In the spirit of friendship, I'll let you have that. But we both know that's a free pass
Anyway, I'd be genuinely interested to know what you really thought of it all outside of our little fun. You might be surprised by my reaction, as even if we knew the plot, I liked certain aspects more than perhaps I should have. You know, what with being a cynical old bastard and all
Since I've been properly following E3 (2013) and watching most of the conferences in full, I truly believe it's the best one I've seen, from any publisher. There was actually a lot of gameplay, just not from the big games that are unknown quantities (Starfield, Contraband and Redfall) - however, I give a lot of leeway due to COVID on that. When you consider the other conferences so far this year - Xbox has blown them away in quantity and quality of content as everybody has been impacted by COVID. Redfall is 12 months away, so I figure it could easily have gameplay shown, but with a tight turnaround on that front they didn't want to divert dev resources. And I really appreciated the lack of studio, presenter talk, on-stage cringey demos or develop diary type drops.
Obviously people here think I'm bias, but for anybody who has seen in previous years I feel I've been pretty fair and critical of Xbox at E3. Though,
it is absolutely fair to say I have a vested interest that does have quite an impact on what lens I'm viewing it through vs others here.
Usually, these conferences are 'Here's a bunch of games. 2-3 you will be super excited about and buy day 1. There'll be a further 2-3 you will be kinda interested in, keep an eye on, and probably buy later down the line. The rest you probably won't play'. But this year with Xbox it was 'here's 31 games.. 27 of them you will be able to play day 1 on your xbox in the next 18 months'. I think at least 3/4 of them are at worst decent b-tier games with what I expect to be some really good games thrown in there, and with how I play, I will end up trying most of them as I'm that sort of person. And guess what.. I don't have to spend a fecking penny to do so. That's class.
I am a big Halo and Forza Horizon guy, so this year looks fecking great from where I'm standing. Thought both looked brilliant, and looking forward to catching more gameplay over the next few days.
As I said earlier today before the conference - that they can not include Hellblade 2, Fable, Perfect Dark, Avowed, Forza (plus a ton of unannounced stuff) etc.etc. is actually a great position to be in and I wasn't expecting any of them. CG wasn't CG because they had nothing to show and it was smoke and mirrors like in previous E3s (except maybe Contraband, not sure if they confirmed 2022 date?) - it was a decision lead by resource and/or how they want to market the game.
please be like Batman Arkham Knight. I need a good solo game back in my life