Saturday Morning Gaming: The First E3 In Forever
Remember 2019’s E3? We talked about The Outer Worlds (reviewed here) and Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order and The Avengers (hoo boy) and there was a little note in there about how we don’t have a release date for Breath of the Wild 2 yet.
Jeez. 2019’s E3 was a million years ago.
I don’t remember a thing about last year’s E3. Before googling, I want to guess… it was cancelled but they had individual Zoom meeting kinda things where they had all sorts of half-hearted announcements? Let’s check.
Yep.
A bunch of announcements about the new XBox and PS5 games and… well, that’s 2020 in a nutshell all over. (Huh. Ebay has PS5s for ~$800 and XBox Series Xes for ~$700… maybe we’re finally getting close to being able to get one).
Well, 2020 is in the rear view mirror and we had the first E3 in forever.
The big news: Elden Ring has a release date. On January 21st, 2022, you will be able to play the results of the collaboration between Hidetaka Miyazaki (the Dark Souls guy) and George R.R. Martin (the real nightmare mode is “trying to write something”).
The release date you wanted for Breath of the Wild 2 back in 2019 is still elusive, but they say it’s coming out next year. I’m guessing that means “Q4”.
The Outer Worlds 2 was announced to be an XBox/PC Exclusive. Heck, there were a lotta those, actually… the vampire hunting game Redfall, the racing game Forza, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 and, last but not least:
11 years (TO THE DAY!) after Skyrim was released on 11/11/11, Bethesda is going to release (the XBox/PC exclusive) Starfield.
The Skyrim people are doing a space game. I’m halfway wincing at the bugs it’ll have on day one, I’m halfway excited and thinking about how they’re returning to their roots after all of the stuff they wrote on the “Lessons Learned” whiteboard for Fallout 76.
The engine that they’re using for Starfield is the same engine that they’re going to be using for whatever the next Elder Scrolls is going to be. I used to be a starfielder like you. Then I took a blaster to the knee.
But the biggest news from E3?
DIABLO 2 RESURRECTED HAS A RELEASE DATE. Forget the boycott (why were we boycotting them, again?) and grab your monitor and gaming PC and go over to your main man’s house for the LAN party to end all LAN parties. Well, maybe we can just stay home and play over the high-speed internet. And, no Mountain Dew… it’s after 2PM. It’s nothing but corn syrup anyway. Maybe I’ll warm up some Postum and drink that while I level up my FrenzyBarb. September 23, here we come!
And, no, there was no major Cyberpunk 2077 DLC announcement. (All we know is that CD Projekt says it’s going to be free.)
After a crazy, crazy year in video games, it’s good to finally get back to normal and have stuff to look forward to again!
So… what are you playing?
(Featured image is promotional art for Starfield.)
The most famous E3 ever.
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In Starfield, when stuff goes randomly flying into the air for no reason, at least they’ll have an excuse.Report
I’m definitely not going to develop any hype for Starfield right now. For one thing, it’s been a decade since Bethesda have made a game I liked. At this point I don’t even know if its going to be mandatory first-person which is a deal-killer for me. Even then, I found Fallout 4’s combat too frenetic to be enjoyable without modding back in a full pause for VATS.
That said, I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on it over the next year and a bit and see if it is the sort of thing I want to have a go at.Report
It’s the modding that makes me start feeling the hype. The game? I know better than to get excited.
The mods? OH BOY OH BOY OH BOYReport
I’m weirdly looking forward to Diablo 2 Resurrected despite not fully appreciating/liking it the first time around. I don’t know…maybe Darkest Dungeon has blunted my dislike of grinding?Report
ORCS MUST DIE! 3 IS COMING TO STEAM NEXT MONTH!!!
Also, Orcs Must Die 1+2 are both 80% off.
They’re out of this world. You can get the whole kit and caboodle (well, Orcs Must Die! 1 and 2’s whole kit and caboodle, anyway) with all DLC (and, yeah, the soundtrack too) for less than EIGHT BUCKS.
This is a *STEAL*.Report
Valheim keeps me busyReport
Related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClhDyC0ZECsReport
Nice. It’s a game that I will definitely get…
But the first game? I beat it once and was not inspired to beat it a second time. The DLC came out and I said “meh… I don’t need it.”
I hope they either have more writers in the writing room next time or fewer of them.Report
Enjoy the normal summer.
Winter is Coming, and the Old Man’s Friend may stalk us all.
Morituri te salutant.Report
I’m just hoping I can get my hands on a PS5 before the new Horizon Zero Dawn comes out, because I think if I tried to run it on my PS4, its fan would break free of its housing and tear through the floor of my apartment killing my neighbors in a whirlwind of blood and death.
Right now I’m on a JRPG kick and I’m playing Tales of Berseria, which is pretty good actually, despite the fact the combat is janky as heck. The story is a bit edgelord, but they did an okay job at making me care about the characters. I’ve teared up a few times. That’s worth something.Report
I recently spoke to the electronics guy at my local Super Target asking him about the PS5 situation and he said that they’ve gone from the PS5s disappearing in minutes to the PS5s disappearing in about an hour.
So he said that I should show up at 7AM (on any given weekday, not Saturday or Sunday) and I would be likely to get one.
So… maybe the East Coast would have similar going on?Report
I think I’m just going to wait until I can go into a store and buy one without hassle. We’ll get there eventually.Report
Two things:
Thing the first: Steam’s Summer Sale has kicked off.
Thing the second: Costco had an Xbox Series X 1TB Console Bundle released on Wednesday with the Xbox Series X, a controller, a memory expansion card, and The Show ’21 for ~$800. Oh, it also comes with 3 months of Gamepass.
This is *STILL AVAILABLE*. If you were going to get an Xbox X anyway (LOOK AT THOSE EXCLUSIVES!) and if you were going to get a memory expansion card anyway (you were), this purchase now hinges on whether you’re interested in paying the extra $60 for The Show ’21… because these ain’t scalper prices anymore. They’re now bundle prices and they’ve been up for 2 days straight.Report