So Far, I’ve Been Both Happy and Sad with E3 Presentations

Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, kicked off over the weekend. We got a ton of great game announcements but there has also already been some disappointments, specifically from one of my favorite gaming companies, Square Enix.

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Gaming company Ubisoft was up first on Saturday. They had a lackluster show with lackluster games all throughout their presentation so we'll move on to the next big show on Sunday, Microsoft.

Microsoft came together with an approximate ninety minute show full of great game announcements. There was new information and game footage of Halo Infinite. A new game called Starfield was shown off and given a release date of Summer of next year. Their excellent subscription service, Game Pass, had a ton of new additions including 2016's Doom. Even though I am not an XBox fan, their E3 presentation was really good and I'm glad fans of XBox have a plethora of great games to look forward to.

Next up on Sunday was one of my favorite gaming companies, Square Enix. There are responsible for my favorite game franchise in Final Fantasy. They already announced Final Fantasy XVI so I wasn't expecting any news on that front. However, what was presented both excited and disappointed me. First, they will be releasing a Guardians of the Galaxy game. Seeing the trailer and gameplay, it looks really good. It's coming out later this year and I will certainly try it out.

Their next announcement really disappointed me. The first six Final Fantasy games covered the original Nintendo and Super Nintendo. Final Fantasy VI for the Super Nintendo is considered one of the greatest games ever made and is still a blast to play today. Well, we get an announcement of a the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster. This package includes all six games in their original form but cleaned up a bit for PC and mobile. Mobile? Really?

I'm not against mobile gaming but this should have been made into a release for all consoles (Nintendo Switch, XBox, Playstation), too. I really think Square Enix dropped the ball on this.

There were announcements on some other mobile games and expansions for their Marvel Avengers game followed by a game many were anticipating called Babylon's Fall. It did not look good, at all, and has been turned into live service game which I've never been interested in. They gave some more details on another game franchise, Life Is Strange, which has a good following but I am not a fan of these types of games either.

Their final announcement did have me interested, though, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. This looks like a fun action adventure game in the Final Fantasy universe. It is a departure from the usual RPG but I think will be really fun to play.

So yeah, it was certainly an up and down day for this gaming fan. Later today is Limited Run Games showcase. It'll be fun to see which digital only games they will be bringing to a physical release over the next year. Nintendo has their Nintendo Direct tomorrow afternoon. That one should be really good.

Despite the disappointments, it's a great time of the year to be a gaming fan. Let the E3 madness continue.