The rumours of E3’s demise seem to have been greatly exaggerated.
This year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles provided gamers of all varieties with something to look forward to in the coming year and beyond.
Despite a handful of large publishers pulling out to run their own press conferences, E3 showed that getting back to the basics – that is, showing off the latest games and hardware – could just be enough to justify the struggling invite-only expo’s existence.
From updated consoles and hyper-realistic graphics, to announcements of completely remade retro favourites, E3 offered welcome surprises to many industry watchers that were beginning to tire of the too-good-to-be-true trailers and teasers.
It wasn’t without its hiccups: bizarre segments such as celebrities like Snoop Dogg and Zac Efron facing off against pro gamers in a nigh-unwatchable match of the upcoming Battlefield 1, show that the event still needs to work out how it balances hype and actual content.
Thankfully the press conferences for Xbox, Nintendo and Playstation were much more focused, as each got their chance to show off their upcoming blockbusters.
For Xbox and Playstation, the big news was arguably the announcement of Xbox’s Project Scorpio and the Playstation Neo respectively; two upgraded versions of the consoles that will be making their way to store shelves in the next year or so.
The new consoles boast larger hard drives to store downloaded games, the capability to handle soon-to-be-released virtual reality devices, and the graphical capability to run and display games in 4K resolution.
In fact, the ability to run games at 4K appears to be the primary motivator behind these upgraded consoles, so if you’re yet to update the family TV to the new high-resolution standard, you likely won’t be interested in the upgrade.
Some of the big game announcements included new footage from Battlefield 1, among other annual suspects including a new Call of Duty, a longer look at the upcoming Gears of War 4, and more footage from Nintendo’s hotly anticipated next Legend of Zelda title: Breath of the Wild.
There were also a few fresh surprises, including the return of two beloved franchises: God of War will be back in a completely new adventure, and the three original Crash Bandicoot games are being remade for new consoles to tie in with the titular character’s appearance in the latest Skylanders release.
We’ll also be treated to a new Spider-Man game from the makers of highly successful platforming franchise Ratchet & Clank.
- E3 ran from June 14-16.
