Zippo Speaks: E3 2021 Edition.

Hey all, I’m sorry the last few days have been so quiet, but I've been rather busy with personal matters and needed a short mental break post-E3, but now I'm back and feeling much better!

Anyway, E3 is all said and done for this year. It certainly was… something, wasn't it? Given the all-digital format, things did go smoothly for the most part, but there were definitely some hiccups here and there.

I'm gonna quickly go over the conferences that I saw so we can get to Microsoft. I'll also throw in the Summer Games Fest since it happened during the same time. I'll save Nintendo for an article tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Summer Games Fest:

It was… alright. Geoff thankfully didn't over promise on this one, so I'm happy I went in with very low expectations. Metal Slug Tactics was a huge surprise, Death Stranding: Director's Cut is cool if you're into that sort of thing, and there were lots of cool-looking indie titles. Honestly, Elden Ring saved this thing from being completely redundant. While I'm not much of a Souls guy, the game looks absolutely stunning. 

Zippo's Grade: C+

Koch Media Showcase:

What the hell was that? What was the point of any of that? They didn't show much of anything. This was a waste of everyone's time. If you haven't watched it, DON'T. Awful.

Zippo's Grade: F

Ubisoft Forward:

Eh… It was fine, I guess. The game that was intended to be the big surprise of the show, Mario + Rabbids: Shards of Hope, leaked the DAY OF the event, so that took the wind out of the showcase majorly. Though, I won't knock it much since, funnily enough, Nintendo leaked the game, not Ubisoft. Regardless, it was easily the highlight of the show. It's looking like a massive improvement over its predecessor, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more. Rainbow Six Extraction looked decent, Riders Republic was actually a big surprise for me, looks like tons of fun; we need more arcade sports games, and this looks like it's right up my alley. Far Cry 6 looked quite alright, and the villain has me interested due to the excellent voice actor they casted. Nothing else really caught my interest, if I'm honest. I don't care about Assassin's Creed, Just Dance, or whatever else they had. The previously-announced Avatar game ended the show, with absolutely no gameplay at all. Overall, it was okay, but it had almost nothing that I'll remember in say, a week.

Zippo's Grade: C

Gearbox Showcase:

LOL. Oh, Randall.

Zippo's Grade: F-

Square Enix Presents:

Oh dear, I was actually quite excited for this one.

It absolutely did not deliver. To start off, I actually think the Guardians of the Galaxy game looks great. I went into the show thinking nothing would change my mind after the debacle that has been Square's Avengers game, but I was pleasantly surprised with how it looked. It's visually gorgeous, the combat looks quite fun, and the music choices are exactly what I expect from Guardians. 

Here's the problem.

The game was showcased for over 10 minutes. Something that could've easily had just been put online for people to see in a seperate video, had people sitting there waiting for the next thing for ages. It was a bad move, marketing-wise, and it's probably turned off a number of people who would've otherwise been interested in the game.

The Final Fantasy "Pixel Remasters" announcement was also a huge disappointment. They barely showed anything, and what's worse is that they're not coming to consoles. It's just fucking mobile and Steam, platforms which the first six FF games are ALREADY ON.  This would've been an easy purchase for me on PS4 and Switch. Sometimes I feel like Square is run by fucking chimps, I swear. Embarrassing.

 

Babylon's Fall finally made a resurgence, and it looks like absolute garbage. I'm sick of live service games, and it didn't do a thing for me. It's really starting to feel like Platinum is running out of juice, and it's extremely unfortunate, because this studio has put out some absolute bangers before. I don't know where the studio is headed, but I genuinely hope they get their shit together, because Babylon's Fall is already not it, chief.

They ended off the show with the reveal of the heavily-rumored Final Fantasy Origin game, and it looks… okay. I'm not seeing "Final Fantasy" when I look at this. It looks like a game where KT was just shopping a new IP around, Square was interested, but would only fund it if they slapped "Final Fantasy" on to the title, and made it very vaguely related to the first game. The main characters have some of the most boring, stale, generic designs I've seen in the last decade. Awful. I'm not impressed.

Overall, I can't say in good faith that this was a quality show. One good-looking game can't save an event like this. Better luck next year.

Zippo's Grade: D-

(David the Editor's Grade: No KH, Instant F-)

Capcom

I have almost the exact same thoughts here as Koch Media. This was a waste of everyone's time. Literally everything here could've been in a blog post or on Twitter. If you have nothing worthwhile to announce, then don't do a digital event. It's that simple.

Zippo's Grade: L-

Microsoft: 

Finally, one half of the big two. I think Microsoft had a pretty solid show overall. Lots of games, tons of variety, and the pacing was pretty good.

Battlefield 2042 looked pretty crazy, we finally got a look at Starfield, and while I'm not interested as of now, that could very well change. Psychonauts FINALLY has a release date, and looks GREAT. Age of Empires 4 and Slime Rancher were also definite highlights. Euden Chronicles finally got a gameplay trailer, and I'm very excited. The game looks visually stunning and I trust that the creator knows what he's doing, given that it's the spiritual successor to the franchise he created.

We finally got a new look Halo Infinite, and the delay appears to have been absolutely worth it. The game looks great now, and the multiplayer looks like tons of fun, something I would've never have said about Halo 4 or 5. The grappling hook is an extremely cool new mechanic, and the writing for the campaign already sounds like a GIANT step up from the previous two games.

I'm excited to get my hands on it, and I haven't been able to say that about Halo in a very long time.

Forza Horizon 5 was finally announced, and I cannot wait. It looks mind-blowingly good. At some points during the gameplay showcase, it felt like I was watching a real-life car commercial. The team at Playground has done an amazing job with the visuals, and the open world design continues to be extremely appealing, so as long as they keep making these, I'll keep buying them. I'm stoked.

As for how they ended the conference? Eh… Redfall seems like a cool concept, but it was just a CGI trailer, so I have nothing else to say about it until I see more. Same with Outer Worlds 2. It needed a better ending.

Regardless, good show, Microsoft. 

Zippo's Grade: B

And those are my thoughts on the E3 conferences.

Very soon, I'll be going over Nintendo's Direct and I'll give my take/update on this new Donkey Kong and the upcoming Fire Emblem remake, and why fans shouldn't worry. (They're coming, relax.) Oh, and I may or may not dunk on DOXEra's shitty moderators some more. 

See you then!

Edited by David:

https://twitter.com/dv_kh3