E3 2021: Microsoft and Bethesda
Continuing our E3 coverage, we have the Microsoft and Bethesda. I guess it makes sense for the two to do one big conference as opposed to two separate ones since Bethesda is now owned by Microsoft. I will admit that Bethesda haven’t been that great at E3. None of their events were all that impressive, probably because they didn’t have much to show off.
So having Bethesda be part of the Microsoft event means they can cut out a lot of the fat. Which hopefully means Todd Howard won’t have to lie his ever-loving ass off. As for Microsoft, they have a bit of a rocky track record, though it’s gotten more positive over the last few years. While Microsoft don’t have a lot in the way of exclusives, their events do compensate by focusing on a shit load of games.
So how was it? It was alright. Not terrible, not incredible, just a nice solid presentation. There weren’t many big “oh my god” surprises, but it did have a lot of games across a variety of genres with plenty of big exclusives. That last part is the most important in this. Microsoft have had an issue when it comes to exclusives. Namely that don’t have many of them. To see them show off so many exclusives, to console at least as many will also be on pc, is a good thing for the Xbox brand.
In terms of major titles, starting out with the announcement that Starfield will be exclusive to Xbox was a good way to start off. Granted we already suspected that, but it was nice to have confirmation for it at least. No gameplay shown, but the teaser looked cool at least. Hey at least it's something, poor Metroid fans are still waiting on anything Metroid Prime 4 related going on 4 years now.
One thing I will give Microsoft is that they had a lot more gameplay this time. One thing I don’t like about Microsoft’s conferences is their overreliance on cinematic trailers. And while there were still plenty of those, it felt like they found a good balance between gameplay and cinematic trailers this year. Nice to see some improvement there.
As for other big announcements. Halo Infinite got a new release date of holiday 2021 and we even got the first glimpses of multiplayer. This title got delayed because of some development issues apparently, so I hope the delays have helped the game. I'm not big on Halo and I don’t know what fans think of current Halo games, heard very mixed things on Halo 4 and 5, but it is a big holiday title the Xbox Series X is sorely in need of.
Those were the two big games shown off. Aside from Forza Horizon 5, but what can I say about that. It's a racing game. I will say that this was the only part of the show that dragged. The game looks good, but they went on about it for way too long. Luckily it was at the end, so it didn’t impact much.
As for other titles shown. Well, they ended with Arkane Studios new title Redfall. Kind of looks like Borderlands with vampires and magic powers. Not much more I can say on that. There was The Outer Worlds 2 trailer, and you know what, this was a highlight for me. Haven't played the original but I loved this trailers sense of humour. It basically took the piss out of other E3 trailers, and I thought that was funny.
That was it as far as major announcements go, but there were plenty of other games shown off as well. Over 30 of them to be precise, across a decent variety of genres. It wasn’t just shooters, shooter, shooters, though there were plenty of those. There was a platformer in Psychonauts 2, horror with Stalker 2, we even got a JRPG in Eiyuden Chronicles.
There was a decent variety in the games this time around. So, there should be at least 1 game for you here. As for personal highlights, Eiyuden Chronicles does look cool. It's apparently a spiritual successor to the Suikoden games. Never played them but I have heard good things about them. It's also going for that HD 2D look that was in Octopath Traveller and that is a very good thing. That is such a cool art style and more games need to use it.
Another highlight for me is seeing Jack Sparrow in Sea of Thieves. Sorry, Captain Jack Sparrow. I’ve heard Sea of Thieves has gotten way better since launch and seeing the Pirates of the Caribbean crossover does make me interested in checking it out. It's nice seeing Captain Jack in a crossover that doesn’t involve hearts and keys for once.
But the big highlight for me was this pixel art indie game called Replaced. I’m a sucker for super stylish pixel art games and this one looks right up my alley. I already love the games atmosphere and style, and the gameplay doesn’t look half bad either, looks like an action oriented cinematic platformer. This was the highlight of the show for me.
Those were all the games that stood out to me, but that doesn’t mean I thought the other games looked bad. I thought most of what was shown off was pretty good. They also kept things moving and didn’t dwell on any specific game for too long. It was just trailer after trailer and it never got dull until Forza Horizon showed up.
There was one major focus in this event however, Xbox Game Pass. The vast majority of the games showed off are going to appear on Game Pass on day 1, which only makes it a better deal than it already was. Microsoft are going in hard on Game Pass and all for the better. It's the best thing they currently have and with Sony not having a viable competitor, it’s one of the big selling points that Microsoft has for the Xbox brand and it’s only getting better and better. Hell it has all the Yakuza games and that alone is worth the price of admission.
Overall, Microsoft’s showing was decent. Not mind blowing or anything, but decent all the same. At the very least it had plenty of games to show off which is more than you can say for Ubisoft. It also makes me interested in checking out the Series X if only for Game Pass and the backwards compatibility. Good showing Microsoft.