Which Company Won E3 2014?

People say E3 isn’t supposed to be a competition. They say that it’s a chance for gamers to gather round their screens, rejoice that their hobby is alive and well, and see just what’s in store for them over the coming months. People also say that you’re supposed to drink a lot of water, but fish pee in there, so what do they know? With that in mind, we here at We Got This Covered decided to do what every true viddeo game enthusiast is undoubtedly doing right now: we’re going to yell at each other back and forth over who won E3, and to hell with any dissenting opinions. But, since we’re a classy and reputable organization, we’re going to do this in a professional way. Just like in high school, it’s time to hand out some report cards. Continue reading on the next page... Microsoft Microsoft started off the festivities with their press conference, and they needed to make a splash. Last year was marred with bad planning, pandering to investors as opposed to gamers, and was finally finished with Sony making a fool out of them in their press conference. The pressure was on for them to come out swinging before being relegated to the position of secondary system for the new generation. Chaz: Microsoft had to come out swinging and they hit every note they had to. Everything was about games this year. Not hardware, not videos or movies, just games. Between Halo, Sunset Overdrive and Forza Horizon 2, they showed a renewed interest in the medium, and they did everything I personally was looking for to make me feel like they wanted the system to succeed. Chad: Thankfully, they didn’t focus on TV since people just weren’t all that interested in it last year. They really needed to show the games and talk about the future, because gamers only really care about one thing: What they can do with their controller or their body. Preferably their controller, though. Chaz: That’s one of the reasons they just dropped the Kinect from the standard bundle; no one seemed to really care about the body thing. But everything here just seemed… well done. I saw enough for me to feel that I was watching a company that has my best interests in mind. It’s too early to tell, but they could have easily stolen the show. Chad: I agree. They did a really good job. They didn’t blow me away, but I was very content with it. Chaz: What didn’t blow you away, what else were you looking for? Chad: Some of the games were just a bit too multiplayer focused for me, being more of the anti-social gamer. I would have preferred more focus on the single player with more structured campaigns without having to invite people in all the time. Forza Horizons 2 looks great, even though it has some multiplayer focus. Sunset Overdrive looks a bit too scripted for me, but hopefully I’ll be wrong. Fable Legends just looks outright bad from initial impressions. Chaz: Ehhhh… Sunset Overdrive is Mirror’s Edge meets Tony Hawk meets Dead Rising, which is a sentence that isn’t just fun to say, but gives me some hope in the project. FINAL GRADE Chaz: Everything being said, I’m pretty happy. I’m going to give it an A-. There was enough here for me to feel solid about everything in play. Chad: I’m going to give it a B. I think they did ok, but they could have done better. Next up: Ubisoft Ubisoft Ubisoft seems to be having a slight identity crisis as of late, and E3 is better off for it. While the other companies are closer to your college educated younger sister who somehow graduated from pharmacy school with honors while keeping up an extremely active social life and scattered attempts at dating your friends (hypothetically, of course), Ubisoft is closer to that buddy of yours who’s obviously a genius, but would rather spend time getting hammered and yelling obscenities out of the car window. When he sobers up, he’ll return to his job volunteering at a children’s hospital (in what I can only assume is an effort to neutralize his karma). Chaz: Allow me to sum up Ubisoft with one word: fuck. Ubisoft has been running around like a mad person who’s been off their meds for a few weeks as of late. I don’t say that as a negative. Everything about them was so over the top that I thought it was directed by Sylvester Stallone. Far Cry 4 absolutely blew me away and has the potential to be the coolest thing on the floor just from what we saw right there. The new Rainbow 6, outside of my disappointment that they didn’t announce Beyond Good and Evil 2, looks fantastic. Everything about that game seems to be just absolutely amazing. Chad: Although getting into the event proved to be a bit of a pain in the ass, Ubisoft was probably my favorite of the bunch. There was so much energy in the crowd and the company just has so much personality. I’ve been forced to become a fan of what they do and they’re now one of my favorite developers in the industry. Far Cry 4 simply blew me away and is my number one game of the show so far. The Crew is something I didn’t have much interest in, but after seeing the trailer, I really want to play it. The introduction starring the Rabbids was great as well. I’m not so sure about the exercise game since I don’t really want to put my Kinect on the floor, but we’ll see how that plays out. Chaz: The Crew caught me off guard. I don’t get into racing games, they’re just not my thing, but it’s so refreshing to see a racing game that’s not trying to hit me over the head with attitude about “being extreme” or “Mountain Dew,” it’s simply a racing game. It’s about customization and racing and challenges. I’m really excited to see what it’s going to do, but I’m just a bit worried that it’s going to try to do too much that it’s just not going to do any of it really well. As for the exercise game, I’m automatically against any title that makes me jump up and down since I live on the third floor and I have neighbors. Maybe since it’s a fitness game they’ll be too afraid to bother me when I’m getting my “swole” on from doing pushups with whales on my back ,or whatever other nonsense we’re doing, but it’s raising questions that I just don’t have answered yet. I also feel like I’d be failing as a journalist if I didn’t point this out. Aisha Tyler came out and claimed “That’s how we do things here. We start off big, and then we go bigger.” So after Far Cry 4, we got Just Dance. Something’s wrong here. FINAL GRADE Chad: You’re absolutely right. They started off with the biggest thing they had and then they kinda fluctuated between really awesome projects and small stuff that could have been perceived as filler. Even Rainbow 6 wasn’t as big as Far Cry, so they really started out big and everything was slightly worse by comparison. Overall, I’d give them a B+, bordering on A-. Chaz: The entire thing felt a lot like spending a night in with my girlfriend. I come on really strong at first, but now I’m kinda tired and just want to go to sleep. There was so much going on here that I felt exhausted trying to keep up. I’ve got the highest hopes here for Far Cry 4, but I’m going to have to go with B- simply because they didn’t do what they said they were going to do. They shot themselves in foot here; they said they were going to go bigger and just never did. Had they reversed the order, we’d be looking at an A. Next Up: Sony Sony Sony stole the show for many people last year with their aggressive announcements regarding the Playstation 4’s pricing and a focus on gaming. While there’s always room for improvement, there really wasn’t a hell of a lot of pressure on them coming into this, so we didn’t know if we should expect more earth shattering announcements or simply the traditional Sony montage to start things off, before crying about how the Vita is totally not dead you guys. Chad: Sony was a really interesting event since they obviously spared no expense. They really wanted to show us a good time and have us in the best spirits possible when we walked in the door. They had the best stage with that massive screen and the biggest venue. However, at the end of the night, it’s about what they showed us. Sony did well here. They didn’t do an incredibly thorough job, and they devoted too much time to talking about Playstation TV. I don’t need another device for my TV, and I’m simply not interested in spending any money on it. Powers looked ok, but it seemed out of place at the event. On the games front, though, things looked great. The Order looks amazing, Dead Island 2 seems awesome, but that may be just my love of the series leaking out, and Uncharted 4 could be incredible. I’m a little confused on what the new Suda 51 game is though. It looks like a fighting game and I’m not a massive fan of that genre. Chaz: I don't think even Suda 51 knows what his games are about anymore. That guy would fit right in with Ubisoft. Anyways, the games Sony showed looked great, but felt incomplete. Bloodborne looks like it could be a spiritual successor to the Souls franchise, and if it’s even remotely close to that, I’m going to spend hundreds of hours there and you guys are going to hate me for not getting any work done. The biggest problem I had is that the games they showed didn’t make me scream “I need to buy that,” but “I should finish my backlog.” The Last of Us Remastered, that’s very cool, but I haven’t finished The Last of Us. Grand Theft Auto V on the new generation is cool, but I haven’t finished Grand Theft Auto V. I know I’m a bad a game journalist for this, but these aren’t things that I NEED. I love that they’re doing it, but it’s not something that makes me feel like I would need the new stuff. Chad: You’re way behind schedule on this stuff, but I’ll allow it for this conversation. Chaz: I want to rant about the new Ratchet and Clank movie as well as the Powers show for a moment. Fuck every single thing about this. Last year, Microsoft was damn near crucified for showing that its console was more than just a gaming device and that they could reach into new markets. They made some other mistakes (I’m not giving them a free pass on last year), but they were completely thrown under the bus. This year, Sony wastes 20 minutes on stuff, that while it may be cool, has very little to do with gaming, while Microsoft spent every single moment of its press conference to talk about games. I’m sure the show will be cool, and the Ratchet and Clank film may be fun, but in terms of E3? I simply do not care. I actually find it insulting to think that we’re supposed to think this acceptable when 365 days ago this type of talk was considered a mortal sin. Chad: Sony also really pushed the idea that games that look better on the PS4 and continued the resolution penis size competition we’re seeing right now. Resolution is important, of course, but if the games are playing well and look good it’s not a massive issue. As developers figure out what the hardware can really do, it’s going to even out more. They also mentioned a lot of exclusive content, not in terms of games but in just extra content. Chaz: I’m hesitant about all of that. It may be cool, but if it’s just needlessly tacked on stuff, that’s just a waste of time to me. Chad: I always think about Batman when I bought the PS3 version of Arkham Asylum, and it was just a bunch of challenge maps. I’m not a high score type of guy, so it all felt wasted to me. FINAL GRADE Chaz: Outside of Little Big Planet 3, which looks amazing and I need to play as that mutant frog thing in every game ever, and Uncharted, I felt like I was seeing rehashes of stuff more than anything new. They hinted that Grand Theft Auto V would be exclusive to the PS4, and that was a lie. They hinted that Magicka 2 was exclusive to the PS4, and that was a lie. I’m going to be harsh here, and I know I’m going to get called all sorts of nasty names here by the internet, but I’m giving them a C. I think that’s being a bit generous in some ways. They did not wow me, the show was average. They showed me cool stuff, but then a lot of it was rehashes. They told me last year it’s all about games, but then they insulted us with tangent about movies and stuff that I don’t care about. Sorry Sony. Free food and beer before the show? A+, no question. You had the best event to be at by far. As far as actual content? C. Chad: I’m going to go with a B-, simply because I’ve got that Canadian grading system in my head, but I’m right there with you. It felt like it dragged on, and I really just wanted it to end at times. There was cool stuff here, but not enough to wow me and certainly not enough to win the entire thing. Next up: EA... EA EA, home of sports and The Sims and sometimes, even sports sims. EA has proven itself to be a very capable developer while earning a bit of a reputation for buying up smaller companies to increase its scope. With a plethora of titles available, we were excited to see what they had to offer for E3 2014. Chaz: EA seemed to just be all over the place. Right off the bat, why are we talking about UFC? The game looks great, I get it. People like sports games and the love the UFC, I get that too. But this game comes out next week. Why are we giving valuable time to this other than the fact that EA doesn’t have anything to show that’s not coming out next year? All of their sports games look great, don’t get me wrong. I’m going to love playing Madden, but in a press conference that was woefully short of actual gameplay, this seemed a strange place to set the anchor. Chad: Well, they did show Battlefield and Dragon Age gameplay, but EA took a different direction with their press conferences. They wanted to show more about the team and the people behind the scenes, but that really just took me out of it. I didn’t really care about their press conference that much. The sports games look interesting, and the Dragon Age stuff was ok, but nothing here was really all that interesting. There just wasn’t anything here that I’m going to remember at the end of the day. Chaz: You’re absolutely right. The documentary stuff was really cool, and I like watching that, but E3 isn’t the time. They showed a mini documentary on Battlefront because I guess they don’t have anything else to show. That’s ok, but it seemed like a bad way to start off without anything concrete. They also showed documentary footage on their new MOBA Dawngate, but I simply do not care about a new MOBA right now. Mirror’s Edge 2 - they tried to show gameplay. God bless them, they tried, but everything they showed was so early in development that it’s almost useless. Chad: They even announced the game last year, so you think they’d have something more concrete. We know what Faith looks like, and it’s great to see it’s been improved a bit, but that’s not going to get me excited. I wasn’t a huge fan of the first one anyways. Chaz: And you’re wrong for that Chad: Still, this wasn’t enough to really make me feel like I needed it in my life. FINAL GRADE Chaz: Simply put, I did not like EA’s conference. I like the tech stuff, I like the sports stuff, but I didn’t walk away thinking “wow.” Hell, I didn’t walk away thinking much of anything. It was by and large a forgettable conference. C-. Chad: It just was. There’s nothing here I’m going to remember really. Other conferences showed a bit of Dragon Age and the only other game I really really cared about was NHL. I don’t care about MOBAs, Mirror’s Edge 2 looked good and Battlefield: Hardline seems interesting, but they simply needed to show more of the games. C-. Next up: Nintendo... Nintendo Nintendo seems to be blissfully unaware that they’re coming in third for the console wars. No matter how bleak things may get, you can count on them to provide light hearted and fun gameplay, and usually a pretty interesting presentation. You can’t help but hope they’d fight just a bit harder for their position, but when they seem so content to dance to the beat of a different drummer, it’s hard to really fault them. Chaz: Nintendo did everything I wanted them to do, outside of bringing a few franchises back from the dead, and they did it with that signature Nintendo charm that makes it impossible to not like them. There’s so much here that simply had me smiling. I mean, Hyrule Warriors! If you’re not excited about that game, you’ve outgrown video games. That is everything we have ever wanted. It’s Zelda, you’re thwarting hordes of enemies, they’re flying around from your sword, it’s everything we’ve ever known for video games. I mean, sure, the Robot Nintendo sketches were a little cheesy, but how can you NOT smile at this company. This is an actual sentence that was spoken on their conference. "How do you play with a pile of yarn or cloth? We thought about those things pretty hard." Confirmed: Nintendo is run by cats. Chad: I do like cats… Nintendo did pretty exactly what I expected them to. They didn’t go outside their box, and it was their normal stream. With that said, they didn’t disappoint me either. It was a solid presentation. They didn’t really introduce any new IPs though outside of Splatoon, which looks like a lot of fun but also has the opportunity to bomb pretty hard. Both of the new Zelda games are things I really want to play, and while I don’t usually like the Dynasty Warrior games outside of small spurts, this seems like something I could really get in to. Chaz: I’m glad you brought up Splatoon, it’s EXACTLY the type of shooter that Nintendo would make. It’s cutesy, it’s quirky, and it’s adorable! And it lead to one of the best sentences that I have ever heard in my life, easily the best string of words to be used at E3 this year. "I lay down a lot of ink and make it hard." That was not an accidental sentence, that was actually said on the air. That’s simply brilliant! It’s just adorable! I’m not sure I’ll play this game, but my soul is happy that it exists. Chad: I’m not really concerned with the new Kirby game as I’m not interested in drawing lines with my Wii U gamepad. I just want an old school Kirby, but one that’s a bit more challenging than the last offering. That’s something that’s missing a bit, that sense of challenge. Prime example, Yoshi’s Wooly World is mixing a Yoshi game with a yarn game, neither of which are known to be all that hard. I don’t demand a Dark Souls level of challenge, but I want something that a 5 year old would at least have some difficulty with. Chaz: I’m glad you mentioned Yoshi’s Wooly World. I’m a grown man, military veteran, long hair, I shave with an old school 1950’s razor and use a brush to lather my soap and I listen to death metal. But when I see a game featuring a yarn dinosaur, I apparently lose my shit. I need to play Yoshi’s Wooly World now. That looks so adorable, so much fun. I need that in my life immediately. Chad: Kirby’s Epic Yarn was great, so if they can catch that lightning in a bottle again, I’m all for it. The other thing I’m worried about is the Amiibo part of Smash Bros. I’m just not sure I want to collect more things to get the full game experience. Chaz: Amiibo, because simply creating a game that everyone in the world wants to play won’t make enough money to satisfy Reggie’s rage. I hate to think that I might need this to get the full experience, and what I REALLY hate about this idea is that I know I’ll buy it. I’m weak, I’m spineless, but if that’s the case I’m simply going to end up with a crap ton of these. FINAL GRADE Chad: And that pretty much wraps up Nintendo. What are your final thoughts? Chaz: I’m happy with it. In fact, I’m very happy with it. They didn’t compete with the other companies, but they didn’t really TRY to compete. That’s simply not their thing. I wish they would try to compete a bit more, but they’re happy with this niche they’ve carved out. All in all, I think it’s a very solid B. Chad: I have to give it the same score. They did a very good job, but they could have done better. They had a very clean presentation and showed off some cool games, but they played it safe. They need to get outside of the box more and stop relying on the same games and same characters. Those were great for the first 30 years, but it may not be enough to keep Nintendo alive. So who won E3?.... AND THE WINNER IS Chad: Ubisoft took this one. Microsoft was a close second, but Ubisoft took this one in the end. They had the most fun with their press conference, played loose with the crowd, and showed off my early pick for the best game of E3 in Far Cry 4. I simply can’t wait to see how everything pans out and I’m excited to get my hands on just about everything they were showing off. Chaz: I have to go with Microsoft. They won E3 by showing that they’re dedicating themselves to what matters: games and gamers. And honestly, I don’t think it was all that close really. Ubisoft I knew was going to be solid coming in, but they shot themselves in the foot in some ways. Sony outright flopped while Nintendo did their own thing, and it’s starting to feel like they’re running a different race altogether. Microsoft finally showed me that they’re turning the ship around, and that’s enough to justify my purchase and feel comfortable with the console’s future. Tell us, who do you think won E3 this year? Sound off below!