With E3 finished
for another year, Microsoft won out. Nintendo had the bomb-shell of a new Super
Smash Bros., but they failed to hold any interest after showing it off in the
Direct for twenty-five minutes. And that wasn’t helped at all by the fact
across the three days of Treehouse they showcased it for more than four hours
total – not including the Smash Bros. Invitational which would add more than
two hours to that total. I wouldn’t have minded as much if there was a showcase
of different modes.
As for the other games
at the Treehouse, the two showcases of Super Mario Party had me convinced that
the series is going back to what made it fun while actually creating new experiences
from that classic mould. Daemon X Machina is looking a fun action game, but it
was the showcase of Starlink: Battle For Atlas that managed to raise
excitement. The game looks great, as I’d already noted, but seeing the gameplay
in action has me wanting to dive in myself. It was said that the worlds are
always living, so visiting a world for the first time could have a large enemy
presence that you’ve left to grow while exploring another world.
Microsoft won
out, and I have to find a reason why that is than just Forza. The Horizon side series
has won me over more than the Motorsport main series, and with the fourth
expanding the world with the seasonal clock and a true race creator – plus a
lot more – it’s easy to see why I would say Microsoft won just from this one
alone. There was the Kingdom Hearts 3 trailer which was definitely a welcome
surprise, but that comes under Square-Enix. I guess I could say that Microsoft
are showing a willingness to move into the future, and that came through very
clear.
Team Sonic Racing
was featured, but I’m unsure about it. A racing game whose core mechanic is being
in team. In every race, not only are you competing against all the other racers
to get first, you also have to help your teammates to get into high positions.
You can offer up items for teammates to take as well as offering them a speed
boost while in front, but the system comes down to luck when racing with AI.
Since you are bound by a team, it doesn’t matter if you come first if your
teammates are stuck in last. In multiplayer racing that works out more as skill,
but with a story mode confirmed to be here, I’m unsure exactly how I feel about
it.
There’s not much
to get interested in with just a name, and plenty of them were name-dropped
throughout. There was Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order as one I’ve mentioned from
EA’s conference, but Bethesda had The Elder Scrolls 6, and Starfield.
Square-Enix did the same with Babylon’s Fall and The Quiet Man. Okay, it was
technically a bit more than a name-drop for The Quiet Man as we had a small
concept teaser, but it amounts to the same thing. And speaking of Square, they
gave us a trailer for Dragon Quest XI, so I’m happy about that. It’ll have to
be on the PC, as that and the PS4 are the only two platforms that seem to be in
the marketing, but at least I know I can play it.
The conferences
were fun to watch, and Sony seemed to have derailed at the start of theirs from
what I’ve heard, but pulled it back for the second half. Nintendo seem to be holding
back and waiting for the future, EA are being their usual selves, with Ubisoft
pushing both the present and the future. There was enough this year for me to
call it a good showing, and it would have been a great one if Nintendo had
dialled back on that Smash gameplay. I get that they didn’t have all that much,
but they could have reduced the Treehouse timetable instead of stretching
themselves to the limit.