You can see E3 as just a trade show where new games and hardware are unveiled. But if you look under the surface, you'll notice emerging trends that paint a picture of where the video game industry is heading.
In many ways, the past is clashing with the future as companies seek to integrate advanced tech into the gaming world. That said, some classic video game mechanics are making a real comeback after years of dormancy.
So as I look back on my time at E3, I find myself looking forward — at the five biggest trends to emerge from the show.
Platforming Is Cool Again
Platformers just scream of a bygone era. With games like Halo 5 and Fallout 4 allowing you to explore vast open worlds and wage war with strangers all over the globe, it’s easy to scoff at the simple running and jumping mechanics in a platformer.
There’s no complex upgrade system, no open world and certainly none of the violence that the kiddies love so dearly. Yet, there were plenty of incredible platformers – many of them side-scrollers – on the show floor that had lines almost as long as many Triple-A titles.
Games like Tembo the Badass Elephant, Cuphead and the new Ratchet and Clank all impressed by remaining simplistic in many ways, yet complex in others.
Just look at Cuphead: the gameplay is very one-note — yet the style, tone and feel are so layered and deep that you can stare at the screen for hours and still discover nuances you hadn't caught before.
So while games get more technically complex, simple platformers and side-scrollers are finding a way to push the technology of new hardware, all while maintaining their timeless simplicity.
No More Princess In Peril
As forward-thinking as the video game industry is in adapting to new technology, the medium is still stuck in the Dark Ages when it comes to women’s issues. Thankfully, gaming is finally starting to recognize its female fans (albeit slowly), as my colleague J.E. Reich pointed out this week.
At E3, multiple games – many of them returning franchises – announced that they will launch with female protagonists. Among those titles are Dishonored 2, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, Recore and Horizon: Zero Dawn, just to name a few.
There are still decades worth of deplorable treatment to make up for, but the video game industry is at least making baby steps towards progress — and sometimes, that’s all you can hope for.
Genre Is An Illusion
If you’re not a first-person shooter fan, your choices of blockbuster Triple-A games have become really limited in recent years. Thankfully, the industry is beginning to expand its scope with experimental titles like Adr1ft, Dreams, No Man’s Sky and Firewatch — titles that bleed creativity, putting the player more in control of a story than ever. And, ironically, many of these unique games take place in the first-person perspective, proving you don’t need a machine gun to have fun.
Titles like these have always existed. It’s just rare for them to be promoted at such large events, and for them to have such a big push behind them. The big guns seem to be embracing these titles more and more as the demographics for gaming are beginning to expand and crave something other than the Call of Dutys of the world.
Virtual Reality Show
We all knew virtual reality would be the future — but we’ve been hearing about this future for years with few glimpses of what the hardware can actually do. Well, the show floor of E3 was packed with companies showing off the latest in VR tech, with groundbreaking games for the Oculus Rift taking control of the convention.
Most notably, 505 Games showcased its upcoming game Adr1ft, which I experienced firsthand. As I spiraled through the remains of a broken space station, I saw the future of the video game industry — a future that fully immerses gamers into a title unlike anything before.
And when you factor in something like the Virtualizer, it’s hard to tell where the game ends and the player begins.
After years of little more than promises, E3 really showed people what VR will be. There are still plenty of questions left to be asked, but it’s easy to see that this is just the beginning of a revolution that will impact every facet of gaming.
The World Is Yours
The idea of an open world video game is nothing new — hell, the Grand Theft Auto series has been flaunting this feature for over a decade. But the open world video game has gone from being a rare technical feat to almost a requirement for getting your title noticed.
Countless games were shown off at E3 that included an open world design in some way. There was Ghost Recon: Wildlands, a first for this series; Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate; Metal Gear Solid V, another series first and No Man’s Sky, among other titles. These games promise to be huge — pushing the limits of the hardware and allowing players to explore and play through the story as they wish.
Additionally, titles like Dreams and Super Mario Maker actually allow players to create their own world and assets, putting you in control more than ever before. This is open world in a different sense, as we’re all now in control of creating the type of games we want to play.
These titles got the most buzz throughout the convention, so it's only logical to think video game companies will continue coming up with ways to push open worlds forward. Are we that far away from creating our own Call of Duty or Battlefront maps?
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Freedom was the main trend of E3. Freedom from controllers, freedom from a male-dominated world, freedom to embrace platformers, freedom from genre and freedom to create the game you want to play. Expect to see these ideas continue to line store shelves as we look forward to E3 2016.
Stay tuned for more E3 2015 coverage all week from TechTimes and T-Lounge.
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