In all honesty, we weren't expecting much from E3 this year. Ahead of time, it bore all the hallmarks of an E3 the year before people start talking about new consoles. With the platform holders manoeuvring behind the scenes and the biggest games in development quietly readjusting their schedules as production managers try to suss out the logistics of going cross-gen or even fully next-gen, the big press conferences become exercises in misdirection. We knew Sony would have nothing new, we suspected Microsoft would have little and we knew Nintendo was focused on Smash Bros. and Pokémon.
And yet still, E3 2018 delivered. We can partly in owning up to the next generation of consoles, and its brisk showcase stuffed to bursting with colourful and enticing games. It certainly set the tone, and the reliably straight-talking CD Projekt followed up with a cheeky admission that Cyberpunk 2077 was due out on the current-gen consoles "", which was refreshing, even if it did take the fun of out the old "which of these games is actually next-gen" guessing game. (It was that one.)
Perhaps we had also forgotten the great thing about the late period of a console generation - it usually means lots of good games. Most of the big publishers turned up with something genuinely and uncynically great in their line-up, there was hardly a loot box in sight, and there were only a couple of hastily tacked-on battle royale modes. Well done everyone.