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E3 2017 Press Conferences, Part 2

Got to watch 2 more press conferences today, so let's jump right in!

Bethesda got a lot of hate because of Creators Club and re-releasing Skyrim again instead of a new TES game, so I started watching the show with a little bias. Well, I was surprised. Positively. I think the show was pretty great. Short: yes. But did it need to be longer? Drawn out like the others? No. Since I don't have any interest in the world of Elder Scrolls (be it Skyrim, TES: Online or that card game) I focused on their other stuff. And for an FPS lover there was some awesome stuff in there!

Let's start with probably the biggest of them all: DOOM VFR. ALL CAPS. HELL YES! I'm a proud owner of a PSVR so I can't wait to get my hands on this one. Like the guy in the animation sad: "Doom, so hot right now!". At least Bethesda know their memes. But what does VFR mean? Is it "Virtual Fucking Reality" as most people theorize? I need confirmation!

After that came another "classic" game which I had the fortune of already playing: Quake Champions. I was lucky enough to get a closed beta key, so I already knew what to expect. It looks like Quake, it feels like Quake, it is Quake. There were 2 "sub-announcements" during the presentation of QC which I really loved: B. J. Blazkowicz (the hero from Wolfenstein, if you didn't recognize the name) will be in the game! And eSports is getting serious with a 1 million prize pool for QuakeCon. Nice.

Next up was the next installment of a game I have been meaning to play since it came up, but my backlog is simply too long and I haven't gotten to it yet: The Evil Within 2. The cinematic trailer looked absolutely fantastic. The last part in the woods gave me goosebumps! And the release date? Friday the 13th (oct. 2017). Well played, Bethesda. Well played.

Last was the world premiere of Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. Again, another series I wanted to play for ever, but only played the first game. Yes, the DOS one. The very first "3D" FPS. I have a lot of catching up to do...

Okay, so I was growing up a PC gamer, but I also collect consoles, and I have basically all systems since the PS1/N64 era (except a Wii U). With that in mind let me say: the PC Gaming Show was "meh". It had some good stuff, but nothing which got me really excited. About 30% of it was an ad for Intel. There were some indie games, some early access stuff. I skipped those. What remained was Lone Echo/Echo Arena, Lawbreakers and the remake of AoE.

I'd love to try Lone Echo and Echo Arena and I really hope that the games will be coming to PSVR as well. The thing which got me excited the most (besides the game of course) was the Echo Arena Championship - is VR eSports finally becoming a thing? "Rigs" could've been the first, but basically it was killed by Sony before it could really start up. So I hope with some serious backing we will have lots more VR eSports in the future. Let Echo Arena pave the way for it!

I'm gonna mention Lawbreakers only briefly: looks interesting. Like Quake on steroids. Even faster, even more jumping, even more craziness. Beta comes in two weeks and I'll be definitely checking it out. Got my code secured while writing this entry actually.

The last announcement was made by Microsoft Studios and it was one which many people have been waiting for ages (pun intended): Age of Empires remastered. In 4K. Damn. Nice one, Microsoft. Looks great and hopefully plays great. Oh yeah - there is a multiplayer beta right now, so check it out!

That's it for today. I still have Ubisoft, PlayStation and Nintendo left to watch. Tomorrow is a national holiday so I hope to squeeze those 3 into my day and come back with part 3 soon.

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