E3 2013 Prologue

So this will be my third year at E3.  It’s a really big time for me because it’s the time when I get a chance to look at everything awesome that’s coming out and try to use that to figure out where everything is going.  What’s going to be great, what’s going to be disappointing, and what is a complete toss up.

Before I talk about the conferences, I want to take a moment of silence for those games that have slipped quietly into the great beyond.  Those games that could have been destined for greatness but, due to one reason or another, were fated for the gaming kiss of death.

Aliens: Colonial Marines, what happened?  I saw your demo two years in a row.  I was skeptical but hopeful that somehow your developers could create an interesting experience.  But when you finally came to market you were so… unpolished.  Maybe with six more months of development and some seriously good QA testers you could have been great, but in your sad, broken state all we’ll remember is that poor, damaged alien hobbling past the player as he clutched his thighs together and searched in vain for a bathroom.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, we hardly knew thee.  You had a ragtag team of executives that seemed to have more money than brains, but with RA Salvatore writing your story we expected so much more.  But spending all your development budget coming up with awesome attack moves doesn’t work when you also have to spend some time coming up with unique quests.  Spouting endless lore without giving any tangible reference points just doesn’t work out.  Sadly, you will be remembered more for the epic collapse of your studio rather than for the content that studio released.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter, I knew you too well.  Oh too well.  So many issues in such little time.  And while you and I will take some of our secrets to the grave, I expected so much more.  That picture of you that I hold close to my heart every time I see your name; that is how I know what you could have been.  You could have been so much more.

Brothers in Arms: The Furious Four, where art thou?  No seriously, where are you?  You were at E3 2011 as a playable demo, but we haven’t heard a word about you since.  Nothing at all.  Are you dead?  If not, we’d at least like a phone call.  Or a text.  Just something to let us know you still exist.

And what of our friends, the Wii U and PS Vita?  They were odd little things, but they might have worked.  Sadly they will be pushed aside this year to make room for the new and better, but with a price drop and some good titles they might be worth it!  Maybe!...

But enough about the past, let’s talk about the present.  Here are the games I’m looking forward to most and what I have thought about their reveals:

1.       Titanfall

I am drooling over this game.  I have no idea if it’s going to feature a campaign or not, but the idea of large team-based multiplayers with mechs that can be called in pretty much at any time is absolutely amazing.  It might not be the most innovative shooter we’ll see this year, but it is definitely exciting!  I just really, really hope that there’s a real campaign to this game.  Because otherwise this will end up competing more with Section 8 than with Battlefield 4.  And as interesting as Section 8 was, I believe there is a lot more potential here than that.  This will definitely be a game that I test out at E3.

The mech game I've been waiting for.

2.       Battlefield 4

The multiplayer match that EA showed at its conference was pretty amazing, but there was one fairly obvious flaw.  The entire experience was scripted.  I don’t know what that means exactly, but I’d be very surprised if the players could take down every skyscraper with a tank.  Maybe the developers managed to include that, but that would make this a gigantic game.

I love the idea of huge battles though.  I want to be able to insert my team into a battlefield via helicopter.  I’ve always wanted to be the helicopter pilot ever since I was able to fly the Hornet in Halo 3’s big team battles.  Seriously, being able to insert a friend and have him capture the flag, then fly him safely away from the battlefield and back to your base was an adrenaline rush.  I want that to happen again.

If any game can pull it off, Battlefield 4 can do it.  Also, DICE, if it’s not too much trouble, can we have some modding tools?  I want to make some custom levels for BF4.  I know it probably won’t happen, but plees?

Crysis is meeting its match.

3.       Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare

This really surprised me.  I was expecting Plants vs Zombies 2, but not like this.  At first I was completely turned off.  Third person shooter PvZ?  Cmon.  We have enough tps games as it is.  And then I started watching it.  And as I became more accustomed to the idea of totally changing around the style of the original game, I began to like Garden Warfare more and more.  It should be a much more friendly version of Left 4 Dead, so I’m definitely looking forward to it!

I was extremely surprised at how much I liked it.

4.       Dragon Age 3

I am disappointed so far by Dragon Age 3.  I expected it to be coming out this holiday (it’s not, I have to wait until Fall of next year).  I really just wanted more detail about what this game was, what its style would be, who would be back, etc.  Is it still a party-based RPG?  Probably, but we don’t know yet.  And despite the fact that I liked the gameplay of Dragon Age 2, so much of it felt like a letdown.  The trailer showed that Varric and Morrigan would be back, but in what capacity?  Is the gameplay going to feel more like DA:O or DA2?  Bioware, I want to believe…

5.       Star Wars: Battlefront

I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw this.  I knew there was going to be a Star Wars related announcement, but I thought it was going to be an expansion pack for The Old Republic.  When this teaser came on, I was blown away.  I didn’t think it was possible.  But this game could be extremely good, provided EA doesn’t mire it down with stupid extras.  If they make it like a combination between Star Wars: Republic Commando and Battlefield 3, it will be amazing.  Absolutely amazing.

6.       Metal Gear Solid V

It looks like a weird blend between Splinter Cell and Red Dead Redemption, but Metal Gear Solid V looked pretty good.  Interesting stealth mechanics, but it will definitely take some getting used to for me.  I’m hoping there’s a PC version, but if not it’ll be on my list for the PS4 or Xbox One (whichever I get first).

Liar's Dice, anyone?

7.       Quantum Break

The teaser trailer for this game was awful.  It didn’t explain anything and definitely didn’t get me excited.  Fortunately, the full trailer that Microsoft showed was much more interesting.  Having just finished playing Singularity, I’m definitely ready for another game that involves time manipulation, especially if that game has an excellent story.

All the time in the world...

8.       Need for Speed: Rivals

I am a sucker for a good Need for Speed game.  I’ve been pretty dedicated to the series since the original Hot Pursuit, but after NFS: Carbon things just went downhill quickly.  Things have come back over the past 3 or 4 years, but I can’t really get rid of the lingering sense of doubt that Street King and Undercover gave me about the Need for Speed franchise.  So while the more recent Hot Pursuit, Most Wanted, and even The Run games were definitely exciting and fun, I’m always nervous about the series.

Need for Speed: Rivals looked a lot like a combination of those three previous games.  The UI and camera angles looked a lot like The Run, the cop / racer systems and the open world environment looked a lot like Hot Pursuit, and the inclusion of Battlelog and the race setup looked like Most Wanted.  I’m not sure if this will turn out to be the best of all three or some sort of horrible Frankenstein splice of a game, but I’ll reserve that judgment for when I test it out.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2.

9.       The Crew

The one thing that I missed about almost every Need for Speed game since NFS: Carbon is the ability to customize my car.  And I mean more than just cosmetic changes like car color.  I loved having the ability to make my car look as ridiculously stupid as possible.  Want a spoiler that might as well give your Lamborghini the ability to take flight?  Done.  Want to customize the front bumper of your Lancer Evo so that it looks more like a snow plow than a car?  Done!  Want the ability to make your tires so gigantic and your rims so chromed that your Hyundai Tiberon looks almost exactly like Grave Digger?  DONE!

Well in place of that in comes “The Crew”.  This is an interesting racing game that seems to marry a persistent online world with full single player, coop, and multiplayer elements.  The whole idea is that the player can join a four man crew that goes out and does certain missions or races together.  There are plenty of single player matches (all of which you can post times to compete with your friends), but the meat of the game seems to be focused on the cooperative and competitive online modes.  In theory, this could be pretty awesome, especially if you combine different styles of cars to give your team different advantages or disadvantages.  But in practice this could go horribly wrong.  As long as the race mechanics are pretty solid, it should be okay though.

10.       Tom Clancy’s: The Division

I knew a Tom Clancy game from the moment Ubisoft started talking about the collapse of the world economy.  While the novels and storylines may be fairly predictable, the number of games that Ubisoft manages to release with the Tom Clancy name and the variety within those games is pretty astounding.  I was expecting Rainbow Six: Patriots (and am pretty disappointed that it wasn’t discussed at the Ubisoft conference), but I liked what I saw in The Division.  Open world cooperative RPG games can be very interesting.  Tie that together with the look and feel of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and this could be an amazing game.

Unfortunately, with all of these cooperative games, now I have to find a team that can get all of these games and try them out with me.  I’m used to playing games on my own time whenever I can, so finding a team that can do it on the PC will be… difficult.  We’ll see how it turns out though.  I’m definitely looking forward to finding out more about this game.

So at what level do I earn the ability to cloak?

11.       Watch Dogs

Watch Dogs was teased last year and was definitely one of the most memorable games of E3 2012.  It’s back this year and looks just as amazing as when it was first unveiled.  This was the first real next-gen game showcased.  It’s like Grand Theft Auto meets Deus Ex… or something.  Open world environment with a host of electronic devices at the player’s fingertips.  So far the story looks good and I’m really glad they’ve turned the main characters into characters with redeeming qualities.

This time though, I want to actually try the game.  I’ve seen enough trailers and watched enough gameplay.  I’m convinced this is going to be a great game.  But I want to actually test it out for myself.  Here’s hoping that actually happens.

12.       Destiny

Out of all of the shooter games showcased at this event (and there were a few), there were only two that disappointed me.  Killzone, because next to The Division and Battlefield 4 it just seemed so predictable, and Destiny.  With Destiny, the game looked great, but I didn’t really get what they were showing.  The cooperative gameplay was pretty cool, but it didn’t tell me anything about the style of game, the story, or any of the real gameplay elements.  Is it an RPG?  Is it a PS4 exclusive?  Is it open world?  How often do the multplayer events occur?  How many people can join a party?  I already knew the game was going to look good, so I was looking for something more solid.

But I will say one thing for Destiny, it completely destroys Defiance.  A game that encourages single-player play with cooperative elements at any time that also includes randomized large multiplayer boss battles?  Defiance and Destiny are exactly the same there, and while Defiance may currently have more gamers and a lower price point, it definitely doesn’t look nearly as good nor play nearly as well as what Bungie showcased with Destiny.  If it came down to picking between the two, I’d definitely pick Destiny.

13.       Infamous: Second Son

I haven’t played the first Infamous games yet.  They’re definitely on my list though, especially after seeing the trailer for Second Son.  I liked Prototype, so I am almost positive that I will love Infamous: Second Son.  But because I haven’t played the previous games, the subtle story elements are going to be a bit lost on me right now.  Hopefully more of it will become clear before the game is released.

Now, obviously I didn’t manage to talk about everything, but that’s part of what each nightly report will be about.  So stay excited guys and I’ll try to get some interesting exclusive information for you!