It’s been about three weeks post-E3 craze, and with all the hype finally dying down a little bit, we decide take a look back at some of our favorite parts about the conferences.
Every year at the LA Convention Center, gamers from around the world come together at E3 to celebrate their love and passion for the industry. Extended previews, first reveals, and much more are shown off, analyzed, rated, and drooled over. No matter how jaded and cynical the previous 365 days have made you, E3 always seems to recharge your batteries and fill you with wonder, excitement, and anticipation. This rejuvenation was much needed this year, especially after the crapfest that defined the past few months.
So instead of succumbing to the cynicism that has pervaded the industry, and grading who had a better overall conference and presence at E3, we’re going to be looking back at our favorite moments that made us laugh, cry, and cheer.
Hololens
We can all agree that this thing was magic, right? Like Harry Potter level magic. Regardless of what all the reports after Microsoft’s E3 conference complained about the field of vision being too narrow, for a brief moment, we were all amazed and confused (and maybe a little bit frightened at the wizard and his dark sorcery). There’s bound to be some missteps and hurdles for Microsoft to overcome as they perfect the Hololens hardware, but now we’re all one step closer to the Holodeck from Star Trek: The Next Generation that we all wished would be real one day.
Stupendous Sequels
E3 2015 will go down in history as the time when some of the most anticipated sequels of all time were announced. Be it Mass Effect Andromeda, Star Wars Battlefront, Star Fox Zero, Shenmue 3, or Kingdom Hearts 3, each day had some reveal that left the fans in attendance cheering and the fans at home shedding more than a few tears. We even finally got a release window for The Last Guardian! Which by itself, would have been enough to drive most people up the walls.
The Year of Yarn
Even though E3 had more than it’s share of big explode-y action games, this year that was contrasted against two games that used cuteness to stand out from the pack. The first was Yoshi’s Wooly World and seemed a lot like the previous yarn-based game from Nintendo, Kirby’s Epic Yarn.
These characters are already cute enough as it is, but the yarn mechanics take them to a whole new level of “AWWWW!!!” The next game, Unravel, came out of nowhere to steal the hearts of everyone watching. Developed by a small indie studio, Coldwood Interactive, and debuted by Creative Director Martin Sahlin, viewers could tell he was a bit nervous, but that just made him all the more endearing. And hearts everywhere exploded when he pulled out the little Yarny doll he made by hand. Tips for a successful showing for next year:
- Be a little nervous
- Have a cute mascot
- Make it yourself out of yarn
- Profit
Pelé the Magnificent
Yes, EA’s conference had a sports section that went on just a tad too long, but one of the greatest things they did was bring out a charming secret weapon in Pelé. For those of you who don’t know who Pelé is, just think of him as the Michael Jordan or Miyamoto of soccer.
It’s understandable that not everyone is a sports fan and those people thought bringing out this elderly Brazilian man was a waste of time, but for those viewers who knew him and his contributions to the game, it was a treat to see him light up talking about his old exploits. He has lived through so much history that any sports fan could sit and listen to him talk for hours, if not days.
South Park
Front runner for the greatest game title of all time. Nuff said.
For Honor Presenter
Let’s be honest, most presenters at E3 are a bit dull. Whether they’re wearing a suit, or a t-shirt and jeans, they tend to just come out, deliver a joke or two, a few details about the game, show a trailer and leave.
Ubisoft Montreal’s Creative Director, Jason Vandenberghe, came out and took us all by storm. Carrying himself like a mix between all the factions in For Honor, with a dash of Wolverine for good measure, he growl-laughed, hooted, and yelled to the point where you couldn’t help but be drawn to For Honor and wanting to give it a try.
Dear Ubisoft Montreal, please put him in charge of more presentations. Not only is he a blast to watch, he also makes your games seem like must-plays. Plus, DAT CANE!!!
Gaming Goes Hollywood
Hollywood actors and actresses have been crossing over into voicework for games for a long time now, but it’s still good to see new actors try their hand at it. Aisha Tyler was doing her usual best hosting the Ubisoft E3 conference and brought out Angela Bassett to talk about her upcoming role as Six in Rainbow Six Siege. Grabbing a talent like Bassett to appear in their game was a huge win for Ubisoft, but that wasn’t the most compelling part of the presentation.
It was seeing two supremely talented African-American actresses take the stage at the largest gaming convention in the world. E3 looked pretty homogeneous up until that point, with most presenters filling one specific category, but seeing those two up there was inspirational and very entertaining. Take note game companies. More minority presenters for next year’s E3. Especially if they’re Aisha Tyler and Angela Bassett.
Nintendo Doing Nintendo
Nintendo has always marched to the beat of its own drum and that was never more evident than during their E3 digital conference. While most other E3 presentations were fairly straight forward and serious, Nintendo went out to the deep end and transformed their big three of Reggie Fils-Aime, Satoru Iwata, and the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto into Muppet version of themselves. These highly gif-able scenes were followed up with the trio slowly transforming into Star Fox characters to announce Star Fox Zero. But not Slippy because nobody likes him.
After such a great E3, gamers everywhere should feel their love for the medium replenished. Yes, the gaming industry has problems that need to be addressed and fixed, some of them quite immediately, but for a few days, we were all taken back to our simplest love for gaming. Hopefully this sense of refreshed optimism lasts; if not, there’s always E3 2016 to bring us all back around again…except for Slippy. He’s just the absolute worst.
