5 Unpopular Questions That E3 Left Us With

With E3 2015 now officially finished, the dust is starting to settle on the myriad of exciting announcements that the world's gaming developers unleashed upon the eager audiences. While gamers everywhere will no doubt still be anxiously awaiting further information on the brand new titles and features that were unveiled at the conference, we thought that the time was right to take a more critical eye toward some of the less impressive elements. E3 2015 was a roaring success for the vast majority, however, a few developers and games may not stand up so strongly once the real scrutiny begins. We've pored back over three days' worth of conferences and press releases to decide which of the announcements left a little too much to be desired. Whether it be a game that didn't quite match the high standards of a particular developer or its audiences, or even a feature that completely failed to hit its mark, we've got the damning reports right here. Read on for five unkind and unpopular questions that we were left with after E3 2015. Apologies in advance if your favourite game or console gets spoiled after this, but don't say we didn't warn ya! 5) Why Hasn't Xbox One Always Been Backwards Compatible? The news that Microsoft's flagship console will soon be supporting games from its predecessor the Xbox 360 was considered quite the coup for one of gaming's biggest hitters, but the announcement does raise one rather damning enquiry... Since the console will apparently support the previous generation of games from their original discs and with no extra work required on the part of either gamer or developer, then why wasn't this always a possibility? Surely nothing that Microsoft have altered in the console's software could have meant this was a recent revelation, so why not work on it from day one? The announcement itself was accompanied by the explanation that Xbox One developers supposedly "did not know the feature was possible," but the feature is going to run using a simple emulator that will be embedded as a program into the already PC-like console. Given that third party developers have been able to craft old generation console emulators for years, surely this was always a foreseeable option? The explanation that it took the feedback of Xbox gamers to convince Microsoft that the feature was a desirable one is also a very flimsy defence, and before long it's likely that this supposedly grand announcement may be seen for the marketing hold-off that it really is... 4) Why Didn't We See Gameplay Footage For Assassin's Creed Syndicate? Having become a staple series in Ubisoft's annual E3 conferences, Assassin's Creed was bound to be making an appearance yet again in 2015. Sure enough, Ubisoft debuted a new trailer for their upcoming London-based sequel to the series that sparked a generation of copycats. While the trailer was exciting and immersive enough to get people talking, there was something remarkably lacking from it. Not one pinch of gameplay footage made it into Ubisoft's time in the spotlight, and for a game releasing later this year then, that could be somewhat of a worry. Granted, a few sources got to publish footage from a carefully selected section of demo gameplay later on at the expo, but it just makes no sense for the developer to skip the chance to show off the new instalment of their biggest series to the largest possible audience. While many will hope that Ubisoft simply had far too much exciting footage of other games to fill their time with - their conference was admittedly strong - some will fear that the developer is nervous about a lack of innovation or a stagnation in their biggest money spinner from the past eight years. Make of this what you will, but could Ubisoft have taken the plight of the assassins one game too far? 3) Will The Virtual Reality Units Work Consistently? One of the biggest predictions for the future of gaming is that more immersive experiences are going to come to the fore and take over from the traditional home-arcade style. At E3 2015, we got to see the next steps in the advancement of this in demonstrations from Microsoft and Sony with the Hololens and Project Morpheus units, respectively. Both demonstrations showcased an immersive experience worthy of the type of future predictions that people will remember from 80s sci-fi movies. The Hololens debuted a tabletop Minecraft experience, while Sony's VR headset showed a large variety of different genre games that will work in different ways when rolled out. The idea of these devices is a truly exciting prospect for gamers, but still, the dark cloud of just how well they'll work in practice hangs heavily. Given the problems that peripheries like the Kinect has had with foreign objects and other affecting conditions doesn't bode well for an experience that could have difficulty being transferred into the home. The devices may have worked well in a perfectly staged demonstration, but can the Hololens contend with the likes of a rogue, table-hopping cat? Time will tell... 2) Is Star Wars Battlefront Any More Than A Remaster? Few games will find have debuted their gameplay footage as successfully as Star Wars: Battlefront at E3 2015, with the title topping numerous "Best Of" lists from the conference. Fans of the films and the immensely popular Battlefront series from the early 2000s will have been eagerly anticipating the gameplay footage, and based on early reactions, it seems that the trailer certainly didn't disappoint. Now that enough time for people to have watched and re-watched the demo has passed, picking the bones out of the footage is becoming easier and more objective. While the PS4 graphics and authentic Star Wars feel has had many viewers purring, it's difficult to pinpoint anything from the footage that's going to revolutionize the Battlefront series on new generation consoles. This may not be an entirely bad thing, of course, with the classic series being strong enough to support a revival on its on merits. With so many huge titles announced and revealed at this year's conference, however, sticking with what was previously good enough might not be quite good enough for Battlefront in a sea of new and innovative titles. Fans will have to hope that further footage unveils a few new game modes and some larger scale battles to really up the ante when the game releases later this year! 1) Who Was The Real Winner? Likely to be more unpopular with the actual developers than with gamers themselves, the question of just who can claim the crown for pulling off the most effective and impressive conference at E3 2015 is a bit of a strange one. After all, does it really even need to be asked? Surely having this immense collection of developers and designers keenly demonstrating all of the wonderful things they are bringing to their audiences over the coming years should be nothing more than a collective celebration of just how strong the industry is right now? No? Just a tad naive? Well, seems for a moment the business side of things got forgotten in amongst all of the new games and features we can be looking forward to... The fact is that E3 has become somewhat of a p*ssing contest between the big-hitters of the gaming world, and so ultimately the goal is to be crowned the 'winner.' So who is it? Did Microsoft's backwards compatibility announcement have the desired effect? Or would its timing see the crown fall to the incredible news of an FF VII remaster? Could a smaller developer have scooped the prize with a unique new title like Unravel? The fact that we have to debate this idea is certainly the most unpopular question from E3, but hey, we're all going to do it anyway, aren't we? So there you have it, five of the unpopular questions that you may have missed beneath the excitement. Have you been pondering these ideas yourself, or perhaps you have something that's been nagging away at you since the dust started to settle? Join the debate in the comments section and let us know your thoughts!!