PC Gaming Show E3 2015 live report
No Man's Sky on PC, Blizzard's new expansions and DayZ single player. And a lot of sore bums. All the news as it happened.
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Several hours later we're done, and the inaugural PC Gaming Show wrapped up its marathon running time with a fair share of treats. You can see how it all unravelled right here.
Watch live video from PCGamer on www.twitch.tvOur live coverage of this event has finished.
Hey everyone! We love PCs. Ooh PCs - they're dreamy.
It's a world full of heroes.
It can be a confusing world.
*Ahem*, well anyway there are two hours to go, it's 11pm and we're all alone in the office. We can do this!
Former Epic Games creative brain Cliff Bleszinski will be there showing, we hope, his new game.
AMD's Roy Taylor tweeted about Star Wars: Battlefront just now, saying, "We are going to have much more to say about this shortly." We've seen two impressive demos so far. He linked to the snowy Hoth demo in his tweet.
Oh! SCS Software has written a blog to announced that American Truck Simulator will be shown tonight. What a show we're in for!
I'm so confused right now, and I'm not sure if it's just because it's coming up to 1am and I've had 8 hours sleep since Friday.
Some people are muttering that this is now starting at 2am after a screw up in comms. I'm hoping it's something of a troll though.
Amazingly, they've been billing the time the doors open, as well as counting down to that.
F**K PCs. This would never happen on console.
I'm kicking the Dell that's on the floor right now. Kicking it to bits.
Hey, it's okay though - Disasterpeace are playing for an hour, so that'll get us through to 2am.
It's okay. I'm not angry.
Just disappointed.
Well, join us in an hour then when the show kicks off proper. I might be a bit more sozzled than I intended though.
bash_street_kid: Ah what's another at this point. (Says me on Pacific Time).
That's the spirit!
How to kill an hour? I was going to ask if anyone had any good jokes, but I'm terrified what you filthy lot have got in your back pocket.
We could sing some songs?
A Mexican wave? I can start. |o| \o/
There's nothing worse than being the guy trying to start the Mexican wave and getting nothing.
Barrel_Trollz: What do you call inquisitive armour?
Go on then...
Barrel_Trollz: Cuirass.
\o/
Mazzle: Im sorry for my outburst ┬──┬ ノ( ゜-゜ノ)
Yeah, calm down mate. Some people round here are trying to get some sleep.
Oooooh, I can see the wave's coming back to me!
Wait for it, wait for it!
lol \o/ lol
The_B: Are you sure that's the wave Martin and you've not just had a lot to drink so your own arms look like they're moving?
I can't feel my hands, but I think that's something else entirely.
Bratterz is actually lapping up the PC trivia. Nerd. (Says the man staying up 'til 3am to watch a PC gaming conference).
Mazzle: If you're around Martin, did anyone from EG go and check out Starbreeze VR set? They've had some behind the scene demos.
I'm here, weeping into a bottle of Grolsch in Brighton. I'll ask the team over in Los Angeles!
Hello! In fact I was supposed to have a go on Starbreeze VR today, but my appointment was double-booked. I'm going back on Thursday. Pat from VG247 tried it and said it was amazing but made him feel REALLY sick. (The latency and frame-rate aren't there yet.)
I've arrived at the Belasco Theater for the show. It's a bit more bijou than your usual E3 conference venue, but it's got an impressively mental rococo interior.
I was just looking for the like button on Oli's update on the interior and almost deleted his post. Whoops.
Man, if only EG's foremost LA architecture nerd Christian Donlan were awake. He'd appreciate this.
Also, as you might expect, this is the only E3 press conference so far with working wi-fi. Thank you, master race.
Also also, they reserved me a seat in the front row, which is exceptionally nice for a conference run by a rival site.
Mazzle: Oooh I may be alone in this but would love to see an article on the best goodiebag/swag you guys get after e3 is done and dusted.
But... but... ethics!
That's the on-stage rig that I presume will be used for the demos. LOOK AT THAT.
I thought that's what you just got in a swag bag for a second - I was kind of shocked.
Badoink: How long is thing going to be?
An hour, I believe.
Rococo ceiling shot coming up. GET READY.
I mean, guys, where else are you going to get video game conference livetexts with architectural detailing.
This conference definitely has the best intro music so far.
Here we go!
OK, this definitely beats The Last Guardian.
What a great highlights reel for PC gaming. Full screen Minesweeper gets a big laugh.
That's just so PC Gamer. Love those guys.
First guest is John Gibson from Tripwire Interactive - he works on Killing Floor 2.
Oh wow, we're going for a David Letterman-style desk-and-sofa set-up. PC gaming is just so chill.
On the one hand, it's just Killing Floor, but on the other, I kinda wish Doom had been a bit more like this.
Oh no, no, don't continue talking about Killing Floor 2!
"The guts can flow down on top of the blood." That is indeed something.
Creedence! Yeah!
Looks like Tripwire are off to Nam. God I love this song.
Rising Storm 2. I confess, I am not familiar with Rising Storm 1.
Star Citizen! Oh, but Chris Roberts hasn't turned up.
He's speaking from Pinewood studios doing some mo-cap with the INFINITE BUDGET for his video game.
If you have infinite money to make a game, do you ever need to finish it?
Well, I guess we'll find out next year!
Hullo, I've just popped back as I had to jump on a news story. Has Half-Life 3 been on yet?
And now a word from our sponsors AMD.
Is that Hitman that man's talking to? Is this the Hitman reboot?
Oh man, he's going to double-tap the presenter in a sec.
I'm a bit worried about what's in that case he brought on stage.
It looks like you could kill a man with one of those graphics cards.
DrStrangelove: 20 mins in, time well spent
I'm certainly chuffed to see in the morning with this.
"DX12 is going to do what we've always wanted to do with hardware"... yeah, by narrowing the gap to Nvidia.
This is like Pele all over again. Tell us about the time the Swedish lady patted your hair. Back when you had some.
What's inside the box, Richard?
Did I embed a weird nerdy offshoot of the Shopping Channel by mistake earlier? Sorry everyone!
Deus Ex time!
This is a weird set-up. I think I prefer the slightly forced and awkward corporate theatrics of EA and Square to this forced casual approach.
This better get more interesting soon or you're going to have to watch Martin and I chat live about the Le Mans result. This will improve the experience for us, but not you.
I actually loved Square's conference earlier on, it was a real throwback to a different time.
Anyway, these guys, being a little Gallic, really know what to do with their hands. Strong gestures.
GazJF: I'm starting to miss Pele
I've been missing him since he left EA's stage.
Bratterz actually cheered when they started talking about depth of field.
This is a much more prolonged look at the game in action than we got at Square's conference, which is super welcome.
Before we move on to the next guest, on to our house band.
Total War next.
While this goes on, Bratterz is trying to convince me that Total War's amazing. Not enough cars. NEXT.
And Ian just gets confused about why there are griffins in Rome, bless.
We're getting art from the Warhammer game - and, more importantly, Total Warhammer - but it doesn't look like there'll be gameplay.
And that's that - nothing new there, sadly.
This guy!
Are we going to get any newsy news, or is he just shilling what's already been announced?
Are we going to get Halo or Forza on PC?
No, but we'll get Killer Instinct!
That's a good fit, actually. When I was talking to Phil (he let's me call him that) earlier this year, he was saying that Forza doesn't fit into the PC space as there are so many other driving games out there, and the same goes for Halo and its respective space.
He doesn't actually let me call him Phil.
David Eckleberry is a very engaging man to talk to - he's very switched on, and is doing some interesting things wth Legends.
That said, planning for years of content does strike me as slightly optimistic.
Gigantic, the game was announced at GDC this year but we'd all since forgot about.
But also the game with the lovely owls.
I miss the puppets. Like you, DrStrangelove, I miss the CGI trailers. Most importantly, I miss Pele.
Gears of War on PC? It certainly looks that way.
AmicableWalrus: And Pele misses us.
Pele never misses.
Ultimate Edition, the remaster of the original, is coming to PC.
Phil, bring Rare out to talk about Sea of Thieves (which I didn't realise is coming to Windows too) and turn this thing around.
It's nothing like this.
Aaaand all cynicism is thrown out the window as we get to see American Truck Simulator.
Going back to the route of it all, it's worth revisiting Graham Smith's excellent piece on what a PC press conference at E3 could be like.
I think Martin's just fainted.
Eve Valkyrie, and my old IGN colleague Ryan Geddes. Hey Ryan!
Can someone get him some smelling salts?
Oh there you are.
I feel for this show a little - it's had a little too much pressure placed on it.
The result, though, isn't dissimilar to what we see on IGN and Gamespot. It's nice, but it's light.
We've spotted a guy sleeping at the back of the conference. I hope that's not you, Oli.
DrStrangelove: the site died here the very moment I bitched about EG. Sorry, won't happen again
That's okay, we won't ever talk about Destiny again - let's call it even.
All0ut0fGum: @Martin They should have advertised the format of the show, as well as the actual start time.
Well, that might have helped.
Dean Hall's up next, and he should be giving us more detail on his next project.
He's going into some of his influences yet - SpaceStation 13 is a key one, I believe. (I've never played it, sadly).
Ion's done in partnership with Improbable, who are also propping up Bossa's next big joint.
I wonder how long it'll be 'til we get to play this one for ourselves.
First live demo, an hour in. Shoot me now.
I'm being unfair, largely because it's just gone 3am.
Strafe is awesome. I so wanted Doom to be like this, but shiny.
Lusterpurge: Err, when does this end?
It looks like it's going for a full two hours.
Mazzle: Wow the new Doom has got a huge graphics downgrade already? Booo.
lol
There's a lot of cool stuff going on in Strafe - over the top and stylish in its own way.
Classic RPGs next - and this is the expansion to Pillars of Eternity, The White March.
DrStrangelove: guess I have to stay for two hours hoping for the HL3 announcement
It's not happening. It's never happening. Not tonight, not now, not ever. Well, maybe not the last two, but definitely not tonight.
The White March Part 1, make that, so an episodic approach.
Frederik Wester, and the whole team at Paradox, are straight up heroes.
DrStrangelove: the birds are already tweeting again, the annoying tits
The drunks are screaming as they stream outside the office here.
David Braben! The Brabenator! He's forgotten his lines!
It's not Elite he's talking about though.
A Dog's Life sequel? PLEUSE.
I have no idea what I'm watching. But it's cute!
It's... Planet Coaster.
Given the messiness around Roller Coaster Tycoon right now that's great news.
Colin Johansen from ArenaNet is officially the loveliest man in all of video games.
MMO darling Guild Wars 2 and its new expansion now.
I have never played Guild Wars. I've hardly touched MMOs outside of Final Fantasy 14. So I'll admit to being clueless as to what's going on here.
Azumi: Wait...so we get a trailer for a new game but no questions or explanation of how the game will play etc, but they're going to give time to someone for a game that everyone knows about.
It's not their shout, really - developers and publishers are only going to show what they're comfortable showing at any given point in a game's development.
Look at his lovely grin! Seriously the nicest person I've ever interviewed. And I'm now feeling really bad that I haven't played his game in ages.
One more announcement before Guild Wars 2 wraps up - pre-sales are starting right now.
Hitman. Didn't we have this one earlier?
I can't hear what he's saying, unfortunately.
They're styling this out as well as you can.
On-stage snuggling. Not enough of that really.
This is actually one of the better segments but the audience is drifting. People are starting to chat.
I'm drifting too, I'm afraid.
It's a good show, and the intent behind it is great.
But two hours is just too long.
And these extended advert breaks don't help.
A 16 teraflop gaming system! Bosch!
Bang!
Boom!
Is it Richard's severed head?
No, it's a GPU card with two figs in it.
Get 'em quick, special offer for late night viewers only.
We need Rich to tell us whether that was a big deal or not, really.
Arma 3 expansion time.
It's a new map, Tanoa, and it's coming next year.
First half of 2016, that is.
I was just doing a check of how many people we've got left to go through.
Though Sherida's not on the list of speakers.
Anyway, while I do that, enjoy Beyond Eyes - a delightful looking game from Sherida being helped along by Team 17.
I count nine more presentations after this one.
Are they going to three hours?
Wedgwood 2.0 on-stage, who heads up Splash Damage.
They did Brink with Bethesda, are doing Gears with the Coalition.
And you know them from Enemy Territory, of course.
This is the first game that's all their own, though - Dirty Bomb.
It's in open beta, if you care to try it.
I'll put this out there - I really liked Brink!
Fullbright Company, and Steve Gaynor to show us Tacoma.
Someone pointed out that they're just remaking BioShock again, but hey I'm excited for this.
It was shown on Xbox and it's console first on Microsoft's platform. But that doesn't mean it's not actually coming to PC first, of course.
(Stealth edit there)
AmicableWalrus: I've heard that Gone Home is overrated hipster/game journo bait. Is it true?
I felt a bit this way, but most of my peers disagreed with me, including many whose opinions I respect.
Aaand we're onto Frictional, who are working on Soma.
Well that was punchy. There's some good buzz about Soma, we're checking it out later this week.
DayZ now. 3 million players!
They're going to introduce a single-player option, and modding with it.
It's not the middle of the night here in LA, but my chair is REALLY uncomfortable, so in some sense guys I am sharing your pain.
Seriously, you're going to see me get up and walk around and do some stretches in a minute.
Now a trailer for Bohemia's space survival game, Take On Mars.
IT'S CLIFFY TIME
"I like your butt divot." A curiously poetic sentence from Cliffy there.
Psym: Do a Jarvis Cocker at the Brits
I'm voting for that too!
His trainers look new. I bet Cliffy has a new pair of shoes for every day.
kuryo: i think Martin has fallen asleep #sleepyrobinson
I actually popped out for some 'fresh air', so to speak. I'm back, and I'm living. Just.
He's looking like he's enjoyed his success.
A shooter for old men - something I can get behind, and I'm sure a few of could too.
CounterStrike's as good a reference point as any for a shooter - but it's a game I always respect from afar rather than having the backbone to get properly involved.
It's nice to have Cliffy back! Or Clifford or whatever he likes to be called in his maturity.
I can't figure out if Enter the Gungeon is the best name or the worst.
I'm not in the right headspace to make decisions now, though, so I'm just staring coldly at the title.
Bullet hell plus Zelda inspired dungeons equals yes please.
There's some serious squirming in those seats.
Those seats might be uncomfortable, but I can still hear Oli whooping at this one.
Try to resist the temptation to run your fingers through that mane, boss.
Heroes of the Storm is slowly taking hold in the office. Well, Bedders keeps begging me to play it at lunchtime before I slink off to play Splatoon.
liquidsoap89: Is it time for bed yet?
No sleep 'til Gamescom.
Eternal Conflict, a new expansion.
Diablo focus and oh my god that hair.
The way it slinks around, the way it shines in the light.
TREASURE GOBLIN. PLAYABLE SKELETON KING.
I wish I was a Swedish girl so I could pat that hair, and give Chris Sigaty an anecdote for next time he's on stage.
This is better than Half-Life 3.
JonnyC: Is he a young Jeff Minter.
I've become addicted to Jeff's daily livestreams of him feeding his sheep. We should totally set up live reports for those.
Mittens: Just a heads up guys, valve just put up a thing for Half Life 3 on their main site...
Sssshhh, they're talking about the Monk.
Whispers of Oblivion, prologue missions for StarCraft 2's next expansion that are out this June.
Stop it with all this Half-Life 3 nonsense! Next you'll be saying that Shenmue 3's a thing.
(also that site is hyper fake and does the rounds every couple of months)
Blizzard, I believe, will be seeing out the show.
Unless there's one more surprise...
Actually, this'll do just as nicely. No Man's Sky!
It's not too late to get a release date!
(I don't think we're getting one, and I feel bad adding to the not inconsiderable pressure already on Sean's shoulders)
PS4 and PC day and date release.
Sean seems a lot more relaxed in this environment than he did on the Sony stage last night.
At the centre of No Man's Sky is the universe is the release date.
Will you be the first to find it? Well, no - such is the crippling paradox of Hello Games' epic.
OK, well that was an hour late and about 90 minutes too long.
But! It's a good start, and beneath the bloat there were some great moments.
It's a different format, but expectations will be set appropriately next year I reckon - so long may it continue.
And that's most definitely a wrap.
Thank you all for joining tonight, and over the past couple of days.
Of course E3 doesn't stop there. In many ways it's only just begun! *DIES*
There'll be plenty more over the next couple of days from our team on the ground in LA. Right now, though, does anyone know where to get a beer in Brighton at 4.30am?
Thanks again, and farewell!