E3 2016: The Good, the Not So Good, and the Weird
E3 has come and gone once again, here are some thoughts on notable announcements from throughout the week.
Good
God of War
It turns out that the rumors were true. Kratos is back and appears to be fighting Norse mythological beasts. Sony opened up its press conference by showing off an extensive demo that showed off God of War’s new, more deliberate combat and what appears to be a serious emotional tone. This is the first time that a God of War game has ever had me intrigued about the story and I can’t wait to learn more when we finally get to play this game probably sometime next year.
Dishonored 2
The original Dishonored was one of my favorite games of the last console generation. It’s stylish blend of first person stealth, murder, and magic made for a unique experience that harkened back to older games life Thief and Deus Ex while forging its own unique identity. Needless to say, I’ve been excited for Dishonored 2 for a while and the slice of gameplay the Bethesda had to show looked like a logical next step for the series with unique twists for each level awesome new powers. I’m ready to return to the world of Dishonored on November, 11.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
After years of waiting, Nintendo has finally given a title to the next console Legend of Zelda. Breath of the Wild looks to be a completely new take on the series adding a focus on survival. Classic mainstays like hearts drops and rupees are currently nowhere to be seen, instead players must scavenge for food and weapons to stay alive in a vast open world. This game hopes to bring back the sense of discovery players had in the original Legend of Zelda and if the gameplay shown at E3 is any indication, it might succeed. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is currently scheduled to release on WiiU and whatever NX turns out to be, late 2017
We Happy Few
It’s not often that I find myself excited about an early access game but if the demo Microsoft showed at their E3 press conference is any indication, this game might be something really special. We Happy Few looks to be a mix between Bioshock and Don’t Starve, set in a crazy 1960’s English dystopia with procedurally generated areas. We learned that the game will have what appears to be a fully developed story and if the opening moments are any indication, it’s going to be a wild, disturbing ride.
Resident Evil 7
I really didn’t see this one coming. Resident Evil is going taking the first person horror route. This is an interesting direction to take the series and it’s sure to be divisive. But personally, I haven’t been this excited to find out more about a Resident Evil game in ages. A demo was released on PS4 as a sort of “proof of concept,” it establishes a great sense of atmosphere and if the full release can maintain that same tone, 2017 may be the year the Resident Evil becomes truly terrifying again.
Not So Good
Fallout 4 DLC
I love Fallout 4 which is why I feel comfortable saying that with the exception of Far Harbor all of the dlc has been varying levels of awful. The crafting system was interesting but it continues to be unwieldy and difficult to use accurately on top of that in order to build anything, you need to spend hours tracking down building materials. For all these reasons, I wish Bethesda would stop making paid building add-ons and focus on what they do best, telling interesting in fantastic worlds. Hopefully Nuka World will be good.
Final Fantasy XV
I’m trying really hard not to just immediately assume Final Fantasy XV will be bad and there is a lot of good stuff shown for this game. But the E3 showing at Microsoft’s conference was one of the worst demonstrations of Final Fantasy I’ve seen yet. The combat seems unwieldy and the fact that the person they had demoing it was struggling has me concerned. On the other hand, the scale of titan that they showed off was truly impressive. There’s still a chance that this may be a return to form for the legendary series. Find out on September, 30
Sea of Thieves
I don’t quite understand what this game is supposed to be. It seems like some sort of free form pirate mmo, but what is there to do and what is the end goal? Sailing around with friends and needing to operate all parts of a pirate ship seems like it could be fun for a little while but I need to know what might keep me playing for the long run.
Scalebound
Dragons are cool. Crazy fast paced combat is cool. Scalebound looks like an ugly mess. Platinum games has gotten into the habit of making either really good or really bad games and not much in-between. There’s multiplayer now and it looks chaotic and confusing. This game may still have potential but I’m starting to wonder why Microsoft decided to publish this one at all.
EA Star Wars
EA still has nothing useful to say about Star Wars games and neither do I.
Weird
For Honor
For Honor didn’t have my attention last year and then I saw the premise for the story. Knights, Samurai and Vikings are being forced to fight each other because of some sort of global apocalypse and they’ve been fighting for 1000 years. This premise is hilarious and actually has a lot of potential for interesting gameplay. The single player seems like an interesting throwback to older hack-n-slash games and I’m ok with that.
PlayStation VR
For the first time I am legitimately interested in a VR headset. Sony made the smart decision of showing off a variety of games that utilized virtual reality in a real gameplay sense. At $400 it’s still a bit expensive but I feel like I may finally see the potential of VR gaming.
Recore
This game looks adorable, stylish and like a ton of fun. I have no idea exactly what it is though. From the creators of Metroid Prime and Megaman, Recore is going to be something really unique and I still don’t know exactly how to describe it. It will cost $40 at launch unless you want this gorgeous special edition later this year.
Death Stranding
Kojima! Kojima, Kojima, Kojima! He’s back guys with a typically bizarre trailer that tells us nothing about the game. Norman Reddus is going to be in it, and he’s naked? There’s a baby and invisible oil hands and dead whales. Honestly I have no idea what’s going on in this trailer but I dare you not be excited to find out more. Let’s watch it again, wow.
Xbox One S
There’s a new slim Xbox One coming out. It has a bigger hard drive, hdr and 4k video support, and it gets rid of that Kinect port you don’t use (you can get a free adapter for you Kinect if you want.) It comes out this August starting at $300 and next year Microsoft is replacing it with a different version of the Xbox One! The Xbox One S is a logical system upgrade but for some reason, Microsoft felt the need to tell us that not too long from now, they play on replacing it with a newer more powerful version of the console rendering the One S obsolete before it even comes out. Supposedly, project Scorpio will only really benefit gamers with 4k TVs and all versions of all Xbox One games will run on all consoles, but considering the flack that Xbox One has already received this console generation this feels like a strangely tone deaf move by Microsoft. On the bright side, the One S will be the only console that can play 4k video for a while.
Let us know what your favorite announcement was from E3 in the comments below-
