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E3 WRAP UP
ANNOUNCEMENTS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED
In today’s age of fast information and technology, sometimes things get missed; even at a convention that celebrates Internet and electronic culture. E3 2018 officially started last weekend with EA making the first press conference on Saturday and Nintendo wrapped the list of presenters this past Wednesday. Still, convention goers had one full day left in Thursday to play demos and even witness other reveals that weren’t showcased during the main presentations.
In similar fashion to Bethesda with Fallout 76, Koei Tecmo announced that their technical yet bouncy fighting game series Dead or Alive will get a sixth installment of the franchise. The trailer was announced right before E3, which hyped fans enough to try the demo out at Koei Tecmo’s booth. The game has been streamlined to allow newer players to pick it up, while the female characters have been de-sexualized to avoid controversy and showcase the strength of the iconic characters. A new damage feature has been added where the fighters visibly show off sweat and any wounds they may have suffered. 6 staples of the franchise return (Helena, Hayate, Hayabusa, Jann Lee, Zack and of course Kasumi). The game is slated to drop early next year.
Bandai Namco revealed a new fighting game crossover of characters from the Shonen Jump magazine. The game is called Jump Force where players will fight in 3 on 3 battles in stunning 3D, 360 degree-interactive environments. The only confirmed characters so far are Monkey D. Luffy and Zoro (One Piece), Goku and Frieza (DragonBall Z), and Sasuke and Naruto (Naruto). At the end of the reveal Light Yagami and Ryuk from Death Note are shown and considering that Shonen Jump has published Bleach, Hunter x Hunter, Yu-Gi-Oh! and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, we can expect a huge roster filled with multiple properties colliding. Jump Force celebrates the 50th anniversary of Shonen Jump and will release next year.
There’s a trend going on because Telltale Games also dropped their trailer for the The Walking Dead: The Final Season right before E3 started. The trailer didn’t reveal much other than AJ is safe and back with Clementine. A dive into the story was also available during a panel late into the convention on Wednesday. This final installment will be available August 14th, with pre-orders starting August 6th. If you pre-order, you’ll also get the first three games and spin-offs for free.
On the topic of The Walking Dead, Overkill’s take on the franchise finally had some gameplay to show off. It looks like the game will focus on four characters, as evident from the previous trailers released. At the booth, fans got to try out a demo revealing smoother and faster gameplay than what we’ve seen from Telltale’s take. In fact, the game plays similar to first-person shooters with co-op being an option.
Last but not least, SoulCalibur VI revealed a trailer for its Story mode along with having a demo available at Bandai Namco’s booth. Based on the trailer, the story may center around Kilik as his story is considered the catalyst of what drives the other characters to search for Soul Edge. Another reason behind Kilik being the focal point is the inclusion of his demonic evil seed form in his intro trailer. We see a brief glimpse of both Inferno and a demonic Kilik in the story trailer, so while multiple characters have deep ties to Soul Edge and Soul Calibur, Kilik’s journey may be the true canon of the lore; especially since this is a retelling or fleshing out of the previous installments.
In somewhat related news, Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition essentially got free advertising as The New Day from WWE (Xavier Woods, Big E and Kofi Kingston) took on The Elite of NJPW (Heavyweight Tag Champions The Young Bucks and newly crowned Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega). While the “feud” between Woods and Omega was three years in the making, the two decided to bring their tag partners along to face off in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition. When The New Day won in the team round, Omega called Woods out to singles action in a first-to-five series with the loser having to eat raw habanero peppers. Omega ended up winning in the clutch when both were tied at four games, but Woods and Omega ate the peppers together.
The match was fairly entertaining, with Woods and Omega using their wrestling personas to engage the crowd in between rounds. It also provided a rare opportunity for WWE to promote a charity cause for Connor’s Cure and an even rarer acknowledgement of New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) and Kenny Omega. E3 can sometimes get boring after the press conferences are over so it was also a decent way to breathe life into the last day of the convention. The match was streamed live as well.
You can watch that match below:
Of course, there’s still a ton more but unless you were at E3 it probably wouldn’t hype you up here. People have specific tastes so one booth may have had more to offer than another. Either way it’s a great year to be a gamer.
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