STACK #153 Jul 2017

FEATURE GAMES

declared that console gaming was dead back in 2010. It’s small, packs a punch and will be in your hands on November 7, although I’d be pre-ordering one now if you’re keen to secure it at launch. But E3 is all about the games and the excitement surrounding the software announcements – and the potential of playing them – that jerk you from the grip of jet lag. And aside from the prolonged wait times (worst job of the show surely went to the dozens of employees standing around holding “The queue ends here” signs for eight hours a day), there was plenty of opportunity to do that, with some strong titles on offer from the major players. While the show lacked the killer announcements that knock you out of your seat, and felt more like one of the filler shows that come along midway through a console cycle, alongside the aforementioned Xbox One X, there are some big games coming in 2017 – and into the first quarter of 2018 – to whet the appetite. Indie games felt under-represented; a resurgence in triple-A titles – encouragingly featuring a proliferation of female protagonists – led the way. It’s always inspiring to see the youthful fervour at E3. It’s easy to be cynical when you have covered so many of the shows and only natural to form the opinion that you’ve seen it all before, but the aenthusiasm for the video game industry was ever present in Los Angeles. This was evidenced by those patient gamers who stood in line for over four hours to play a 10 to 15 minute demo of their favourite game. The ESA will no doubt now reconvene in the shadow of E3 to think tank 2018, and attempt to work out a formula where community and media obligations are better fulfilled. The show remains an important part of the annual gaming calendar and opening the doors to the public is a positive, and necessary, move. However, there is one thing at E3 that never changes; the cyclical nature of trends, generations and hardware continually transform the gaming landscape, but the passion and commitment for video games remains undiminished.

The event is already well known among regular attendees for problems relating to excessive crowding and long wait times (over two hours) to even sit in on a theater presentation for industry folk without media credentials. On the first and second mornings, safety concerns over the influx of people crowding around the entrances to the South and West halls forced the show's organisers to open the doors 15 minutes earlier to avoid a crush. Despite recent events around the globe, not a single bag was checked and passes were barely scanned; security measures were left to the occasional bomb-detecting dog and handler moving through the masses. Once inside, the old E3 magic was present with sonorous audio and towering booth designs, but as expected, traversal across the show floor was painfully slow. Attendees shuffled with the sedated speed of a funeral cortege, heads cranked at 90 degrees, faces illuminated with the glow of smartphones. Appointment times went awry and elbows were employed to cut a swathe through the perpetual pedestrian rush hour. Choke points in booth layout design brought the flow to a halt in many locations. I can remember writing some three years ago that E3 needed to run for the entire week and not just Monday (press conferences) to Thursday. With EA Play kicking off proceedings on the Saturday at the Hollywood Palladium (incidentally, for those interested in the history of Hollywood, the site of the original Paramount Studios), and Microsoft, along with Bethesda,

holding its media briefings on Sunday, fingers were hammering keyboards well in advance of the Monday media day of old; the E3 carnival now extended over six days. Personally, I thought Ubisoft claimed the media briefing crown this year with a diverse mix of regular franchises and new IP highlighting the creativity synonymous with the French publisher. Overall, a new trend in the E3 press conferences materialised in 2017. Gone were teams of devs playing 15 minute hands-on demos onstage. The events were sleek and streamlined, rarely creeping over the 60 minute mark, and concentrating – rightly so – on the games, with minimal commentary. Covers were pulled off Microsoft’s new console, the Xbox One X (Scorpiox for me) laughing in the face of the commentators that The show remains an important part of the annual gaming calendar and opening the doors to the public is a positive, and necessary, move

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