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E3 2019: SQUARE ENIX, EA and STADIA ALL ENTHRALL AND UNDERWHELM

11/6/2019

20 Comments

 
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In recent years, E3 has succeeded in blowing away the cobwebs of my jaded cynicism, but this year there's a real sense of ennui. We're at the arse-end of the current generation, and all the major games industry players seems to be holding their breath.

There have been big game announcements, but you've had to cherry-pick them from amid the detritus of DLC, mission packs, remakes, and spin-offs. It feels like we're treading water. 

"Cloud gaming" is being whispered as being the next big thing, but there's such resistance to it among traditional audiences that everyone appears genuinely fearful of what might come next. 

Gaming, it seems, is having its own Trump/Brexit moment; the future has suddenly become very unpredictable. 

Here are some more of the biggest stories to come out from E3 so far. 
SQUARE ENIX: AVENGERS
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Marvel's Avengers - to give the game its full, official, infringement-avoiding, title - looks to be a jarring experience, albeit one, in the wake of Endgame and Infinity War, that's a literal license to print money.

Though clearly influenced by the movies, it isn't a spin-off of the movies. Like the recent Spider-Man game, its set in its own version off the Marvel Universe, and as such the characters' faces won't look like Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson et al. 

In fact, the don't sound like them either, and between their faces and voices - even with top-tier video game vocal talent like Nolan North on board - it gives the characters a generic feel, heightening the uncanny valley effect.

Even the end of the trailer had a reveal of the logo which was crying out for that iconic Avengers theme, but was instead accompanied by some limp, placeholder, music, of the sort you'd download from a royalty-free stock audio site. 

By all accounts, Avengers will mostly be set five years after a terrible disaster (sound familiar?), which has devastated San Francisco, and killed one of their own. You'll be able to play single-player as your favourite Avenger, or team up with friends.

Providing you don't mind playing as an Iron Man wearing a neck brace, and a Captain America who appears to be trapped in some sort of mechanical respirator.

Again, as was the norm for E3 this year, the trailer failed to show any actual gameplay. Have these people learned nothing?!
SQUARE ENIX: OUTRIDERS
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The other big reveal for Square Enix at E3 was Outriders, a new sci-fi shooter from the team behind the underrated Bulletstorm. That's literally the extent of the information available, because - yet again - no actual gameplay was revealed. 

I just sighed so hard my urethra prolapsed! 

Also on Square Enix's slate: the Final Fantasy VII remake, ​Final Fantasy VIII remastered, and some other stuff that wasn't sufficiently interesting to discuss. I mean, I could discuss it, but it would bore me, and neither of us want that to happen.

"Do you have a Square Enix?"

"No, it's just the way I'm standing."

EA: STAR WARS JEDI - FALLEN ORDER
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Most of EA's offerings at this year's E3 focused on DLC, but they did have a few new games to talk about - inevitably, one of those was a new FIFA - but the main focus was on Fallen Order.

Bucking the trend, EA was happy to show off a lot of gameplay - releasing a full 15 minutes worth of it. Certainly, it seems to deliver the single-player, story-led, experience we've all been clamouring for since the company so spectacularly ballsed-up Battlefront 2. 

However, even with a vocal performance from Forest Whittaker, reprising his role as Saw Gerrera from Rogue One - "What sort of Happy Meal do you want, Bor Gullet?" - and talk of the gameplay being influenced by Metroid Prime, Dark Souls and Bloodborne, there was a strong whiff of Force Unleashed about it.

Set after Return of the Jedi, but before The Force Awakens, it tells the canonical story of former Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis, as he joins the embryonic Rebellion against the Empire. Lightsaber-wielding, Force powers, a droid sidekick, and - most likely - no loot crates, should make plenty of people happy.

But... at this stage, I can't help but feel there's something a bit generic action game-y about the whole thing.

What's Cal short for? He's got little legs!!!!!!!!!!!
GOOGLE STADIA
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Ohhhhhhh... Ohhhhhhhhhh nooooo... nooooo! Oh nooooooooo! Everyone hates Google Stadia.

The backlash is in full effect - among the hardcore anyway - with a widespread belief that internet speeds just aren't fast enough to make Google's cloud-gaming dream practical. Yet.

Or, indeed, ever will be, according to some people who presumable think that the world as it is today has always been this way, and that steam engines were a fairy tale made up by dirty liars. 

Despite a strong launch line-up - including games from all the major players, and several exclusives - the £8.99 monthly subscription cost (though it's free for those who don't mind a restricted service which caps the resolution and frame rate), plus the £199 outlay for the Founder's Edition, which includes a limited edition controller (which costs £59 on its own, but you can also use an Xbox controller), a Chromecast Ultra (so you can play on the telly), and a three-month subscription to Stadia Pro, has caused widespread rolling of the eyes.

Without the subscription, you'll be able to purchase games as you see fit, but critics point out that you can only keep them for as long as Stadia exists. Fair enough, but some of us were happy the day we no longer needed to buy DVDs, even if it meant we no longer owned a physical copy of something, which we could put on a shelf, just for the sake of further cluttering up our homes. 

I mean, seriously... how many times are you realistically going to watch Big Trouble In Little China, or Time Cop?

I remain stubbornly, cautiously, optimistic. The idea of cloud gaming is incredibly appealing to me; I'm not interested in keeping my games forever, I don't care about modding... Really, it's the PC owners who seem to be flailing their arms around over this, but I think it needs to be seen more an alternative to console gaming than a replacement for PCs.

Of course, it remains to be seen whether Google's infrastructure is going to work as well as they're claiming - most gaming chair "experts" are already insisting it's impossible - but I struggle to believe that Google wouldn't enter into something this high-profile and game-changing if they didn't think they could make it work long-term.

That said, there's already a narrative of failure building around Stadia, and when that happens - remember the Xbox One launch? - it's often hard to reclaim the PR advantage.  

We'll know whether they've achieved that when Stadia Pro launches in November (the free Base option will arrive next year).
20 Comments
Kelvin Green link
11/6/2019 10:20:33 am

"Set after Return of the Jedi, but before Rogue One"

But... um... whuh...

I watch Big Trouble in Little China at least once a year, but I am a bit weird like that.

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Mr Biffo
11/6/2019 10:23:46 am

God, that's embarrassing... Changed now!

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Super Bad Advice
11/6/2019 10:42:41 am

Um..it's still wrong, guv. It's set after Revenge of the Sith but before Rogue One!

Kevin Reed
11/6/2019 12:27:20 pm

Erm, Paul, I think he meant you should change it to 'after Revenge of the Sith but before A New Hope...'. I don't know whether it's before Rogue One.

Signed,

Outraged of Walthamstow

Jim Leighton (Future World Darts Champion) x
11/6/2019 10:28:55 am

Biffoooooo! You proper click baited me here! Picture of Cloud Strife there, and nowt about him in the article.

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Fozzy
11/6/2019 10:40:41 am

It does seem all a bit generic at the moment back in the day E3 was an event to wait for now I barely knew it was on,sadly at the grand age of 53 I think I’m done with gaming..

Least I will be when I finish Dargon age inquisition anyway.

And yes I still have time cop on dvd and blue ray (the wife’s a fan of it)

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Super Bad Advice
11/6/2019 10:44:54 am

*cough* Founder's edition Stadia is £119 *cough*

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xboner hoho
11/6/2019 11:03:35 am

I reckon Xbone's not regaining the advantage could also have something to do with the fact they had a more expensive console, cobbled together with something nobody wanted, and failure to produce even one exclusive that could be called 'decent'

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Kara Van Park
11/6/2019 11:59:55 am

Not a particularly a fan of Google, but want Stadia to succeed mainly to spite all the smartarses that insist it can't be done.

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RichardM
11/6/2019 01:37:49 pm

I think I commented before that I wouldn’t mind a subscription gaming service, £10 or so a month - assuming you don’t have to pay for the games as well. Somewhat concerned about reports of a shitty selection of games, but better than my current position of no-console-no-games. Wouldn’t be bothered if Google shut it down abruptly as many have suggested they might. I just don’t play enough games any longer to justify the huge outlay on a dedicated console.

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Meatballs-me-branch-me-do
11/6/2019 02:09:44 pm

Even if it’s not the MCU’s actors’ faces for the Avengers game, they could at least try to not make it look like a daytime TV series. Cap looks like an aging/bloating soap heartthrob, Tony Stark looks like an Eastern European villain, and featuring Will and Grace’s Debra Messing as Black Widow!

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RG
11/6/2019 02:46:45 pm

It looks like they've put an ill-fitting wig onto an Eastenders extra for Thor.

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Geebs
11/6/2019 03:17:04 pm

Left to right: Otacon, that picture you get when you average a set of attractive faces to make a face that is somehow less attractive than any of the individual components, BJ Blazkowitz, Anil Kapoor, Swampy.

Kara Van Park
11/6/2019 02:54:22 pm

Good shout

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Steve
11/6/2019 04:50:33 pm

I love Big Trouble In Little China.

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Robobob
11/6/2019 08:18:19 pm

That Avengers looks sort of like the video game version of "look at the terrible waxworks museum" tabloid newspaper stories.

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gordon bennett
12/6/2019 12:11:55 am

I took part in the open beta for Stadia. The technology works surprisingly well. After a minute I completely forgot that I was playing over an internet stream. The image was crisp and the controls fully responsive.

I personally hate the idea of it as I am one of those people who likes to own a game forever but I'm forced to admit that Google's claims to being able to make this work are legitimate.

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Mr Bass
12/6/2019 12:06:17 pm

I'd be curious to understand why Google think its better to have a subscription service which depends on a stable connection (no matter how good tech gets that will never be a given) where you'd have to pay further for AAA games, over buying a console on a one-off payment and just buying them and keeping hold of them to yourself. It sounds like we'd end up with the same stuff, just having to rely on Google's service for everything we own.

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Mr Bass
12/6/2019 12:03:05 pm

I'm going to buck the trend that doesn't really exist, lets be honest.

I'm quite looking forward to Stadia.

Granted, most folks' broadband is borderline ok for the proposed requirements and we do have yet to see just how strong the Force is with Google's server farms but all that will resolve itself in time.

Nevertheless it's an interesting idea, which, if you look on the face of it, had absolutely no advantage over the current games console systems we currently use, other than you won't have to keep upgrading and buying new consoles every few years.

Im not a betting man, but I'd wager this takes a little while to be adopted by gamers, but give it a couple of years and it will either 1. Be huge or 2. Biffo will be eating his words. I can't really see a middle ground.

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Treacle
12/6/2019 10:33:17 pm

I remember when a new Tesco Extra opened near me I got a DVD of Time Cop for the promotional price of 50p. A quick check reveals the "new" Tesco opened in July 2006 and Time Cop is sitting on my shelf still clad in its cellophane wrapper.

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