E3 2018 Feedback

Hey dear allies! i enjoyed a lot of your content and wanted to say whst i liked and what not. I liked the coverage and in the first line your endless motivation and excitment for the games! Also i liked your classy and handsome look! In this case we all know that the things getting pretty serious! In the positiv way ;) now the things you can improve in coming year: you had a lot of coverage and I think you know that the time is limited. Beside the private life, work and hobbies we all don‘t have a lot of time... the watchalongs are nice and should be there. But can you do the summary of the each show more compact and without rewatching the trailers. Something like the kindafunny people. So we can get the postshow as a 30-60 min podcast. That would be more interesting and wirhout watching. So we can hear you almost everywhere ;) the orher thing is that maybe you should switch the big easyallies screen against the pressconference screen. I thing in thst case we can get more visual Inpressions and gear your opinions. I hope you keep doing this awesome stuff and sorry for my foreign english ;)

Eugen R.

I loved the coverage. My only thought would be to adjust the screen layout so the conference stream is more visible. An example of this would be how Dropped Frames have their stream setup for their E3 watch along. Love and Respect

I don't know how others feel but i really think the framing is off. The conference is simply too small. Maybe look at how giantbomb do theirs as I think it is much better in terms of size. For me it really took something from the Sony conference in particular as I just couldn't see the details the allies were seeing. Other than that, amazing time as always watching all the conferences with you. Just a pleasure. Love and Respect!

When they get too close to the top of the frame I feel like the image is more claustrophobic and closed in so I think it was framed pretty well to avoid that

VGJunky

I feel like it's more natural for them to state out loud when they see signs of something than to just hold it in - since the audience will always be split between people that take a while and people that recognize it immediately. As somebody that follows games 24/7 it's nice seeing that the Allies are on top of it. Only exception is people not saying anything when Huber didn't know it was RE2 remake even though rat + ps1 is a dead giveaway

VGJunky

I am not sure how others feel, but maybe less guessing at what IP the reveal trailers are for. It may only be a moment but it feels like the suprise is undercut when you guys pick up on something we dont recognize.

Morgan Mohalla

I would like to say that the coverage is the best it's ever been. Fantastic job guys! My only real complaint would be rushing allies to give their impressions on stuff. I get that everybody is tired and you want to talk about games asap. However there gets a point where blood has his list and wants allies to charge through it at lightning pace. I know that is efficient and absalutely not blood's fault for being organised and I know you all struggle for time. I would rather extra time be taken to talk about these games at a later date when allies could be more relaxed and spend as much time as they want on a game. L&R

Watching the Easy Allies coverage of E3 cemented for me why I love this space in the gaming multiverse; astronomical expectations and hype going into the week and 100% satisfaction throughout all the way to the end. You guys nailed it! From your heart on your sleeve conference reactions and highly informative games impressions to the palpable joy as you walked the floor and your commitment to fitting in all your core content with an E3 twist; Noodles and Broth and Huber Syndrome were a personal highlight. Your fun, laughter, camaraderie and passion for the industry and each other is food for the soul. Entering the Easy Allies portal is like arriving at a beloved theme park, it is all at once reassuringly familiar with secrets to discover and new attractions to explore. A few thoughts; I’d like to see stronger, impactful panel introductions at the top of all content really but specifically for; conference reactions, impressions and podcasts especially for newer viewers to EZA, to help establish rapport through statements of expertise and authenticity and of course with your jovial style e.g. Ben Moore! Game journalist and reviewer, EZA’s JRPG guru, D&D games master, host of Frametrap and all round good guy. I’d like to see stronger branding of EZA which could have been represented in your outfits, possibly in the back drop and if you are going to use a desk, on the front of it – I’m sure there will be greater versatility when you get into a studio. And lastly, though I have no doubt you’ll be in a studio by next year; for the love of all things gaming, lose the curtain. I understand why it is there, the problems are that it flattens the output by destroying all depth of field, intensifies the feeling that you are squeezed into the desk even though you aren’t, clashes with the varied outfits worn by the panel and makes you all look like you are giving out name badges at a conference rather than the expert panel. Without physically seeing the garage studio space and the obstructions and restrictions to set display I can’t make any specific suggestions but I’m sure you have contacts with set design experience who could make suggestions should it become necessary going forward. Thank you for all that you do! L&R Elliot M

Elliot Moscow

Probably have already been pointed out but I would love it if you could change the framing during reactions so that you guys are all the way at the top. Then you could have the stream larger while keeping you the same size so that everyone can still see your reactions. It felt really off with 30-40% of the screen just showing curtains and part of the desk. Otherwise, love watching the live reactions with you! L&R

I think this was probably meant for the L&R section above. :)

BeatenDownBrian

I thought it was great, I'd just say everything felt very serious. You guys are pros, most of your fans won't deny that, but I think we all appreciate when things get crazy in the garage and everyone's just laughing and going kinda crazy. I know there's no concrete way to kickstart this, so my only advice would be just to relax and have fun, don't take things too seriously or too rigidly. I had a similar feeling with the Awards show where I missed all the sillier categories that are, at least for me, often my favorites... Love & Respect and thanks for everything you do, it was truly amazing

Rodrigo Aoun

Objective: Show us why we need the next console generation. Reward: You get to name the next Xbox.

Snowcone Guy

I would prefer a video about the E3 winners with source material from the trailers and Jones VO it. I don't like watching you debating over stuff like this, that's why I don't watch Hall of Greats as well. But I think there are people who like lenghty debates... Overall I miss more produced videos. All the lengthy live stuff is just not for me. It's just the debating. I love post E3 talks where you share your impressions and reactions.

Sebastian

Ace work on your guy's coverage! :D

ConeZone

Really loved the E3 coverage! Would love it if you could reconsider a few things: 1) Salad cam. I know the argument against it was that people were tired and didn't want to be on cam the entire time, but when it's on, it feels so much more inclusive and jolly. Maybe there's a way to designate a no-cam area for allies who want to rest, and a perma-on salad cam area for those who don't mind being on cam, so we're not dependent on PC person flicking it on and off all the time? 2) More on point timing. I was not super thrilled with how the Bethesda? post-show ran into the beginning of the PC gaming show. I don't think it was that important enough to shaft the beginning of the PC show - hopefully someone can flash a sign in the background giving a 10/5min warning and they can wrap it up super quick, or just finish up that postshow with the next press conference's post show. 3) More communication on delays. I realize the issues that led to the T/W impression delays were out of EZA's hands, but we were left adrift in chat as to what was going on - a quick note on whatever social media you guys can reach and an ETA (even if not super accurate - 'we're trying for 8:30! Sorry still delayed, now trying for 8:45ish!') would be greatly appreciated next time! Still, the above are still minor quibbles. I was glued to EZA's stream the entire week and can't wait for next year!

I just looked at GB video and I totally agree. I know that would ruin the sub feed ticker and other things but for the actual conference I think that's spot on. We can see a little bit of everything. I'm sure its not as easy as a light switch but could their be a conference layout and a post show layout? Random link for reference. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFPxAH-MeZU&amp;t=751s" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFPxAH-MeZU&amp;t=751s</a>

Zugdar

I think the sound of the videos streamed of the different trailers and conference could have been higher than your mics. Just a little detail.

Kasual7

Guys, it was fantastic! There is always room for improvement of course, but as someone who has always enjoyed the conferences, your coverage has increased my enjoyment of it all tenfold. I really can’t complain.

Ryan Hegarty

Either watch the Devolver conference or don't. It just made things awkward having to split my attention between you and them. Don't half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing.

Great experience! But please keep quite during Trailer that are about the story and some lore, ecspecially Ian, kinda annoying smh, and skip Devolver completly. Love and Respect and sorry for my english

Only one critique. I respect the decision to keep you guys big and the feed small, but it creates a big problem for those of us who wants it full screen and you on an other screen. Since you're using the Twitch feed, it's impossible to sync up with the actual stream, since Twitch doesn't allow delaying the stream to be a few seconds behind. My only option here is to have the Twitch version on the full screen, which puts it a few seconds ahead of you, which is not optimal. (Can't use Youtube to sync up since it's always like 30 seconds behind Twitch) My request: Think about using Youtube next year, or any other slightly delayed version, so we can have Youtube on our full screen and sync it up with your stream. You have used Youtube in the past and that worked great for me. (Another possible workaround is that EasyAllies also streams on Youtube at the same time, that way I can sync up both Youtube streams easily.)

Great coverage as usual. I find myself less able, as years go by, to watch actual video, so I'm just never available to watch the long conference reaction videos, as much as I would like to. Would it be at all possible to throw the audio up on one of the podcast feeds for people to listen to? I still find the commentary really valuable, even if I can't match it with the visuals.

Please don't write off the PC gaming show as less important. And less curtains, the garage has a feeling of home and is warm and appealing. L&amp;R Davor.

I thought the coverage was excellent this year. Two comments: 1. The new graphics went a LONG way, that stuff looked so sharp and I loved it. Please consider revamping the graphics you guys use on all your streams from now on... no need to go back to the chunky font! 2. I would strongly recommend you guys make use of a utility called Livestreamer (<a href="http://docs.livestreamer.io/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://docs.livestreamer.io/</a>). Don't rely on the Twitch app or on an HTML5 player; pipe the raw video straight into VLC. This would have avoided the problem of those overlays and popups on the Bethesda conference. Congrats on a great year! Looking forward to E3 in a studio next year!

Believe it or not we covered 60 games during those impressions blocks. And part of that 80 was getting multiple allies to the same games for better discussions. We do have a few leftovers coming in Frame Trap, but otherwise there were just a handful we didn't talk about, and those were largely because the demos didn't leave us with much to say about them. -Bloodworth

Easy Allies

First off, always keep the allies big/ conference small setup. I'm watching for you guys just as much as for the conference. If I just wanted to watch the conference I could do that separately. This is the 3rd year where I keep seeing people asking why the conference isn't full screen, so I don't know if some sort of disclaimer would help or what. Secondly, I feel like I remember Blood saying you guys had something around 80 appointments or so at the show, but watching the Impressions, it seems like you only covered half of that, if even that. If there are still more impressions left over and you don't have time to do it live, then you should be recording something when you have the time to do so. Lastly, more salad cam! Haha.

Minamik

Things were generally improved this year, so there are only six issues that are coming to mind for me: 1. The plain grey colour chosen for the curtain looked beyond cheap. Black/red or royal blue/red, or perhaps very dark purple would've looked way sharper. Also, the way the curtain was fully lit kind of stuck out. Some gentler, kind of concert hall style highlights on it would've been swell. 2. There was a point where the conference feed dropped out, and quite some time was taken to switch to a backup. A backup should always be on standby to be brought up within a couple of seconds. 3. The main camera looked darker compared to the side cameras, which looked great, though... 4. ...they were kind of in odd positions (see <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rEnyH2BYQw" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rEnyH2BYQw</a> @ 3:30). If there are five people at the table, the side cameras should be aimed at three people on one side and two on the other, not three in the middle and one on the side. 5. I would've liked to see you cover the Limited Run Games conference. Yes, a lot of it was re-releases, but there was still a fair bit of interesting stuff in there. 6. Cutting to a standing shot doesn't work. I don't know if you can do this, but quickly zooming out the main camera is the way to go for that.

TurboChickenMan

Having all 9Allies for all press conferences is a rediculous request because some of them (Bloodworth) for instance will be attending certain pressers in person. This never happened at GT either. The famous 2015 Sony reaction that started it all, it was only Kyle, Brad, Ben, Ian (on the tri-caster) and Elyse! I agree letting us know who will be there for each conference in a more promoted way would be great though.

The only thing i could think of is i would prefer if possible a little more transparency as far as if people will be missing conferences. Kyle announced that he wouldnt be there the friday right before e3 in his night stream. I just hope for a little more transparency because some of us are expecting to have all 9 of you for the streams so was a little disappointed that didnt happen. Hope that for next e3 with the studio and effort is place to have all 9 allies for all the pressers. Thanks l&amp;r

Isaias Sanchez

Low point: Ben asking people to pull his devil trigger. High point: Kyle giggling in the background like a mad man every time the Pull My Devil Trigger song played.

Is it possible to make a hard choice on Devolver? Either show it or don’t show it. I would prefer you did but I definitely don’t want it randomly popping up over and over while you guys are trying to discuss things.

Heru Muharrar

I know your tongue in cheek, but we had no way of knowing SE would be guttertrash, while PC showcase actually worth watching this year, when history has shown otherwise:p

That seems in this case partially Ubi's own fault as they were limiting youtube/gaming sites from posting their conference footage after it streamed live, why?? No idea. Because of this, it went live on YouTube much later..it did go up though. The other part was the awkward timing of some conferences this year..

Yup, came to post this. The lav mics have different issues when it's just their voices, on the pre and post shows there's just no range on them, S's make for a harsh noise and it manages to pick up a lot of ambient noise. Once the presentations start, their voices at normal level just melted into the conferences and can't hear the allies speak much at all unless volume picks up out of excitement. That said, some of those issues could be rectified in a studio instead of a garage, so some of these kinks might be gone next year!

Skankman

Without curtain we wouldn't have had the Gengar reveal so I'm fine with it

VGJunky

I loved all of your E3 coverage. My only real criticism was the lav mics - which I like in principle - but I feel the mixing was wrong. I feel like there has to be a way to make the wireless mics sound more rich and crisp like your desk mics, so maybe it's just continued tweaking that is needed. But if that cannot be achieved with your current mixer then perhaps it is worth going back to the desk mics for the full show, or perhaps eventually in the studio, a boom mic setup of some sort. I had no issues with impressions and reactions running late, or running into other conferences. E3 is chaos, part of the appeal is to just get all the emotions out immediately following and not postpone those moments to time constraints.

Jon White

Most things have already been mentioned so I don’t have much to add. I totally agree on the curtain comments. I personally don’t really like it, I feel like it takes away a lot of the personality of the garage and makes the place look a bit small and cheap. I might update this part later as I have a specific example but there were a few times where you might have been switching hosts or something like that and the screen overlay didn’t really mention what was going on. Due to this, chat would be flooded with messages asking are the Allies live, have they finished, what’s next. I think it’d be good to have something relatively centre of the screen to avoid that. Just let people know there is a quick change, or whatever it is.

Tim O'Keeffe

Overall it was excellent content guys, congrats. Reactions, discussions, floor coverage was great. The only feedback i would give is, yeah, the curtains are kinda ugly lol, but new studio next year, right?.. .right?? Also, maybe a side camera? something like the screen junkies do on their "movie fights" (camera facing the couch) These are all visual observations because im a designer ;) but i really love everything you do, cheers!

I think there was a missed opportunity Saturday, after EA's conference to live stream the shadow dropped Unravel 2. Any other shadow drops could be streamed too if there's a chunk of time between conferences that isn't taken up by pre or post show, or an awesome segment where you bring in guests.

POKEY CLYDE

TBH the only thing that bothered me was the RED &amp; GREY curtain !!! I'm ok with the game screen beeing small compared to allies cause that's a reaction channel. But that curtain has got to go sorry !!! :D Anyway, you'll be in the studio soon so I don't even know why i'm posting this !!! I absolutely loved all the work that was put in pre production layouts, specially the pre stream animated schedule listing audio tracks.

tahitianwarrior

Loved it. Maybe Damiani sharing his "secret knowledge" on "Unannounced Activision" products so that the Souls enthusiasts can get their spot in. But do it in some unspoilery way. The suits were a nice touch. But if it gets too hot, I don't mind you guys going business casual or nude. We're all allies here, no need to be formal. Impressions being in smaller chunks as video uploads later would be swell. Some were small and others were like hours long. Unrepentant Bosman needs to repent. Loved the duo feed of the allies watching the gameplay in the background as they gave impressions.

Star Tsurugi

1. During the press conferences/showcases, we need to have a much larger portion of the screen dedicated to what the vendors are showing, vs having more than half the screen taken up by allies on camera. 2. I'd like to see more candid show floor coverage, the segment with Huber running around talking with fans was outstanding. Add to that some conversations with booth personnel / developers / vendors showing off their wares. 3. We need clear communications, with hyperlinks as to where and when we can find your coverage (YouTube, Pateron, Twitch, etc) and if we miss something, a table of contents, so to speak, of where we can go back and watch the archived footage. 4. This may be difficult to pull off, but when doing post show analysis of games, it would be nice to see gameplay footage of said game, when the Allies are actually talking about it. 5. Keep up the great work, seeing how many new subscribers/paterons you gained, it's obvious you are doing it right!

I must say the only bad thing was that there was so much content that i'm still not finished watching everything, which isn't really a negative

Ydra

As mentioned in other comments one of my favourite things to come out of EZA E3 is the E3 huber syndrome and easy update, show floor vibes are great and love seeing interaction, booths and demo stations. I know kyle was busy but would have loved to see him or anyone for that matter go through RE2 booth and to get live reactions

Mr moo

Loved the coverage. I would say for improvements I would personally rather see condensed video(s) for the E3 awards with nominees and winners and a quick explanation why rather than the whole drawn out delineation, but I know you like to stream it now. I would at least say try to shorten that a bit. Picking out best trailer went way too long

I'll second this. I think Ben, Ian &amp; Huber could do excellent job at this. Just an extension of what they already did. There was some overlap with the games the Allies played, would they be willing to sacrifice some of that? :)

Lauri Laivo

I know the shows for the reactions for the conferences were about your reactions but it sometimes was hard/impossible to follow a segment since your were talking about other things ( e.g. Bethesda's early QuakeChampions presentation) or laughed it of as not that important (CL being added to FIFA ....really?) or didn't know very much about the game/subject but still talked about it a lot (Quake Champions again ....that char wasn't from Rage...). All in all you had an A+ coverage but please don't talk thaaaaaat much since i dont have the time to watch the conferences twice. L&amp;R

A Huber mic yell sound check might be worthwhile.

Agreed. Twitch archive was where I often ended up going, but it is finicky, and it seemed like everything was more delayed than usual (potentially because there was too much content for the site to handle during E3?). As a result, I didn't watch much for nightly impressions, just the press conferences.

I wish we could get more on floor coverages. Like interviews, exploring booths, talking to devs, meeting other people at industry, talk to fans and footage of the show through EZA’s perspective. I feel like the Allies had too many appointments and all we get from them are just a few minutes of talking about some game that not many people saw or interested. Perhaps we could use that time in better ways, including some rest

Stan

I was a bit confused as to where the content was. I view everything through patreon, so found it in the end on youtube, but wasn't clear what the schedule was or where to find it. Probably 90% user error but still.

I think the coverage went really well for the this year. Jones mentioned it on the last episode of COJ, but the idea of having an early and late crew sounds like a really good idea. There’s really no need to have any more than 4-5 people be there at any one time during impressions, and you could rotate the days that you’re on the early or late shifts to make sure everyone can get a little more sleep, because there was a few of the nights where it was very clear we were looking at some extremely tired people. Glad to hear you’re thinking about making the conference bigger next time. I get that reactions are important for some people, but there is definitely some room for compromise. Just having it be a little bit bigger would probably be enough, as it seemed really cramped this year, and having to squint your way through a press conference is not ideal. Lastly the PC conference has continued to show improvement each year, and it had some really cool stuff this year. I’d like to see you guys cover it more next year, and then do impressions/ratings for both Ubisoft and the PC show together at the end.

BeatenDownBrian

Something that bugged me is that the garage felt small (it is small), backdrop a little to tight up to the panel. Maybe zoom out a little to get space on the side of the panel, or less people around the table. Clip-on-mics had a spacious sound, that needs to be tweaked/practiced more. I think it's good that you changed to the podcast mics when doing impressions. I'm pretty sure this will be fixed with a dedicated studio. E3 2019 countdown starts... right now!

David Barka

Be more realistic about your schedule. We all know you need breaks but as someone who hopped on for Sony and the pre-show coverage was late it bummed me out. Surprises happen but I’d say try to plan and stick to those deadlines more. Schedule hard breaks for everyone and give more time for transportation.

Bdun912

I guess its mention multiple times but i love to see more coverage from the show floor. I was a little bit disappointed about the lack. A few more developer interviews or other stuff direct from e3 would be great. doesn't matter if indie, small or triple a (in a jim sterling voice) developer. perhaps combining this with your impression videos. in some way.

I mostly like a lot of your E3 coverage. A job well done, so congratulations and thank you for everything! Some notes: - The actual stream screen in the middle was ok, but there could've been some margin to make it a little bit bigger still and frame the panel a bit differently. Worked well also as it was, though. - The people who sat beside Damiani could've needed an additional mic for them there. Not a big issue, but still. - Maybe consider the panelists better for some of the press conferences, meaning make sure everyone has something to say on the matter. Five people behind the table isn't mandatory if only three or four of them have something to say. - I'm not sure of the benefits of "covering" some of the smaller games you saw at the show floor later in the evening in a more or less rapid-fire way. I mean, you don't have to schedule your days crazy in the actual show floor if you'll only then have a three-minute briefing about that particular game later on. I'm not sure if that benefits anyone. - Ignoring Nina Struthers was a tragedy.

Ville Ranto

I wish you guys would have watched the Devolver Digital conference.

I agree with the survey idea! Not only for e3 but for general feedback as well

44stars

I was mostly happy with the coverage and to be honest I'm not sure I can think of parts that need improving and put that into words without going back and reminding myself (which would take a while seeing as you guys shot so much stuff!). Maybe it's worth sending out a survey for these kind of things with a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 10 (strongly agree); I'd find that easier to wrap my brain around and it'd give Brand Manager some all important stats :)

My main gripe was the wide shot of you all at the table being too tight all through the show. Ditto the medium shots from the side. Watching on my TV, everyone is crammed right up against the edge of the screen and it’s just not necessary to make it feel ‘cosy’. Feels claustrophobic. Apart from that I think you did brilliantly.

hellsfoxes

Side-camera angle was badly placed this year. Most of the time person on the left was hidden and you could barely see them which was also an issue if there was a 3rd person. Like Bloodworth had to bring himself in front of the camera because he was hidden(hope it's not an issue next year when/if you guys are in a studio). I would have prefered the panorama like style we had once on stream testing back in April/May but it was ok most of the time this year sticking with the usual screen at the middle bottom. Not having side-cam during discussions was sad. Hearing but not seeing how others react to allies discussing on a table didn't feel right. Don't underestimate the power of visuals. I think you guys did a good job in many areas. Maybe figuring out how to avoid having a long list of games that get snubbed from impression is a good thing to aim for next time.

Trung Nguyen

Not sure if this is a good idea or even possible, but have you guys ever thought about holding off on the hands on impressions until the week after E3 - at least for some games maybe? Reason I say this is partially so you guys could get more sleep, which might put you in a better mind set to talk about these too. Might also be a good way to drip feed content out for a few weeks instead of slamming it all in at once and maybe overloading people with it. I wanna say though, I thought you guys did great and the above isn't a complaint at all on how you did things, was just a thought I had. L&amp;R

Jan, I'm having a little trouble understanding your first comment about the archives on YouTube. Everything was posted, clearly labeled, and put up as fast as I could. There are no impressions hidden inside of other videos except Noodles and Broth which is its own unique segment. -Bloodworth

Easy Allies

Seeing more of the show floor would be cool, I know we got Huber Syndrome and EZ Update but they only came out right at the end of the week.

Cash

I have only one single complaint, the size of the conference VS the size of the CAM I would much rather you did something similar to giant bombs E3 coverage, they have a clean trim that they put their cam in check it out!

Jesse.P

I also consume most EZA content while driving, so would love to have audio only impressions straight into the early access podcast feed. I don’t have much data on my plan so streaming a 4 hour youtube video while out and about is not possible for me.

being in a different time zone i had to watch some of the coverage via the twitch archive, although the game music in the in between time was good several times you went from game music straight into a segment and it was muted from copyright so i lost the intro to some sections like the start of noodles and broth is muted. (i way prefer watching things on twitch for the chat archive so youtube isn’t my preference) maybe give some more lead time to avoid this or use the podcast music before going into a new segment

sam

My only complaint is the mics. We need better mics, removing them and shuffling around was not my problem however, it was the fact that this is E3 and everyone gets excited at the same time, and this causes the mics to get overloaded and it's really bad audio when everyone is shouting in excitement. Also Damiani keeps covering his mouth or looking down which constantly changes the audio constancy. Same with Huber getting excited he loves to put his hand to heart and smack that mic around. I just don't think these mics are for you guys, I think your going to have to ask kinda funny where they got their mics, since they always have good audio and they don't cover the face.

Loved the coverage, well done. Much higher production values (camera, on-screen graphics, cutting). Just two things: It was hard to keep track of all the videos. For example, there were 8 (?) impression rounds but during E3 there were less videos on YouTube labeled "impression". Instead some impression rounds were hidden in other videos. Not all conferences and shows got their own videos, some stuff was only on Twitch for some time and then renamed for YouTube and so on. So all in all it wasn't easy to keep track. The second thing: Please don't show the allies videos the audience can't see. It is not much fun or interesting when the allies look off-screen and comment on something we can't see. But, as I said, Easy Allies was THE place to be for E3 coverage and it is not surprising you guys earned so many new followers. Keep up the great work!

I say do what's natural. the moment of realization of what something is - that is pure joy and only comes once

VGJunky

I know it's difficult to control the hype, but please refrain yourselves from trying to guess the game as soon as a reveal trailer starts. There's no benefit or value in shouting out the name of the game before anyone else. At best you are only covering with your voice some dialogue that would actually help understanding th context of the presentation. The only case where it was justified was damiani identifying the fox sound FX in that Ubisoft toy robot game. Let's all together rejoice in the moment of the reveal, that's what we are here for. L&amp;R

Federico

I was only able to watch live stream of Sony Conference and replays on youtube for other conference. 1. Kindly show all allies from the switcher and couch on the same feed so we can see atleast everyone's emotion or reaction when they are throwing comments. 2. If there will be an overlapping press-conference, will it be a disservice if you delay the reaction until all conference is done? I hope my comments make sense or even valid. thank you!

King Poh

haha you could catch people crawling under at times

VGJunky

I enjoyed that each conference had a moderator. They were well prepared and had good topics to cover in the preshow. Also enjoyed how they lead the post show discussions. For impression nights I would like to see a concrete list of games that will be covered each night. Announced before the stream or during.

please continue having the ratio of Allies to conference be the same as it has been. The best part of the RE2 reactions was seeing the subtleties of everyone realizing it's RE2, before Huber gets all jolly and hyped! The subtleties would've been harder to see if the Allies were on a small part of the screen. It's about the Allies, I can go watch the full screen conference elsewhere

jif52

Overall, it was fantastic, almost perfect from my POV. 2 points of criticism: if you encounter annoying annotations or issues with a stream (Ubisoft's conference had those annoying ads), switch to another feed. YouTube's feed didn't have those ads on its Ubisoft stream. Also, during the pre-preshow (when DJ Damiani plays music), I suggest having a countdown to the preshow within the graphics overlay. There was a countdown to the actual conference, which is cool, but it led to confusion as to when the preshow would begin. Many sporting events on TV are advertised by when their network's pregame show begins (using the term "coverage begins at...."). I suggest the EZA E3 coverage does the same

jif52

With all the new equipment and very little prep time, it's hard for me to be overly critical of the coverage that you guys did such a good job with. Most of the things I would point out I'd have a hard time thinking you already haven't pointed out yourselves. But I'll see what stuck out for me off the top of my head. 1) There was alot of live calls on cutting mics and other things. This is probably something that could be handled over an instant message from the desk laptop to the switcher. 2) Camera shots, framing and mic checks should be handled prior to the show. Too often it seemed as though framing the person hosting or the other side panelists was at extreme closeup and not well framed between each broadcast. Also in that vain was even though the Easy Allies logo had to be removed due to equipment failure, it never really was in frame even before getting removed. This really is something I feel you need to have for both branding and discoverability in the thumbnail for when people are just browsing live events on Twitch. It's a professional look that at a glance differentiates what you guys do from someone streaming from their garage. (Yes I realize the irony...) Honesty I feel all of these as moot because I see things changing drastically between this E3 and the next show. Especially if the studio comes to fruition and you all have proper rampup time.

Justin Greene

As someone who mostly consumes your content while driving, I’d love it if I could download audio-only versions of all your hands on impression discussions. Otherwise everything was great.

Corey Swafford

You guys did amazing just keep it up and good luck on the probable studio in the near future. The only thing your E3 coverage lacked was more disappointment on utterly no FF7 remake news, please share my pain. I absolutely can not wait for the new things you guys have in store for us and I wish all of the 9 allies best of luck. L&amp;R4L

Jeffrey Tessar

Let me preface this by saying that's it's an extremely small nitpick because there's very little that I thought could be done better, you guys killed it this year. Also, I know it gets late, you're all tired and loopy etc. so it's understandable. However, before E3 you all asked for suggestions, and there were two things I brought up: A. Making sure that game titles are updated in a timely fashion on-screen during impressions. Unfortunately, there were several instances where it had to be called out in chat to update the lower third to the game being discussed. On the day 8 impressions video it says Team Sonic Racing at the bottom for nearly 50 minutes. Again, very minor since timestamps in the description on YouTube helps, it just isn't the best it could be. B. Having multiple stream feeds (Youtube, Twitch, Mixer, etc.) ready to go if one is buffering, dropping frames, out of sync, etc. I don't remember which conference it was but there was a bit of a buckle during one, and again it would be ideal to mitigate that as much as possible but it seemed like there was scrambling to fix it. So yeah, those are my things that probably only I care about since I brought them up before, sorry to go on so long about stuff so minor, just want things to be their absolute best.

Nicholas Poer

I agree!

MizRacy

I actually appreciated the fact that they had rotating hosts, but I do wish they had planned things out a bit more for consistency's sake. I specifically referring to instances like the Devolver "conference". Maybe have a short "host script" so that everyone has the same intro and outro, too. This would help prevent awkward welcomes and sign-offs and make sure that EZA info (name, YT channel info, Twitch info, Patreon info, Twitter info) is provided for new viewers during every single conference. This would also make editing a bit easier.

MizRacy

I need more epic Damiani reaction shots in the Betting Specials! ^^ &lt;3 Seriously though, I thought you guys did a great job, especially with the busy schedules and lack of sleep. That said, I agree with the other posters who said that they'd like to have more dev/artist interviews. Damiani, your special segment was really nice, too. I hope that once you guys get a studio that you'll be able to make more of this kind of stuff happen. I would also like to see more reaction from those members not at the main desk. I think you and Ian did a great job including the switcher camera this year considering it was really the first time you've had this set-up, but I hope that this is more constant and fine-tuned next year. We often missed out on your, Ian's, Blood's, and Kyle's reaction to things because of the limited space. Hopefully, a new studio will help sort this out a bit. L&amp;R

MizRacy

The big thing I missed most was having more allies chiming in during the conferences and discussions. For me, EZA E3 2016 was the best year for this since we had the side cam (3-4 allies) and the desk cam (5 allies) on during the conferences and discussions. This is an example of (IMO) your best coverage: <a href="https://youtu.be/JwS3LMVzIBI?t=58m51s" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/JwS3LMVzIBI?t=58m51s</a> Hopefully, having a studio will help you do more like this.

selfconfessedcynic

Ditto on the Devolver and PC coverage. No half assing please. Either cover them or don't. I'm fine either way.

LeeLore

I was very happy with the E3 coverage overall, even if equipment changes weren't very visible outside of the occasional cuts, which can be chalked up to inexperience. The reactions and long E3 conversations were great! I can only suggest that potentially a new set-up would be nice that can get more allies on-stream since there always seemed to be one person who was dressed up on the side who could have also contributed something too, but I understand that juggling six people would be difficult and with the screen size and size of the garage, hopefully can change when you get the studio! Otherwise would like to see Brandon and Kyle be there for every conference if possible since they're great hosts and have unique reactions, but I understand it's difficult with Jones being an E3 judge.

Cyber6x

"integrate community questions" This. I think one of the best little changes has been how the Nintendo podcast injects the questions into the episodes. It makes it feel less of a long discussion and more like a dialog.

Zugdar

I agree with a lot of the sentiment being presented here. My only emphasis would be for you guys to get those $400 mics that Jones mentioned on this week's Cup of Jones. It seems like it would be a great compromise between the flexibility of the table mics, and the viewability of the lavs.

Alex Castellanos

I think my only comment this year (which some Allies have already commented on) was how of lavs v. table mics effects the dynamics of the stream. While lavs on paper should allow for the Allies to be more dynamic, I think that was negated by the amount of downtime it took to switch them whenever Allies traded from the desk. The table mics allow for more of the rough-and-tumble excitement that we kind of expect from E3. But that's a tiny, tiny note. I loved the graphics, I loved the B-roll and switcher, I loved how tight and organised everything felt. Thanks for a fantastic week of streams. L&amp;R

James McCoy

Honestly? You guys crushed it this year. You did a really great job adjusting to things as they arose, like switching from the lavs to the table mics during impressions because it made things go faster.

Jeremy Pick

Another Tiny thing. I like everybody else Loved the graphics, however I noticed that there's a tiny bit of the blue background showing below the Current Topic/Ticker graphics. I assume the idea was that it would make everything feel like it fit together in the same package, however I don't see the point in it, seeing as the Current topic/ticker graphic itself does that job. Take that out next year and put the "Current Topic" bar at the very bottom, and you save 20 pixels vertically that could be used for more headroom on the main camera in case people stand up, or just to make the conference feed a little bit bigger (like 5%... That's 34338 extra pixels!)

GermanScientist

I'm gonna chime in and say that I don't agree at all with comments saying that the conference window should be bigger, it's perfectly sized the way it is and any bigger would cover up the very people i'm trying to watch the conference with aka you lovely gentlemen, so I really am against that changing. I don't want the conference window to overtake seeing you guys at the size you are now on screen as that's half the joy of watching with Easy Allies. The one thing I will agree on though is more audio testing of your new mics and equipment to smooth out having to make multiple large adjustments constantly, especially during important events like E3. Same goes for any headphone audio issues, if possible maybe have some back up headphones in the future in case something isn't working right? A last point that I noticed is some of the font choices for the new scrolling graphics. I feel like the super thin font type might not bring enough attention to what's written in that section, including the patreon link. If that could be a bit thicker perhaps so more people might take notice of the information there since I barely looked at it the entire time I was watching you guys live. Otherwise this was a real step up this year in terms of production quality and I loved it!

Heilos

I agree

Sven Van Lathem

Please do not change the ratio of Allies/livestream during the conferences. I want to see you and your reactions mostly (and all those views on Youtube are because of that) and the livestream display isn't tiny at all, in my opinion it's more than enough.

I always take off work to watch the E3 press conferences every year. And for the last 2 years I have enjoyed your E3 coverage the most. Other than a few obvious technical issues, you guys did great. I think it would be awesome if you also went back and watched some of the older E3 press conferences. Seeing some of your reactions to Sony 2006, Konami 2010 or Mr. Caffeine would be fun. Just a thought I had. Anyway keep up the great work.

Shoulderguy

I can't find my comment I made earlier so instead of risking a double post I'll just agree with everything here. I would prefer having the conference be the larger screen as that helps us see a good view but I get why it is the way it is. Loved the guests, graphics and nighlty feedback. I tried to do what you did to get a good view and also try to balance over the occasional chatting but it was never synced up well so I just stuck with the EZA feed. I think audio is what bugs me more. I love the reactions (of course) but I think the chatter in between can be distracting at times. I know it sounds nit pick but chatting during a longer gameplay demo is fine. It's just that 15 to 30 seconds after an accountent when details are dished out that can get lost.

Zugdar

Totally agree with this.

Hedgey

Truly incredible coverage guys, your voices and impressions were the defining source of E3 coverage this year. I agree with others above, the main thing I would change is how small the conference screen is compared to that of yours during conferences. It was often tough to see the gameplay unfolding when it is 1/4 the size of you in the background. Apart from that, I can't praise you enough guys. L &amp; R

Great coverage! I only have one small takeaway. It would be nice to have a produced video for your E3 awards, similar to what you did with GOTY.

Lucid Ludwig

More interviews with devs on the floor would be great. Overall though, it was a great experience.

John

My biggest point would be the overlay and framing of the main camera. I feel that primary scene should look like: ticker at the absolute bottom, the bottom-center third should always have something playing (ie. the conference, whatever trailer is being discussed, EZA screensaver/idle animation), lower-left (so that when the people at the desk turn that way the audience can intuit what they're looking at) should have the switcher station camera on at all times. Basically, I'm looking to head off the need to have things pop on and off the screen since the conversation will sometimes move past where they want to check something out by the time the switcher catches up.

AlliterativeArts (Eric Faust)

Nah, the curtain just looks professional. Their old one with EZA on it looks legit. They wanted all that new equipment, clearly they want their E3 to have a specific vibe.

Lee

In the most recent Cup of Jones Brandon liked the little mikes that you had on during the press conferences. However they blew out very poorly when you were screaming about the great game showings. Your old mikes dont do that. And simply from an audio standpoint your reaction videos are more shareable if they habe good audio quality. Otherwise awesome

Steven Beaumont

I liked the coverage, the only thing for me would be to see more of the show floor... I want someone from EZA to take us on a tour of the full show floor.. you kind of get that with Huber Syndrome / Carpet awards.. I loved both of those bits.. I want more like that if possible!

David Curtis

I really enjoyed the coverage this year well done allies. My only suggestion is about the PC gaming show. Please don't discount it and give it some attention. The scheduling of Ubisoft and PC show has been the same for awhile so just have a combined post show later. There has been some good games and the PC gaming show consistently gets better each year. Thank you again for all that you do.

Hesperus84

Suggestion: I would love any kind of patron/viewer interaction/inclusion in the E3 streams. Be it strawpolls or maybe you could even have a poll pre-E3 where all patrons could suggest and vote on a short blurb to be read as if we are sponsors.

GermanScientist

There's comments in here about people wanting the feed to be bigger. Please dont do this. I'm pretty sure theres a bigger percentage that loves it the way it is now. They just dont talk about it cause its already perfect. Your YT views will also be way less important if your reaction is in a small corner. We watch the reactions vids FOR the reactions, not for the conference feed. Thank you

Sven Van Lathem

Thanks for the great feedback on the graphics. From a design perspective, the biggest flaw was that there were a lot of individual components that had to be manually changed. A lot of the functionality uses coding, so due to time restraints a few corners had to be cut. In future revisions I'm going to make it easier for Damiani to change info on the fly. Hopefully many fixes to bugs and updates will be ready for Easy Livin'.

Chris Leroux

I loved every second of it. Keep up the good work. Maybe be more formal for the E3 awards debate or have a separate video like the GOTY video.

Morgan Mohalla

I think that a lot of gameplay was being posted from the colliseum or other places on the web so getting in new game footage outside of the trailers they showed during the conference would be a great addition to discussion. getting the direct feed of Ally gameplay from E3 was definitely the best, I had a blast watching Huber's Hitman 2 time

VGJunky

It's always been about making E3 feel like the biggest deal of the year and I think it works. Brad and Jones are also looking spiffy on the desk so I think it works without feeling stiff since they're all just having a good time

VGJunky

Hey Allies Loved your E3 coverage and appreciate all the hard work and effort you put in. the new graphics and overlays were fantastic. I want to see more of that. There was an obvious boost in picture quality this year, but audio was sketchy during press conferences sometimes. I feel like there needs to be a bit more organization around testing that if you can. Lav mic placement and testing is something that needs to be practiced. Help other team members adjust their mics if you can? You bought a lot of new equipment this year, but I don’t feel like you necessarily got the best out of it. Maybe you didn't have enough chance to practice? Also I know Ian is the most experienced with controlling the switcher, so its obvious when he's on the desk rather than behind the scenes. I’m not sure if that’s something that can be taught, or if Damiani just needs a lot of practice? Perhaps the studio setup will help with the production issues I’ve mentioned. It’s a tricky one, I think the biggest difference between GT and EZA is the acceptance that it’s a more laid back and forgive the term “Home brew” operation. I know you are limited in both resources / location and man power at present. Your coverage has gotten consistently better year on year. I feel like a little more discipline, coupled with established leadership and tech support / production roles during conferences would help. You may already have this and I'm just not seeing it. All the best Love and Respect Diablo169

Diablo

There were a couple of times that the chatter drowned out some cool factoids from in-game dialogue or from speakers. not nearly as bad as say, Kinda Funny or Giantbomb tend to do though

VGJunky

there's a countdown and they have their stream schedule up on both the twitch channel and easyallies.com listing pre-show start times. Rule of thumb was always that go-live was 1 hour before the conference. I think the countdown to EA's conference, playing cool EA game music, and getting chat pumped along with the surprise graphics got Easy Allies their highest concurrent twitch viewer count ever at 15K on saturday.

VGJunky

The E3 coverage was fantastic as usual! A suggestion to make it better, more gameplay. I love the discussions, but it's hard to imagine the game without actually seeing it, especially if it's a newly announced title. That being said, I assume there are a number of appointments that either don't allow game capture or you weren't the ones playing the demo. In those instances if you could have a 15 minute interview with the devs in which they provide the gameplay while you discuss it with them, that would add that much more coverage. Again though, I imagine this takes even more time to setup those appointments and some devs may not have the option. Overall it's the best place to watch E3 content and coverage, keep it up!

There's not a schedule for those because they go up as soon as they possibly can. It just takes time for YouTube to process hours-long videos. -Bloodworth

Easy Allies

My secret favorite part of E3 was guessing music with chat during stream intermissions!

Kirbu

Agreed on the awards. These sorts of categories actually bring out really unique, fun discussions that don't necessarily crop up out of the more expected categories.

Kirbu

Friday morning Impressions more laid back would be great for everything but the most burning top billing games I think. hopefully those would get covered tuesday - thursday and then friday would be simple stuff

VGJunky

I personally disagree with the greenscreen thing - I've never seen it not be tacky in a professional setup, and if their reactions videos are going to blow up with 100k+ views on youtube I think it's going to be helpful that we showcase the Allies' personalities front and center in those videos. People looking for reaction videos (and us, as viewers looking at a reaction stream) are there primarily to see a good, clear, and big reaction shot of the boys.

VGJunky

This was my first Easy Allies E3 and it was excellent. My only problem was how small on the screen the press conferences were. Just watching the conferences on your stream made it hard to see everything being shown. The best solution I found for myself, was to stream the press conferences on one device and have your stream open on another device to see and hear reactions. That is my only issue. The nightly impressions are awesome. Most channels we have to wait until the hosts are back from E3 to hear about the games first hand. It's great to hear impressions a couple hours after you all have played them. Thanks for the content and try to get some sleep.

Make more use of the sidecam, make more use of the switcher. Otherwise a great showing. I understand that damiani had a lot going on with loading up trailers as games were being talked about and trying to keep audio in check so the switcher didn't get as much use as it could have. That must be a very taxing thing to do and I believe he did a great job overall. Also it would be nice if all of the allies could be at HQ for most of the E3 coverage. I understand that people need to make money but it feels bad when someone is already being paid to cover E3 (by the patrons) and they decide to go out and take a side gig instead of preform the job they are already being paid for. Obviously you guys were cool with that situation but just some food for thought.

klastical

Improvement all round in terms of production quality - great to see you guys putting the new equipment through its paces. I'd rather you scored the conference later on during the reactions videos, or maybe all at once at the end so there's better context. If nothing else it would allow follow on conferences to have your full attention rather than spoiling live coverage with talk of the previous (as in the case with the PC gaming show, which I was super disappointed about!).

Conferences: As I'm sure you know, the multicam setup for the shocking jumping out of seats type reactions didn't really work. Sure it only happened once this year with Ian during the Sekiro trailer, but I think it proved that there's no way to know exactly when to cut to get the entire reaction. Make sure that the main camera works both when everybody is sitting down aswell as has enough space to see the faces of everybody once they stand up, so we don't get a situation like Sekiro this year, where we first lost Ians head and then when you cut to the stand up camera we lost everybody else that wasn't standing. Still, the multi-cam setup is a great tool so obviously have other angles ready in case Everybody (or a majority on the desk) decides to stand up... just take the headroom into account for the main shot aswell, and don't cut away from it too soon! E3 Awards: I was a bit disappointed this year that there wasn't any fun jokey categories, such as (examples from past EZA awards): Best Verticality, Most Damaging Leak, Dumbest Presentation, Best Axe, Best Shotgun, Most Surprisingly Good. Bring back more of that please!

GermanScientist

Was very pleased with the coverage as always but could've helped if there was a clearer schedule for when videos (specifically archived Twitch streams of the 'Impressions' videos) would be uploaded to YouTube. Not a big deal for me though.

Elle

you don't have to keep talking about post-show impressions if new stuff is happening. If they are streaming never-before-seen gameplay footage of something then talk about that - we already basically know what you guys thought of the conference by the time it's over anyway. If there's a PC show or Devolver happening - focus on that. Recapping everything we just saw from Ubisoft and Bethesda just for the sake of a postshow isn't more important than seeing new stuff - again, we just saw it all happen already. Cutting to watching the Spiderman gameplay after Playstation was a good move because it was a developer chat about the game and mechanics that we hadn't seen before

VGJunky

I saw some suggestions for greenscreening you guys in to the conference or having the conference be big and you guys in a small window in the corner. Don't do any of that. We have direct feed of the stream for that if we want it - I am here for subtle Ally reactions, the looks and nudges and facial expressions you guys make as the hype builds. Those are what are going to live on forever on Youtube and on the archive, as is the direct stream feed from each conference-holder. I very much like the current stream format with big allies and windowed conference. I think the improvement would be to have salad mic and salad cam hot so we can see the sidelined allies in the room as well in case they have any great reactions. For gameplay impressions and B-roll, maybe just find a faster way to throw those up when they're being shown to the guys on the desk because the delay while they were talking about it was pretty long - longer than I would think it should be, probably because you were setting up some specific scenes to give it a professional look. Having the pre-show countdown with special music and cut-together footage was good, it gave chat a chance to sit around and talk with each other and listen to some bangers. If that's no longer a thing next year because of DMCA then that sucks but OK. The suits are good and make the event special - I enjoy it. I enjoyed running through the gameplay impressions with the Current Game shown and all that. Maybe set up some sort of time limit or pace for each one since you had to make a lot of cuts and went long on some games over others and didn't get to talk about like 30 of them. The overlap for PC Show and Devolver were a little rough - PC moreso since I think that show is becoming more of a legit thing worth watching with some announcements and good hosting. You guys had to take a break during the first section. Devolver is understandable since it's mostly just a bit with some cool stuff here and there. Also, please start EA off at a lower bar so your scoring scales aren't all messed up for the rest of E3. All 6s for an abysmal EA conference with Vince giving a stupid name announcement, an entire Command and Conquer mobile match shoutcasted as if it's going to be some sort of esports sensation with an awful CG trailer following it, that awful Madden esports section, and the mostly bad Anthem reveal with constantly repeating B-roll and a poorly-paced cut-together gameplay demo. That was truly bad.

VGJunky

My only suggestion would be that, if the PC gaming show is awkwardly scheduled again next year, maybe organise a more 'staggered' approach for that day. I personally wouldn't have minded a 4 man panel for Ubisoft and a 3 man panel for PC. Or perhaps a couple of people could simply go and take their much-needed break half an hour before the end of a panel. It was a terribly awkward situation, but the PC show does get some really interesting announcements, and it's a well presented show; it seems a shame to sideline it, when trash like Square Enix gets the star treatment! :P For Devolver, I wonder if it would have been best to record a reaction video separately. That could have avoided the awkward back-and-forth. Just say firmly, 'Chat, we're just going to finish up our Bethesda post-show, but don't worry we're going to catch up with Devolver later' (or vice versa).

Samuel Cardwell

Please don't keep speaking about the previous conference during the PC Gaming Show. There were a few things that I thought would be interesting, but you guys spent the whole time talking about a Ubisoft conference that you guys didn't even post.

Andrew Malkin

I really enjoyed it this year, I thought the set up and the new equipment was great and really brought things together. The only thing I could say that could be improved on was the post discussions for the conferences, for some of the conferences you guys were fine with going on for awhile. But for the one day that had the most conferences, specifically for Post Ubi into PC Gaming Show, I felt like a lot of the discussions went on and on, and you guys started to bleed into the PC Show where it was a good 20 mins before your coverage started for the Show.

I loved the coverage and really appreciate the jump in quality... But don't really understand the need to wear dress shirts and suits. It all feels a little stuffy which isn't what I consider to be the strengths of the allies. Rather it's the unique mix of lovable personality with the insight of experience. I am neither here nor there on the whole reactions/E3 screen thing... You guys are the professionals and I'll leave that to you. However, I can't usually watch anything live- so I watched you guys instead of E3 primarily.. and it was really hard not being spoiled to everything because the posts were hours after the conference sometimes. I was actually so sad I heard from another outlet about smash before you guys, but it just took so long for Nintendo's reactions to post. Not that this is your faults or something remediable... Just my few cents. Either way, looking forward to bigger and better things as we move forward! You guys are an inspiration L&amp;R.

Rhodesiensensical

Personally, I loved everything that I saw, but I did notice areas of improvement: Camera switching, while inconsistent initially, improved as the week went on. I chalk it up to still becoming fully comfortable of the setup in a live format, as practice can only do so much for the real thing. Discussions seemed to be disproportionate in time given in the aftermath of two particular press conferences. The talk surrounding Microsoft didn't finish with everything covered while Square-Enix had a massive amount of time dedicated to cover not nearly enough to fill the space. While the former was because of guests coming in and the latter was in part of not knowing how long the video would be, speaking only for myself, I didn't think there was a back-up plan for things like that. This is by no means is a negative, but it was something I noticed. Allow me to preface the following with probably my most important point: I LOVE the reactions EZA has when things like Jump Force, Resident Evil 2, and Sekiro are revealed. However, this past E3 more than previous years, I felt there was just a tiny bit more talking than necessary during trailers or announcements that had dialogue. Whether it being a narrator going over mechanics, or a character hitting a story beat, it's kind of a bummer when there's talking over talking. Gameplay segments or trailers set to music, it's completely fine. While not really prevalent at the outset (EA and Microsoft), it became much more apparent during the later shows (Ubisoft and Sony). DISCLOSURE: I did NOT watch reactions and impressions of the PC Gaming Show, so I cannot comment on that specifically. I would also like to echo from a shared sentiment about the framing of the picture and picture, but instead of doing a complete inverse, I think a small size adjustment with the shots wouldn't hurt. More specifically, the camera focusing on the "tech" area could be better in such a way as showing everyone off to the side without the side borders of the shot cutting people off. Also, the main camera could be slightly adjusted in such a way to show less of the front of the desk and more of the curtain IF the hanging Easy Allies sign were to return. I didn't know it was set up until it fell down during the EA post-show. I thought the ticker at the bottom was a really neat idea! There was some information displayed that I felt lingered a bit too long (Like the "Newest Subscriber" could be displayed 70-75 percent of the time it was shown. I loved the pre and post live music. Shame Twitch wants to be difficult. All of that makes me sound too critical, but I genuinely enjoyed everything EZA did, and for having that specific equipment and tech setup, I feel you guys hit a home run! I'm looking forward to the next event (QuakeCon or Gamescom maybe?) and E3 next year!

Brandon K Gann

Loved the coverage but one thing that threw me was starting the twitch streams hours before the pre-shows started. The first time it happened I went on twitch thinking there might be some pre-pre-show or something and waited around a bit but it was just the countdown timer and music until the scheduled time. I'm not sure what the value was here besides getting allies in chat to talk with each other and it made me stop watching the eza podcast thinking there could be live coverage any moment.

All in all a great improvement over last year. What worked particularly well was the addition of the graphics showing what you guys were talking about. The graphics to me were a huge step forward. With that said they weren’t always updated to show what game the allies were talking about, particularly during the impressions videos but luckily there was b-roll most of the time. With the new studio I hope there can be an arrangement to get all allies on at once as one of the previous comments suggested. Another thing I loved about this years coverage was the introduction of highlights , really hope to see this return in the future.

Jovan Sreckovic

Overall great coverage! Things I loved: the in depth analysis of game demos, pre and post shows are welcome as always, swapping allies opinions on games gives varying opinions on games. Splitting reactions into different segments. Things that may need improvement: audio issues with lava mic quality (I understand it gives more freedom but quality is lowered), perhaps having less (yes I said less!) camera time for certain allies feeling exhausted, for example brad was visibly tired several times (understandably) and not putting as much effort as the others in the panel. Some rest where needed is ok and can actually help the rest of the coverage be better! :) Things I wish could be included: more show floor coverage (perhaps live?). I understand easy update and Huber have their yearly segments for floor coverage but perhaps you can include the other allies out there on floor and give their opinions on set ups, fresh takes on games they’ve recently played, etc.

Rammer

Although an audio version of the post ubisoft/PC gaming/devolver would have been hard to follow, so I'd say only cut out the specific end show portion and try to be accommodating to someone who can't see the screen the way Kyle is on the main podcast

Matt Brookbank

Personally, I'm watching it with the Allies to see their reactions like if they were on the couch next to me. If I just wanted to see the press conference I'd just watch the official stream.

Olf Himself

Overall great coverage. Camera setup was perfect. I prefer lav mics so please continue with those. 1 suggestion: The E3 awards should have an extra produced vid with montage like a review. Not much else to say except L&amp;R. Oh and Kyle should say sooner why and when he'll be absent at conferences.

Sven Van Lathem

During E3, having someone completely dedicated to the technical side of things would help a lot. During the first hour of every stream there's always a laundry list of problems getting fixed which heavily distracts from whatever we are supposed to be watching at the time. Someone needs to be dedicated to making sure everything is working BEFORE the stream starts, and always making sure any problem during the stream be fixed in a very short amount of time.

They used the Twitch E3 conference streams and those are a bit earlier than the YouTube ones, probably for some processing that YouTube does, e.g. to allow live rewinding

Zkarts

Really enjoyed the set design, amount of content and new graphic layout. Thanks

Joseph Field

I loved this year's coverage and loved the raise in technical quality. In terms of feedback I will say that I got a bit fatigued of predictions. The week leading up to E3 and all the pre-shows focused on dreams and predictions so it ends up being a bit of overkill. Myself and, I think, most Allies ARE interested in the 9Allies dreams and predictions but it would be more fun if these topics were turned into various game formats instead of just a time-kill before a confernce. Making a game out of pre-conference chatter would be loved by viewers and engaging and more fun for the Allies-9. The hard work and dedication shone through again this year. I love you all. Love and Respect. Darren Mifsud.

Darren Mifsud

I'll be honest, I genuinely don't understand the folks that would rather look at faces than content, especially live content. Could you imagine football where the commentators took up *any* of the screen real estate, let alone the majority of it? I know it's just streamer culture, and I can accept that, but I'll forever disagree with decisions that sacrifice quality in the name of showing faces. I feel ridiculous even for having to type that

Josh Bossie

I'm pretty sure I didn't see anyone walk between the camera and desk, so that's a big thumbs up from me!

WesFX

I was glued to your streams all week, loved every minute of it. If i have one suggestion it would be to maybe plan to stream an extra day of floor impressions. That last night was clearly starting to wear you guys down by the time you signed off. I know that at that point it's been a long week and everyone just wants to wrap it up, but for your own well-being I feel like it might be better to sign off early, and come back a night or two later for one last more leisurely paced stream to put a bow on the whole thing.

I don't have enough time to watch everything, especially being in eastern standard time I can't watch the post shows for Sony or Bethesda because I need to go to sleep for work the next day.... having said that I would LOVE to listen to the 'how did they do, give a grade' post show the next day at work! I would RESPECT you guys for putting in the extra work to cut that part out and share it via the patron rss.

Matt Brookbank

Everything was amazing (like always), my only comment would be during the conferences, having to watch a super small screen feels like missing too much... and we were watching on a 72inch :P ... what I used to do was dual play from both youtube/twitch so i could toggle video full screen or you guys using only your audio... this year however your stream was much "faster" and your stream was ahead of the youtube one most of the time so I could not properly sync them... I tried thinking of a way to split the screens that you could switch in real time, like a 50-50 or 65-35 used only during trailers, but that would leave a lot of empty space... and having the trailer fullscreen and you in a corner would cover up part of the trailer... so basically im not sure what would be best :P Overall coverage was amazing, love the bets, as always : L&amp;R!! :)

Hugo D Hawk X

Personally, I think the conference should be full screen and the allies embedded into the video using a green screen so the background blends in. The camera could be angled to still capture reactions in case any allies leave their seats since it wouldn't need to be aimed downward to make room for the conference video below the allies. Also, I find the lavalier mics to be better than the others. The other mics are large and can block our view of the allies. The audio with them can be inconsistent because of people leaning in, leaning out, and looking away from the mics while talking. The lavalier mics keep the audio consistent throughout the discussions/podcasts/reactions. For the conference reactions themselves, I think the audio for the conferences could use a bump up. Every time an ally even spoke it completely drowned out the conference. I think there is a way to balance the audio so we can consistently hear both without one being too loud and the other being too quiet. For nightly impressions, I think we could use more time on certain games and limit the time on others so there is a broader range of discussion. When one game gets an hour of discussion while another gets maybe 2 minutes, it can make it seem like that game isn't important at all even though it could be someone's most hyped game. I think keeping the discussion for any one game at 30 minutes tops would help allow for a better discussion of every game and allow you to cover a broader array instead of needing to do "lightning rounds" and glossing over several games in the process. Considering you may have a studio next year, I also think bringing in some special guests and maybe doing interviews at the studio would be great! You can actually be more personal and detailed outside of the hustle and bustle of E3 instead of doing some quick interviews with loud music and crowd noise in the background causing distractions. Last, I would like to see more side cam and impressions from allies off cam if they have a tidbit to chime in with. Of course, this all depends on how things are setup in the studio. Even though I do have things I would like to see changed listed above, I still think you all did an excellent job! No matter how things change, I'll certainly keep tuning into EZA for all my gaming coverage needs. It's always good vibes and I can count on my allies to be there for me whenever I need them. Thanks for all that you do, can't wait to see what the future brings. Love &amp; Respect Bryan Schmidt aka MistahShowtime

MistahShowtime

A 10/10 coverage, I think the only real feasible improvements would be if you guys are okay accepting more community help in order to facilitate things like an audio only version of the coverage. Other than that, this is exactly the kind of thing that I support the Allies for, keep up the great work guys!

Daniel Wong

You did a great job and I watched it all back, although I watched you guys live until the actual show would begin and then I'd switch over to the YouTube stream, generally, to watch the show. There are times when I can't catch things in the show itself because of the reactions. Now, I think this is just my preference and not something you should or would be able to fix, but I did go back later to watch the reactions too, once they were uploaded to YouTube. The downside to that is that it took another day for that to come online on YouTube. I quite like YouTube streams because you don't get the weird advertisements like during Ubisoft's show and I can rewind live. Maybe it would be an idea for EZA to stream on YouTube too? I have no idea what the consequences of that might be though.

Zkarts

Regarding the coverage: I know we live in the era of streaming and twitch and stuff, but I'd still prefer edited videos, at least for the Impressions. It was also kinda weird how you discussed multiple games in one video, which led to people standing up from the table, leaving and other people coming in. That's also something that would look better in an edited video, where you could cut that stuff out.

RedVIII

It was brought up ahead of time as it was a pre-E3 suggestion, and the verdict was it would be too much work for what it is what worth. It would also take time away from getting up video content and rest time for the Allies with their schedule. The solution might have to be an extra person/temp person is brought in to do this.

Easy Allies

I loved the coverage and only have a few things I would like to see improve. -Improved audio quality. I don't know if it's the lav mics or just some setting that needs to be fixed but when you guys raised your voices the audio peaked a lot. I do love the lav mics though since they don't hide your faces. -The indecision regarding Devolver and PC Gaming Show. I realize they were at odd times with regards to the post-shows but next time please, before they start, pick if you are covering them or not. Don't, to be blunt, half-ass their coverage. Either do the post show and skip or watch Devolver/PC later or watch the shows and do a combined post show afterwards or something. Chat really turned to shit when you didn't choose one or the other.

Olf Himself

Great coverage as usual. The only minor nitpick I have is regarding the mics, and it really is only minor. I noticed that you guys reverted back to the stand microphones by the end of your coverage. Whether this was because you thought they sound better or the clip on mics were too much of a pain to set up, I don't know. I don't really mind which ones you use, but if you were to use stand mics I would prefer if you got ones that didn't cover so much of your beautiful faces. That's all I can think of really.

Overall I thought it was really great. My two biggest things are post-show discussions being too long and camera placement. For the former, if there's a tight space between conferences, the timing needs to be improved and anticipated. For the latter, sometimes you'd cut to a B shot and the camera would be at a weird angle or zoom. Besides that it's all small nitpicks that don't deserve any kind of attention. I really think you guys nailed it out of the park. If I could make a suggestion, I think next year you should integrate community questions. The feature was there for this E3 but wasn't used, and it think it could have made the experience more engaging and interactive.

Chris Leroux

This will likely never change because the focus is supposed to be on the Allies and their reactions. The question of which should be bigger/the focus of the shot has been debated for 3 E3s now, it's pretty evenly split, so we've just made the call and given the explanation for why this is.

Easy Allies

I just wanted to say that I'm not a fan of the curtain. It makes the room look so tiny, much smaller than the room actually is. But a new studio might fix this. ;)

RedVIII

I also want to other folks asking for audio versions of everything. I of course don't have access to your numbers but I'd be shocked if audio listeners didn't make up at least half your audience. I work from home on a computer and even I prefer audio for things that don't need visuals (like podcasts and impressions)

Josh Bossie

Oh I'd also say that during the conferences I wish the sizes of the various screens were inverted. Biggest window on the conference stream, smaller window on the Allies. Then swap when the analysis starts.

Patrick Gallagher

Hey! I thought the coverage was wonderful this year. I think it's a mistake to focus so heavily on faces over quality, though. Your lav mics had a dramatically lower quality and the "stream-within-a-stream" windows were so small. I also really didn't like that the chat mods were constantly telling people who wanted the window bigger to stop complaining - I mean, if people are complaining there's a reason, you know? In terms of coverage itself I'd like if there was a smidge more structure to the whole thing. I love your impressions but it just felt like a shotgun of random anecdotes and unfocused discussion about games that had little to do with each other. I'm not sure if there's a way to fix that without 'nerfing' the energy of the coverage, but it did make it harder to follow live and it's a lot less fun to see after the fact

Josh Bossie

As someone who did audio and video production for years I understand that there are growing pains with new equipment. In a couple months everyone will be adjusted, both audience and on screen talent, so I don't want to hark on that. I think the coverage was in depth and thoughtful. There were a varieties of opinions and just the amount of games you guys got to see made for alot of great content. I am in the central time zone and so I couldn't stay up to watch all the impressions which can't be avoided but an upload schedule for YouTube could have been helpful. That may not be practical so if not I can live without it. Overall it was an amazing E3 and your coverage was all I watched. Proud to be a patron.

Zach Hardy

Every piece of coverage I saw was great. I do wish there were conference commentaries in podcast format.

Patrick Gallagher

Thought the coverage was great. Keep up the good work and you do you. Make it your own. I often think you worry too much about the community input. I trust you guys to make great content and learn from you me mistakes. Love and respect.

Brett C.

I don't think anyone stood up at all this year for reactions. We had a secondary shot ready to go if they stood up, and I never used it. With this in mind, I think we can cut out some of the head space in the main shot and make the conference/video window a bit bigger next time for sure.

Easy Allies

Perfect coverage. Really liked the new use of clip mics for the conferences, but the switch to desk mics for quick and easy impression swap-outs was a great call. Personally I always listen to the impressions videos at work (still going through them now) so I enjoy them being uploaded in their full length Edit: Also, thank you for not including leaks and very recent rumors in the pre-shows

Trent Gherghetta

"Salad cam" is not on during discussion nights because people need downtime and are exhausted. I don't foresee this changing. It can be turned on when somebody wants to interject, but looking at tired allies and Ian/Me simply loading up/clicking stuff isn't going to be interesting. I honestly don't think everyone who complains about this gets what you will see/really get if it's on the whole time. The goal of the discussion panel is to have the 4-5 most interested Allies front-and-center to discuss a game. That's all it should take.

Easy Allies

I really loved the setup but I wished we had the side cam (the one with either damiani, Ian, Bosman, people handling the production) all the time. I feel like you should also limit your impression slots to 3 hrs, and push back some impressions to the next day, or a separate video. You seemed (especially Brandon and Ben) really tired really quickly (on the 2nd day), and that means people being sleepy, people not being concentrated on what others say, and in general a lack of discussion. It felt that way in the last hour of impressions, when there's one person giving his impressions, and the others trying to not fall apart : ) Other than that, I felt you did a great job, and as usual, you covered way more games than other channels (even IGN I'd say), in many genres and platforms, and that's why I love EZA. Never stop talking about Indie games, Double A games, PC titles, or even VR titles. Even when I don't have the platform I love to hear about stuff that nobody talks about (or they do in a really broad way, when you get into details). Thank you Damiani for stayin late all those nights and everyone at EZA for doing such a fantastic job. You work way harder than most channels for e3, I can't be the only one to say that : ) (also sorry to have been a bit down on the donation stream for the 4K cameras in the youtube comments, I thought at the time it wasn't the good moment to ask for more money but I was wrong, and your new gear makes your e3 coverage even better)

Térence Caron

I’d like the E3 conference commentaries, show floor impressions and awards to be posted as audio.

M

Amazing job guys! I vote to bring back the slanted Easy Allies sign.

The Warrior Within Soundtrack

I loved everything. I know many people like it how it is but I would prefer to have a bigger portion of the screen for the conferences. If not, at least have a more efficient "spacing", there was a pretty big space above the allies' heads that was wasted screen space.

Loved everything except for the weird curtain thing, I prefer a clean logo backdrop.

I'd like to see the window for the stream get bigger next time. With some good planning, we could probably have everyone is great view while having a larger stream window.

Seraph

There's a trade-off. The lavs don't cover their faces, so I'm guessing they valued seeing their reactions more clearly. I honestly didn't mind at all.

Chris Leroux

10/10 coverage, my only suggestion would be to just get rid of the curtain! it just makes the room feel claustrophobic on camera... i think the garage with all the eza pictures, batman figures, lightning etc has a great vibe to it! no need to hide it

Chris

I think the side camera (aka salad cam) should be on whenever possible. It makes it feel more "real" to me, only seeing the main table feels like i'm only seeing part of a bigger whole.

mikkel hervel nemmøe

I'm going to copy/paste what I wrote in the fan subreddit: "While I'm not thrilled with this year's e3 production, I think there was a reason they only asked for 10k initially. It's a case of too many new tools all at once and I think they just got overwhelmed. It's very clear that they were trying to make a better e3 production, but it definitely fell short. And for that reason, on the other hand, actually turned out better than I expected (tho I think the camera ghost was holding the camera too high and wasn't level with the ground for some of it, giving an odd perspective). I have faith that the allies will improve as summer continues, and as many hiccups as there were I still had a blast spending e3 with the allies. My guess is next year, they might bring in a dedicated tech person to help Ian on the switcher, monitor mic levels, queue things up better, keep a better pace, etc. ". TL;DR: y'all need more experience with your tools. Also, here's a link to that thread if you are curious at all: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/UneasyAlliance/comments/8recky/30k_hype_check" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.reddit.com/r/UneasyAlliance/comments/8recky/30k_hype_check</a>

Carlos Lopez

First off I think it was your best year yet regarding coverage, quality, etc. Now for the deeper dive - Love the new graphical layout for E3 - Lav mics for the press conferences works well. They still need work for audio quality but i like the freedom it introduces - Keep the desk mics for the nightly impressions and podcasts. You went to it in later nights and it helped reduce downtimes - Keep the cut aways during the nightly impressions at a minimum. Again something you improved as E3 went on. Cuts between the podcasts, special panels, etc is fine but not as you go from game to game - Love the B roll used during game discussion! Also the more you can include your own footage the better - The Patreon promo video that showed up day 2+ was awesome. Just need that for day one! - Top Tier game impressions and show reactions. - The Best of E3 show needs to be tighter. I think it'd be good to have the list mostly filled out before discussions begin. You could still have walk ons but it'd speed it up. The trailer section was waaaaay too long. You spent an hour just on that one topic. Its just too long. - It was great you got SomeGameNews to do the best of E3 clips. I'd like to see this again for next E3 and also for Easy Livin coming up - Don't even show the Devolver press conference if they air it right after Bethesda again. Have some one watching it, after Bethesda is done, do a recap or show the important stuff then. Having it shown or popped in and out was too messy - The guests was a nice way to fill in those gaps. Hopefully this is easier next year with the studio! *fingers crossed* - I'd like the side cam on more during the nightly discussion. Seeing what the other allies are up to or when they comment being on camera was something you did more last year and it was appreciated - Good to have E3 sponsors. Keep that going, it was integrated well throughout the week - Finally! I loved the addition of the Twitch Sub Chat Channel. With the surge of viewership being able to be in that room was a great sanctuary that felt closer to the pace and familiar faces of the usual EZA chat channels

Greg Kettering

I loved the conference coverage, which meant it sucked when the start of the PC Gaming Show didn't get any attention at all, with that time being taken up by Unisoft post-show reactions. The start times of conferences are known – if you know there won't be much time, then be sure to make cuts where necessary to make sure that the next show gets the coverage it deserves!

Louis Sandiford

During press conferences? Or somewhere else?

Easy Allies

I might be in the minority, but I liked the clip mics so we could see people's faces. Also seemed to be a lack of salad cam and would have liked to see different camera angles more often now that that's possible.

Brandon Ray

I may be in the minority, but I find the lavalier mic's seem to have diminished audio fidelity. The echo is a continual issue that may not have a solution while utilizing the garage, but it seems the Lavs didn't help it at all (which I was hoping for).

Daniel Askew

Everything you did for my opinion was perfect. The only thing I would add is to split the 4 hour impressions into separate videos, making it easier to find specific games.

Andreas Kleanthous

The salad cam was greatly underutilized.