OK, so E3 2015 finally arrived almost upon us, so for anyone not up on the latest gaming news, rumours, teasers and wild speculation, here’s our take on the big game announcements at the mega pixelation conference. The show kicked off on the 16th June 2015 at the Los Angeles Convention Centre with a three day stint of non-stop video game excitement blasting out of its pores before it came to a close on the 18th June, so there’s a lot to take in. If you want things in brief, you can visit our best games of E3 2015 post for more of a summary of the creme de la creme.
Nintendo retreat to higher ground
For anyone looking at this year’s E3 with the hope of more information on the Nintendo NX, the Japanese console giant’s next next-gen gaming system, you needed to reign in your expectations because their president, Mr Iwata, had already confirmed, pre-conference, that they won’t be talking about it again until 2016. However, there were a few little gems announced during their press conference and Treehouse live stream and while there wasn’t anything massive in terms of a big epic Metroid title, there was a 3DS title for the franchise called Metro Prime Federation Force. It doesn’t look all that much from the initial visuals, but it would put a first person shooter on the 3DS, which is no small news in itself.
We were also be hoping for more information about the announcement of plans to release a select number of new games as mobile apps with their new partnership with DeNA. We already know that these will focus on creating new titles dedicated to mobile gaming, but no titles have been discussed as of yet, so there was a lot of interest to see whether or not they get some Nintendo love during the Treehouse event. Sadly, that didn’t come to pass, so for now we’ll have to wait with baited breath still.
Perhaps in a bid to add excitement to their E3 presence this year in the light of a limited number of games to talk about, Nintendo also brought back its World Championships this year. Gamers competed at locations throughout the US for the highest score on Championship Mode in the Ultimate NES™ Remix game for the Nintendo 3DS and the top scorer from each of the eight regional competitions went on to battle it out in the final event on the 14th June in Los Angeles.
However, we’d have to say that this is a bit lame as a few tournaments in big cities in America does not a World Championship make. While it’s a fun prospect for anyone that is lucky enough to have been involved, the reality is that most Nintendo fans won’t be able to. With modern day online gaming, surely Nintendo has missed a trick in not making it a worldwide competition and holding the final on the 14th, flying the top gamers to LA for the battle royal. Sadly wasn’t the case, but hopefully Mr Iwata gets wind of our suggestion and sorts it out for next year.
While the game roster from Nintendo at E3 2015 wasn’t their biggest or most impressive, it wasn’t without its high points. Xenoblade Chronicles X, Mario Maker and Star Fox Zero all looked promising and Yoshi’s Woolly World has turned out to be a gem of side scrolling fun. Other games announced include Mario Tennis Ultra Smash for the Wii U, and for the 3DS there was The Legend Of Zelda: Triforce Heroes, Hyrule Warriors Legends, Mario And Luigi Paper Jam, Metroid Prime Federation Force and Animal Crossing Happy Home.
We’re all doomed
If you’ve missed this one it’s time to get on board the eager anticipation train (it’s a thing!) because it made a big stop off at E3 2015 to feast on the blood and gore that is the Doom reboot. With only a teaser trailer to show for itself prior to the conference (check out the video below) there were more questions about the game than there are answers. All we really knew about it is that it’ll be coming to the PS4, Xbox ONE and PC, however, that changed a little in July as publishers Bethesda Softworks and developers id Software rocked up to the LA Convention Centre with their worldwide gameplay reveal on the opening day of the conference at 7pm Pacific Time (3am on the 15th June in the UK). While it didn’t turn out to be quite as epic as we had in mind, it’s still got a lot of potential as a reboot to one of the original first person shooter pioneers.
Doom teaser:
Other big games at E3 2015
Firstly, there are a fair few games that were announced at the 2014 E3 event, which are yet to be released, so this year was an opportunity for their developers and publishers to feature them much more prominently. These included Yoshi’s Wooly World and Mario Maker from Nintendo, along with the reveal of Star Fox Zero. Sadly, The Legend Of Zelda Wii U didn’t really feature apart from Satoru Iwata confirming that it will still be coming to the Wii U and not be saved for the NX, despite it being pushed back until 2017.
Xbox ONE exclusives that featured at the conference include Halo Guardians, Scalebound, Rare Replay, Rise Of The Tomb Raider (also available on the Xbox 360), Quantum Break, Gears Of War 4, Gears Of War Ultimate Edition, Forza 6, new announcement ReCore and Crackdown. They also confirmed that they would be launching Xbox ONE backwards compatibility, much to the excitement of its gamers and those that haven’t made the jump yet from the 360.
For Sony, there there wasn’t quite as many big-name exclusive titles to showcase, but Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, The Last Guardian, Horizon Zero Dawn, Firewatch, Rigs and Street Fighter V were on show for the PS4 The PlayStation briefing took place on the 15th June at 6pm Pacific Time (2am on the 16th in the UK).
However, there was much more excitement to be had on cross platform releases, which were a big part of the conference, with most of them taking a little time in either the Sony or Microsoft conferences sessions. Our pick of the crop so far includes Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and their long awaited The Division, Just Cause 3, Kingdom Hearts 3, Lego Jurassic World, Mad Max, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain and Star Wars Battlefront. There was also an impressive demos for the Mad Max game, along with cool trailer reveals for Hitman, a remake of Final Fantasy VII and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands.
