E3 2018 – Games I’m looking forward to

So, E3 just happened, at least the conferences and though I’m sure we’ll see some random announcements in the coming days, the bulk of it is done.

Some outlets will go on and on about the winners of E3, but after years of having those discussions, and even being on the apologist fanboy side at times, I have long since stopped caring about that bit and now just focus on the pretty toys I want to play with, and there are a few I’m eager to play this or next year!

Let’s get to it then!

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 – Torna: The Golden Country: I love Xenoblade 2, still playing through it, taking my time to complete as many quests and awaken as many rare blades as I can. The DLC quest packs and everything included in the Season Pass keep me coming back for more, and now Nintendo is releasing a full expansion to it set in the past, a prequel to the main story? Hell yes! I can’t judge the game by its trailer, but it looks massive with hours’ worth of content including new quests, new blades and the chance to learn more about some of the key characters in the main game. I only hope I’ve finished the main story by then.

Doom Eternal: Doom is part of my gaming life and I’ve played the series since the 90s, when I got my hands on the shareware version of the first game. I played it to the point of nausea and I’ve continued that proud tradition with every new game in this long running series, including Doom 3 (the “No duct-tape in mars” thing never bothered me). And yes, I did the same with the latest title, which I absolutely adored with how fast-paced and intense it was. It even has my new favourite weapon of Doom, the Gauss Cannon. So Doom Eternal is coming and if it’s more of that intense experience, I’ll be all for it. Not only that but the last game had something of a Half-Life ending, with the main character shelved until he could be of use again.

Wolfenstein Youngblood: The last two Wolfenstein games have been outstanding, a perfect mix of classic FPS action and rich storytelling with a great character in this re-imagining of BJ Blazkowicz. I loved The New Colossus, but I had the feeling BJ’s part of the story was done. He went through so much in these games, that he felt like a dead man walking throughout the 2nd title. Now his daughters are picking up the mantle in alternate Nazi 80s, and I’m all for it. The characters’ parents are both complete badasses so I’m dying to know just how much ass they will kick in the new Wolfenstein.

Starfield: Ok, I’ll admit we haven’t seen anything of this game, but the thought of a new Bethesda IP, separate from everything else we know is pretty exciting. We probably won’t see it until after we colonize a few planets, knowing how long it takes these barely announced games to actually show something concrete, but I’m very intrigued.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: Once upon a time, I played Assassin’s Creed Unit and lost all love for the Assassin’s Creed series and though I enjoyed Syndicate, it didn’t rekindle that passion I had for Ubisoft’s long running series. Then a few years went by, time and distance made my heart grow fonder, and in a move that clearly showed Ubisoft knew how to push my love of ancient cultures button, they release an Assassin’s Creed in ancient Egypt. I thoroughly loved and enjoyed the journey with Bayek of Siwa and now we’re going to Ancient Greece, one of my favourite places for ancient history and myth, for the continuation. How can I say no? I’m all yours Assassin’s Creed, you had me at Sparta.

Spiderman: I’ve lost count of the number of Spiderman games I’ve played in my life and only a handful of them have been decent with even fewer actually good. But this new one looks freaking amazing. I’m usually suspicious of open world games, as it’s easy to hide a lack of content in dozens of sub-activities, but from watching the gameplay I can see myself just having a blast with the sheer joy of swinging around New York and running up and down buildings, because they finally did it, they made Spidey’s climbing and combat super fast and fun, with great moves and gadgets and special abilities. I want this Spiderman game. I want it, I need it, I must have it.

Smash Bros. Ultimate: EVERY FIGHTER IS BACK!! Which really isn’t what I care about, but I missed out on Smash on WiiU after buying the console near the end of its lifetime, so I didn’t have anyone to play with. I hope that this time I may do so with friends, both online and local if I ever manage to lure one of them to my evil lair!

Cyberpunk 2077: I love CD PROJEKT and how they adapt stuff into amazing games, just look at what they did with The Witcher, taking some beloved Polish novels and creating three absolutely stunning games. I’ve never played the R. Talsorian Cyberpunk RPG which they’re adapting for the setting and perhaps even mechanics, but I know enough about it to be excited for what we might see when this game releases. It’s bound to be fantastic, especially if it has only half of what The Witcher 3 delivered. I expect a large open world, lots of fun characters and heavy body modifications with cybernetics.

The Sinking City: I played this game during Rezzed and absolutely loved it as it mixed the brand of investigation and puzzling I’ve come to expect from Frogwares as a long fan of their Sherlock Holmes series, and wonderful Lovecraftian lore. I’ve been waiting ages for this game and the fact that now it has a definite release date makes me doubly excited.

Devil May Cry 5: It’s finally back and they’ve managed to come up with a new gimmick for Nero. I’ll admit I would’ve preferred a Dante-centric game instead of another romp with Nero, but I’m willing to give it a shot as I really liked Devil May Cry 4, had a lot of fun with it and Nero was a decent protagonist though not as fun or over the top ridiculous like Dante. Would be good to see Vergil return in some form, or have them officially acknowledge that Vergil is Nero’s dad and that Dante is his uncle, just for lore’s sake. The mechanical arm Nero carries looks fantastic and a lot of fun. They showed it doing several things and I hope you can equip different arm loadouts, for playstyle variety.

Ghost of Tsushima: I saw the Playstation presentation and they had me with the field and the dude playing that hauntingly beautiful flute melody. Then they added Mongols, Samurai, some slick in-engine sword combat and an intriguing cast of characters in about three minutes, enough to make me want to know more. If everything we see about this game, particularly the gameplay (because we know E3 graphical quality isn’t trustworthy), matches what we’ve seen this week then this game is going to be freaking amazing.

Sekiren: Shadows Die Twice: I mean, it’s FROM SOFTWARE and it doesn’t just look like it’ll be something of a Souls-like game but it seems inspired by that other FROM SOFTWARE series we all adore, Tenchu. The character is fast, can use his mechanical arm to grapple enemies and places and it kinda feels like Tenchu Souls, with a combat that feels fast like Bloodborne’s. Can I ask for more?

Nioh 2: Well, speaking of Souls-like with Samurai, we have a short trailer for Nioh 2. Now, I enjoyed the first Nioh despite having some serious issues with the story and characters, so I’m intrigued to see what they’re doing with Nioh 2. From the trailer, it looks like our character is going to be an Oni or perhaps Oni will feature more heavily now. If they do, I hope fighting them isn’t as annoying as it was on the first Nioh.

Déraciné: Ok, it’s an artsy game by FROM SOFTWARE for PSVR. I don’t have the VR and am not likely to get it any time soon, but you know what? I’m intrigued and if FROM SOFTWARE can make sure this isn’t another “style over substance” virtual reality game, which if we’re being honest is the case with most VR games (with clear exceptions like Moss) then it’ll be something truly special.

Control: Know very little about the premise but it looks surreal, trippy and has that Psychic Power combat thing that no game has properly done since Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy or Second Sight, if we’re being honest. So I’m hopeful about this one, even if I know very little about it.

Kingdom Hearts 3: Because it’s about damn time we have a release date, not that I count on that date being final. I’m expecting a few delays along the way. The game looks great and faster than its predecessors. I saw new worlds to explore but also recurring ones, which I’ll admit is a disappointment to me. I want a ton of new Disney worlds, not the same ones we’ve already seen to the point of exhaustion, like Olympus.

Resident Evil 2: I shouldn’t be excited about a remake in the face of so many original and new titles, but I am. It looks phenomenal and not only that but it seems like they’re expanding the story and maybe even streamlining some of the clunkier elements of Resident Evil 2’s writing.

So that’s it, those are the games I’m excited for. It’s a rather long list. I think the main difference compared to other years, for me, is that I have most of the platforms where the games are coming out on, so I have a wide selection of titles to enjoy and eventually leave abandoned in my backlog. Because let’s face it, all games end there!