E3 2021

[Pak-Man]

After taking a pandemic break last year, E3 is back and completely virtual this year! There's an app to download if you want to watch everything in one place, but it looks like the big conferences will all be broadcast in the usual places.

As usual, Nintendo has already won E3 for me because I'm a total fanboy, but there are rumors that Capcom has some Phoenix Wright news to share, and Sony and Microsoft are bound to have some tricks up their sleeves.

Here's the schedule so far:

Ubisoft Forward - 12th June at 12pm Pacific / 3pm Eastern / 8pm UK / 9pm CEST
Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase - 13th June at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK / 7pm CEST
SQUARE ENIX - 13th June at 12:15pm Pacific / 3:15pm Eastern / 8:15pm UK / 9:15pm CEST
The PC Gaming Show and the Future Games Show - 13th June
Capcom - 14th June at 2:30pm Pacific / 5:30pm Eastern / 10:30pm BST / 11:30pm CEST
Take-Two Interactive, Mythical Games, Freedom Games, Razer and Capcom - 14th June
BANDAI NAMCO, Yooreka Games - 15th June
Nintendo Direct + Treehouse - 15th June at 9am Pacific / noon Eastern / 5pm UK / 6pm CEST
Official E3 2021 Awards Show - 15th June

[Compound]

I'm working! No live show stuff during the weekdays!

Anyway, today we had the Summer Game Fest live show.

We start off with Gearbox announcing their new tile- Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. Borderlands -type looter shooter with a strong fantasy influence and a number of name actors whose presence probably isn't worth the money they were paid.

Next up- turn based tactics! Yes, really. It's Metal Slug Tactics, because SNK seems to have lost their mind. But, hey, if you wanted Metal Slug characters in Final Fantasy Tactics, here you go!

Kojima appears, via tape. He's not vaccinated yet!  Hey, it's Norman Reedus on the PS5. Making a Metal Gear reference.   Anyway, it's Death Stranding Director's Cut. More in a few weeks.

And now, Jeff Goldblum. He's being all Goldblumy. Jurassic World Evolution 2. Next year.

It's Japanese Breakfast. A band apparently. She sounds a lot like the singer from Chvrches. It's a promo for Sable, which is a game.

Lost Ark. New MMORPG.  Korean in make, with Amazon helping release it here. It's Diablo-y as well.

Skipping Call of Duty. Oh hey. Ryan Reynolds. Promoting Free Guy. Oh lord. Ninja's in it. That's a bad sign.

Among Us. An official Hide and Seek mode. New roles. Colors! Achieves. New Map. Maybe.

Twitch is letting me know that I might enjoy the Rifftrax channel on Twitch! The thumbnail is of shirtless Mike Kelly in bed with the diner woman. Yeah, gonna pass there.

Obliterated. Looks like a gothic Dust.

Rapid fire. Chivalry 2. Already announced. Valorant. Escape from Tarkov.

Two Point Campus. It's Two Point! At school! They're making a Petaluma sized omelet in it.

Netflix is doing a Cuphead show.

Smite is doing a Stranger Things crossover, because why not? There's also a Magnum PI skin, because again, why not?

New Publisher- Prime Matter arrives with a 12 game slate. Good lord. That woman is giving some bad line reads. Of the titles, Kingdom Come Deliverence, Cross and Iron, Mount and Blade, King's Bounty 2 and Payday 3 are the recognizable properties. And a new Painkiller too.

New IP- AnaCruuis. It's 4 player co-op on a spaceship with aliens. Very Left 4 Deadish. X-Box/PC exclusive

New World. Still being made! Out this summer! Aug 31

Rocket League does another Fast and Furious crossover next week.

Sharkmob brings us their World of Darkness game. Blood Hunt. It's , um, a Battle Royale. Because that screams World of Darkness

Another game from the Until Dawn folks, this one with soldiers trapped in a cursed temple in Iraq. House of Ashes

Latest Tales game, Tales of Arise. Sep 10

Overwatch 2.  Nothing but a mention. Dark Alliance. It's back and remastered.

Monster Hunter Stories. Already announced long ago.

And Weezer. With a new song. That can't be right. They're only a cover band.

Quick stuff! Endless Dungeon. Announced last year. Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart. Out tomorrow. Far Cry 6. Fall Guys gets a 2b skin from Neir. New Genshin Impact stuff. This is 4 hours long, Geoff! Speed it up!

AN orchestra doing Sonic songs. A full concert on Sunday.

Back 4 Blood. This trailer came out a few weeks back. Oct 12

Tribes of Midgard. Co-op base building, rougish.

Evil Dead the Game. With Bruce Campbell! I'm saying this a lot. Looks like a 3rd person left for dead, complete with player playing the "evil" part. 

Final thingee. Oh dear lord. It's Elden Ring. It wasn't a myth. Next January 21st

[Pak-Man]

As a lover of both tactics and Metal Slug, I'm all-in on Metal Slug Tactics.

Jurassic World Evolution 2 excites me. I spent a LONG time ignoring the first one, because how good could a Jurassic World tie-in be? Then I got it as part of a Humble Bundle and was pleased to discover that it's actually a darn good tycoon game.

Also all-in on Two Point Campus. Two Point Hospital is another great modern tycoon game. Are tycoon games making a comeback? It feels like about the right time for a tycoon renaissance.

[The Lurker]

As a lover of both tactics and Metal Slug, I'm all-in on Metal Slug Tactics.

Jurassic World Evolution 2 excites me. I spent a LONG time ignoring the first one, because how good could a Jurassic World tie-in be? Then I got it as part of a Humble Bundle and was pleased to discover that it's actually a darn good tycoon game.

Also all-in on Two Point Campus. Two Point Hospital is another great modern tycoon game. Are tycoon games making a comeback? It feels like about the right time for a tycoon renaissance.

I have a fondness for Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis.

[Compound]

Okay, Ubisoft starts E3 off.  And Ubi is always a ... special... conference. And the conference is COVID safe!

Preshow, we get a look at a bunch of stuff, including the upcoming Watch Dog Legions expansion that features the main character from the first Watch Dogs.

First up- Rainbow 6 Extraction, the horde shooter spinoff of R6 Siege. Left 6 Dead-ish. Sep 16. Hooooowever, it's also got some Rogue and Everquest elements in that if you fall in the mission, you need to rescue your character or else you'll lose all your gear and XP. I can see no downside to this in a game played with random players.

Okay, Ubi? The presenters need to look at the camera. Them staring off to the side is beyond aggravating.

Rocksmith Plus. A music learning refinement of the 10 year old Rocksmith game. Works with acoustic guitars now, thanks to the magical device known as the "phone." It's a subscription service now. Sigh. But it looks like a fairly effective way to learn how to play a guitar.

Riders Republic- Ubi's little extreme sports MMORPG. Sep 2

Rainbow 6 Siege- crossplay on PC very soon. Consoles early next year. Note- the PC players can't crossplay with the consoles, just with the streaming versions of the game. Which have relatively no user base. But, it's nice? I guess? And the Sony and Microsoft folks can bop each other in 2022.

Hodgepodge of stuff - Turtles in Brawlhalla. Aiden Pearce in Watch Dogs Legion. More stuff for the Crew 2, Trackmania, For Honor. Ghost Recon gets a 20th anniversary with... something.

Just Dance. California being insane means no insane groups of dancers on stage.  2022 later this year with 40 more songs.

AC: Valhalla. An Irish expansion was released a few weeks back and up next is the Siege of Paris. And no new AC this year, just more Valhalla stuff until next year.

Werewolves Within. It's a movie. No, it's an actual movie. Based on a videogame, I guess. (Basically Mafia/Werewolves of Miller Hollow/etc)  June 25th.

Far Cry 6. It's full of bad Spanish accents! Seriously, half of the people in this trailer are at "Aussie drummer in RnRN" levels of accent goodness. Thankfully the main villain actually is a good actor which will cover a lot of sins. The season pass comes with Blood Dragon? Which includes music from Dragon Sound, BTW.

Mario ! And more Rabbids, it seems. Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope. It's in space!

And last up- a partnership between Ubi and someone! And... oh dammit. Not a good dammit. It's Avatar. No, the Cameron one. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

And Ubi pushes their sub service. Hey! A cassowary! Respect it!

Well, up next, Gearbox.

[Compound]

Devolver.

They're taking this as seriously as usual.
Anyway, Phantom Abyss is next week.  Wizard with a Gun, which looks like Don't Starve. But with Wizards. And Guns. Death's Door. Next month. Inscryption.
Tumble Time.

And Demon Throttle. It's a physical game! You have to go to stores and buy it!

And now Gearbox.

And Gearbox spends a lot of time on the set for the Borderlands movie. A looooot of time. OH. Hey. Eli Roth. That's a good sign.

Okay, a game. Homeworld Remastered. Homeworld 3 also teased.

Tiny Tina's Wonderland. Shown yesterday, but here again. Tribes of Midgard. Also yesterday. (July 27 release)

Godfall arrives for PS4/5, along with some minor improvements Aug 10

Well, that was a waste of time.

Okay, tomorrow, Xbox/Bethesda, Square/Enix, and the PC gaming fiasc...er, how.

[Compound]

Microsoft/Bethesda

For those who don't remember, Microsoft bought a bunch of studios in the last couple of years and Bethesda was the crown among them. There's been one leak from them, but we'll get to it.

And Microsoft starts right on time. Good for them!

And Todd Howard, from Bethesda, is the first person seen. And he's here with Starfield.  Nov 11, 2022. And an Xbox exclusive. Ooh. They're throwing down the gauntlet. A lot of folks expected it to be multiplatform, but part of the Game Pass. Nope. Buy the hardware.

Another studio acquisition- Stalker 2. Apr 28, 22

Zambies! And Black 4 Blood. Team based zombie shooting.  Oct 12

From the Just Cause folks-A co-op open world heist game. Contraband.

Sea of Thieves.  Yep. Still got a fairly active player base. And Jack Sparrow is going to be in the upcoming expansion. Oh, Davey Jones is there too. June 22nd

All of Yakuza is on Game Pass. Well, not the zombie one, or Judgement but the rest are. Yes, Like a Dragon too

The New Battlefield 2042. Oh hey! Gameplay! Still, the setpiece with a fire fight going on next to a sand storm spawned tornado looks very, memorable.

Twelve Minutes- an interactive thriller. Same trailer as last year.

Psychonauts 2! Aug 25!

Over to Bethesda! And there's a new version of Skyrim mentioned because every year needs more Skyrim.

First up - Fallout 76. More Brotherhood of Steel stuff in July. Next year, your get to re-visit Pittsburgh.

Elder Scrolls Online, the game you're playing if you're not playing fantasy MMORPGS not named WoW or FFXIV. Or Black Desert.

Gasp! Gang beasts! Oh, sorry. Party Animals.

Hades. Aug 13. I think it's already out on console, but whatever. Buy it again.

A sad piano plays while we watch a character wander around. Eventually he gets chased by aliens. Somerville. 20222

It's the 20th Anniversary of Halo. Halo Infinite is set to release in campaign form and multiplayer mode this winter. The multiplayer mode will be FTP it seems, but Battlepasses, skins, etc.

OOoooh. Blizzard. And Diablo. Oh. It's the II remaster, not IV. Thought we were getting the new one. 9/23

Rats! A tsunami of rats! Plague Tale Requiem! In a suspiciously rat free wilderness area.

Far Cry 6. Honestly, the bad guy seems a lot more interesting than our heroine does in this. I know it's like that a lot, but this one seems much more lopsided than normal. Also coming out in October.

Slime Rancher 2! Yay! It's very relaxing. Next year

Snowboarding. No "EA" sound, so not SSX. Is Amped back?  Well, nope. Shredders. This December. Shoot. I liked the Amped games a lot

And Russian anime cyberpunks fighting robots? Um, huh? Atomic Hearts?

Replaced. 2d sidescrolling cyberpunk noir adventure stuff.

Oh, Grounded. The ant game that hit early access and then everyone forgot about because it wasn't done and they ran out of content to play. Still unfinished though

Among Us! July 15th! Everywhere! 15 player lobbies!  More colors!

Eiyuden Chronicles! It's a JRPG! With a cast of zillions! It's the Kickstarted game done as a Suikoden successor.  2022 and 2023. There's a prequel before the main game it seems

And so isomorphic top down shooting. The Ascent. July 29th

Wait, Age of Empires? Huh. It is.  A PC game wandered into the show. AoE IV.  October 28th

And the next trailer is taking the piss out of most of the other trailers shown so far. It's amazing.  It's also for The Outer Worlds 2.  It's an awesome trailer.

A plane? Another PC game? You spoil us, Microsoft! It's for Flight Simulator. Wow. Those graphics look amazing. Shame you can't buy a graphics card these days. July 27 for XB, I guess

Top Gun music! Oh. Also for Flight Simulator. Free expansion in July with zoomy fighters.

Cars! And no humans seen! Forza! Horizon 5! November 5th! There's lava in it. (Set in Mexico, BTW) Mayan ruins, jungles, deserts. It looks very nice, BTW. The scenery looks awesome. People may scoff at the zoomy cars, but Microsoft and Playground puts a lot of effort into these games and it shows. (Forza 8 gets a quick mention for next year)

In the outro, Microsoft mentions Fable so, still on the way. Last trailer, from Arkane. Another exclusive, BTW.

It's Left 4 Dead? With psychics and robots and vampires. Redfall. Next Summer. (Note, Left 4 Dead was also XBox only, IIRC. Ignoring Steam)

No real mis-steps here. And about 90 minutes of trailers. Up next, Squeenix

[Compound]

Okay, this is stupid enough so that I actually want one now.

[Compound]

Square Enix

First up- Eidos Montreal and hey, there's Peter Quill and Rocket. And Philipp Grubauer. And Cosmo! Cosmo is best Guardian. It's a Guardians of the Galaxy Game. On Oct 26th. Dan Abnett wrote this.
There's a long gameplay segment so it's pretty far along. And looks better than Avengers does. (cough)

Final fantasy 1-6 remastered. Soon.

Legend of Mana, July 24.

Speaking of, Marvel Avengers, they haven't given up on it. More stuff in the next couple of months. And Wakanda at some point. Wakanda gets its own little trailer. Free for Avengers owners.

And a Hitman mobile game. You're a sniper in this.  A Neir mobile game.  FF: WotV gets some FF1 stuff. Brave Exius exists. "FF: The First Solder" soon.

Babylon's Fall- new IP. No idea on what is going on here. Interviews after show it as kinda "Nier combat in an RPG dungeon crawler." It's a live service game too. Joy.

And Life is Strange. It's remastered. Kinda Sep 30. Life is Strange True Colors comes out Sep 10. Presumably Life is Strange Goonies R Good Enough is 2022.

New stuff! From Japan! Team Ninja! Koei Temco! They're here to kill Chaos! We hear that a lot in the trailer. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. Um, okay? Next year.

Montage- FFVII remastered, Neir, Outriders, The World Ends with You/ Forspoken. FF XVi/ Endwalker. And Matt Mercer tells us bye.

Um, okay. Warner Brothers gives a look at Back 4 Blood in a little while and then the PC Gaming show.

[Compound]

Well, apparently fan reaction to the Square Enix presentation was so positive that Square locked their Twitter feed. Yikes.

Future Compound- okay, apparently they did that months ago to merge all the accounts. Never mind. Their normal account is still there.

[The Lurker]

Who do I have to bribe to get a Final Fantasy Musou?

[Pak-Man]

Koei is passing out Musou like they're candy lately, so I wouldn't be surprised...

The Final Fantasy 1-6 Pixel remaster looks cool. Wish they'd told us what a pixel remaster is, but from the really tiny screenshots, it looks like maybe they juice up the backgrounds, but keep the classic sprites for the characters? And everyone wants to know, "Why isn't this coming out on consoles?" I think console ports are a foregone conclusion, though. We'll get 'em eventually.

[Compound]

PC Gamer Show

And the show starts with several minutes where they forgot to turn the sound on. Great start, folks. This year's show is Mechwarrior themed.

Nanaka Bladepoint. Sword based  battle royale. Also with the completely era accurate chainsaw soon.

Dodgeball Academia. It's a dodgeball RPG. Soon.

Chivalry 2.  Launched a couple of days ago. Again, with swords and stuff.

Dying Light 2 is teased, but instead we get Raw Men, a food-based Battle Royale/ Fall Guys type game.

And there's Dying Light 2. Dec 7th.

Humankind. Sega's Civilization rival game. Beta's running again. Still not out.

Some 2d side scrolling action. They Always Run.

Oh hey. Orcs Must Die 3. It was banished to Stadia but on Steam next month

Vampire the Masquerade- Swan Song. Vampire goes hunting for her daughter. (Future me- Oh. Malkavian. That explains some stuff)

Gigabash- 4 player Cartoony Kaiju fight!

Lemnis Gate- Humanity is about to perish! Which is the setup for a first person shooter turn based game. With time travel.  Um. Sure. Aug 3.

Next Space Rebels- Build a rocket! Launch it! It's like Kerbal, but more serious. Kinda

Wartales- turn based squad level medieval combat RPG. Later this year.

Ixion. Run a space station. It seems to go badly.  2022

Far Lone Sails. Explore a flooding world. Might have a different name.

Civ 6 is $10 at Humble. PCGAMER code. Also in next month's bundle.

Lakeburg Legacies. It's like CK3, but with less stabbing and more hand drawn art.

Killing Floor 2 gets a scifi themed expansion. Out soon.

Mechwarrior 5- it's out now. Mech based combat. Looks rather nice.

Silt. A 2d underwater exploration game.

Hello Neighbor 2 - it's even more Hello Neighbory

Jurassic World Evolution 2- Same trailer as before. The dinos are loose. It might be some sort of crisis, I guess. Later this year.

New Blood Interactive shows a bunch of clips in a row. Ultrakill! Dusk. Dusk 82. Thief with a Gun, (Not the real title, but the description) Gloomwood.

Oh hey. Gabe Newell. He's not dead, I guess. Steam will have a bunch of demos next week.

Up next- you've got a sword. And there's a ghost folllowing you around. Soulstice. "Devil May Cry Souls"

I zone out while the hostess talks new tech but... wait. Chaosgate? With Grey Knights? Hmmmm... But 40k games are notoriously uneven in quality.

The next game is in Russian. Interface. Dialog. Text. Everything. Pioner.

Eve Online. No. Don't. It's a trap. I also typed Eve 6 there, which is a completely different thing.

Lumberhill. Out now. Arboria. Roguelike combat game. Out soon.

Tinykin. You're a tiny space explorer on Earth. And it's very Pikmin-ish. Next year. Good luck with  a lawsuit.

Chernobylite- Seems, interesting? No real info. (Future me- it's a heist game, I guess? Robbing a nuclear plant?)

Sacrifire- It's on Kickstarter?

Icarus. It's a survival game. With spaceships. And bears. From the Day Z folks?

Mechajammer It's turn based? I guess?

Wandering Village. A village on a dinosaur back! Deathtrash. It's a game.

Songs of Conquest- Like Heroes of Might and Magic. If you don't know what that means, go play HoMM.

Citizen Sleeper- Turn based time management where you're trying to evade a megacorp.

Project Warlock 2. A first person retro shooter. It's not Hexen. Nope. Not at all.

And a retro shooter is probably not what you should have ended on, folks. Oh well.

[Compound]

So, Sony is doing a demo for Chaos Chaos Cha... er, Final Fantasy Origins. It's available right now but apparently the data is corrupted. So good luck?

[Compound]

Games Radar is doing ...something... right now. I'm watching Whizzo, but will drop in if anything important appears.