E3 Day 2

Day 2 of E3 had the biggest lineup of the week. The day started with the PC Gaming Show, which was followed by two of the biggest studios to take the stage this year, Ubisoft and Square Enix.

PC Gaming Show

• Nothing really groundbreaking from the PC Gaming Show. A lot of pixelated and stylized games were announced, as well as sequels. Here’s a list of most of the games shown during the PC Show:

• Evil Genius 2
• Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2
• Starmancer
• Midnight Ghost Hunt
• Unexplored 2
• Last Oasis
• Age of Wonders: Planetfall
• Zombie Army Dead War 4
• Remnant: From the Ashes
• Gritlands
• Planet Zoo
• Shenmue III
• Songs of Conquest
• Chivalry 2
• Vermin Tide 2
• Per Aspera
• Ancestors
• Auto Chess
• CrisTales
• Maneater
• Telling Lies
• Genesis Noir
• Baldur’s Gate 3

Ubisoft

• During the Ubisoft pre-show Ice-T gave everyone some tips of proper gaming etiquette, including “Don’t be a toxic dick!”
• Ubisoft started off their show with the debut of a new Watch Dogs, set in not-so-distant future London. Watch Dogs: Legion allows you to take control of any citizen, but once a citizen is killed, they are gone forever. The open world looks fantastic and even the cutscenes change depending on how and who you are playing as. Legion drops March 6, 2020, but you can check out the trailer here.
• Always Sunny In Philadelphia star, Rob McElhenney came out to talk about the upcoming Apple TV+ show, Mythic Quest. A show about game developers, created by McElhenney and his Always Sunny costar, Charlie Day.
• Other new games previewed at the event included Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Just Dance 2020, Rainbow Six: Quarantine, and a new mobile game, Tom Clancy’s EliteSquad
• The Division 2, Rainbow Six: Siege, and For Honor will all be getting updates
• Ubisoft had 2 brand new titles to show off as well.
• Roller Champions - a multiplayer roller derby game.
• Gods & Monsters - a Greek mythology based action adventure from the makers of Assassin’s Creed.
• Ubisoft is continuing this year’s trend with their own streaming service, called UPlay Plus. The service will be available later this year with over 100 titles, old and new. UPlay Plus will be partnering with Google’s Stadia streaming service in 2020

Square Enix

• Square Enix started their press conference discussing the already announced Final Fantasy VII Remake, including a longer version of the trailer they showed Sunday night. Not only is the remake a huge graphical improvement, but the battle system is all new as well.
• They continued by showing a string of trailers, with little to no interruptions. There was a heavy focus on remastered titles and RPGs. Here are the titles Square Enix revealed:

•        Life is Strange 2
•        Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles
•        Octopath Traveler  - Switch Exclusive
•        Last Remnant - from 2008, being re-released for the Nintendo Switch
•        Dragonquest Builders 2
•        Dragonquest XI - Coming to the Switch
•        Circuit Superstars
•        Battalion 1944: Eastern Front
•        Kingdom Hearts III: Remind (DLC)
•        Final Fantasy XIV expansion: ShadowBringers
•        Dying Light 2
•        Final Fantasy - War of Visions: Brave Exvius – gameplay looks similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, almost like a Game of Thrones story, set in the FF world.
•        Outriders - 1-3 player, drop-in/drop-out futuristic shooter
•        Oninaki
•        Final Fantasy VIII Remastered - It was thought that the original source code for FF8 had been lost, but it seems like it was not and the remastered version will be available later this year.

                  The announcement of the day, and probably the expo was Marvel’s Avengers. Fans around the world have been looking forward to this debut since it was confirmed by Square Enix a couple of weeks ago, and the announcement did not disappoint. The game was developed by Crystal Dynamics, who have been handling the Tomb Raider franchise since 2003.

•        The trailer shows us 5 Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, and Hulk (although he is first seen as Bruce Banner). The team is celebrating ‘Avengers’ Day’ and the opening of the West Coast Avengers HQ. Then out of nowhere, what appears to be a team of terrorists attack the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Avengers respond. While the Avengers are fighting off the attackers, another team is on the helicarrier and attacking Captain America. They overtake Cap, and the helicarrier crashes into the San Francisco Bay.  Cut to what looks like the future and the disassembled Avengers. We later learned this will be the main setting of the game, and 5 years after the events of Avengers' Day. The team was blamed for the attack and as a result, outlawed. The story was described as being about “losing what matters to you most, and fighting to get it back.”
•        You will be able to play as the 5 Avengers featured in the trailer. No details on whether you will have to play as a specific hero at a certain point, or if you will get to alternate as you please.
•        There is a heavy emphasis on this being a unique story, and Crystal Dynamics’ interpretation of the characters. The heroes do look to be based on the MCU versions of the characters, with a few added influences from the comics.
•        Not only will Marvel’s Avengers feature a single player mode, but there will be an online co-op mode that will allow up to 4 players to team up together. Players will be able to customize their heroes in this mode.
•        The loudest crowd reaction of the night came when Crystal Dynamics announced that new content (characters and regions) will be added to the online mode regularly and at no additional cost! They also were sure to emphasize that Avengers will not feature any loot boxes, or pay to win scenarios.
•        Pre-Order is already available, but the game drops May 15, 2020.

Story by Tim Howell