So, Day 3 of E3 is over, with only one more day to go, I’m starting to get the end of E3 blues. It’s certainly been an interesting event, with some very unexpected reveals. Day 3 slowed it down for us a bit with with a day filled with panels and special guests. I decided to take a leaf out of E3’s book and organize some interviews of my own, but for now, on with the round-up.
Intellivision
Intellivision unveiled the Intellivision Amico. This is a console I have been following since it’s announcement in 2018, so I’m excited that after many delays it’s finally set for release. Featuring stunning 2D and 2.5D graphics this console truly is a blast to the past. Over 20 games have already been announced for the new system, including a new Earthworm Jim! Be still my beating heart! Do I think this is going to rival current gen consoles? Absolutely not, but it sure will be an interesting piece for the collection.
The console itself looks stunning, coming in a whole host of colours, and will retail at an incredibly affordable $249 with games costing between $2.99 and $9.99 on launch. For the record the $249 price tag comes with two controllers and 6 pre-installed games and the controllers themselves look gorgeous; with an updated design from their much older sibling, they include a touchscreen and motion controls. I am honestly super excited about this console and already have one on preorder.
Take 2 Diversity Panel
Take 2 took some time to assemble a large group of very impressive people to sit down and talk about diversity in the industry. I took a lot less time (I’m on a deadline) to talk to an up-and-coming developer about this much discussed issue, a snippet of which is below:
“How do you feel as a young female trying to get into the industry?
The industry has opened up an incredible amount in recent years, and I’m personally excited to work alongside peers who are just as excited as me to create games which are artistically gorgeous and ultimately fun to play. As previously stated, I don’t feel at a disadvantage per se, though I do recognise that a lot of women may be intimidated to join an industry historically shown to be male-dominated. If you enjoy games and designing them, you’re already on the first step to joining the industry. Gender shouldn’t affect that.”
If you wish to read the full interview, you can find it here.
Indie Showcase
We interrupt the schedule of important interviews to give you some game news. Do you like indie games? Good, here’s some that are coming out over the next year or so.
Lifeslide looks absolutely stunning, at first I thought I was looking at some kind of paper plane expansion for Microsoft Flight Simulator but then I realised I was enjoying it so it had to be something else. Fly different shaped paper planes through some gorgeous landscapes for a super relaxing experience. Love it!
Fallen Aces is one of New Blood studios offering, a Doom-esque noir adventure sees you running around a gorgeously designed world punching, kicking and battering old school thugs. The game design is incredibly interesting, and it certainly looks like a lot of fun to play. They also showed off a bit of Gloomwood yesterday: described as a stealth horror FPS, I honestly am more intrigued for this game to release than anything else announced so far.
Neko Ghost Jump had twitch chat excited, looking and feeling like a Paper Mario Game, Neko Ghost Jump is a puzzle-platformer in which you play as a cat, who can transform into a ghost. It also involves jumping (in case the name hadn’t given it away).
Freedom Games
Freedom Games had a very quickfire showcase, so I too will turn this into a quickfire section:
Dreamscaper – A roguelike dungeon-crawler. This game looks hauntingly beautiful. There are puzzle-solving elements and seems to be somewhat narrative driven. It’s currently in Early Access so if you want a chance to be involved in how the game develops, you should check it out.
Coromon РA Pok̩mon like pixel adventure. This game looks super charming and harkens back to the early days of Pok̩mon.
Cat Caf̩ Manager РI think the title is pretty self-explanatory, this life sim enables you to run your own cat caf̩. It looks super cute and you get to adopt all the stray kitties.
To the Rescue – In this life sim game you run a dog shelter, interestingly with this title, a percentage of the sales go towards a charity that it set up to help real-world dog shelters. The game itself seems like a educational tool as well as a life-sim, so if you want to support a good cause and learn more about dog shelters, there’s a game for that now.
VENN
For those of you not in the know (which included me), VENN is an esports network. Their half hour slot at E3 was used to showcase the origin story of one of the most famous esports players in the world. In a similar vein, I decided to use my VENN slot to showcase the origin stories of one of most famous esports journalists in the world. They unfortunately weren’t available at such short notice, so I called in a favour and Michael from hotspawn.com and esports.gg agreed to speak with me instead.
“What do you love most about esports?
There’s so much I love about it. The stories are a big draw, teams that overcome all the odds to win big at huge tournaments. There are documentaries like True Sight that tell stories better than Hollywood could ever come up with.
But also that this is still a bit of an outsider, alternative thing. The personalities we have in esports, from the players to the casters and commentators, and even the journalists, are unique and relatable. They’re nerds who love video games. I think it’s genuinely the most compelling thing you can watch if you love video games.”
Again, the full interview in which we go into how Michael got into esports and he predictions for the future of esports, is available to read here.
Capcom
The moment we’d all been waiting for had arrived, what were Capcom going to announce? They’d already told us they were planning to talk about Resi 8, Monster Hunter Rise and the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, but they’d surely slip in a surprise announcement, right? Capcom are known for it.
Well, this year they surprised us all by staying on script. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, we got a first look at Monster Hunter Stories 2, and North American and Europeans fans are finally getting a release of the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, a game that I have been eyeing longingly since it was released in Japan. However, it really wasn’t a great way to round off a day of talking. I was really hoping Capcom were going to pull something exciting out of the bag but I guess the pandemic has kind of stopped that for happening.
Tomorrow
we get a five-hour Nintendo presentation and the E3 game awards to
head off this incredible event for another year.
Preferring the company of fictional characters to living, breathing people; it should come as no surprise that Hannah is a connoisseur of all things geek. Whilst their body resides in the capital of Wales, their heart resides in Middle-Earth and their mind remains firmly lodged in the memory of that embarrassing thing they did when they were eight.
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