Out of all of the E3 press conferences, the PC Gaming Show tends to get largely ridiculed or outright ignored by the vast majority of the gaming community. This year, however, I think the PC Gaming Show did an amazing job of showcasing a huge variety of gaming experiences that are all coming to digital storefronts soon. The PC Gaming Show, much like the Ubisoft Press Conference that came hours before it, adopted a very professional “trailer then short interview with the developers” style that flowed well. This was probably the best paced conference of E3. Hit the jump to read on!
HIGH – Plenty of Games
The PC Gaming Show featured more than thirty (30) games during its entire run-time. These games ranged from high profile games like Star Citizen, Tell Tale’s The Walking, and Just Cause 4 to smaller indie titles like Neo Cab, Overwhelm, and Sable. Each game shown at the PC Gaming Show had its time in the spotlight. Every game was equally presented and although all of the developers didn’t have a chance to talk more about their games, the passion with which the games were made could be felt in their trailers.
LOW – When are these coming out?
Even though a ton of games were shown off at the press conference, an unfortunate recurring theme was that the games just didn’t have a release date, and many others only had release windows. Personally, I have no problem with that because there’s just so many games coming out soon, but in an age where amazing games are released practically every week having a release date or window is kind of necessary for the constant hype cycle that is 2018.
HIGH – Pacing
You know it’s been a long day of press conference when pacing becomes one of the biggest highlights. However, if you spent a whole day watching these press conferences, you’d quickly notice which shows ran smoothly and which ones did not. The PC Gaming Show was far and away the best paced show this year. The format was simple: show a trailer for a high profile, talk to a developer, show a trailer for a smaller title, and repeat. An easily understandable format for a press conference is a very welcome aspect in what should really be a simple presentation.
LOW – No “WOW” Factor
This is a bit of a cheap shot, but the PC Gaming Show suffered from not having many highly anticipated titles. Yes, Star Citizen was shown off, but we still didn’t get any information on it. The conferences before the PC Gaming Show at least had one or two titles that could’ve closed out E3 triumphantly. Now granted, I don’t really think this was the fault of the PC Gaming Show, many of the world premieres at the Microsoft press conference would have made way more sense here than there (I’m looking at you CyberPunk 2077 and PUBG. Hell, you too Fallout 76, remember your roots!)
Honorable Mention – Broken Microphones and awesome hosts
In one of the truly hilarious moments during an E3 presentation, a developer’s microphone malfunctioned right as he began talking. The host, Sean “Day9” Plott, without missing a beat threw his arm around the developer and had the developer speak in to own microphone on his tie just long enough for the other developer on stage to take over. Throughout the entirety of the PC Gaming Show’s existence, Day9 has been hosting the show. This year, was the best I’ve ever seen the show and it definitely benefited by adding a second host to alleviate some of the strain from Day9 as he walked developers on and off of the stage. All-in-all, it was a great show.
What did you think of the PC Gaming Show 2018? What were some of your favorite moments? Let us know in the comments below!
The post The Highs and Lows of the PC Gaming Show first appeared on Pixelated Geek.
