E3 2016 Post-Mortem Part 2: Best of the rest and missing in action

With the press conferences wrapped up, I’m once again turning my attention to the other half of the event. Much of the media coverage at E3 2016 built on what was shown at the company conferences, but the following five games (in no particular order) slipped in after the main pressers to give us additional updates or simply made their own mark on the show floor.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The next Zelda game revealed itself at Nintendo’s Treehouse event this year and fans were bestowed with a twenty five minute long gameplay demo. With Breath of the Wild, Nintendo seems to be going for a more interactive approach with the open world; Link can climb hills and cliffs, chop down trees for resources and cook food items for healing purposes. The combat seems incredibly flexible, with a wide range of crude weapons that can be used in multiple ways. For example Link grabbed a long branch to use as a spear, but he can also throw it at opponents. The game’s graphical style seems halfway between the classical look seen in Ocarina of Time and the cell-shaded look of Wind Waker; no matter which way you look at it, the game looks beautiful. Nintendo has always had a knack for pushing art design over technical prowess and this has allowed its first party titles to look fantastic, despite not being able to push the same polygon counts as the other consoles. 

The first open world Zelda game may be incredibly exciting for long-time fans of the series, but it’s got to live up to; Skyrim and The Witcher 3 have both created stunning worlds which are also packed with things to do. It’s also likely that the game will be a dual release across the Wii U and the upcoming NX when it releases in 2017.

2. Civilization VI

Despite not being present at the press conferences, Civilization VI still made an appereance at E3 2016 with a twelve minute long gameplay trailer narrated by the ever popular Sean Bean. It’s typical Civilization fare; you build cities, grow and connect them while also standing against other competing factions. One of the biggest additions this time is that of districts; whether it’s a military garrison to boost your forces or a religious site for increasing culture. There’s been a bit of a negative reaction to the game’s cartoony look but I don’t have much of an issue with it personally; this is probably down to my time with the often overlooked Civilization Revolution on the PS3. It definitely dumbed things down for a console audience, but the core gameplay was still incredibly addictive and enjoyable. Civilization VI may be playing it safe at this point, mostly iterating from Civilization V, which is still widely enjoyed alongside its two expansions. Can the next numbered entry make great strides in pushing the long-running series forward? We'll have to wait till October to find out.

3. Yooka-Laylee

Rare may have been back in the spotlight for Sea of Thieves at Microsoft’s conference this year, but a small band of developers who used to work for the company have broken off to form their own studio with Playtonic. Their first game? Yooka-Laylee, a bright and vibrant throw-back to the simpler days of mascot based platformers. Having received oodles of support and backers on Kickstarter, it became the highest funded game in UK history. From the offset the game definitely has some shades of Banjo-Kazooie in it; with massive platforming levels that beg to be explored. Yooka and Laylee are packing all the moves to get through the game from a speedy roll to Laylee’s hover for extending jumps. It’s great to see 3D platformers returning to gaming, a throwback to a simpler time when the likes of Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon and Super Mario 64 sat on top of the industry. While the full game won’t be finished until the first quarter of 2017, the toybox demo which gives a peek into the game’s environments is set to release to backers in July 2016.

4. Injustice 2

The surprisingly good Injustice: Gods Among Us managed to strike its own niche in between Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat in 2013. Now the sequel is looking to build on that layer, adding new characters while maintaining its original combat system. The debut trailer dropped before E3 this year and was followed up with a gameplay debut on the show floor. According to Ed Boon and Netherealm Studios, Injustice 2 is looking to bring in both the casual and hardcore crowds with this newest entry. New characters are aplenty with the likes of Supergirl and Gorilla Grodd making their presence felt. The presentation also looks great, with stronger detail in the game’s environments and character models. With all that said, the game’s gear system has me sceptical; it allows for more customisation of each character, but at the same time there’s an opportunity to sneak in some microtransactions and grindy RNG systems. With Mortal Kombat Xhaving already copped some criticism for this, I’m hoping the same thing doesn’t happen for Injustice 2.

5. Mafia 3

After it had a tricky time standing up to likes of Grand Theft Auto and Saint’s Row, I believed the Mafia series had been written off after 2’s somewhat lukewarm reception in 2010, but the open world crime drama returned to the spotlight at E3 this year. Following its debut trailer last year, the first gameplay footage of Mafia 3 was shown to the public. Twenty two minutes in all showed off the game’s setting: New Bordeaux (based on New Orleans), which is made up of ten different regions in the American South. In the demo protagonist Lincoln Clay assaulted an enemy mob’s sex trafficking ring, confronted a corrupt politician on his casino boat and decided which of the new “underbosses” should get the conquered territory. I’m especially intrigued by the latter feature in that it introduces player choice, a first for the Mafia series. On the whole it feels like Mafia 3 is going for a more personalised experience as opposed to the more straight-forward mission based approach of the first two. You start at the bottom and work your way up, expanding Clay’s influence as a mobster. I’m hoping this doesn’t come at the cost of story; Mafia 3 is Hangar 13’s first game and they’ve got a fair few expectations to meet. The game’s graphics had some great lighting systems, but also seemed a bit rough around the edges as well. If the game sticks to the franchise’s strengths of deep narratives and rich settings, it should make for a full-blown comeback this October.

Missing in action

There were many big games to get excited about at E3 this year, but there are always those who skip the show for their own individual reasons. I already mentioned the likes of Crackdown 3 and Star Citizen in my press conference round up, but here are several others which were absent from E3 2016.

• ·         Red Dead Redemption 2, Agent and Rockstar Games

One of the biggest rumours going into E3 2016 this year was the next game from Rockstar, believed by many to be Red Dead Redemption 2. With the original 2010 game being such a smash hit, expectations are bound to be soaring in the heavens and the company isn’t known to fuel the hype train at major events. The developer instead chooses to release a set of trailers which gradually reveal more about their games, leaving the core gameplay to surprise on launch. It’s possible that the company may also be working on the obscure Cold War thriller Agent, which hasn't been heard from in years. I imagine that Rockstar Games is simply taking its time, as it often does with games that are often the biggest and most ambitious in the entire industry. Before too long, Rockstar Games are sure to come out with their latest project; it just so happens that they prefer to do it outside of a major gaming event.

• ·         Final Fantasy VII Remake and Shenmue 3

Sony’s E3 2015 presser dropped jaws because of some major announcements. The Last Guardian returning after years of obscurity was one thing, but announcing both Final Fantasy VII remake and Shenmue 3 in one go left fans drooling, ecstatic and even in tears. After years of waiting, both games were finally being developed which put Sony at the top of the heap at last year’s show for many. You’d think Sony would have shown both games again this year, giving an update on how they are progressing but no. There was no sign of either game this year which is quite baffling, even disappointing to say the least. My guess is that Sony wanted to turn people’s attention to some of the newer games and announcements they had to make. When you have a four hour montage of people bursting with joy over a new game, you’d best be ready to keep them up to date and keep the excitement going; Sony didn’t manage to do that this year.

• ·         Sucker Punch

I consider myself a fairly big fan of Sucker Punch Productions, one of Sony’s most prized exclusive developers alongside Insomniac Games and Naughty Dog; they’ve been producing stellar titles across three console generations including the Sly trilogy and InFamous. With the exception of InFamous 2 in 2011, every single game I played from them has been superb, blending engaging platforming and third person action brilliantly. With their last game, InFamous: Second Son released in 2014, I was eager to see what they had planned next, presumably on the PlayStation 4 but the company chose to sit E3 2016 out, leaving the spotlight to Insomniac Games and their upcoming Spider-Man title. It’s possible they may be taking a break from development, much like Naughty Dog.

• ·         The PlayStation Vita

Following up on my mention of it last year, Sony’s PlayStation Vita was nowhere in sight at their conference this year. Several years ago I wrote a feature on this blog discussing the Vita and why it failed to catch on from a lack of quality games to questionable business decisions. Now it seems that they’re finally conceding defeat over the once promising portable system; Nintendo’s 3DS and the wildly popular mobile space have crushed the Vita in its entirety, leaving Sony with a huge wasted opportunity. Abandoning the handheld is disappointing, but it also allows more funds to be placed towards the PlayStation 4, the company’s flagship system in the gaming business and with the huge success enjoyed by that system, who can blame them?

• ·         Nintendo’s NX

Nintendo’s treehouse event had only two games with a substantial amount of time dedicated to both, but they could have added that one missing ingredient to make it more engaging. We all know their new system is on the way; Codename NX is still a mystery to the masses and Nintendo is still being fairly tight-lipped on it. The company had a rough time with the Wii U; lacklustre advertising led to a poor start and third party support eventually dried up, leaving the system miles behind the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Personally I always thought the Wii U was a glorified DS in console form. Despite having some solid practices for downloadable content, Nintendo failed to realise that their quality first party titles are no longer enough to convince people. In many ways they continue to hold that stigma as an uncool “kiddie company” as well. If the Japanese company wants to hold their ground in the console race, they need to get the console noticed, while also fixing their mistakes with third parties. We may well catch some proper information about NX later this year, but they missed out on an opportunity at E3 this year to get their fans excited for new hardware.

(All images used for the purposes of review and criticism under fair use)

The third and final part of my E3 2016 Post-Mortem will sum things up while also including my own personal awards section.