We are done with the second E3 where the current generation consoles took to the steps of Los Angeles, and tried to awe the press and the public. E3 is over and sadly there will not be any more PS3/X360 games, and the PS Vita has finally bit the dust. Bites and megabytes raged, and our bank accounts will cry. Especially next year.

Bethesda

Bethesda did not surprise us too much, but what they should pretty much curb stomped the competition. I have to admit I feel that Dishonored Definitive Edition is entirely pointless, but the sequel was a great announcement. I’ll be interested to see what will Corvo’s role will be, and most of all, what Emily’s powers will be. Next up is Doom.

Which was a bit overkill in terms of the brownish coloring, and a bit more classical shading would have been nice. However the ID Tech 6 seems to be an overkill in terms of graphical fidelity, and I had lost my jaw when I was watching the trailer for it (Rage was not bad, but ID Tech 5 was really unoptimized). Doom’s multiplayer feature Snapmap might destroy the competition, and Infinity Ward probably should release a Map Editor for Call of Duty Episode 299 at this point.

Moving on, the only expectation I have for Fallout 4 on the consoles is that there will not be too many bugs. Based on what we seen at E3 this will be the most anticipated title of 2016, unless they screw it up.

Electronic Arts

Mass Effect: To be frank I never played much of the series, but Andromeda looks promising so I might try it out once it is released. The galaxy exploration might be a bit repetitive so Bioware needs to watch out to not make that mistake again. Need for Speed: should not be online all the time. Let’s not try to copy The Crew.

Luckily the game can be played solo, however I can bet a dollar that a hefty day one patch will be released, and we won’t be able to join the game online. Least they’ll bring us the style of Underground 2, so that might save the franchise from perpetual obscurity. The FIFA part was entirely pointless since Péle just walked on stage and talked about… stuff I guess.

Unravel was perfect, great, and beautiful so it is disappointing that this is EA’s only noteworthy game. This was surprise for me, and we need more IPs like Unravel. Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 is also always online (again why?), but we can play solo this time in a mode. Battlefront (3) looked great, yes it looked great, but if the second game had more content than this then we are going backwards. Mirrors Edge’s Faith got uglier, and the game looks okay (They did take away gun combat so less choices for the customer).

Ubisoft

For Honor might be interesting, but I would not drop money for the amount of footage I saw. Regarding the Division I have no idea what to think, but the more I see of that game, the more bored I get. Luckily Rainbow Six: Siege did the opposite for me.

Ghost Recon seems to be adhering to the current trends, and looks fantastic, hope the game will not be boring to play in the end. Trackmania console port was a brave move from Ubisoft, Just Dance is sort here again (never saw anyone play that from my friends).

Rockband looks great, and seems to be better at coming back from hibernation than Guitar Hero, plus there you’ll need to spend extra cash on the new Guitar. South Park looked great, and the sequel seems to be taking on the super hero genre (Avengers font included).

Sony

Sony was able to surprise everyone a little bit with The Last Guarding which is still being in developed. A console generation and six years have passed, so maybe by next year they’ll be ready with it. Guerrilla’s newest IP looks interesting, and while it is not my usual type of game I’ll be on the lookout for this one in the future.

No Man’s Sky seems to be a one of a kind game that does not seem like a mass produced product, and real care and effort seems to be put in the game. Media Molecule’s Dream is confusing but still looks like a fun new IP. Final Fantasy VII is getting a remake…

Again though this time it won’t just be a PC port. Shenmue III while promising we have no idea how the budget will be handled for this sequel. Hopefully the hype will not blow up in Yu Suzuki’s face. Uncharted 4 ran (albeit bit laggy but it was OK), Call of Duty Black Ops III is getting a PS4 exclusive beta, and same goes for Street Fighter V.

None of these news are surprising since Sony is trying to strengthen their third party line-up. Firewatch is a game I would like to see more of, and what I would like to stop seeing is the porting announcements for the PS4. Aka Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls.

Square Enix

Just Cause 3 looks awesome, I knew that for a long time, but now at E3 they proved that. NieR will be one of Platinum Games’ new game (they are the ones who will develop the new Transformer game, Star Fox, and now Nier, meanwhile Hideki Kamiya stayed home to work on Scalebound, also blocking hundreds of Twitter users… (Fortunately he still hasn’t blocked me yet), Kingdom Hearts III is still TBA, which is just astonishing how slow that game development is going on.

Star Ocean 5 was not a surprise, but the Hitman Reboot was a totally smack to my brain. After Absolution Agent 47’s style became a bit too goody good, but everybody still wants to use that piano wire right?

Let’s see if they can mess up this reboot in December. Oh and Deus Ex: looks great, awesome and all that, but that damn HUD is just not my favorite part. I hope they’ll work on it, as this lined HP Hud is annoying after Human Revolution’s numerical system..

VR was brought up by them with Superhypercube, which I have no idea how they can make a virtual game based on that topic. Same goes for the Paranormal Activity theme.

So who won?

This year’s biggest titles were going all out for the players. Even Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which had a Kojima cut trailer, that did not include the Kojima Productions logo (no company name was there, I do not understand that), but at the end of the E3 demo Snake had a pin with the company name. Will let you figure that one out.

I think this year’s E3 was okay, but besides the Transformers: Devastation/Unravel/For Honor/ Horizon: Zero Dawn/ Hitman/ Shenmue 3 there was not much else to be excited about

A lot of games were pushed to 2016, and the VR headset is being pushed pretty hard by everyone as the next evolution of gaming. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens. This year on the PlayStation front the game of the year contest will be between Bloodborne, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and Fallout 4. Kojima Vs Bethesda, vs From Software.

-V-