E3: The Good, The Great, and The Best

NINTENDO

Nintendo haven’t had a press conference at E3 since 2012, where they announced the Wii U. However they still have a big presence at E3. This year they hosted a Nintendo Championships competition and delivered yet another one of their E3 Nintendo Direct videos, which was charming yet lacked a lot of big announcements and left Nintendo fans feeling a bit cold. No Zelda Wii U game, no new Metroid console game and no sign of F-Zero. But it wasn’t all doom and gloom, Nintendo still had some cool stuff to show off.

Star Fox Zero

Star Fox is back, baby! We haven’t seen the anthropomorphic fox doing barrel rolls for a couple of years now, and the game’s original creator and Nintendo legend, Shigeru Miyamoto seemed delighted to be showing off some new gameplay from their upcoming Star Fox Zero game which sees you back in the cockpit of a fast spaceship, dogfighting enemies in space. The game’s developers, Platinum Games, have succeeded in capturing what was so brilliant about Star Fox 64 on the Nintendo 64 and we can’t wait to get our hands on it, which should be coming out at the end of this year, hopefully just before Christmas.

The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes

Despite there being no Wii U Zelda at E3 this year, we did get The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes. Much in the same vein as The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, Tri Force Heroes is a cooperative action adventure game, which sees you as part of a three-man team (one could say a three Link team) in which you have to join forces to fight enemies and solve puzzles. With an art style close to the last 3DS zelda game, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, and an interesting multiplayer aspect, fans of the legendary video game series should expect hours of puzzle solving fun. It will be released on Nintendo’s ever popular 3DS later this year.

Super Mario Maker

Ever wanted to become a Mario game level designer? Now you can do exactly that, create your very own Super Mario levels based on the games, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and New Super Mario Bros. U, and share them online. This game has been a long time coming and will spawn some truly brilliant new Mario levels, as well as some not so good ones, which is all part of the fun. You can start pretending to be a Nintendo game designer as of 11th September 2015.

BETHESDA

Bethesda started off this year’s E3 with a big bang by announcing and showing gameplay from some of the show’s most exciting and eagerly anticipated games.

Fallout 4

Fans have been awaiting the follow up to Fallout 3 for some time now, and things had been pretty quiet on its sequel until a few days before E3, when Bethesda released a short trailer for their blockbuster post-apocalyptic video game franchise. The gameplay footage for Fallout 4 shown at E3 blew everyone away, from its incredibly expansive universe, to the truly remarkable graphics (especially considering how big the game is going to be). You also have a canine buddy, what could be better! And if that wasn’t enough, Fallout 4 is going to be released on 11th November 2015.

Dishonored 2

Arkane Studios developed somewhat of a surprise hit back in 2012 when they released the original Dishonored. Being able to run inside the sewers, on the rooftops and stealth kill almost everybody in a steampunk city really captured the imaginations of the gamers. It’s no wonder that Bethesda gave Arkane Studios the green light to make the sequel. This time around you get to choose between Emily Kaldwin (the Princess from Dishonoured) and Corvo Attano. You can once again decide to be stealthy or go in guns blazing, Bethesda has assured fans that it is possible to get through the whole game without killing a single person. Worth a try. Dishonored 2 is expected to be released in the first part of 2016, but that may change; these things often do.

UBISOFT

Much like this year’s E3 Ubisoft’s press conference concentrated on the seriously cool lineup of games they have coming up in 2015 and 2016. Having Aisha Tyler host their press conference was also a clever move, since a lot of their games concentrate on female protagonists, a welcome change in a male dominated environment.

South Park: The Fractured But Whole

South Park: The Stick of Truth was a truly remarkable RPG, one of the best in the last few years, and it was completely unexpected. South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have proved themselves in almost every medium imaginable: TV, film, musicals and now video games; is there anything these guys can’t excel at? South Park: The Fractured But Whole switches the Lord of the Rings vibe of The Stick of Truth for a more Avengers approach, because superheroes are so hot right now. The Coon and friends will be back in this new adventure, let’s hope that it’s as hilarious, outrageous and anti-P.C. as the last one.

For Honor

Ubisoft unveiled a completely new I.P at this year’s E3. For Honor is yet another historically themed game, but this game is definitely something entirely new. This game focuses on epic battles between Knights, Samurais and Vikings (I know, how cool is that?), and puts you in control of a character of your choice from one of the factions. Claimed by many to be an incredibly satisfying hack-and-slash experience and was many games journalists’ game of the show, For Honor has a very unique approach to sword fighting. Instead of focusing on health bars or having your screen turning black and white whilst you cower behind a boulder somewhere, this game has a much more realistic approach to combat. You have to use your intelligence and strategic understanding to outmanoeuvre your opponent and deliver that fatal blow, which sounds both challenging and rewarding.




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