Everyone has their own highlights that mean something to them whether it's positive or negative, and here's my rundown of what -I- care about, and therefore you should too. Obviously.
CONSOLES
After the Xbox Ones near comically awful announcement a few weeks ago the pressure was on Microsoft to show some actual games and remind people that it's ring binder of a console does actually play those. In fairness, they showed a lot even if it was mostly pre-rendered/live action trailers and got padded out with a few 360 games and non exclusives as well, but there was games there and that was a focus. Not that I'm even remotely interesting in buying one still though, paying £430 for the console equivalent of a moody cat that will only let you stroke it when it feels like it and only comes back to your house if you leave food out for it every day is not in my post graduate short term plans.
The PS4 showing for the most part was a little dull, I'm interesting in whatever Quantic Dreams and Media Molecule are working on but neither were formally announced so there's nothing exciting about that yet. None of the other games are getting me pumped, the new Killzone looks awful and other than the Abe's Oddysee HD remake which barely even counts there's nothing I would immediately buy based on the showing. The PS4 is also cheaper, more powerful and allows game sharing so it's already got a lot of ground over the Xbox. One big gap in the showing though was the lack of Vita titles, of which there are still barely any, they announced a few but if they want people to run out and pay £100 more for a Vita rather than a 3DS then they failed to build excitement.
The Wii U...really disappointing, none of the announcements were surprising and the half heartedness of the Mario 3D world and Mario Kart games is a big letdown. People were wondering were Mario was going to go next after Galaxy, and apparently the answer is nowhere because 3D World looks like a "best of" of the entire franchise so far than a brand new game....and some of the worst bits as well. Mario Kart 8 reminds me of a PS1 game I loved as a kid called Rollcage with it's "upside down" racing gimmick, but Rollcage limited this to high speed racing and tunnels whereas Mario Kart 8s plan is just to flip the entire track upside down to make control and direction more confusing. I'm not a Mario Kart guy anyway....but it looks kind of ass...
DEAD RISING 3
This gets my official "Best of E3 award", because it's showing was six minutes of mostly unedited gameplay footage which shows off the engine and gameplay. Dead Rising 2 is one of my favourite games of the current generation, it was an original take on sandbox gameplay which combined lots of zombie based dicking around with great exploration elements in finding weapon combos as well as offering a structured challenge which kept you on your toes throughout, as well as an actually good level up system which constantly encouraged you to enjoy the experience as much as possible for progress.
The new game seems to take everything I loved about Dead Rising 2, take away the whiny daughter character and the loading, increase the amount of zombies on screen at once and -claims- to have 100s of weapon combinations which you can make out of anything you find which makes the fun of the game even more organic and free flowing. My only concern is the setting is a bit too grim and dark, because the other really great thing about Dead Rising 2 was the fact it was really bloody stupid, and seeing these dumb characters in a dumb setting play out a dumb story entirely straight only added to the fun, the silliness looks to still be present in the violence and hopefully hasn't been toned down in the rest of the game too.
MIRRORS EDGE 2
WHY. Okay, some people liked Mirrors Edge 1 and it was an uncharacteristically experimental game by EA and in some ways I'm happy it exists. But on the other hand, making a sequel to it is bloody stupid. Even if you were able to oversee the big gaping flaws in the first game to see what it was going for, you have to agree that first person freerunning brings gameplay issues that other genres and perspectives overcame decades ago. The primal issue being not able to see your feet making gameplay extremely trial and error due to miss judged jumps and screwing up the most basic elements of movement possible. I'm glad the first game got released and EA tried, but in my opinion it's a dead end in game design and another example of style over substance so I don't really support a sequel. SORRY GUYS.
SUPER SMASH BROS 4
MEGA MAN IS IN IT OHAMAGHWAERD.
Plus it's made by Namco this time and might actually be a fighting game and not the pile of ass that Brawl was. I'm not the biggest Smashophile in the world but I'm looking forward to this.
YOSHI'S NEW ISLAND
Well what can I say about this game other than it looks about as inspired as that title is. Is this all Nintendo have got now? To release a similar looking sequel to something else and stick a New, World, Land or console abbreviation in the name and call it a day?
A little public service announcement on this game, it looks like ass. I love Yoshis Island, quite possibly in my top ten games of all time but this looks putrid. The hand drawn cartoonish graphics have been replaced with hideous 3D sprites, with ropey animations at best complimented by mouldy looking colours, and the once smooth control is being replaced by...well...being on the 3DS which will mean a lot of swearing at the D-pad and cutting into the palm of your hand if you play it too long. My advice is avoid, and it's painful to say that.
And I guess that's it...
Overall, the games I'm excited for (which are few and far between right now) were pretty much all announced before E3 other than Dead Rising 3, and this years showing was basically a preview to a generation I don't feel invested in. Gaming, and especially AAA development gaming is becoming bloated and unsustainable and the last thing it needs is another petty console war to push things over the edge even more. I have no backing for any of the horses in the console race (although I wouldn't mind the Xbox One getting made into glue) but if you are a fanboy then I suggest you back your console of choice with all the energy and braindead bias support you can muster because you might not get another opportunity to do so.
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