Now that E3 is two weeks in the rear-view mirror, I thought I'd follow in the footsteps of the Bombcast crew and put together some of my own Hot YouTube Content talking about my favourite games from the show. I went less with "these are the ten games I want most that were at E3" and more "these games had showings that specifically made me more excited than I already was."
Here's the content of the video in lovely text form, too - just in case you're not a fan of video.
It's been two weeks now since E3 2016 filled our eyeballs with a vast array of upcoming games and gaming tech due to arrive over the coming months and years. I thought I'd take a quick moment to reflect on the ten titles which excited me most over the course of the show. As it turned out, picking just ten was tougher than I anticipated. I've actually decided to leave out Nintendo's showing from this list, partly to make my decision easier and partly to avoid their notoriously stringent YouTube monitoring. Suffice to say I'm very much looking forward to both Pokémon and Zelda, then, as well as a bunch of other stuff that didn't quite make the cut - but here are my Top 10 Most Exciting Games from E3 2016.
- Number 10: Tekken 7 (Bandai Namco) PC, PS4, Xbox One
Squeezing in at number 10 is Tekken 7. It's been almost five years now since the last major home console Tekken Release, Tag Tournament 2, so to say that I'm eager for another King of Iron Fist Tournament would be rather an understatement. Only serving to add to that excitement is the inclusion of Street Fighter's Akuma - who seems to have brought most of the core mechanics from Capcom's franchise to the table with him, including his own personal EX meter. He's also core to the Tekken 7's story mode, which chief producer Katsuhiro Harada has claimed will bring an end to the Mishima family's tale... we'll see about that one, Harada-san.
- Number 9: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands (Ubisoft) PC, PS4, Xbox One
Blasting in at number 9 is Ubisoft's latest entry in the sprawling Tom Clancy-verse, Ghost Recon Wildlands. First announced at the end of their press conference in 2015, Wildlands promises an open-world Bolivian landscape for players to roam around in, teaming up with one another to take down the incumbent Santa Blanca Drug Cartel. Eschewing a fixed narrative in favour of a completely player-determined progression is a bold move, but the potential for approaching missions in a multitude of ways, from storming a base guns-blazing with your friends to stealthily carrying out objectives under the cover of a midnight storm, certainly has me intrigued. Ghost Recon Wildlands has the potential to bring the free-form mercenary action of Metal Gear Solid V into a co-operative environment, and that's an incredibly compelling proposal.
- Number 8: God of War (Sony Santa Monica, SIE) PS4
Simmering under the surface at number 8 is the surprising return of God of War. As someone who had really burned out on the formula of the series up to this point, seeing Sony Santa Monica take a completely different approach for this new entry is incredibly refreshing. Pale manifestation of anger Kratos is back, but he appears to have taken the time since his last outing to grow a rather spectacular beard and work on that notorious temper. With tonal comparisons to be drawn to the likes of The Last of Us, forest survival undertones akin to the recent Tomb Raider titles, and combat sequences that exude hints of Dark Souls, there's plenty to look forward to as Kratos enjoys his new life in the Scandanavian wilderness... and absolutely doesn't manage to draw the ire of every Norse deity in the vicinity, right?
- Number 7: Sea of Thieves (Rare, Ltd., Microsoft Studios)PC, Xbox One
Sailing in at number 7 is Sea of Thieves, the open-world pirate MMO from Rare that promises seafaring hi-jinks aplenty for you and all your buds as you work together to crew a ship, sail the high seas, hunt for booty, and engage rival vessels in frantic naval combat. Games such as Guns of Icarus, Spaceteam, and Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime have already proven just how joyfully chaotic attempting to crew a virtual ship with your friends can be, and adding pirates into the mix feels like the perfect fit for that style of game. Frantically yelling at one another as you attempt to patch up your sinking ship while also firing off salvos at the rival crew attempting to claim your hard-earned booty for themselves sounds stressful in just the right adrenaline-pumping way.
- Number 6: Death Stranding (Kojima Productions, SIE)PS4
To snatch the number 6 slot without actually saying what your new game is about (aside from a hugely baffling trailer) takes a special someone - but, Hideo Kojima, you're pretty good. Given free reign and seemingly complete creative freedom by Sony, the Metal Gear creator opted to craft an initial teaser featuring a naked Norman Reedus... covered in oil... searching for a lost baby across a beach covered with stranded aquatic life... before being confronted by several mysterious floating figures in the sky. Yeah. Sure. Safe to say, then, that Kojima is still just as weird and impenetrable as ever, and I'm fascinated to find out what he has planned for his first new IP in years.
- Number 5: Gwent: The Witcher Card Game (CD Projekt RED)PC, PS4, Xbox One
Settle down and find yourselves a table now, because coming in at number 5 is Gwent, the standalone edition of CD Projekt RED's hugely popular card game from The Witcher 3. The fact that a fairly simple side activity became one of the most popular aspects of such a broad and expansive open-world RPG speaks to the sublime design of Gwent. Not wanting to miss out on an opportunity to please the fanbase whilst also cashing in on this popularity, CD Projekt RED have spun Gwent out into its own release - including an entirely redesigned visual style, a wealth of new and re-balanced cards to expand the experience, and a full campaign mode seemingly along the lines of Puzzle Quest where you must adapt your decks to combat the specific strengths and weaknesses of each opponent. Add in the opportunity to finally take on other human players, which should play well into the rather mindgame-oriented nature of Gwent, and this is one game that could be on the cards for many years to come.
- Number 4: Titanfall 2 (Respawn Entertainment, EA)PC, PS4, Xbox One
Crashing in from the sky at number 4 is the explosive return of Respawn Entertainment's mech shooter. Prepare for Titanfall. 2. While I wasn't as enamoured as some with the first Titanfall, the fast-paced movement abilities shook up multiplayer first-person shooters in a way which sent demonstrable reperucussions through the genre. It was a solid base upon which to build a more fully-featured game, which Titanfall 2 is showing plenty of signs of shaping up to be. Replacing the old light/medium/heavy mech distinction with six mechs, each focused on a different area of combat, should offer players a lot more customisation in their loadouts. Additionally, the now-mandatory grappling hook has made its way in as another option to get you around the map and even interfere with enemy players and mechs. Alongside all these multiplayer improvements is the promise of a fully-formed single player campaign, which aims to build a tighter sense of the relationship between a mech and its pilot and should hopefully build up a greater sense of the surrounding fiction for the world Respawn have crafted.
- Number 3: Dishonored 2 (Arkane Studios SA, Bethesda)PC, PS4, Xbox One
As we move into the top three titles, there's only room for the heaviest of hitters. One of the most prominent showings during this year's press conferences was for Dishonored 2. Developers Arkane showed off the new coastal city of Karnaca, based on southern Europe. This time around, players have the choice of returning protagonist Corvo or a grown-up Empress Emily. As with the previous game, levels may be approached in a variety of ways: do you want to employ stealth or go loud from the off? Are you looking to keep the bodycount to a minimum, or will you carve a lethal path through anyone who stands in your way? Both Corvo and Emily come with their own unique ability set - Corvo retains many of his old tricks, such as his trademark blink or the ability to possess animals and move through otherwise inaccessable areas. Conversely, Emily can link enemies together with her Domino ability, causing them all to share the same fate, or deploy her bizarre shadow-walk and tentacle arm to dispatch foes. Clearly puberty has much more significant effects in the world of Dishonored, then. The first Dishonored was already a game I was compelled to play through multiple times, so having a completely fresh skillset to do that with this time around is incredibly exciting.
- Number 2: Sid Meier's Civilization VI (Firaxis Games, 2K)PC
Just missing out on the top spot is Sid Meier's civilization VI. That's right, after six glorious years of Civilization V (and a spot of dabbling with Beyond Earth), it's time to relearn everything you knew about Civ all over again. Civilization VI retains the hex-based layout of its predecessor, but looks to change things up with a wealth of new ideas such as the idea of "City Unstacking." Major improvements to your settlements must now be placed on separate hexes within your city, meaning not only that you must have room to accomodate them, but also that attacking civs are able to target specific parts of your infrastructure and limit their effectiveness directly. You may also create districts within a city, improving certain aspects in those areas at the costs of others. Perhaps most importantly from my perpective, the game has been rebalanced to hopefully bring the viability of each possible victory condition into line. As someone who poured a ton of time into Civilization V, I'm super excited at the potentially of being swallowed up once more by Firaxis's deep, vibrant 4X game as I find new ways to Explore, Expand, Exploint, and Exterminate through the ages.
- Number 1: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Guerilla Games, SIE) PS4
And with that, we reach the top spot. Going into E3, there was one game I wanted to see more of more than any other - and that game was Horizon: Zero Dawn. Thankfully, Guerilla Games didn't disappoint, with a lengthy gameplay demo on the Sony stage. The environments look just as gorgeous as they did last year, with a real loving design to all the robo-animals roaming the environments. There was a much better sense of how the game will play out this year, too. We got a little more of a look at the open world and some of the resource gathering and crafting elements. There was a quick glimpse of some Witcher-style dialogue options as Aloy interacted with a another fleeing human. Along with more extended combat sequences, they also showed off the ability to hack a defeated cyber-bull and ride it across the hills and plains, or even into battle. Other animals may also be hacked for different purposes, such as to fight alongside you. Mixing bow combat with agressive melee enemies could have been a recipe for disaster, but the combat seems to have a really satisfying flow to it. Pleasingly, hands-on reports from the show were very positive, saying that the game felt as good to play as it looked on the demo. Guerilla has made some great games in the past, but they really look to have stepped up their game with Horizon: Zero Dawn, and I am so excited to learn more about it in the run-up to its release early in 2017.
And that's the list! Suffice to say, there's plenty of other games that were at the show that I just couldn't fit on here - including a very promising gameplay demonstration of Persona 5, the expanded-universe adventures of BUD in Grow Up, a completely new take on a classic franchise with Resident Evil 7, and oh so much more. I'd love to hear what games you were most excited about coming out of E3, so be sure to let me know down in the comments section below.
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