Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2014/06/13/e3_show_report_was_that_it/
Waiting gamer slams no-show show: E3 – was that it?
There's a game that might be good. You can't buy it yet
Posted in Personal Tech, 13th June 2014 09:24 GMT
Game Theory Bloodborne, No Man's Sky, Evolve, Rainbox Six: Siege, D4, Alien: Isolation, Sunset Overdrive, Witcher 3 and Inside. Call me a hipster, but this short list is made up of the scant few games that I was genuinely excited from this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, the gamerfest better known as E3.
My overwhelming response to pretty much everything else was a shrugged "so what?" Or a guarded "hmm, looks great, but it still won't be out by next year's E3".
Perhaps I'm being overly cynical, but year after year we're shown glimpses of games that "might be possibly pretty good... maybe". I believe that’s a registered E3 trademark.
These are the games easily identified by almost entirely pre-rendered footage and the vague "2015" emblazoned across the end of their trailers (against much whooping in the auditorium).
E3 2014 had any number of contenders for this barbed crown, including Star Wars: Battlefront, Mirror's Edge 2, Phantom Dust, Scalebound, Uncharted 4, Tomb Raider 2, a.n.other crash-em-up by Criterion, Mass Effect 4, Halo 5, Zelda Wii U and, well, I could go on and on.
The point is: for all the chest-thumping hyperbole of gaming's generation next, there's still precious little evidence – visuals aside – that any of these games will show a discernible difference between last gen and new gen.
Depending on any given game's genre, they might as well run a trailer for Blade Runner or Game of Thrones, later following it up with an awkward man on stage saying something along the lines of "Yep, it'll be a bit like that. But with, you know, cover mechanics and thousands of bad guys to mutilate".
Still waiting for the next release, Deckard battles it out with the old version
The other trend in this E3 was the rise and rise of the great hype that is the multiplayer-connected campaign. Of which the likes of Destiny, Assassin's Creed: Unity, The Crew, Crackdown 3 and Tom Clancy’s The Division are all shining examples.
Am I the only one here with concerns that these games expect me to have online gamer buddies with whom I want to spend hours communing?
Such games work well at press events, no doubt. But take them online and you're faced with a world populated by people who either act like complete gibbons, or take it upon themselves to wheeze, growl, rustle or whistle down their mic.
I'll admit to being impressed and excited with all these games to varying degrees. But, faced with a barrage of unpalatable, barely human sound effects, I'll be hitting the mute button.
Destiny calling, whistling and wheezing: the noise from headset players can be as challenging as the game
Hence I'll soon find myself plunging myself into "amazing online worlds" that are full of silent players who bumble about, fail to provide back-up and whom I know would happily shoot me in the back if only friendly fire was switched on.
I hope I'm wrong. I hope consenting gamers do indeed decide to buddy up – even on random servers. But as a long-time player of everything from Action Quake 2 to Battlefield 4, I've found genuine moments of collaboration with online strangers have been rare.
Dare devs
Again, hipster alert, but I did see rather more promise from the indie devs on show – a point personified by the touching, almost reverential, manner in which Sean Murray of Hello Games introduced the studio’s No Man's Sky at Sony’s press event.
Daring to be different: No Man's Sky
While I do have a concern that there's little there in terms of an actual game, I certainly have a lot of time for a small team determined to do something different... particularly one based in Blighty. Here’s hoping that No Man's Sky not only delivers, but also sees a release before the goodwill directed towards it collapses.
Similar praise can be poured onto a host of other indie devs: Giant Squid (Abzu), Valkyrie Entertainment (Guns Up!), Playdead (Inside) and Free Lives (Broforce) are but a small selection of teams bravely charting untested waters.
The ying to the indie devs’ yang is undoubtedly the growing trend in 1080p, 60fps makeovers. I'm still unsure what to make of the likes of GTA V, Metro: Last Light and The Last of Us getting a re-release so soon after hitting shelves.
I suppose a verdict can only be truly drawn when the remasters see the light of day. If there’s a genuine case to be made for the benefit of better visuals, then so be it. All I do know is that I won’t be rushing out the shops on launch day for the vast majority – especially when you can imagine most dropping in price at a rapid rate.
That said, I'm much more willing to get onboard with similar treatment for Grim Fandango and Halo 1-4 (in the guise of the Master Chief Collection). At least here there’s a much more obvious case to be made for their revival.
I haven’t experienced online Halo: Combat Evolved since an old flatmate used a tunnelling hack together with a chipped Xbox (now those were the days). While Grim Fandango is, well, Grim freakin’ Fandango – who doesn’t want to take another step out in old Manny’s undead shoes?
Finally, at least as far as the games go, we come to the no-shows. No doubt we all have our favourite vapourware, but I presumably share common ground with most in naming Half-Life 3 and the The Last Guardian. Typing these names alone is enough to make me feel cheated. Damn you, E3!
The hardware shown at E3 is much more difficult to judge. What to make of Sony’s Morpheus and the Oculus Rift – VR headsets that, let’s face it, probably won’t make it into most gamers’ lounges. Certainly not in the near future, at any rate.
I'm as geek as anyone else here, but might have to give a polite shake of the head when it comes wearing a tech-filled bucket on my couch. What would my cat think?
Then there’s the even more weird and wonderful. The SteelSeries Sentry Eye Tracker springs instantly to mind with its ability to feedback on your observational skills. Therefore teaching you to become that bit more clinical in your FPS forays – what will the Democrats think?
There was more useful tech news with the announcement that PlayStation Vita TV will be hitting the UK. Not that I really need yet another way to throw Netflix around my house, but I'm certainly looking forward to trying the device's ability to throw the PS4's output to another TV wirelessly.
If Sony can get that (and the PlayStation Now game streaming facility) working without lag, then what PS4 owner could really afford to say no?
When the dust settles on E3 2014, the real question is: where do we go from here? For better or worse, we're slowly being introduced to games where other people – their grunts and all – form part of the narrative. They are games with believable worlds that expect us to go out and form our own narrative.
As gaming evolves, prepare yourself for even more grunts and growls, especially if you're playing Evolve
Exciting, no doubt, but as usual we only got to see glimpses and hints that can all too easily be misleading – here’s looking at you E3 2012 Watch Dogs.
All I know is that come E3 2015, I only want to be looking at trailers for the games shown this year that echo what the pre-renders promised. And, perhaps more importantly still, don’t end with "Coming in 2016". ®