With that messy "what it all means" business out of the way, let's talk about why we spend so much time on the Electronic Entertainment Expo in the first place: games.
Before the show, I ranked the top 10 games I wanted to hear about at E3, and I also put together a spreadsheet of the games on display that I'm most likely to buy. Here I'll focus on what during the show (specifically its press conferences) got me most excited to learn and play more soon.
With no further ado, my games of E3 2015:
Honorable mentions: Assassin's Creed: Syndicate, Dishonored 2, The Last Guardian, Mirror's Edge: Catalyst, Xenoblade Chronicles X
10. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5
My biggest pleasant surprise of E3 came between EA and Ubisoft's press conferences Monday when Tony Hawk appeared on YouTube's stream with Geoff Keighley to talk about THPS 5, which I've been waiting for since 2003 but somehow missed when it was confirmed last fall. Monday's gameplay video looked crisp and clean like classic Hawk, and the soundtrack will be bigger than ever but still alternative and metal, said the man himself. Sept. 29 can't come soon enough.
9. Star Fox Zero
I was taken aback by how much I dug what Nintendo showed of Star Fox, a franchise I deeply loved in the Nintendo 64 era but lost track of. Nothing in Zero - a "reimagining" of 64 - looks revolutionary save some dubious use of the Wii U Gamepad, but this seems like a chance to dig into what I missed before getting a new dose of what I loved so much to start. (It's damning with faint praise that this was the best thing Nintendo showed during the conference.)
8. Halo 5: Guardians
It's been far too long since I've played a combat-based first person shooter after the wait for Destiny proved to be a mistake. Like with Star Fox, I can't wait to pick up the Master Chief Collection to catch up on Halo 4 and then dive headfirst into Halo 5: Guardians, which appears - based on a short demo, so, fingers crossed - to retain the smart AI, creative weapons and satisfying feel of Halo's combat. I shy away from franchises after the creator leaves, but Halo seems a worthy exception.
7. ReCore
ReCore, on the other hand, is a case where I'm sticking with a creative team. Developers of Metroid Prime are working with Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune on an Xbox One-only game about a girl, her dog and the desolate wasteland they must navigate together, and while the details are still sketchy, ReCore looks like something special.
6. Cuphead
My best-case scenario for Cuphead turned out to be way off: not only was my fifth-most anticipated game of the show not released during E3, it was delayed into 2016. Furthermore, it appears to be a series of difficult boss fights rather than a full 2D platformer - still my favorite type of game. What Cuphead showed Monday was impressive, though: more bosses rendered ingeniously in Fleischer Studios style, a great sense of humor and two-player co-op. I can't stay mad at you, Cuphead.
5. Horizon: Zero Dawn
Horizon: Zero Dawn seems like ReCore's long-lost sibling: another game about a woman fighting a robot-driven apocalypse in third person, although Sony would very much like you to know this one is exclusive to PlayStation 4. It's also pretty far away, although Horizon showed actual gameplay at E3 - including stealth, which worries me the tiniest bit - so hopefully it will be for sale early in 2016.
4. Fallout 4
The second comment on my pre-E3 post was "No Fallout 4?", and for good reason. While I was too intimidated to dive into Fallout 3, I'd seen the trailer for 4 before I wrote that post, and I should have known its scope, art direction and mechanics would blow me away at the show proper. Sci-fi, RPG and FPS games are among my favorites, and I love virtual tourism, so exploring Fallout 4's bombed-out Boston should be a delight.
3. Star Wars: Battlefront
The biggest sci-fi franchise of all time (this list leads me to believe I really like sci-fi) is back in full force this year, and the best part of that revival is the return of the best Star Wars franchise based on a film (AKA non-KotOR division). Battlefront looks exactly how I hoped, from extra-pretty graphics to faithful sound effects and tried-and-true DICE combat. I'm proud to say I've picked up FPS skills since Battlefront 2 released, and I can't imagine a better place to ply them.
2. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Look, I get it: It's just more Uncharted. But GUYS, IT'S MORE UNCHARTED. The demo at Sony's presser Monday (after a glitched attempt that called to mind this excellent Patrick Klepek report) reminded me why Uncharted may be my favorite series of the PS3 generation: pulse-pounding action, sky-high production values and virtual tourism unrivaled by any franchise outside Assassin's Creed. I will buy a PlayStation 4 no later than the day Uncharted 4 hits the market.
1. Rise of the Tomb Raider
Take what I said about my Star Fox Zero surprise and multiply it by 10 for Rise of the Tomb Raider. I realized within ten seconds of the demo at Microsoft's conference how wrong I was to doubt Crystal Dynamics. Again, it's not revolutionary: unparalleled graphics and voice acting, a keen sense of place and exhilarating scenarios made 2013's Tomb Raider great, and they were even better in this admittedly tiny slice of its successor.
Sustained greatness isn't newsworthy, but it makes Rise of the Tomb Raider my Game of Show for E3 2015.
Friday, June 19, 2015
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
E3 HYPE TRAIN: The Best and Worst Trends
For the most part, I got what I wanted - and a lot more - from the six press conferences that kicked off this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo.
My spreadsheet runneth over with cool games, many of which - aside from looking awesome - represent the most interesting trends in the medium, good and bad.
Let's break them down:
They Cried "Gore, Gore, Gore"
E3 is full of games about shooting people. That's not news.
The surprise of this year's conferences was how brutal they looked. Doom, in retrospect, was the perfect game to kick off E3 at Bethesda's presser Sunday evening: its demo included several bodies blown apart by close-up shotgun fire and a monster ripping a person in half.
Fallout 4, which is a much brainier game and aspires to much more than Doom, squicked me out with copious blood minutes later, and many other shooters followed over the next 48 hours, from Gears of War 4 to The Division to Hitman.
I'm not asking for games to be PG. But hopefully there's an option in the menu of each game to make it a little less stomach-turning.
It's Getting Hot in Here
Speaking of Fallout 4, imagine the following:
It's Nov. 10. You get off work and head down to your local game store to pick up a copy of Fallout. When you arrive, however, you see another familiar face next to it on the shelf.
That's right: Rise of the Tomb Raider and Fallout, two of the most-anticipated games of the year, release on the same day.
Forget the money - we're talking about leisure spending, which is malleable to begin with. How are you going to allocate time, your most precious resource, for a behemoth RPG and a cinematic adventure that also rewards hours of exploration?
A crowded fall isn't unusual for games, but it's still a problem. Can't we spread these releases out and give them room to breathe? They'll still be stocked at Walmart for Black Friday, promise.
VR Is the Future - But the Future Is Not Now
I debated editing my pre-E3 post to mention virtual reality (and to fix the name of Assassin's Creed: Syndicate), but now I'm glad I didn't.
Don't get me wrong: the biggest HOLY SHIT moment of E3 2015's pressers was Microsoft's HoloLens demo. The practical applications of the technology remain blurry, but it's a step closer to the Holodeck scenario I've always envisioned.
Microsoft execs also mentioned partnerships with Valve and Oculus for virtual reality, fighting back against Sony's Project Morpheus, which was mentioned during the PlayStation press Monday night.
Both comments were fleeting, however. We have no release windows, no prices and no reason to care about VR yet. Just a mountain of unfulfilled potential that will take years, not months, to be realized.
Look at These Cool Indie Games! Not Too Long, Though
Another future of games was also present Monday but hardly accounted for.
As risk-averse as studio games have become, I believe the fresh, innovative, trailblazing games of the next generation will come from independent studios. But you would never know it from this E3.
While I was thrilled to see my nos. 9, 7, 5 and 2 most-anticipated games coming into the show, all indie titles, appear at press conferences, that dissipated as each received very little time and, in the case of Cuphead, a delay to 2016.
What's more, Microsoft and Sony continued their practice of showing off indie games in sizzle reels rather than giving them prominent spots in their presentations. They never even had a chance from EA, Ubisoft, Nintendo or Square.
I went into E3 excited about a few indie games. I finished the show excited about those exact same games. That's a problem. These games are not second-class citizens, and they deserve better.
It's a Girl!
Enough cynicism. How about something positive?
From the presenters on stage to the characters on screen to the commentators taking it in, women have been out in force at E3 2015, and I couldn't be happier.
Aisha Tyler and Angela Bassett presented the latest Rainbow Six. Two of the show's biggest exclusive game announcements, for Armature Studios' ReCore and Guerilla Games' Horizon: Zero Dawn, feature women kicking ass. Bethesda specifically showed character creation options for a male or female protagonist in Fallout 4.
Gaming still has a long way to go to achieve gender equality or anything close to it, and most of the women prominently featured at E3 this year were white. But this is definitely progress.
Revenge of the Vaporware
Fans, Sony has heard you.
Monday night's PlayStation press conference included a stunning trifecta of maybe/probably-not/don't-bet-on-it games: Sega's Shenmue III, Square's Final Fantasy VII remake and Sony's own The Last Guardian.
While each one comes with questions - none has a release date, Square is notoriously slow and Shenmue's KickStarter goal (which they met in less than a day) is hilariously small - simply seeing them on the E3 stage is a victory for optimists everywhere.
That optimism will come in handy for the rest of Sony's lineup too.
By my count, PlayStation 4 will feature four exclusive games - truly exclusive, not "console exclusive," "first on," "best on" or other nonsense - showed Monday night: Media Molecule's Dreams, Horizon, The Last Guardian and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.
Those games have something important in common besides looking cool. None of them will release this year.
Nintendo's conference had a similar problem. Each game showed Tuesday morning is set to release this year or early next, and many of them looked cool. But some force - possibly the Wii U's successor, which will be discussed a year from now - left the next 3D console release for each of the company's heavy-hitters, Mario, Metroid and Zelda, on the bench.
It's cool to think ahead, but anyone looking for a compelling reason to buy a PS4 or Wii U needs to look in the past or significantly in the future.
Screw You, Metroid Fans
It's official: another Video Game Christmas with no Metroid under the tree.
But wait, you say. What about Metroid Prime: Federation Force? To which I respond: What about it? Federation Force has as much to do with Metroid as Link's Crossbow Training does The Legend of Zelda.
I should be patient. Nintendo doesn't release games until they're good, and it doesn't announce them until they're close to release. But I'm getting tired of buying off-brand Metroid products to convince Nintendo another proper release is worth their while.
(Also, if Valve is reading, a new Half-Life, Portal of Left 4 Dead would be great too. My money is waiting.)
Screw You, Casual Fans
Speaking of money: For the first time, I'm pissed at Harmonix.
I was disappointed but not stunned the big Rock Band 4 price and release date announcement came not by press conference but email. What infuriated me was attempting to pre-order the game and discovering I had two options: the full band-in-a-box set for $250 or the game and guitar for $130.
Here's what followed:
I've put up with a lot for Rock Band - I'm buying an Xbox One for it, for one thing - so, naturally, I've reserved my $130 package. But if that and the $250 version, which by the way is the price of a refurbished console, are it, this franchise reboot is dead on arrival. And that would be a damn shame.
My spreadsheet runneth over with cool games, many of which - aside from looking awesome - represent the most interesting trends in the medium, good and bad.
Let's break them down:
They Cried "Gore, Gore, Gore"
E3 is full of games about shooting people. That's not news.
The surprise of this year's conferences was how brutal they looked. Doom, in retrospect, was the perfect game to kick off E3 at Bethesda's presser Sunday evening: its demo included several bodies blown apart by close-up shotgun fire and a monster ripping a person in half.
Fallout 4, which is a much brainier game and aspires to much more than Doom, squicked me out with copious blood minutes later, and many other shooters followed over the next 48 hours, from Gears of War 4 to The Division to Hitman.
I'm not asking for games to be PG. But hopefully there's an option in the menu of each game to make it a little less stomach-turning.
 |
| My face looked a lot more like his than hers after Sunday's DOOM demo. |
Speaking of Fallout 4, imagine the following:
It's Nov. 10. You get off work and head down to your local game store to pick up a copy of Fallout. When you arrive, however, you see another familiar face next to it on the shelf.
Forget the money - we're talking about leisure spending, which is malleable to begin with. How are you going to allocate time, your most precious resource, for a behemoth RPG and a cinematic adventure that also rewards hours of exploration?
A crowded fall isn't unusual for games, but it's still a problem. Can't we spread these releases out and give them room to breathe? They'll still be stocked at Walmart for Black Friday, promise.
VR Is the Future - But the Future Is Not Now
I debated editing my pre-E3 post to mention virtual reality (and to fix the name of Assassin's Creed: Syndicate), but now I'm glad I didn't.
Don't get me wrong: the biggest HOLY SHIT moment of E3 2015's pressers was Microsoft's HoloLens demo. The practical applications of the technology remain blurry, but it's a step closer to the Holodeck scenario I've always envisioned.
Microsoft execs also mentioned partnerships with Valve and Oculus for virtual reality, fighting back against Sony's Project Morpheus, which was mentioned during the PlayStation press Monday night.
Both comments were fleeting, however. We have no release windows, no prices and no reason to care about VR yet. Just a mountain of unfulfilled potential that will take years, not months, to be realized.
Look at These Cool Indie Games! Not Too Long, Though
Another future of games was also present Monday but hardly accounted for.
As risk-averse as studio games have become, I believe the fresh, innovative, trailblazing games of the next generation will come from independent studios. But you would never know it from this E3.
While I was thrilled to see my nos. 9, 7, 5 and 2 most-anticipated games coming into the show, all indie titles, appear at press conferences, that dissipated as each received very little time and, in the case of Cuphead, a delay to 2016.
 |
| I rage because I love. |
I went into E3 excited about a few indie games. I finished the show excited about those exact same games. That's a problem. These games are not second-class citizens, and they deserve better.
It's a Girl!
Enough cynicism. How about something positive?
From the presenters on stage to the characters on screen to the commentators taking it in, women have been out in force at E3 2015, and I couldn't be happier.
Aisha Tyler and Angela Bassett presented the latest Rainbow Six. Two of the show's biggest exclusive game announcements, for Armature Studios' ReCore and Guerilla Games' Horizon: Zero Dawn, feature women kicking ass. Bethesda specifically showed character creation options for a male or female protagonist in Fallout 4.
 |
| Not quite what you expected from the makers of Killzone, right? |
Revenge of the Vaporware
Fans, Sony has heard you.
Monday night's PlayStation press conference included a stunning trifecta of maybe/probably-not/don't-bet-on-it games: Sega's Shenmue III, Square's Final Fantasy VII remake and Sony's own The Last Guardian.
While each one comes with questions - none has a release date, Square is notoriously slow and Shenmue's KickStarter goal (which they met in less than a day) is hilariously small - simply seeing them on the E3 stage is a victory for optimists everywhere.
Now Sony reveals Half-Life 3 and the rest of E3 is cancelled because everyone's dead #E32015
— Derek Beigh (@derekbeigh) June 16, 2015
Coming Soon, ProbablyThat optimism will come in handy for the rest of Sony's lineup too.
By my count, PlayStation 4 will feature four exclusive games - truly exclusive, not "console exclusive," "first on," "best on" or other nonsense - showed Monday night: Media Molecule's Dreams, Horizon, The Last Guardian and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.
Those games have something important in common besides looking cool. None of them will release this year.
 |
| Drake will emerge from the mist... eventually. |
It's cool to think ahead, but anyone looking for a compelling reason to buy a PS4 or Wii U needs to look in the past or significantly in the future.
Screw You, Metroid Fans
It's official: another Video Game Christmas with no Metroid under the tree.
But wait, you say. What about Metroid Prime: Federation Force? To which I respond: What about it? Federation Force has as much to do with Metroid as Link's Crossbow Training does The Legend of Zelda.
I should be patient. Nintendo doesn't release games until they're good, and it doesn't announce them until they're close to release. But I'm getting tired of buying off-brand Metroid products to convince Nintendo another proper release is worth their while.
(Also, if Valve is reading, a new Half-Life, Portal of Left 4 Dead would be great too. My money is waiting.)
Screw You, Casual Fans
Speaking of money: For the first time, I'm pissed at Harmonix.
I was disappointed but not stunned the big Rock Band 4 price and release date announcement came not by press conference but email. What infuriated me was attempting to pre-order the game and discovering I had two options: the full band-in-a-box set for $250 or the game and guitar for $130.
Here's what followed:
@derekbeigh We’re focused on making sure people can get the hardware they need right now.
— Rock Band (@RockBand) June 15, 2015
I believe Harmonix is using the current pre-order choices to gauge demand for instruments. But even if that's the case, why not give consumers options? Why should I believe there will ever be a version of this game sold with the disc alone?I've put up with a lot for Rock Band - I'm buying an Xbox One for it, for one thing - so, naturally, I've reserved my $130 package. But if that and the $250 version, which by the way is the price of a refurbished console, are it, this franchise reboot is dead on arrival. And that would be a damn shame.
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
E3 HYPE TRAIN: 10 Games I Want to Hear About
Video game Christmas is almost here, and it should be an especially fun one.
18 months after the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One hit the market, we're squarely in a new console generation, and it's time for the developers who started working on those machines at the beginning to pay dividends.
That means we're not only on the verge of tons of AAA sequels but in that wonderful window when projects like Grand Theft Auto III, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor spring from the woodwork and change gaming for good.
Those and more should be shown, played and discussed at the 2015 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) next week. Here's what I hope will join those glorious surprises in Los Angeles:
Honorable Mentions
Wait and see: Assassin's Creed: Rogue, Halo 5: Guardians, Metal Gear Solid 5, Star Fox Wii U, Star Wars: Battlefront, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Abzu
Too close: Batman: Arkham Knight
Too far: The Legend of Zelda Wii U, Borderlands 3, Burnout, Crackdown, The Division
Probably not happening: Left 4 Dead 3, Pokemon Snap 2, Portal 3
LOL: Half-Life 3
Top 10
10. Rise of the Tomb Raider
2013's Tomb Raider reboot is the only non-Portal game I played twice in the Xbox 360 era, so I'm definitely ready for a new installment. If Crystal Dynamics can combine the reboot's incredible feel for setting and gameplay with slightly more interesting characters and a much better plot, Rise might be my game of the year. It lands at the bottom of this list because, while an E3 demo is a stone-cold lock, it's probably not going to feature much character or plot, so we won't know about those things until long after the show.
9. Firewatch
Firewatch is one of a few indie-game enigmas I look forward to knowing more about soon, hopefully during E3. It earns this spot based entirely on a CO-OP segment from this year's Game Developer's Conference that leaves questions but makes me think this could be the next great successor to Myst.
8. BioShock
This is a complete shot in the dark, but, more than a year after BioShock Infinite's final DLC, it feels like it's time for 2K to make some more money from this franchise. (Irrational Games' closure was never going to stop this gravy train.) I'm tentative given series creator Ken Levine is unlikely to be involved, but BioShock is my favorite franchise of the last generation, and even a next-gen redux or lazy rehash would get me interested. Here's hoping for more than that, starting with a reveal in L.A.
7. No Man's Sky
It's not entirely fair to call No Man's Sky an enigma after it was featured prominently at Sony's E3 press conference last year and received a lengthy profile in The New Yorker, but it still feels that way. What, exactly, are this game's mechanics? Just how big will its world feel? How does something so big and ambitious fuel a cohesive narrative? Does that matter? The proof will come after release, but some of those answers should come on stage and in demos next week.
6. Dishonored 2
Another blind stab, but one I'm much more confident in. Arkane Studios has been very quiet since The Brigmore Witches DLC released almost two years ago, and Bethesda could use a third mega-franchise alongside long-gestating RPG behemoths Elder Scrolls and Fallout, so a new Dishonored is a no-brainer. The only question now is timing. Given the attention to detail Arkane showed in both mechanics and art design in Dishonored, I don't expect a full reveal this month - and maybe not even this year - but I'll be stunned if the words "Dishonored 2" are not said or shown at Bethesda's presser Sunday night.
5. Cuphead
The fact that I know almost nothing about this game doesn't stop me from being very jazzed about it. In my head, it's a challenging-but-not-punishing 2D platformer in the Fleischer cartoons style with inventive boss fights and a variety of cool abilities for our eponymous protagonist. Cuphead's official website lists a 2015 release on Xbox One, so we should hear a lot about it, probably from Microsoft, and my true best-case scenario is an Entwined-style "go play it now!" showing.
4. Mass Effect
After a vague reveal at its E3 press conference last year, Electronic Arts must know fans are dying to see concrete evidence of next-gen Mass Effect, and I expect it to be on full display at E3. I don't expect them to call it Mass Effect 4 - because Bioware both has more imagination than that and wants people to forget the end of Mass Effect 3 as soon as possible - but they've have built a universe rich enough to support a huge variety of stories, and I'm confident we'll nerding out about one of them after EA's conference Monday night.
3. Metroid
2D? YES! 3D? Sure! Universal Studios ride? ...That's cool. I don't care what form it takes; I just want more Metroid in the world. Please, Nintendo, smell the Samus amiibo sales and take more of my money with this glorious franchise. It's been too long.
2. Tacoma
The twin legacies of Minerva's Den and Gone Home combine with the promise of space adventure in its reveal trailer to get me very hyped about Tacoma. I have no idea what to expect from this game or even if it will appear at E3, especially given a 2016 release date, but I'll be looking for it next week.
1. Rock Band 4
Here's the game that will make me buy an Xbox One. From Amplitude to Karaoke Revolution to Dance Central to Amplitude again, I've been a loyal and satisfied Harmonix customer from the beginning, and everything announced so far about the next Rock Band is aces. Support for Xbox 360 songs? Check. A revamped campaign mode? Check. Support for old instruments and a chance to buy new ones? Check and check. The only questions now are release date and price. I believe those and much more will be revealed a week from today.
I can't wait.
18 months after the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One hit the market, we're squarely in a new console generation, and it's time for the developers who started working on those machines at the beginning to pay dividends.
That means we're not only on the verge of tons of AAA sequels but in that wonderful window when projects like Grand Theft Auto III, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor spring from the woodwork and change gaming for good.
 |
| Note: I love a good sequel, but when I say "more of this," I mean "original properties with new mechanics." |
Honorable Mentions
Wait and see: Assassin's Creed: Rogue, Halo 5: Guardians, Metal Gear Solid 5, Star Fox Wii U, Star Wars: Battlefront, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Abzu
Too close: Batman: Arkham Knight
Too far: The Legend of Zelda Wii U, Borderlands 3, Burnout, Crackdown, The Division
Probably not happening: Left 4 Dead 3, Pokemon Snap 2, Portal 3
LOL: Half-Life 3
 |
| We're at "Cubs win the World Series" levels of don't-hold-your-breath. |
10. Rise of the Tomb Raider
2013's Tomb Raider reboot is the only non-Portal game I played twice in the Xbox 360 era, so I'm definitely ready for a new installment. If Crystal Dynamics can combine the reboot's incredible feel for setting and gameplay with slightly more interesting characters and a much better plot, Rise might be my game of the year. It lands at the bottom of this list because, while an E3 demo is a stone-cold lock, it's probably not going to feature much character or plot, so we won't know about those things until long after the show.
9. Firewatch
Firewatch is one of a few indie-game enigmas I look forward to knowing more about soon, hopefully during E3. It earns this spot based entirely on a CO-OP segment from this year's Game Developer's Conference that leaves questions but makes me think this could be the next great successor to Myst.
 |
| How could you not be excited about a game this gorgeous? |
This is a complete shot in the dark, but, more than a year after BioShock Infinite's final DLC, it feels like it's time for 2K to make some more money from this franchise. (Irrational Games' closure was never going to stop this gravy train.) I'm tentative given series creator Ken Levine is unlikely to be involved, but BioShock is my favorite franchise of the last generation, and even a next-gen redux or lazy rehash would get me interested. Here's hoping for more than that, starting with a reveal in L.A.
7. No Man's Sky
It's not entirely fair to call No Man's Sky an enigma after it was featured prominently at Sony's E3 press conference last year and received a lengthy profile in The New Yorker, but it still feels that way. What, exactly, are this game's mechanics? Just how big will its world feel? How does something so big and ambitious fuel a cohesive narrative? Does that matter? The proof will come after release, but some of those answers should come on stage and in demos next week.
6. Dishonored 2
Another blind stab, but one I'm much more confident in. Arkane Studios has been very quiet since The Brigmore Witches DLC released almost two years ago, and Bethesda could use a third mega-franchise alongside long-gestating RPG behemoths Elder Scrolls and Fallout, so a new Dishonored is a no-brainer. The only question now is timing. Given the attention to detail Arkane showed in both mechanics and art design in Dishonored, I don't expect a full reveal this month - and maybe not even this year - but I'll be stunned if the words "Dishonored 2" are not said or shown at Bethesda's presser Sunday night.
 |
| Soon. |
The fact that I know almost nothing about this game doesn't stop me from being very jazzed about it. In my head, it's a challenging-but-not-punishing 2D platformer in the Fleischer cartoons style with inventive boss fights and a variety of cool abilities for our eponymous protagonist. Cuphead's official website lists a 2015 release on Xbox One, so we should hear a lot about it, probably from Microsoft, and my true best-case scenario is an Entwined-style "go play it now!" showing.
4. Mass Effect
After a vague reveal at its E3 press conference last year, Electronic Arts must know fans are dying to see concrete evidence of next-gen Mass Effect, and I expect it to be on full display at E3. I don't expect them to call it Mass Effect 4 - because Bioware both has more imagination than that and wants people to forget the end of Mass Effect 3 as soon as possible - but they've have built a universe rich enough to support a huge variety of stories, and I'm confident we'll nerding out about one of them after EA's conference Monday night.
3. Metroid
2D? YES! 3D? Sure! Universal Studios ride? ...That's cool. I don't care what form it takes; I just want more Metroid in the world. Please, Nintendo, smell the Samus amiibo sales and take more of my money with this glorious franchise. It's been too long.
 |
| The G.O.A.T. deserves another sequel. |
The twin legacies of Minerva's Den and Gone Home combine with the promise of space adventure in its reveal trailer to get me very hyped about Tacoma. I have no idea what to expect from this game or even if it will appear at E3, especially given a 2016 release date, but I'll be looking for it next week.
1. Rock Band 4
Here's the game that will make me buy an Xbox One. From Amplitude to Karaoke Revolution to Dance Central to Amplitude again, I've been a loyal and satisfied Harmonix customer from the beginning, and everything announced so far about the next Rock Band is aces. Support for Xbox 360 songs? Check. A revamped campaign mode? Check. Support for old instruments and a chance to buy new ones? Check and check. The only questions now are release date and price. I believe those and much more will be revealed a week from today.
I can't wait.
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