Kennedy London, Staff Writer 

The Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, is possibly the most important annual event in all of gaming. It is not only a bevy of talented developers showcasing their new games, but it is also a celebration of gaming itself. E3 2019 ended on Thursday, June 14th after the conferences started Saturday, June 8th and the future of gaming cannot look any brighter. The rest of 2019 plus the entirety of 2020 promised one of the most packed and diverse times of gaming that we have seen in recent memory.

The array of games shown runs the gauntlet. The showcases ranged from deep-dives such as DOOM Eternal, Cyberpunk 2077, Watch Dogs Legion, Borderlands 3, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Code Vein, Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Wolfenstein Youngblood, The Outer Worlds, Avengers, Gears 5, Halo Infinite, and Ori and the Will of the Wisps to new announcements such as Gods and Monsters, DEATHLOOP, Ghostwire:Tokyo, Elden Ring, Blair Witch, Animal Crossing: New Horizons,The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening Remake, and the announcement of the Xbox Scarlett. There was something for everyone to enjoy this year.

Whether it is the bloody brutality of DOOM, the nostalgia of Final Fantasy, or the density of Cyberpunk, every game shown reminds us why we love the art of gaming in the first place. The sprawling nature of the culture and the multitude of genres that gaming has covered over decades is amplified every annual E3. With this particular E3, the display of gaming for the next year and a half is looking to rob everyone’s wallets because there is so much content coming. There is more than enough food to eat on the plate and it might be hard to control ourselves.

It does need to be noted that it did not seem like the public received a lot of gameplay during the majority E3 conferences before the main doors opened on June 11th. The dialogue surrounding the conferences of Microsoft, Ubisoft, and Bethesda was that the conferences settled for mere trailers or CGI announcements rather than core gameplay demos. Sony skipped this year altogether. Square Enix and Nintendo were there to bail everyone out due to their loaded gameplay conferences, but the theme generally was less gameplay, more announcements.

Despite that, these discrepancies cannot slight the excitement that this year’s E3 has caused throughout the gaming community. Late 2019 and 2020 is going to be a time that has not happened since 2012-2013 when the transition from the PS3 and Xbox 360 to the PS4 and Xbox One was happening and a plethora of video games dropping in response to that. Classics such as Grand Theft Auto V and The Last of us were released in that timeframe and a few upcoming games have to potential to be modern classics as well.

The pure joy that E3 evokes from the community is such an infectious and extraordinary energy that cannot be matched anywhere else. There is so much passion, hard work, and focus that goes into making a video game the right way. To have an event that celebrates that, it is crucial beyond words.

My personal favorite games of E3 include DOOM Eternal, Watch Dogs Legion, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and Cyberpunk 2077.