10 Biggest Disappointments Of E3
2014
http://www.gamebasin.com/news/10-biggest-disappointments-of-e3-2014
After big shiny screens, bumbling presenters and a load of games whizzed by in a whirl of colour,
E3 2014 is done, dusted and officially in the history books. When all was over and the final
developers had been shuftied out so the cleaners could come in, it wasn’t a half bad showing from
each of the big three this year. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo all had their moments, with new
games such as Bloodborne, Uncharted 4, Halo 5, Sunset Overdrive and Zelda all being shown while
the companies made a big push to prove that their experience is the best. In the midst of all this
excitement and hype, as everything dies down and becomes calm once more, it’s easier to reflect
on what went wrong this year and what was extremely disappointing. Perhaps we’re all guilty of
going into this one with our expectations far too high and believing in the rumours that always
spring up beforehand, but there were certain elements of this year’s conference that really ended
up being disappointing either by their absence or the way in which they were handled. But what
were the most disappointing moments of this year’s E3? Let’s take a look at how and why we felt
just a little bit of sadness amongst our excitement as we delve into the top 10.
10. Severe Lack Of Half-Life 3

Let’s get this one out of the way early, shall we? Another year has passed and absolutely no
mention whatsoever of Half‐Life 3 has occurred. It’s getting a bit ludicrous at this point. HL3 has
basically become as mythical as most Greek legends, with tantalising details surfacing only once in
a blue moon before promptly being shot down and causing great despair amongst the gaming
community. Perhaps we were a bit stupid to hope that it might actually surface at E3 this year, but
it’s been the best part of a decade since Episode 2 was released and it’s hard not to have just a
little sliver of hope every time a big gaming event rolls round. Hah! Such thoughts are foolish; HL3
still remains as absent as ever, perhaps being worked in the bowels of Valve Towers, perhaps not
even past the concept stage. Who knows at this point? Perhaps it’s all a big massive conspiracy to
drive us insane with longing? The world is ready for another Half‐Life game, but it looks like we’re
going to have to wait a little while longer yet!
9. No Ridiculously Epic Meme Bait

E3 is a glorious event, but it’s an event by gamers, made for gamers. As such, it tends to be a pretty
unique experience filled with great gameplay footage, exciting announcements and – usually and
crucially – game developers and professionals making complete baboon’s backsides of themselves
live on a stage watched by millions. In the past this has spawned forth many memes, ranging from
everyone’s favourite “My body is ready” (spawned forth by Nintendo guru Reggie Fils‐Aime when
he was demonstrating Wii Fit for the first time) to Ubisoft’s ludicrous lunatic, Mr Caffeine (a
gentleman not ashamed of the odd d*ck joke apparently and with a penchant for simulating time
travel with his hands) but this year went particularly well by E3 standards. There was the odd
stumble here and there such as a gent from EA announcing he was overcome by ‘all the feels’
following Dragon Age’s showing, but the catastrophic cock‐ups this year were kept to a minimum.
It’s a shame really; in recent years, these crazy moments have sustained us for months after the E3
they originated in was pants. Thankfully this year’s E3 wasn’t particularly rubbish, so we’re
reasonably okay ‐ would have been nice (in a traditional sense) to see someone completely fall to
pieces though. We’re sure there’s someone out there currently rifling through everything that
happened in a quest to find a good meme. Get cracking people!
8. Bethesda Remain Silent
Although they did go on record before E3 actually happened stating that we’re unlikely to see
anything from them this year at the event, there was still a part of all of us that hoped that the
creative minds behind Elder Scrolls and Fallout were merely pulling the wool over our eyes.
Unfortunately, they told the truth. Fallout 4 was not announced at E3 this year, despite many of us
being ready for a new one. We can only hope that good things come to those who wait! Nor was
anything new on the Elder Scrolls front announced, or anything whatsoever from Bethesda. Is there
still some hope that we’ll see a game from them at another event this year? We hate to be the
bearer of bad news, but probably not. You’ve gotta think something as big as Fallout 4 would be
saved for a big event like E3. Rumours about the new adventure into the post‐apocalyptic
wasteland have been circulating for ages now, with some coming from the guy who played Three‐
Dog in Fallout 3 stating he would be reprising his role and others stating that the new title would

be taking place in Boston. For the moment, we’ll just have to continue speculating whether these
rumours were true. War may never change, but we sure wish that E3 did, had Bethesda only
popped up to say ‘Hello! Here’s Fallout 4, and it’s awesome!’ One can dream.
7. Mass Effect 4 Shown As A ‘Concept’
As Bioware had already gone and announced they were working on Mass Effect 4 or ME: Whatever
It’s Called ages ago, it seemed extremely likely they’d have something snazzy to show us at E3. Yes,
they showed up and shared some stuff about the new game, but it was all a bit vague and gave us
absolutely no information whatsoever. We were also treated to a few ‘concept’ shots of the world
which, in other words, means “We’re not quite ready to show you it properly yet, so here’s
something pathetically small we’ve done to keep you going”. Not good enough Bioware. For Mass
Effect fans eagerly awaiting the new foray into the galaxy on next‐gen consoles, showing this stuff
at E3 just felt like a bit of a waste. We learned nothing, saw nothing and went away feeling dejected
and hurt. Boy, it was like reliving the ending of ME3 all over again wasn’t it?
6. Sony Abandons The Vita

It may have had a shaky start, but Sony’s handheld console really seemed to be picking up
momentum over the last couple of years. PS Plus certainly helps a lot (you get free games for the
handheld every month) meaning Vita owners were getting increasingly great titles steadily. As it’s
part of Sony’s lineup, you’d expect some of the focus of E3 to be diverted away to the handheld.
Unfortunately this wasn’t the case; the bulk of the conference focused on PS4, with brief sections
for Project Morpheus and Sony TV taking precedence. For Vita owners it’s definitely hard not to
feel just a tad dejected. It’s fair enough though; Sony needed to show what their brand new
hardware could do, but would a quick montage of PS Vita games have taken that much time? The
big worry here is that Sony is slowly starting to give up on the Vita and will gradually stop the slew
of content available for it. Does it still factor in to their plans? Probably yes, but nowhere near as
much as the other things they got going down.
5. Samus, Where Art Thou?

Word on the street is that Nintendo’s Wii U ain’t doing so hot. It’s a shame really as it’s a truly
excellent console with some innovative features, just a bit lacking on the game front at the moment
despite being out much longer than the Xbox One or the PS4. Nintendo had to do something about
this at E3 and they succeeded (slightly) with a few great announcements in the form of a brand
new Zelda (complete with super‐nifty explosions, open‐world sensibilities, destructible bridges etc.)
a game where you can make your own Mario stages (called Mario Maker, naturally) and a new Star
Fox. That’s basically most of Nintendo’s flagship characters announced, so where was Samus? It’s
been years now since a Metroid Prime game came out (we’re not counting Other M – that stuff
doesn’t even deserve mentioning) and given how amazing Metroid Prime 3: Corruption was on the
original Wii (perhaps one of the most innovative uses of the Wiimote during its tenure), it seems
baffling that someone, somewhere hasn’t been working on a Wii U‐exclusive Metroid Prime. In
fact, everyone thought a new Samus adventure would be announced last year from Retro Studios.
Instead they announced Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, baffling everyone. On the plus side,
Bayonetta can apparently wear Samus’ armour in Bayonetta 2. So that’s something, right?
4. No News On What Rockstar’s Really Up To
We all knew GTA V would be announced for PS4 and Xbox One at E3 2014, didn’t we? Well, add in
the PC too. Yep, the ridiculously awesome Grand Theft Auto V is going to get even more polished
and be unleashed upon the super snazzy new consoles in the near future, meaning we’ll all
probably buy it again just to love it that little bit more in next‐gen goodness. Aside from this
announcement, E3 snuck by without Rockstar mentioning what else they’re up to. In the build‐up
to the event there were rumours circulating that the developer was working on a new title and
tongues rapidly got wagging. Would it be a new entry in the Red Dead series, or perhaps a return
to Bullworth Academy in Bully? Or perhaps a new IP altogether to tantalise us with its majesty?
Nope, zilch. You got GTA V again, but whatever else Rockstar are up to is being kept under wraps
for now.

3. The Amount Of 2014 Announcements
Boy, I bet
you’re glad you’re an early adopter of the new consoles, right? Part of the criticism leveraged so
far at both the PS4 and the Xbox One is that there’s been hardly any games this early in the lifecycle.
This is fair enough; the start of a console cycle is always slow and begins to pick up gradually as we
move on. Unfortunately, judging by what we saw at E3, practically everything has been pushed
back to a 2015 release date, leaving 2014 looking like a pretty barren year for games. Outside of
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Assassin’s Creed: Unity, the traditional holiday period where
everything comes out is looking a bit like a desolate wasteland. The time period up until then is
looking even worse; it looks like we’ll all have to keep playing Watch Dogs for a couple of months
before re‐buying an older game such as The Last of Us: Remastered or the spruced‐up version of
GTA V. Even Batman Arkham Knight, originally pencilled in for an October 2014 release, was
sneakily knocked back into 2015. We’ll forgive Rocksteady for this treachery as it looks absolutely
incredible, but we’re still saddened by the sheer amount of stuff not coming for another year. But
hey, look on the bright side – how awesome will next year be?
2. The Last Guardian Is Alive, But Doesn’t
Appear

Just a couple of days before E3, IGN posted a completely incorrect article that stated that The Last
Guardian – the spiritual sequel to Shadow of the Colossus that’s been in development since the
dinosaurs roamed the Earth – had been quietly cancelled. This prompted those working on the
team to emerge from the woodwork of secrecy and state that this wasn’t correct and the game
was still being worked on in some capacity. Could it be that the Guardian was finally coming to
show his face once more? With the PS4 out now and all the tools to make the game as awesome
as it needs to be, it seemed likely. Heck, it even seemed plausible. Gamers held their breath all the
way through Sony’s conference and then, when Uncharted 4 was shown, they all sighed and
immediately took to the internet to shout ‘WHERE WAS THE LAST GUARDIAN?!’ Much like Half Life
3, this game has almost become mythical. This was a title that was meant to be out early in the
Playstation 3′s life cycle, and we’re now in the first year of the PS4′s, meaning the wait for those
who loved Colossus has been agonising. We’re calling it now; next year.* *Yeah right. Dream on.
1. Where’s The Gameplay?

When all was said and done, there was plenty to digest from E3 2014. There were loads of game
announcements, exciting things to talk about and several big name developers revealed what
they’re up to. Despite all this, there was one thing that really stood out from the conference; a lack
of actual gameplay footage. This year’s E3 will go down as perhaps the biggest showcase of CGI
trailers known to man. Practically every game from Uncharted 4 to Halo 5 and From Software’s
Bloodborne had a CGI trailer rather than actual playable footage, prompting everyone to go ‘ooo,
shiny!’ before beginning to question whether this will be anything like what we’ll see in action.
These CGI trailers sure do look fancy, but they’re often not representative of the final product. It’s
easy to get wrapped up in the excitement of E3 and forget all this, but wouldn’t it have been much
better to see exactly what we’ll be playing, rather than what we’ll not? Gameplay footage is a must
when advertising a game; not showing makes us think something is wrong and the best trailers
from the event were the ones that actually showed us in‐game experiences. Batman Arkham Knight
and AC Unity both had stellar gameplay showings, hence why we’re all really excited about them.
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