I actually watched this on a boat on the way back from Gurnsey, and probably wrote the basics at the same time
The E3 PC Gaming Show. As a showcase for the best games on the best gaming platform currently available, you would think there would be a bit more pizzazz put into this show, but unfortunately not.
Taking a strictly preview followed by a chat with the developers (although at one point they had some bod from Samsung talk about one of their products - more on that later) format, which, whilst wasn't terrible, did feel forced (and you could certainly see that that some of the developers were quite uncomfortable about talking in front of an audience). To be honest, it also felt as though some of the audience members didn’t really want to be there either.
The hosts were pretty okay, although the rather false smiles from both were cringe-worthy. They also had little interaction with each other (and no real banter), making the two hours for this segment rather dry.
But the show isn't about hosts or interviews, but about the games (and monitors and gaming chairs), so what was on offer ?
To start with, those wanting a sequel to the (now) old Evil Genius game can look forward to a brand new game. What the actual gameplay looks like though, is another question, as only the trailer was shown. It will probably continue to be an isometric adventure game again.
There was also the Ghostbusters/Deceit type FPS (possibly) game. Again, little in the way of actual gameplay was show – which is a theme common throughout the show. From what the developers stated about the game, it’s a 4 V 4 game, with an interesting twist in that if the ghostbusters don’t get all the ghosts by midnight, they all come back much stronger than before.
Very little of Bloodlines 2 was shown, and was more a case of discussing the game story, which, by the sounds of it could be rather intriguing.
Chivalry II was actually a game that did show a fair bit of gameplay, and it looked a fun hack-and-slash game where you can be as un-chivalrous to the native peasants (and enemies) as you like – by chopping people into little bits with your rather large sword. According to the developers, it's a game to be taken as seriously (or not) as much as you like, and at least 50% played the first one whilst drunk…
Unexplored 2 is an isometric exploration/puzzle game, and is apparently the sequel to the original small indie game. It looked colourful, but whilst some of the gameplay was shown, overall it seemed to be quite a standard game.
Starmancer is an isometric adventure game set in outer space. Along with your explorations, you meet friends and enemies.
Then came the first hardware review – and the first unintentional mic problem, as the poor chap from Samsung had trouble getting his message across about their new 27” curved monitor. Not that it mattered too much though, as monitor reveals aren’t exactly the liveliest products to showcase, and got even less exciting when the Samsung chap reeled off the technical specifications (3000:1 colour contrast, by the way). It’s not particularly cheap being under $400.
The second hardware plug was for a gaming chair (of which few seemed interested in).
Funcom were next to show off some of their games : Mutant Year Zero (which seems to be a mixture of isometric and first-person, and plays a lot like Fallout, but features a talking moose). Conan Unconquered is another isometric game and looks like Age Of Empires.
Planetfall gets an extension whilst Zombie Army gets a new game (hopefully as an FPS this time).
Remnant was the next game, and looked like just a standard FPS, whilst Griftlands is a deck-building strategy fighting card game. It looks like it could bring something new to the genre, but it looks a very mobile-orientated game.
Planet Zoo game was next, and looked like any of the myriad management games around. However, the developers did promise that you’ll be learning as you play.
One of the two highlights of the two hour show was the appearance of Yu Suzuki (who helped design many of the early arcade games like Space Harrier), and who came on the show to talk about Shenmou 3, which looks like an interesting, if graphically simplistic,. fighting/adventure game.
Songs of Conquest is a very old-school adventure strategy game. Again, like most of games shown here, nothing was seen of the actual gameplay.
On a more positive note, Vermintide 2 gets an update, where you can (finally) play as a lackey of the Chaos Gods, and be the rat that you’ve always wanted to be. This is a player versus mode (much in the style of Left 4 Dead), so it’ll be interesting to see how popular it is.
Per Aspera is (another) a strategy game, this set based on Mars. From what little you saw of the trailer, it looks somewhat sparse (naturally), and possibly a bit too basic.
There was also FMV game, called "Telling Lies" (believe it or not, those haven't died out yet), which may be okay, if you like those sort games. This one is where you watch videos to help solve a murder.
For those who play Warframe, a new update was reveled, and comes compete with micro-transactions.
The Big Bang, is a weird abstract monochrome game, set before, during and after the Big Bang
El Hijo is an isometric stealth-em-up game about an abandon boy wanting to return to his mother for some reason, even though she purposely gave him away. The gameplay seemed decent enough, although the cinematics did seem rather basic.
Other games that were briefly shown included Ancestry (where you play an original humanoid from 10 million years ago), The Pathless (3D platforming shooter in the mould of Crash Bandicoot), “Untitled Goose Game” (about chasing a goose, I think), Atomic Croppers (a top down twin-shooter game, as if we don’t have enough of those already), Rune II (some sort of 3D adventure game), What the golf !? (another “comedy” golf game)
Phantom Brigade looks a pretty interesting Command And Conquer type game (and the PC gaming scene is desperately in need of something like that).
CrisTales looks to be an interesting 2D (and 3D) adventure game.
Maneater seems to be based on the various shark eating adventure games that are available on handheld devices. Hopefully, when it does come to the PC, it won’t include micro-transactions.
One of the biggest let-downs was the absence of any showing of Borderlands 3 – the host put various user-submitted questions to the developers, but that was the only real mention of the game, despite bits of the game being shown in the “title sequence” for this presentation.
Overall, it wasn’t too bad, if somewhat average and a bit bland, and could really be regarded as one long commerical.
There was certainly a lack of AAA games being shown, and the show veered more towards indie ones, which was probably why the audience didn’t seem to be particularly warm to most of what was being shown.
It also helped that almost everything shown was a cinematic trailer and not actual game-play footage.
With no real surprises (aside from the Ghostbusters tribute game, a quick monitor and gaming chair review), there was nothing to raise the show from being average. The hosts worked with what they had, but it wasn’t a great line-up of games, with few of them being unique in any sort of way. Didn’t help that little in the way of game-play footage was shown, with just trailers and cinematics doing the job of selling the games.
