As anyone who has worked with Legacy knows, the real company talent lies in our amazing staff. So, I asked three of them – Adam, Andrew, and Patrick – to give me their impressions of last week’s wild and crazy Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles. While smaller than previous shows, it still provides an accurate reflection of the state of the video game industry (and also still induces brain seizures, given the level of flash and noise). Enjoy!
TAKE 1
Nintendo had an absolutely brilliant showing of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The fact that it was the only major demo in their booth was a big departure for Nintendo and shows just how much faith and support they are pouring into this franchise. The gameplay appears to continue taking inspiration from large, open world experiences and introduces old and new toys and gizmos. And it does so with a very charming, very familiar gameplay and art style from Windwaker and Twilight Princess. Every viewpoint, every nook and cranny begs to be poke, prodded and explored—and that’s exactly what I want out of my Zelda. Gliding on the wind, climbing mountains, chopping trees, taming horses, frying up food, physics based gameplay. Sign me up! Hype Meter: 11/10.
TAKE 2
I go to E3 for those ineffable moments of experience and presence that you can’t get from watching a video. A few years back, it was Kinect and other motion-tracking software. Watching someone do it and experiencing it yourself are very different propositions. Now it’s VR.
But the most memorable experience for me was getting a chance to experience the long-awaited Abzû from developer Giant Squid. Created by a small studio headed by the art director of the award-winning Flower and Journey, it’s a beautiful (and I mean beautiful!) undersea exploration game. No blood, no combat. Just enchantment, relaxation and a gently mystical undersea world that transported me far away from the bedlam of the Convention Center (Releases on PS4 and Steam Aug 2nd)
Take 3
For me, the focus of E3 this year wasn’t so much on the games themselves, but on the technology that drives those games, specifically VR. Almost every major company had something to show in the VR space, whether it was adding a VR experience to existing games like Skyrim and Doom, bringing old franchises to the cutting edge like Resident Evil 7, or creating brand new IPs strictly for VR like Raw Data by Survios.
Adam, Andrew, and Patrick hit on the highlights, thanks guys. For my part, I wish there were fewer 1st person shooters and sequels at E3. On the other hand, there were definitely fewer booth babes than in years past! Maybe some day our industry will truly reflect the diversity of game genres and customers. One can hope.