E3 HYPE TRAIN 2.0: Games of Show

It's over!

E3 2016 is in the books, bringing tons of highly-anticipated games, some new hardware and, of course, a few piping hot dank memes. But which titles, you ask, left the biggest impression on your humble blogger?

I'm so glad you asked.

Top 10
10. Scalebound

I bumped Scalebound from an early draft of this list because it felt too safe - it's a beat-em-up, even if it's a gorgeous and imaginative co-op beat-em-up - and then later because it felt too risky - I've never played a Platinum game despite some near-misses, and, as this list will prove, I'm very loyal to developers. But then I watched the E3 demo again, and the sheer HOLY CRAP THAT'S COOL factor earns Scalebound a place. Here's hoping the sound and fury signifies something.

9. Steep

The word I keep coming back to with Steep's E3 showing is fresh: fresh concept, fresh presentation and, perhaps, most importantly, a breath of fresh air amongst the kill-dudes-with-guns games that permeate this show every year. I haven't the foggiest idea if the game will be fun to play - I'm encouraged by the few savory whiffs it gives off of SSX, Pilotwings and Tony Hawk - but I'm intrigued enough by the design and aesthetic that it seems like a regular Twitch watch at worst.

8. Titanfall 2

Titanfall 2 is anything but fresh, but it's a whole bunch of other things I like as a sci-fi first-person shooter with rock-solid mechanics and a single-player campaign (finally!). It's a bit of a bummer that it's not from the Half-Life emergent school of design, but Respawn knows how to design a rollercoaster-ride mission better than anyone in the business, and they've got an awful lot to prove with this one.

7. Prey

I'm stoked about Arkane Studios' newest game less because of what was shown at E3 and more because of what was said; you'd never know it from the tone poem embedded above, but Prey is a sort-of alternate history version of Bioshock, in the sense that both are intended as sequels to the legendary (and super-dated) System Shock 2. I'm a sucker for cleverly-written near-future games with emergent gameplay, and for Arkane in general, so even a meager taste of Prey gets me very excited.


6. Spider-Man

THE DEVELOPERS OF RATCHET AND CLANK ARE MAKING THE NEXT SPIDER-MAN GAME. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. It is, however, a chance to revive the spirit of the best non-Arkham superhero game ever, Spider-Man 2, with the A+ web-slinging mechanic intact and the D+ combat Batman-ized and fleshed out. With any luck, we won't have to wait for it any longer than the July 7, 2017, release of Spider-Man: Homecoming.

5. Detroit: Become Human

My biggest surprise of E3 probably shouldn't have been: I've been a fan of Quantic Dream and David Cage from afar for years, and Detroit has been in the public eye since last fall. Still, what I saw during Sony's presser blew me away; had Heavy Rain or Beyond: Two Souls looked this slick, this original, this dramatic on stage, I may have played them instead of letting them languish on my shelf. If Detroit fulfills its potential, I won't make the same mistake this time.

4. ReCore

Some critics are upset ReCore looks like nothing revolutionary in the gameplay department, but I couldn't care less; if Keiji Inafune and Armature Studios' latest is just a mashup of their greatest hits - Mega Man and Metroid Prime, remember - with a kickass heroine (Joule), adorable dog robots and unmistakable style, I'll be more than happy to buy it, especially at the bargain price of $40.

3. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild


It took a solid 30 minutes of Nintendo's stream Tuesday for me to shake off the "blah more Zelda" feelings I had left over from Skyward Sword and realize what I was seeing: Breath of the Wild is the evolution of Zelda design I've been waiting for, from its secret-laden open world Hyrule - which is gorgeous, in fine Zelda tradition - to its new crafting, climate, climbing and survival mechanics (and mini-map!). Those features are hardy groundbreaking, but if they're executed with the polish Nintendo EAD is known for, this is a sure-fire Game of the Year (2017) contender.



2. Horizon: Zero Dawn


Zelda's fiercest competition in that category could be Horizon, which, rather than not showing up as I predicted, showed off in a big way Monday evening. Not content to simply be a gorgeous game with an original setting and a ton of narrative potential, Horizon came with mechanics that are both extremely cool - did you see her ride that metal dinosaur? - and extremely practical, like slowing down the menu pop-up but not completely pausing it. I'm not sure Guerilla can nail enough of those great ideas to make Horizon a classic, but at a lot of E3's, just the possibility would have made this my game of show.



1. Dishonored 2


Most E3's, though, don't feature a Dishonored 2: A sequel to one of my favorite games of all time that looks like it will fix its predecessor's biggest problems (predictable story, boring protagonist) while doubling down on what made it exceptional in the first place, from clever branching gameplay paths to an inspired and lovingly-realized setting to rock-solid stealth mechanics. If I could have one game shown at E3 right now, it would be Dishonored 2. And it's not especially close.



Bonus Round!



CUPHEAD IS A PLATFORMER NOW! It still doesn't have a release date.


Everything you would expect from a $30 Destiny expansion, and nothing more - including no E3 press conference presentation and no summer live event. I'm excited to play Rise of Iron, but if you weren't a fan before this trailer, I doubt that you are now.








Hey, I don't have to buy new hardware or a new game!


Props to Capcom for daring to reinvent one of their biggest franchises (again), even if the result doesn't appeal to me in the slightest.




I want so badly to believe in Watch Dogs 2. I just can't yet.

Other assorted E3 thoughts (congrats for making it this far!):

• I seem to be in the minority on God of War, the PS4 reboot of Kratos' adventures that seems to have stolen liberally from The Last of Us. I loved LoU, so I feel like I should be all for that, but nothing in any previous God of War suggests Sony Santa Monica should lift or is even capable of lifting from Naughty Dog's PS3 opus. Color me very skeptical.
• I don't know what the hell Death Stranding is, and neither do you. Let's maybe wait for it to turn into something remotely recognizable as a game before we start the KOJIMA'S REVENGE engine. (Also: this video is the most Kojima thing that ever Kojima-ed)

• Days Gone is exhibit A in this tweet.

Gaming really is Zombie Spaceship Wasteland, isn't it? #E32016 #PlayStationE3

— Derek Beigh (@derekbeigh) June 14, 2016

• On a related note: I'm convinced VR is a big part of gaming's future, but this was not the E3 that proved it. VR needs originality like crazy, and I didn't see much at this show.
• Who wanted a Halo Wars sequel, exactly? Anybody? Bueller?

E3 HYPE TRAIN 2.0: Xbox One Owners Get The Shaft

Coming out of this morning's Microsoft E3 2016 press conference, I keep coming back to one conclusion: we should all sell our Xboxes.

Not because it was a bad showing. On the contrary - ReCore looks as cool as I could have hoped, Scalebound looks even cooler and has co-op, and even washed-up old Gears of War (now on #4, which is actually #5) got me excited to play Microsoft games coming soon. But it's obvious the Xbox One I bought last year, which released in just 2013, will be the absolute worst way to do that.

Here's what we could do instead:

1. Buy an Xbox One S

Personally, I'm not interested in Xbox One S, which follows a long and storied tradition of releasing sleeker, feature-enhanced retools of consoles halfway through their life cycles. Other than 4K video, the differences between S and the Xbox I own are bells and whistles like a smaller frame and integrated power source. If you want to spend $300 on those, more power to you, but read on first.

2. Buy a new gaming PC
Play Anywhere will make PC gaming better than ever, but it's taking most of Xbox's appeal with it.

Debuted this morning, Play Anywhere is a new service from Microsoft that lets customers play selected games on Xbox One or PC, transferring save data and playing with the same friends on both. The more-important implication of this is that every new Xbox One exclusive is now a PC game too. Had I known that would happen, I wouldn't have bought an Xbox One in the first place.

This is probably what I'll do, especially because I have not only a PC but PlayStation 4 and Wii U - which have actual exclusive games. I would recommend it to most people who don't have those.

3. Wait for Project Scorpio
The only exception is if you're determined not to fiddle with the notoriously-finicky PC gaming scene. Then you can feel good about your Xbox One or Xbox One S purchase, right?

Yeah, not really.

Every Xbox owner should be terrified by "beyond generations."

That's because of Project Scorpio, which is due fall 2017. Not Xbox Two, Scorpio promises to use the same games and accessories as Xbox One and Xbox One S but deliver a higher-fidelity experience, and this upgrade's actually for real: better graphics, higher frame rates and an all-around better gaming experience.

Scorpio is an unprecedented step for a console manufacturer, but it should sound awfully familiar to anyone who owns a smartphone (so basically anyone). After all, iPhone 6 is pretty much the same device as iPhone 4; what's the problem with bringing that model to consoles?

The problem is that smartphones are, for most of us, not a luxury purchase like an Xbox. Even if you don't use it for work, your smartphone can do literally millions of things - send and receive phone calls and text messages, run myriad other communication apps, shoot photos and video, track physical activity, serve as a quick-and-dirty VR headset, and oh yeah, play games. You can even make a feature film on the damn thing.

To impose the same cost structure on a device with a fraction of the utility is a horrible proposition for consumers. Do you really want to buy another $400 Xbox every three years?

Microsoft knows this: it insists "nobody will be left behind" when Scorpio comes out, that it will be a luxury device for the Xbox player who doesn't mind laying down a little extra cash for the premium experience. The problem is that Microsoft is either lying or hopelessly naive.

Suppose every Xbox One game is actually released for both Scorpio and the base system - and previous upgrades like the New Nintendo 3DS heavily suggest that's not true. They certainly won't be optimized equally. How did that work out for Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor?

If Microsoft is really devious, they'll follow another part of that iPhone upgrade process:

1. Consumer buys iPhone 1.
2. Consumer buys Game A for iPhone 1.
3. Consumer moves on to Games B, C, and on.
4. iPhone 2 and 3 are released.
5. Customer buys iPhone 2 or 3.
6. Games X, Y and Z aren't compatible with iPhone 1.
7. No one notices because they don't have iPhone 1 anymore.

The problem, of course, is that customers don't think about video game consoles like phones, which are evolving rapidly, more prone to break and thus better candidates for rapid replacement. We want consoles to just work, for as long as possible. Step 7 is absolutely not going to happen with Xbox.

The takeaway is this: If you're interested in Project Scorpio, you should not buy a new Xbox One or S, and consider divesting yourself of your old Xbox ASAP. And if you are, you should buy Scorpio knowing Microsoft is likely to release another incremental upgrade in the near future.

And it will be your fault.

E3 HYPE TRAIN 2.0: What I Want to See

Seeing Salvador and friends again would be a great way to celebrate gaming's biggest week.

E3 is back!

A week before the convention officially begins June 13, news had already started trickling out Monday, and it hasn't stopped.

That said, let's waste no more time before my most-anticipated games of video game Christmas:

(For comparison's sake, here's last year's pre-show post; my coverage of 2015's press conferences; and my personal games of show.)

Honorable Mentions
Crackdown 3, Gears of War 4, Mighty No. 9 and Resident Evil 7
The proof will be in the pudding. E3 is not the pudding.

Star Wars: Battlefront DLC and Titanfall 2
Add a single-player campaign and we'll talk.

Metroid Prime 4 and/or Super Metroid 2
I still believe!

skeet skeet skeet skeet skeet

Bioshock, Burnout, Kingdom Hearts 3, Psychonauts 2, Visceral Games' Uncharted-style Star Wars game, Tacoma and Tomb Raider 3
I'd be thrilled to see any of these at E3. I'd bet on seeing none.

Left 4 Dead 3, PokéMMO, Pokémon Snap 2 and Portal 3

Half-Life 3
Last year I wrote of a third Half-Life, "We're at 'Cubs win the World Series' levels of don't-hold-your-breath." Now I'd bet on the World Series.

Top 10
10. ReCore
Not much has changed for ReCore, Microsoft's exclusive post-apocalyptic girl-and-her-robot-dog game from the makers of Metroid Prime, since E3 2015. That includes my excitement for it amid a sea of dudes-shooting-stuff-alone games. Here's hoping we see gameplay and a 2016 release date Monday morning.



9. Lego Dimensions 2
Conversely, everything has changed for Lego Dimensions since last June, when I blew it off as another toy game that would knock my beloved amiibo off the shelves. I suppose that's still true, but Dimensions turned out to be the first game in its genre to do three critical things: make the physical portion fun and interesting, innovate on a gameplay level and include Back to the Future characters. Here's hoping the inevitable annual sequel lets me re-use last year's portal without re-using the same mechanics.

8. Horizon: Zero Dawn
Monday's delay dampened my enthusiasm for Guerilla's robot-dinosaur archery simulator just slightly; with a February release date, it's a lot less likely we'll see gameplay, and the fact that the delay came with an amazing trailer suggests the game might not be shown at all. I expect a brief teaser at Sony's conference Monday night but no big media blowout for Horizon until early next year.



7. Cuphead
I almost moved Cuphead into honorable mentions, but I can't deny, as familiar as I am with it from E3 2015 and a hands-on demo at PAX, that this is one of my most-anticipated games not just of the conference but of all time. Even as a co-op bullet-hell boss-fight extravaganza rather than a platformer, Cuphead can't be beat for beauty, potential and straight-up style. If it released during E3 - as I predicted last year - my June would be made.

6. Mass Effect: Andromeda
We still know basically nothing about this game other than it will have a big showing at EA's show-opening presser on Sunday, but, three years after we all got pissed at Starkid, I'm still anxious for another Mass Effect. With Star Wars back in a big way, this would be an excellent time for Bioware to dramatically reinvent what's always been an exceptional rip-off.



5. Watch Dogs 2
My best-case scenario for Watch Dogs is the Assassin's Creed model: an underwhelming freshman effort followed by a sophomore smash. (We'll overlook for now the subsequent years of mediocre sequels and potentially disastrous film adaptation.) Like Assassin's Creed, Watch Dogs has a killer premise - hackers fighting back against a near-future totalitarian regime - a gigantic budget and potential to spare. If Ubisoft sticks the landing, this is a game-of-the-year contender. Our first taste isn't far away: Wednesday morning.

4. Borderlands 3
Like Dishonored 2 last year, this is a shot in the dark, but an educated one: after Battleborn released this spring, Gearbox Software no longer has any games in development that we know of, and, with all due respect to Brothers in Arms and Duke Nukem, their next priority should be the next in their bestselling co-op shooter/RPG series. I suspect the powers that be know gamers have forgotten about the blah Pre-Sequel and will welcome the first true next-gen Borderlands with open, gun-zerking arms. (But please, no golden keys this time.)

3. The Legend of Zelda Wii U
Zelda, on the other hand, is the game I'm most certain we'll see a lot of at E3, and with good reason: Nintendo knows this is the game that will drive whatever remaining Wii U sales they're lucky enough to grab, and, with teases at two previous E3's and an announced 2016 release date, it's time to open the vault and show off what EAD has been working on since Skyward Sword. Good or bad, Zelda will be a huge topic of conversation after Nintendo's not-a-Direct presentation Tuesday.

Pretty.

2. Dishonored 2
After underestimating how much I would dig seeing the sequel to my 2013 game of the year at last year's E3 (Rise of the Tomb Raider turned out to be pretty damn good, too), I won't make the same mistake with my favorite title of 2012. Dishonored is nearly everything I love about video games:  clever mechanics, useful and realistic level design and emergent gameplay. If Dishonored 2 can nail the story as well, and early signs are promising, there's no reason it couldn't be my GOTY again. We'll know more after Bethesda rolls out the red carpet for Corvo and Emily on Sunday night.

1. Destiny: Rise of Iron
I need to write something about how obsessed I was with Destiny for about six months - seriously, it got bad for my life - but for now suffice it to say that, after hitting maximum level on all my characters and playing every strike and mission (some quests and exotics elude me, and I'll hit the year-one raids eventually), I'm salivating at the thought of fall's fourth expansion.

I'm not 100 percent sure what's going on here, but I want to help.

Kotaku reports Rise of Iron will be revealed during Thursday's mystery stream, which is technically before E3, but I think it also appears during at least one press conference (best guess: Sony). I'm also predicting this summer's Destiny live event - Sparrow Racing League 2.0? - will be discussed Monday, and I wouldn't be stunned if it rolled out with Tuesday's weekly reset. Ready, Guardian?

Halo 5: Breaking Down Act One

God bless Halo 5: Guardians for taking chances.

After 14 years, six games and two developers, Microsoft's flagship franchise could easily skate by on looks and nostalgia, but 343 Industries has opted to continue the series' tradition of bold risks in its first Xbox One outing.

Through six missions, roughly a third of the game's campaign, those decisions have thrilled, frustrated and baffled me - but I've never been bored.

Team Osiris isn't a complete success, but it's the kind of bold risk that keeps Halo fresh after six games.

Impressions of "Osiris," "Blue Team," "Glassed," "Meridian Station," "Unconfirmed" and "Evacuation" (minor spoilers):

• Graduating from Xbox 360 to Xbox One has benefited Halo tremendously. Guardians looks spectacular, as every Halo game has in its day, but it feels uniquely smooth, probably because it's running at a consistent 60 frames per second. That decision will stand the test of time.
• The big gameplay advance of Halo 5, introducing AI or co-op teammates for the player, fixes one of the biggest inconsistencies between playing Halo alone and with friends by making it possible to die and still advance. I'm a big fan of not losing progress, so that's a win.
• That said, it doesn't make any sense narratively. Everything we know about Master Chief suggests he doesn't need backup singers, and nothing in the first few missions of Guardians contradicts that. On the contrary, the fistfight between Chief and Spartan Locke that ends "Unconfirmed" loses some impact because each man has three bystanders who could easily help him.

• The biggest narrative shift, alternating perspectives between Chief and Locke, is also a swing-and-a-miss so far. The overall story of Halo 5 hasn't spiraled out of control (yet?) by any means, but any chance Chief's teammates would develop into complete characters is flushed down the toilet. Locke's team does a little better, but I can't tell if that's because I've spent more time with them or because Nathan Fillion is back as Buck from the extremely underrated ODST. I wish I could switch between members of Locke's team and get to know them better.
• I'm baffled by "Meridian Station" as a mission. Isn't it possible to give me this heap of exposition as a cutscene? Or, even better, during combat a la Bioshock? It seems like a cheat to call 15 minutes of checking the next destination, running there and pressing the "talk" button as a mission.

Other thoughts on Halo 5's first act:

• Guardians has a major interactivity problem, beyond "Meridian Station." The Chief-Locke fistfight is fun to watch, but it's significantly diminished because the player has no hand in it. (If that's to make me feel torn between them, I'm not. Chief is clearly wrong; his insane obsession with Cortana rivals Harry Potter's with Draco Malfoy) As Jeff Cannata noted on the DLC podcast, that scene is one of several bad-ass action beats relegated to cutscenes, including the opening sequence and the introduction of the massive boss in "Unconfirmed." OK, so there's no mechanic in Halo for dropping from an aircraft or holding onto a ledge. Why not make them? You can even use that shiny (and mostly useless) new thruster button! At least do quick-time events.
• The most memorable parts of my Halo 5 time so far were, as always, organic: charging an Elite and meleeing him off a ledge in "Blue Team"; directing my team to take down a complex of snipers in "Unconfirmed"; escaping the station in a Warthog in "Evacuation"; the lengthy elevator firefight that follows. Halo does unscripted confrontations better than any other shooter.
• Those encounters work in part because Halo 5 manages to put just enough ammo on the field that I'm constantly swapping weapons, looking for strategic advantages and planning ahead. It continues to be immensely satisfying.
• I dearly miss split-screen co-op. I understand wanting to optimize a system-selling game's performance, but I can't believe 343 lacks the resources to present the game as published and create a local co-op mode that sacrifices frame rate or screen resolution.

I really wish the other three guys could be my friends rather than computer ccharacters.

• 343 majorly nerfed the Light Rifle from Halo 4 to Guardians, but I probably wouldn't notice if it hadn't been a massively overpowered murder stick, so I guess I shouldn't be mad. The suppressor has quickly become my new favorite Forerunner weapon.
• I really liked the design of the Forerunner enemies in Halo 4, and they look even more spectacular in Guardians. They're bright, interesting and, most importantly, fun as hell to fight.
• The new Hunter-esque giant Forerunner enemies, however, are boring. I hope there's more to their tactics than I've discerned so far. This may be partially my fault for playing on Normal difficulty and spamming heavy weapons like lasers and rocket launchers, which tend to be planted nearby.
• ENOUGH CLOAKED ELITES WITH ENERGY SWORDS. Instant death is no fun.

E3 HYPE TRAIN: My 2015 Games of Show

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.

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.

My face looked a lot more like his than hers after Sunday's DOOM demo.

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.

I rage because I love.

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.

Not quite what you expected from the makers of Killzone, right?

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.

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, Probably

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.

Drake will emerge from the mist... eventually.

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:

@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.

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.

Note: I love a good sequel, but when I say "more of this," I mean "original properties with new mechanics."

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

We're at "Cubs win the World Series" levels of don't-hold-your-breath.

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.

How could you not be excited about a game this gorgeous?

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.

Soon.

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.

The G.O.A.T. deserves another sequel.

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.

My True Deceit in "Dishonored"

The kind of dishonesty the player is supposed to achieve in Dishonored. (from superbwallpapers.com)

I've never been as exhilarated to step off a boat as I was in Dishonored. Time after time, the simple act of leaving Samuel the boatman and stepping onto dry land filled me with anticipation and dread.

Death, dismemberment and, above all, deceit lurk around every corner of Dunwall, the fictional city overrun with plague that hosts Dishonored's cast of oppressors, freedom fighters and bystanders.

So why was I the greatest deceiver among them?

I don't mean Corvo, the badass bodyguard who becomes a more-badass assassin in an attempt to avenge his beloved empress after being framed for her murder.

Despite Corvo's triumphs - I won't forget the poetic justice of branding a man with his own torture device, the thrill of betraying a man who led me to a theft in exchange for a cut, the unease at delivering a marked woman to an unknown man who would save her life but force her to love him - they didn't measure up to my true deceit.

I turned Dishonored - a singular achievement widely recognized as one of the best games of 2012 - into the stealth equivalent of Contra.

Wishing to complete the game as quickly as possible, I bypassed all but the easiest runes and bone charms, outfitting myself with a meager three abilities - Blink, Dark Vision and Shadow Kill - that left me ill-equipped to conquer latter missions on normal.

When I got into a fight - which happened frequently, as I generally suck at sneaking and didn't have the best tools at my disposal - it generally ended with my quick death, a reloaded save and another attempt with the benefit of added knowledge. I became so paranoid that I started to save after simply making it down an empty hallway without any zombie dogs bursting through the windows.

I broke the illusion of reality in favor of winning. Rather than plotting an intricate murder and exit of the enemy's vast compound, I frequently teleported myself wildly across rooms, executed my targets and ran like hell for the last load point. 

If only my enemies had followed me across the digital threshold, my underpowered Corvo would have been no match for them.

Instead, I simply fled into the night, back to the boat and on to more dishonest victories.

"Mass Effect 2" DLC Cost Leaves Me Manipulated and Annoyed

Last week, in a ridiculous ruling, Electronic Arts won the even more ridiculous honor of the Worst Company in America.

The Consumerist, a site I respect a great deal but which has clearly lost its mind, allowed the public to determine the winner of the award. Nonetheless, it offered the following explanation for the public's decision:

To those who might sneer at something as "non-essential" as a video game company winning the Worst Company In America vote: It's that exact kind of attitude that allows people to ignore the complaints as companies like EA (continue) to nickel and dime consumers to death.

For years, while movies and music became more affordable and publishers piled on bonus content — or multiple modes of delivery — as added value to entice customers to buy, video games have continued to be priced like premium goods.

Like several commentators I follow on Twitter - Arthur Gies, for instance - I became briefly enraged, shook my head at the stupidity of the internet en masse and moved on, vowing to exact my vengeance on any fool willing to admit his part in this tomfoolery.

While my stance hasn't changed, my wrath toward the anti-EA movement softened considerably when I finished Mass Effect 2 Thursday and looked into buying downloadable content. In the past I've ignored DLC with few exceptions (my Rock Band library says hi), but ME2 was outstanding enough for me to consider ponying up a little extra cash for more game.

What I discovered was far worse than I expected.

As a bargain shopper, I picked up ME2 from Amazon's Warehouse Deals subsidiary for $15. That purchase earned me about 25 hours of gameplay so far, including the main storyline, eleven possible party members (not including Shepard) and their loyalty missions and a variety of side quests scattered throughout the in-game universe, most of which I've not yet played.

I expected to take a loss on new content, but what I discovered was more unbalanced than I could have imagined. Not only would I need to spend $30, twice as much as I paid for the two-disc package, to access the remaining fraction - a couple hours of new main storyline and two new characters with loyalty missions - purchasing any DLC for a used copy of ME2 incurs a $15 setup charge.

Unlike Consumerist writers (and possibly readers), I don't entirely blame EA for this; there's a clear precedent for this kind of pricing, whether they set it or not. The problem is that DLC operates outside a normal economy where supply and demand result in Mass Effect 2 hitting $15, and more importantly where DLC can never be resold. I'll probably make my money back on Mass Effect 2; on its DLC, a sliver of the overall experience, I would take a $45 loss. Digital content simply needs to be legislated differently for this problem to go away.

I'm left, then, with my final Paragon/Renegade decision of the game. Do I thumb my nose at EA, Xbox Live and the game industry at large, take my $45 and walk away? Or do I spend my money, consider all of Mass Effect 2 a very worthwhile $45 experience and become part of the shenanigans?

I still don't know. Perhaps. after I've beaten both Mass Effect and ME3, I'll decide to invest in the additional gameplay hours for the sake of completion. I doubt it, though; I've beaten each Assassin's Creed game for Xbox 360 but never paid a cent for its DLC.

That decision, sadly, leaves me feeling manipulated. Yes, I experienced most of Mass Effect 2. Yes, I very much enjoyed it. No, I can't talk about it with the authority I'd prefer, and as long as value is a criterion I never will.

Maybe we can give the Consumerist's award to DLC instead.