Bioware use to. So, like mass effect multiplayer and The Old Republic... I'll give Fallout 76 a go. Like Andromeda, I'll give Rage a look at too. Legends, Blades, card game... I'll probably give them a go too. Normally, I wouldn't dare speak for everyone in these forums, but I think it's safe to say everyone hear would love a fallout 5 or elder scrolls 6 with a huge epic single player story, multiple endings, choices, rich replayable roleplaying, BGnstyle companions, interesting story, along with all the usual crazy and amazing world building we're use to with Bethesda.... We didn't get this, but I haven't given up hope yet, and like Fallout 4, no matter how many elements it lacks, there's just something about Bethesda game world's which draws me in, like no other non-rpg can.
Elder Scrolls online... I really want to try it, I just think where will I find a spare 1000 hrs to try a game like that. Obviously, im exaggerating, but like The Old Republic, I just found it too big. I haven't even played Skyrim in ages. For me, I think 30 hours of main quest and 20 hrs of side quest is optimal for a great story/rpg game.
Quake and Prey, any thoughts? I haven't played quake for about 20 years, but it's still looking pretty old visually. Prey looks a bit like Half Life, maybe they should actually copy Half Life more, but I didn't see anything exciting enough to bring in a new player.
Anyone playing on VR? I still feel like it's too early to buy VR, but Bethesda are the only company I've seen to tempt me to try it.
VR isn't "there" but it is no less impressive.
That being said, if you were not an early adopter it's probably best to wait for Gen2.
Well, unless you have the hardware to make use of it already and you find a really cheap deal.