How The PC Gaming Show Was Secretly The Best Presentation Of E3 Season
Though the iconic E3 didn't actually make its appearance, it was with us in spirit throughout presentation season. Summer is just around the corner, which means only one thing - that video game announcements should rear their heads with such ferocious hype-harvesting abilities that they make us want to cast our sunnies to the wind, pull the blinds, and nestle in for a season of gaming.
And hoo, boy, did 2022 come through with some whopping reveals. Summer Game Fest took E3's spot as the biggest show of the year, and it came through with new looks at some of the most anticipated games of the year, along with the previously leaked first look at The Last of Us Part I, as well as Xbox following up with a whopping slate of reveals.
The titans are naturally pitted against each other by fans, with each corner arguing whether PlayStation or Xbox's reveals stood as the best of the season - but there's much more to this season than reveals alone. And it's for this reason that one, considerably smaller, presentation stood as the strongest.
Gaming Presentations Are Missing A Sense Of Community
Click to enlargeOf course, we tune into these conferences with the sole hopes of seeing some massive game reveals and that we'll get to see gaming history in the making - and in many ways, that's what we got. Starfield gameplay, the reveal of Hollow Knight: Silksong, Resident Evil 4's remake - they all arrived with a flourish and huge love from fans. But, whether it's Xbox's overlord Phil Spencer or everyone's mate Geoff Keighley doing the presentation, there's something about these shows that have felt a little lofty.
Sure, the reveals are exciting in their own right, enough so to make the actual setting of their announcements pretty much redundant - but have we not had enough of squeaky-clean sound stages? The one thing that these presentations seem to miss about what this season is all about, is the communities that make them possible.
It's all well and good to be fed information about upcoming games, but there's little that Summer Game Fest, Xbox's presentations, and even E3, can offer in the way of personal engagement for the community. Well, unless you love sci-fi games. So thank goodness for the PC Gaming Show.
The PC Gaming Show Nailed Its Love Of Video Games
Now, let's be clear - the PC Gaming Show isn't the best of the bunch for sake of its actual announcements. We got some bangers in the shape of System Shock, Dune: Spice Wars, Scorn and the like, but there's simply no way it could stand up to the likes of Starfield and The Last of Us in terms of big reveals. Instead, what the PC Gaming Show gets right is its clear adoration of everything on show.
Though many have already decried the gags offered by presenters Sean "Day[9]" Plott and Mica Burton as a cringefest, they instead come off as incredibly sincere. The goofy jokes, the genuine enthusiasm in presentation, and the personal anecdotes connecting Plott specifically to StarCraft serve as reminders that we're not just dorks lining up to be told about video games - we're all the same, fizzing with excitement to see which focussed communities we'll be lucky to explore next.
Each of the games presented, too, are those with dedicated fanbases and hearty cult followings, much like Nosgard and ARMA. These games are sincerely cared about, and they feel even moreso because it's so easy to feel that excitement for them thanks to the presenters being just as amped.
The PC Gaming Show didn't come through with the absolute showstoppers of the month, but that doesn't matter, because the presentation cared about the games they were showing off as if they were. The presenters really love these games, or at the very least, much more than we can discern from Keighley or Spencer.
Love Is In The Air This Presentation Season
Click to enlargeHuge games are the headliners at gaming presentations, but none of the shows thus far have shown adoration and respect for video games and their developers quite as we saw at the PC Gaming Show. The other shows have the big guns, but this one knew what PC game fans want, because they are those fans. And it's clear to see just from a glance.
If there's any one thing that's missing from general gaming presentation, it's the love and care from the fans who make them a reality, and maybe plonking a figurehead of the gaming industry or the company making the announcements could be an idea worth revisiting. Because even as a console player, I truly felt like part of a community watching the PC Gaming Show. Your move, Keighley.
