Is it E3 again already? It only seems like only last month we were all losing our minds over Watchdogs and I was complaining about the new consoles. It was refreshing to hear that most companies were actually focusing on games this year, because without games, consoles are just inexplicably expensive bits of plastic. Here are my four best games of E3. As a rule, I only include games that showcased footage of actual gameplay, because if Dead Island (and it’s recently announced second sequel) taught us anything, it’s that pre-rendered trailers are completely meaningless. 

Assassin’s Creed: Unity

Despite years of disinterest, I’ve recently found myself enamoured with the Assassin’s Creed franchise. The idea of the latest addition being set during the French Revolution, i.e. one of the most interesting and tumultuous periods of history, hooked me from the start. Ubisoft treated us to two in-depth gameplay demonstrations that showcased the stunning city of Paris, bustling with enraged, pitch-fork wielding peasants.

The glimpses we got of the game also showed us the graphical fidelity of Unity, and history has never looked this good. Crucially, the player can now enter buildings freely, making the city seem less like a hollow shell than in the admittedly fantastic Ezio trilogy. The idea of being able to stalk the grim streets of Paris, a guillotine clattering down on one side whilst fat aristocrats watch on in fear from the other, is enough to reinvigorate the series and stoke my excitement for when the game is released in October on PS4, Xbox One and PC.

E3 HIGHLIGHT – The side-quests. The thought of being able to stumble over a murder mystery occurring on any street gives the impression that the city will be full of life with unique stories at every turn.

No Man’s Sky

The cream of the crop out of the many exciting indie games on show was Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky. Promising to deliver a beautiful, procedurally generated universe that offers a unique experience for every explorer, No Man’s Sky will tap into that part of us that is overwhelmingly intrigued by the unknown. Imagine being able to explore an infinite universe, discovering planets and lifeforms and knowing that you’re the only person ever to have witnessed them.

Remember how in Mass Effect 1, the ability to explore numerous mysterious planets instilled a childish sense of wonder inside of you that was only marred by the fact the planets were basically copy and pasted from a single template? That’s why I’m so excited for No Man’s Sky. I can’t wait to home in on a planet in my spacecraft, not knowing if what I’ll find will be a harsh, unforgiving desert populated by the spaceworms from Dune, or a strange pink alien world with trees that stretch into the sky.

E3 HIGHLIGHT – The trailer showcased the unbridled joy of seeing a planet in the distance and simply flying towards it to explore, uninterrupted by loading screens.

The Order: 1886

Victorian England is a fantastic and underutilised setting for video games, and The Order: 1886 promises to beef up the period by adding steam-punk weaponary and supernatural enemies. The exciting gameplay demo showed a moustached gentlemen being chased down by a vicious werewolf. The graphics were practically photo-realistic, making the werewolf seem particularly vicious and hideous. What most impressed me was the flawless transition between gameplay and cut-scene, free of the immersion-breaking shifts in graphics that plague most games.

Although unfortunately delayed until February 2015, PS4 owners should be biting their nails in anticipation of The Order: 1886, and whilst the latest demo might not have shown us anything new, it did remind us that it’s coming, and it promises to be amazing when it finally does.

E3 HIGHLIGHT – Thinking that the cannibalistic foe in the trailer was about to transform into a typical zombie (i.e., a tired, old cliché), only for it to become a werewolf instead.

Far Cry 4

Swapping dense jungle for expansive Himalayan mountain ranges, the demos of Far Cry 4 hinted at vast, explorable landscapes, explosive gameplay and, of course, strangely alluring and all-powerful psychopaths. The pink-suited man already sent shivers down my spine in his brief appearance during Ubisoft’s conference. Whether he’s insane enough to match Vaas is yet to be seen.

Fortunately, we were also treated to footage of gameplay, and I was not disappointed. Ubisoft seem to have maintained the previous instalments multifaceted combat, and as a result, the trailer showcased stealth-kills with a crossbow, frantic vehicle combat, great distances covered in a few seconds with the use of a wing-suit, and of course, incredibly aggressive wildlife. Far Cry 4 has been scheduled for release in November on PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC.

E3 HIGHLIGHT – It wouldn’t be a Far Cry game if it didn’t feature animals stealing your kills, so watching an elephant wreck a vehicle brought back many fond memories.

 

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