We had a really solid E3 this year. Every single one of the press conferences had something good to show and there really was something for everyone. The variety of genres shown was fucking beautiful. After having some time to let it all wash over me I have settled on these five as my favorites of the show although there were tons of other great looking games.

5. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands

I have never played a Ghost Recon game before, or even a Tom Clancy game for that matter. That said, everything I have read about this game seems really fucking awesome. After the huge disappointment that was GTA online I am ready for an open world game with good gameplay. Freedom to tackle each mission sounds great if they can pull it off. That said the lack of any sort of release window leads me to fear the worst. I fully expect it to be at E3 next year with a 2017 release date only to get delayed until 2018. I hope I am wrong.

4. Super Mario Maker

The footage they showed during the actual direct was kinda poop. It was just quick cuts of gameplay which looked like random chaotic shit put together with no rhyme or reason. However, the footage they showed during the Nintendo World Championship was everything I was hoping this game would be. The levels looked tough and the gameplay looked tight. While there will inevitably be a lot of shit to sift through, I hope Nintendo has something in place to help surface those levels that are the best similar to how Media Molecule does with LittleBigPlanet.

3. Fallout 4

All I wanted out of this was more Fallout 3. What has been shown looks like exactly that. The new features also look neat. I love that there are no longer any useless items and everything can be broken down for parts. The weapon customization looks great as does the whole "build your own town" feature. As of now though I am not planning on picking this up this year. Bethesda is in the same group as Warner Bros. for me where I simply wait for the complete edition that comes about 9-12 months after the initial release. Add to that the numerous bugs Bethesda is notorious for and there is no way in hell I am playing it at launch. Luckily there are two other great looking games coming in November of this year to keep me busy.

2. Need for Speed

I have been waiting for someone to make a good arcade racer with customization for way too long now. Midnight Club Los Angeles was released in 2008 for fucks sake! How has no one else stepped up since then to make one of these kinds of games? The Crew was incredibly promising and they seemed to nail everything except the actual driving part. Everything that has been shown of Need for Speed so far looks like they are on the right track. The driving and handling look solid so hopefully it turns out good. I also love that they went with FMV for their story. It looks terrible in the best kind of way.

1. Star Wars: Battlefront

Speaking of games that are long overdue, how about that Battlefront? Battlefront 2 came out over a decade ago! Everything they showed during the EA and Sony press conferences seems to indicate that DICE knows exactly what they are doing. The multiplayer and cooperative modes look perfect. And I am also ecstatic that they are including split screen local coop and multiplayer (and hugely bummed that we are in 2015 and split screen is as fucking uncommon as it is). Even more exciting is that if this game blows up and sells well (which of course it will) then maybe Disney will finally let someone make real Marvel games again.

I'm very interested in Wildlands too. I adored the GRAW games, and even quite liked the multiplayer in the last one. (That game was ok, and I assume would be a fantastic experience with four like-minded people) Those games have always required a certain level of patience and never reward going in guns blazing.

The thing that struck me about it was the cool animation of them all realistically running down hills. It does look very cool. I feel like it got overshadowed by tons of other games this year, and a modern military thing is never going to get the same attention as something like Watch Dogs. I do also think that Siege showed a lot better at the Ubi conference.

Fallout 4

Uncharted 4

FF7 Remake

Ghost Recon Wildlands

MGS5

Top 5 E3 2015 Games

1. Dave Langs Phone Number

2. Dave Langs Phone Number

3. Dave Langs Phone Number

4. Dave Langs Phone Number

5. Dave Langs Phone Number

Wildlands looks like it could be everything I wanted from a Mercenaries sequel.

Hopefully, being a Ubisoft game won't make it just another game about climbing towers to reveal more stuff on the map.

Goddammit Darth! You know you're not supposed to go out of your cage!