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And just like that E3 is over for another year. I don’t know about you but it felt great having E3 back after its understandable cancellation last year. It was not only a glimpse of some up and coming blockbuster titles of the gaming world but also a glimpse of normality. With the exception of Sony and EA, who will have their own events in due course (EA Play Live livestream is scheduled for July 22nd), gaming giants all came together and each had their moment in the spotlight over four days of E3 2021 livestreams.
Ubisoft and Gearbox kicked things off in style on the Saturday. Xbox & Bethesda and Nintendo crammed as many game trailers into our eyeballs as they could on the Sunday and Tuesday respectively. Square Enix and Capcom gave details of what they’ve been working on and Bandai Namco... attended. It was full-on, to say the least. Luckily for you lot, here at Zatu HQ, we’ve come up with some of our favourite moments:
Ubisoft
Without a shadow of a doubt, Far Cry 6 knocked it out of the park. Giving fans an absolute feast of gameplay, which included a dog in a cart and a goth rooster. It left us all salivating for the games’ release on October 7th. Avatar - Frontiers of Pandora also blew everyone away with its stunning visuals. Dan Hilton, who covered the event said “This game looks unbelievably amazing! Possibly going as far as to say, it is the best-looking game I have ever seen!”. There’s no clue how long we’ll have to wait for FernGully-with-blue-people the game as Ubisoft didn’t grace us with a release date.
We’ve also got to give a shout out to Mario & Rabbids - Sparks of Hope. The Switch exclusive sequel to Mario & Rabbids - Kingdom Battle looks as fun as its predecessor. Which itself was a surprisingly fun X-COM-esque tactical “shooter”.
Xbox & Bethesda
Microsoft flexed their “look at what WE brought” muscles at E3 2021. Showing off several upcoming Bethesda titles in the works exclusively for Xbox. As well as throwing out a plethora of trailers, announcements and updates at lightning speed. In total, they showed 39 games. Check out the full report here or stay put and just enjoy the highlights.
Psychonauts 2 finally comes out on August 25th and looks as bonkers as the first game. Halo Infinite received a trailer for its multiplayer as well as some in-game cinematics for the campaign. The sixth outing for the Master Chief has had a rocky development, but it’s finally coming this year. As a die-hard Halo fan, I can’t wait to see the continuation of the Forerunner storyline, especially now the big green is the main focus.
Although no actual gameplay was featured, a definite highlight of the Xbox & Bethesda showcase was the trailer for The Outer Worlds 2. It was a CGI trailer that was a complete send-up of game announcement trailer troupes, which pulled no punches and even took a dig at itself. It’s really worth finding online and watching a few dozen times.
Square Enix
The home of the Final Fantasy hit us with a reel of trailers including a Guardians of the Galaxy game at E3. This means they probably won’t be showing up in Square Enix’s Marvel Avengers any time soon... unless they bang out a crossover event (and let’s face it Marvel loves those!).
Square Enix also hit us with not one but two Life is Strange announcements. One for a remastered collection of the two previous games (coming September 30th) and another for Life is Strange: True Colours. The third game in the series hits shelves on September 10th. And looks to take the series in a different direction with the protagonist bringing a new set of powers to the table.
Dan Hilton stepped up to the plate once again and covered the event in full, his rundown can be found here.
Capcom
The gaming legend didn’t show as much as other developers, but what they did show was nothing short of awesome. Resident Evil Village has been a huge success, shifting upwards of four million copies since it’s May 7th launch. So it was no surprise (but was indeed welcome) that DLC is now in the works. Although no trailer, no release date and no information was given it was the most excited the videogame team has ever been about white text on a black background. If you’d like to know what else was in Capcom’s showcase click here.
Nintendo Direct & Treehouse Recap
Nintendo knows how to put on a show, especially at E3! They’re also an absolute powerhouse of first-party titles. Picking out a few highlights was no easy task. Obviously the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild takes the title for most anticipated. But with very little information and no sign of a release date, we couldn’t just mention this one and call it a day.
It’s about time the Switch got its own WarioWare game. The fast-paced zany mini-game format will work perfectly on Switch, so WarioWare: Get it Together was a great announcement. And September 10th isn’t that far away! We’re also very excited for Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania, which will be in our hands-on October 5th.
Nintendo also treated us to more footage of the upcoming golf game - Mario Golf: Super Rush. It’s coming out on June 25th, so nowhere near as long a wait as our other highlights.
Michael Nelson covered the whole thing here.
Bandai Namco
Bandai Namco have several anime licenses to their name. Not to mention the king of 3D fighters - Tekken and the eagerly anticipated Souls-esque Elden Ring. So big things were expected, especially as they were the final showcase of the entire event. And what did Bandai Namco give us? One trailer. One lonely trailer for House of Ashes, the latest titles in the Dark Pictures Anthology by Supermassive Games. Don’t get me wrong, the trailer looked great and it will no doubt sit nicely with Man of Medan and Little Hope. But that’s all they showed, so it’s the highlight by default. Also, no one wrote a full report, this is pretty much it. They had some people talking either side of the trailer but we didn’t pay enough attention to them to find out what they were saying or what their names were.
E3 Awards Show
E3 had one last thing up their virtual sleeves - an awards show - the perfect place for the gaming industry to pat itself on the back and talk about how great it is. They also announced the most anticipated games as decided by a “panel of judges” from each showcase and gave awards to the “winners”. Dan Hilton went out with a hat trick and covered this one too.
That’s a Wrap
And that’s that, E3 is done for another year! What were your favourite moments? Let us know on social media and join us in our disappointment of Bandai Namco’s presentation. A special shout out also goes to Beth who was locked in a room with nothing but plain digestive biscuits for the entirety of E3 and had reports from each showcase thrown at her, which she managed to get on the website in record time.