My Top 10 favourite (and Top 5 least
favourite) E3 2016 trailers
We’ve reached the end of E3 Month, and
with that I’m going to give everything I liked and disliked at this year’s
conference! Because I want to end on a high, I’ll go through the losers first,
and we’ll end off with my favourite trailers of this year’s conference. So,
without further ado:
My Top 5 Worst Trailers from E3 2016
5. That weird Star Wars compilation
(EA)
After the mess that was Star Wars
Battlefront, I wanted EA to come back with a big Star Wars reveal this year
with a new game that would blow everyone out of the water. Instead, we got game
developers sitting at their desks and talking about how excited they were to
work on these games.
This trailer highlights a recent trend
I’ve been noticing in E3 that I feel needs to be stopped: telling instead of
showing. We don’t want to hear about how great your game’s going to be, we want
to see how great your game’s going to
be. This trailer has about 10 seconds total gameplay, and we don’t even know
what game it’s for, aside from the fact that it’s a Star Wars game!
I do like that we’re actually seeing
the developers working on the game talk about it, instead of some executive in
a suit. However, since you have nothing to show, there was really no point in
having this at the conference, except to fill time.
4. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands
(Ubisoft)
Oh, Ubisoft. You love doing that
annoying trick where you make voice actors talk over a barren game to make it
seem more lively than it actually is, don’t you?
Whoever’s making the Ubisoft trailers
seems to be the only person that likes doing this, because I’ve never heard
anyone in the gaming community say they enjoy it. For those of you who don’t
know, what Ubisoft does is have voice actors come in and act like gamers to
talk over their gameplay trailers. What this does is make the game seem more
dynamic and alive than it actually is, when in reality, the game is usually
stiff and boring.
Stiff and boring is the perfect way to
describe the rest of the trailer. At no point does Ghost Recon Wildlands look
original or interesting. It’s yet another Ubisoft open world filled with likely
nothing interesting whatsoever, and the action seems more like something out of
Grand Theft Auto’s high speed chases than the tactical stealth of the original
Ghost Recon games. It’s just a poor trailer overall.
3. Sea of Thieves, Microsoft
I’m sure Sea of Thieves is a fine
game. It’s being developed by whoever’s still at Rare and hasn’t jumped ship to
Playtonic, so that’s nice. I’m glad to see that this legendary developer isn’t
being relegated to doing sports tech demos anymore.
The only problem here is that it’s
hard to focus on gameplay footage when people are screaming in your face.
I didn’t pick up on a single thing
featured in this trailer, because somebody decided it would be a good idea to
format it in the style of an internet Let’s Play. Several random people
screamed and yelled over the gameplay in the trailer, making it impossible to
focus on anything that was going on.
I really hope that this doesn’t become
a trend, because this really harkens back to the whole Kinect Kids demos of
awful presenters showing off what might be decent games. Let the trailers speak
for themselves, instead of forcing these annoying people down our throats.
2. Watch Dogs 2 (Ubisoft)
The original Watch Dogs is one of the
most infamous games in recent memory. Gamers remember it well for the amazing
graphics shown off at E3 that were then absent in the final product. Many agree
it to be one of the most misleading, disappointing games ever made.
Knowing this, Ubisoft knew that they
had to win gamers back in the sequel. What did they do?
They gave us the same thing again,
only this time it seems even less appealing.
It’s yet another brown and grey open
world from Ubisoft. Along with your hacking skills, your character is as adept
with a gun as a professional soldier. And finally, gang lingo and swear words
fly with reckless abandon, clearly trying to be “hip with the kids”.
This then segued into not only one of
the worst game trailers of the conference, but one of the worst game trailers
I’ve ever seen. The camera scrolled past middle fingers and destruction all
around, all while obnoxiously vulgar rap blared in the background. I’m sure
that at the end of the campaign for this one, we’ll be on our hands and knees
begging for the characters of Mirror’s Edge Catalyst.
Any other year I’d say that this
trailer deserves the top spot, but this year I say no. There is one that was so
lazy, so poorly put together, that the stream itself quit out halfway through
it! Yes, I am of course talking about…
1. Elder Scrolls Legends (Bethesda)
…THIS.
Ignoring the fact that the game isn’t shown at all in this
trailer, and the fact that when you find actual footage, it looks like a cheap
cash-in on the popularity of games like Hearthstone and Gwent, this is not how you do a trailer for a video
game.
Let’s say you showed this trailer to somebody without telling
them what it was for. What type of game would they say it was advertising? I’d
bet you anything that collectible card game would be the last game on their
mind.
Secondly, just look at it! It looks like something someone
made in Microsoft PowerPoint! I get that they’re trying to go for the same “still
images moving around” thing Hearthstone does in their expansion trailers, but
this isn’t even close. In a Hearthstone trailer, there’s usually a catchy song
playing, and the animations are fast and fluid to keep your attention. Here,
all you have is looking at still images of people that are being talked over,
and maybe once in a while, someone will turn their head.
This trailer highlights all the main problems with E3
trailers nowadays. Little to no actual gameplay, people talking over
everything, and it looks so darn
uninteresting. Shame on you, Bethesda.
My Top 10 Best Trailers from E3 2016
10. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
(Sony)
I’ve always considered Call of Duty to
be the death of originality when it comes to first-person shooters. In recent
years, their annual releases seemed to be in a competition as to which one can
be more similar to the last, until I assume they all fuse together to become
one massive Call of Duty entity.
However, the trailer of Infinite
Warfare does something that makes it stand out above the rest: The first time I
watched this trailer, I had no idea it was a Call of Duty game. It’s been a
running joke in gaming for a while now that you can show any brown hued
shooter, slap the name Call of Duty on it, and no one will know the difference.
This looks very different, with lots of flying around in space, grappling
hooking around from ship to ship, and blowing up lots of stuff.
While the combat looks like your
average Call of Duty fare (except now it’s in spaaaaaaaaaaace!), flying around
in your own personal spacecraft looks like a blast. After Battlefront
incorrectly decided that no one wanted space battles, this seems like lots of
fun. Moving in space seems great as well.
However, only time will tell if
Infinite Warfare can stand above the rest, or if it’ll be added to the pile of
forgettable yearly Call of Duty games. For now though, we have an awesome
trailer.
9. Star Trek VR (Ubisoft)
Yes, the graphics don’t look great,
and yes, there was little to no actual gameplay, but darn if I don’t love
seeing old Star Trek cast members get together for something.
I still really haven’t been sold on VR
just yet, it’s clear that we’re still in the infant phase of the medium. If you
were to ask me though what I would like to see from the platform, I guarantee
“Star Trek bridge game” would be one of my first answers. I’ve long had an idea
for a game where a large group of players man a single starship, and with any
luck, this might be the first steps.
I would’ve liked to see some actual
gameplay here, but this was an awesome first peek into what VR is capable of.
8. Titanfall 2 (EA)
Yes, the first trailer of the entire
show was one of my favourites overall. I never played the original Titanfall,
as it didn’t really interest me when it came out, and the game was collectively
dropped by players about a week later, so there was never really any point in
picking it up.
But now, EA’s planned a second
installment, and it looks pretty darn cool. Grappling hooks, jumping in and out
of mechs, laser beams, all that good stuff. When you’re on the ground, it looks
a little too close to Call of Duty for comfort, it looks very similar to the
original, and there’s no telling exactly how it’ll really play, but for now, EA
succeeded in capturing my interest.
There was also a singleplayer trailer,
but that wasn’t too great. Besides, who the heck is going to buy Titanfall 2
for the singleplayer?
7. For Honor (Ubisoft)
I dislike all-cinematic trailers for
video games as much as the next guy, but For Honor’s trailer this year really
captured exactly the feel of the game they were going for. And who doesn’t want
to see a Viking squaring off with a samurai and a medieval knight?
I’ve always said that if you have a
cinematic to show us, I’ll be much happier if a gameplay demo tags along with
it. Fortunately, Ubisoft delivered (for once), bringing us a really cool look
at what the singleplayer campaign will offer, alongside one of the best
presenters of the entire show.
It was as intense and violent as you’d
hope, playing as an awesome Viking slashing his way through a samurai army. It
resembles Dynasty Warriors in that there are plenty of cannon-fodder minions to
slash through like butter, alongside stronger enemies and bosses. The combat
does seem a little more complex than Dynasty’s combo strings, but who really
knows at this point? The trailer looks cool, and that’s all we needed.
6. The Last Guardian (Sony)
We didn’t get much of one of the most
anticipated games of all time this year, but we did get one thing that
everyone’s been hoping to see from this game for ages now: a release date.
After 7 or 8 years of being hidden in
the dark, Team Ico’s long awaited release is finally coming out October 25th.
It’s crazy to think that we’re finally going to play The Last Guardian. Here’s
hoping it doesn’t get delayed.
As for the trailer itself, while it
wasn’t too exciting, nor the best at the show, we did see some gameplay, and
the graphics were really shown off in full force. It’s an interesting decision
to have the player character rendered in cel-shaded, while the rest of the
world is photorealistic. I feel that may take some getting used to, but I have
faith in the developers.
I’m still terrified the game’s going
to end with Trico the giant hyena-eagle sacrificing itself for me, though. I
don’t want that to happen.
5. Insomniac Games does Spider-Man
(Sony)
Words cannot describe how long I’ve
wanted a Spider-Man game in the style of the Batman Arkham games. I feel that
Spidey has the combat skills, gadgets, and rogues gallery that would make for a
really large and exciting superhero game.
While we didn’t see too much of this
new game, it’s clear that Insomniac is really doing their best to capture the
essence of Spider-Man. The visuals aren’t dark and gritty, they’re bright and
colourful. Spider-Man himself is rendered in lots of light hues, and even the
usual black spider on his chest has been changed to white. I don’t know why
they’ve done that, but it looks pretty cool.
As for the game itself, from what
little I can gather from the trailer, it seems to be traditional superhero game
fare: make your way around the city, fighting crime and saving the day. It
looks like Insomniac is also borrowing the web swinging mechanics from the
classic Spider-Man 2 game, which is fantastic.
4. ReCore (Microsoft)
We got our first glimpse at ReCore
last year, but we really didn’t have any idea what it was going to be until we
got the new trailer at this year’s conference. It definitely shows some
stylistic resemblance to the Metroid Prime games that the folks over at
Armature Games worked on.
While some of the character animations
aren’t super smooth, the gameplay looks to be a blast. I love the idea of having
several different companion characters, each with their own unique abilities.
The platforming and combat looks fun as well, with a lot of focus seeming to be
on lassoing and grappling hooking your way past obstacles.
The soundtrack for this trailer was awesome
as well, and it went right on my phone as soon as I heard it. I’m glad that
this game is coming to Windows 10 as well as Xbox One, so even people like me
who don’t own a One can play it.
3. Fe (EA)
EA seems to have fallen in love with
bringing adorably nervous indie devs onstage during their conferences. Not that
I’m complaining, they’re usually the only ones showing something interesting.
This year’s indie was a little game
known as Fe. If I remember correctly, it’s the story of a small lemur-like
critter, as you explore this magical forest where every creature has a song it
sings, while you try and find out exactly what you are and where you came from.
Judging by the trailer, Fe seems to be
a mixture of games like Ori and the Blind Forest, Flower, and Journey. It seems
very simple, but the graphics and sound design really made this one stand out.
It looks almost like the type of thing you’d see in a dream.
2. Horizon: Zero Dawn (Sony)
Guerilla Games’s robotic
action-adventure game won E3 for me last year, as I loved the concept of an
overgrown abandoned Earth taken over entirely by primitive tribes and robotic
animals. That fusion of past versus future really caught my attention, and I
was chomping at the bit to see more.
I wish we didn’t have to wait a full
year to get more footage, but whatever. When we finally got to see a real
gameplay demo, it looks like exactly what I wanted out of this game.
A beautiful tundra-scape looking like
something out of the Ice Age surrounds the world, really adding to that
primitive caveman element that they’re pushing. I also like the addition of a
response wheel to drive conversations, although I’m not a huge fan of the voice
acting performances so far.
The gameplay itself looks really,
really fun. Between the different types of robots you can take down, all the
different weapon types you can use, and rideable mounts (!), this is definitely
a game I’m really looking forward to.
And my Game
of the Year for E3 2016 is…
1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the
Wild (Nintendo)
As a huge Zelda
fan, I’ve been waiting for 2 agonizing years to get a second look at the Wii U
installment in the series. And with Nintendo promising that Zelda was going to
be the only game they were showing at
E3, I was understandably hyped. I was expecting something huge.
What we got was even bigger than I
expected.
Just by looking at it, it’s clear
Breath of the Wild is a completely new and different breed of Zelda game. The
world is fully open and free to explore. Link can use weapons other than his
trademark sword. Collectable hearts are out, replaced by eating food. And we
supposedly only saw 1% of what the whole game has to offer.
This was the game that excited me the
most. After all the trailers and gameplay demos were finished, it was the one I
was most disappointed I couldn’t pick up and play myself. Nintendo must’ve known
they had something special on their hands, because Zelda completely knocked it
out of the park this year.
So that’s E3 Month all wrapped up!
Thank you so much if you read even just one of these articles I’ve written! See
you all again next June for more E3 goodness!
