Hello and welcome back! Here are my personal highlights of E3 2017.
A Way Out
An online or couch split-screen action game starting in a prison and trying to get out. It's from the same makers as Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons but more AA than that.
It's a really cool idea, and I'll be keeping my eye on it.
Release date: Q1/Q2 2018. Platforms: PC, Xbox One, and PS4.
Life is Strange: Before the Storm
The 3-episode prequel series to hold us over until the "real" season 2 hits, most likely end of February 2018.
It is set 3 years before the first game, with playable character being Chloe, and her relationship with Rachel Amber, the one who is missing in the original Life is Strange.
Release date: First episode is August 31, 2017. Platforms: PC, Xbox One and PS4.
Sea of Thieves
Sea of Thieves, an open-world co-op optional pirate game, Windows 10 and Xbox One crossplay. Wanna explore? Drink rum? Do story missions? Fight other players? You can do that all in this game.
Release date: Early 2018 Platforms: PC and Xbox One.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
After an extremely successful crowd-funding in 2014, it is now ready to be shown and played. Basically it's The Witcher 3 without magic spells or supernatural monsters, completely realistic.
Release date: February 13, 2018.
Platforms: PC, Xbox One and PS4.
Special Mentions:
Anthem, a Destiny 2-like game from Electronic Arts. PC, Xbox One and PS4.
Crackdown 3, a destruction simulator for Xbox One and Windows 10.
Days Gone, think of Last Of Us, but zombies and open-world. PS4 exclusive.
Detroit Become Human, a game with multiple playable characters where your conversation and action choices matter. PS4 exclusive unfortunately.
A few more things...
- Bethesda is bad for making paid mods a thing.
- Bethesda is too obsessed with Doom, Skyrim and Fallout VR.
- Microsoft had no Halo announcement of any kind? Weird.
- Microsoft's E3 2018 will be much much better.
- State of Decay 2, Spider-Man, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, The Last Night and Agents of Mayhem were cut from the list above.
- I'll be keeping an eye out for Beyond Good & Evil 2, I'd like to see gameplay first.
- Cuphead has a nice art-style, but the gameplay will make it flop.
- Red Dead Redemption 2 will be released mid-November 2018 on PC.
- Bethesda had the worst conference, while Sony had the best. Everyone else was in the middle.
- Xbox One X won't get 4k 60 FPS on even 50% of the games released for it. It'll be the new big 1080p 60 FPS machine.
E3, Electronic Entertainment Expo, is a trade fair where the video game industry shows off and/or reveals their newest games once a year for 4 days in June.
These are the ones I'm interested in. I will try to show gameplay trailer/videos whenever possible.
The stars mean chance of purchase, with 1 star being less likely buying, 5 stars being yes will absolutely buy.
Mafia III
I'm currently playing through Mafia II on PC, and it is surprisingly good. Coincidentally enough, Mafia III is coming out and is set roughly 20 years after, in 1968.
This will not be a day one purchase for me, I will wait for reviews and around the 30-dollar range.
Genre: Open world, action
Platforms: PC, Xbox One, PS4
Release: October 7, 2016.
Agents of Mayhem
After watching the cinematic trailer (not linked above), I was excited, but then I saw the gameplay (linked above) and thought it was just... okay.
It's from the creators of Saints Row and looks to have it mashed up with Overwatch, with each playable character having their own ability. I wish it was co-op rather than single-player only.
I am keeping this on my radar until release though.
Genre: Open world, action, shooter
Platforms: PC, Xbox One, PS4
Release: 2017
Titanfall 2
I don't typically go for multiplayer team-based-but-not-really shooters (last Call of Duty I own is Black Ops 2 and hardly play it, same with Battlefield 4), but this seems really cool for the single-player alone, something the first was very much lacking, which was too bad because Titanfall has a really interesting universe. That, plus the multiplayer will keep the game alive longer than the first one for sure.
As I've mentioned, I will wait for reviews before jumping in.
Genre: First-person shooter, action
Platforms: PC, Xbox One, PS4
Release: October 28, 2016
Dead Rising 4
Dead Rising 4 would be my first step into the franchise. I own none of them, and have only played about an hour across all the previous ones combined on various consoles.
Stupid but fun combos, zombie killing and just plain old fun are what I like. Buuuut, Dead Rising 3 had a terrible PC port which still runs poorly to this day AND I still need to beat Dying Light: The Following, and Dead Island: Definitive Edition before I can focus attention on this, which thankfully releases a long ways away.
Genre: Open world, survival horror, beat-em-up
Platforms: PC, Xbox One
Release: December 6, 2016
Halo Wars 2
Halo on PC! Kinda. It's a real-time-strategy game. I'm very selective about what I like for RTS and this seems intriguing. Apparently buying Ultimate Edition includes the first one.
The game is currently in beta for Xbox One and PC so I will keep an eye on it.
This is not a day one or even week one purchase for me though.
Genre: Real-time-strategy
Platforms: PC, Xbox One
Release: February 21, 2017
ReCore
ReCore, the platforming game about a girl and her robot-dog in a post-apocalypse with machines that have taken over. Gameplay seems a bit rough considering it's releasing this September, but I still have it in my sights.
Genre: Platforming, adventure
Platforms: PC, Xbox One
Release: September 13, 2016
Sea of Thieves
This game looks great with friends. Not by yourself I imagine. Good thing it's crossplay between PC and Xbox which is a very good move by Microsoft.
You be a pirate, work the boat, drink rum and it's basically a Jack Sparrow simulator. If some friends get it, or it has a healthy online population, I will get it, for the right price of course, which is rumored to be 40 bucks Canadian.
Genre: Open world, adventure
Platforms: PC, Xbox One
Release: Spring 2017
Death Stranding
Hideo Kojima's first game since being fired from Konami. He is best known for the influential and popular Metal Gear series. Now that he's free from the constraints he's able to do what he wants with his creative mind, which is the trailer above.
There is no gameplay in it, but still a really cool trailer. Nothing else is known of it except that it has Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon), and that it will be a timed PS4 exclusive.
Genre: Spooky
Platforms: PS4, PC
Release: 2017
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands
Do you remember Star Wars Republic Commando? Where you order around 3 other computer players? There hasn't really been anything like that until this game. Of course, there's 4-player online co-op now, but it's also single-player which is really nice.
It doesn't have "The Division" MMO-thing to it at all, nor is it cover-based shooter-like (that game has lost 93% of it's playerbase and has 55% ratings by the way).
The trailer dialogue is cringe but funny. Wildlands is a huge open world with missions that can be done in any order, single-player or with friends/randoms.
Genre: Open world, tactical, third-person shooter
Platforms: PC, Xbox One, Playstation 4
Release: March 7, 2017
Grow Up
Yes. I'm serious. This is a sequel to Grow Home, a VERY under-rated cute single-player game. It's 9 bucks on PC and PS4, and very short, took me 8 hours to 100% complete it.
The red robot, BUD, is trying to get back to his spaceship where his boss MOM is, and has to collect things and grow the plant to get home (Grow home! Get it!).
In the expanded sequel (Xbox One is included this time), the world is bigger, more ways to traverse the area and fly, and more things to collect. Apparently MOM and the spaceship have disappeared, and BUD must make his way from the planet to the moon.
I will of course wait for reviews (hoping for co-op but not betting on it), then likely buy it. This is a day two purchase for me.
Genre: Open world, platforming
Platforms: PC, Xbox One, PS4
Release: August 2016
BONUS: GAMES I WILL NEVER GET BUT SEEM COOL
"Wait, you like the games but you won't get them?!?!?" you may ask. That's because they're console-exclusive. And buying a console just for a few games is never a good idea.
Detroit: Become Human
LA Noire 3000 amirite. Choices change your story and character interactions which is always interesting. The player plays Connor, an android whose job it is to hunt down a newfound-sentient android Kara, whom you also play. Characters may survive or die depending on your choices.
So it's like Until Dawn and LA Noire mashed up.
If it were on PC
Genre: Thriller
Platforms: PS4
Release: 2017
Horizon Zero Dawn
Interesting world of an Earth inhabited by robots who were left by the majority of the humans. It's set 1,000 years in the future. The main character, Aloy, is a human-robot hybrid I'm predicting.
If it were on PC
Genre: Action, RPG
Platforms: PS4
Release: February 28, 2017
Spider-Man
The last Spider-Man I bought and played was Spider-Man 2: The Game way back in 2004 for the original Xbox. My balloon!
Obviously it's a huge upgrade from what I last played and it's too bad it is PS4-exclusive, I would have loved to try it out.
If it were on PC
Genre: Action, beat-em-up
Platforms: PS4
Release: 2017 (likely June up to mid-July because Marvel Spider-Man movie comes out July 7, 2017)
Wrap up
Well, that was quite a few videos, if you got this far, thanks for looking and reading. A few things:
Where was the Red Dead 3 announcement? Rockstar likes to announce whenever they like, I bet they'll announce in November.
Halo Master Chief Collection and Halo 5 on PC. It's coming. Halo 6 will definitely come to PC.
Good for Bethesda to give Skyrim Special Edition free for anyone that has all DLC/Legendary edition. Also 64-bit engine will be amazing for modding.
Watch Dogs 2 looks to be MUCH better than the first.
Gun to my head, if I had to choose Battlefield 1 or Infinite Warfare, I'd do Battlefield 1.
If you haven't seen all 9 episodes of season 5 yet, don't read on. I will also not say/imply any comic spoilers.
Yes, it's true. Lets start off with some obvious ones. Rick says there's a red-handed machete that he'll use to kill Gareth with. Which he eventually does in episode 3. Not that impressive right?
How about this, in the same shot where Gareth has Bob at knife-point, Bob looks like he's dead. As we know, he's dead. Now it's getting interesting.
Gareth also tells Bob "Can't go back, Bob." Okay, who cares right?
Well, in the mid-season finale... "I think you broke my back." Officer Bob Lamson says after Rick hits him with his own police car.
Officer Bob Lamson, back broken.
Martin, a Terminus guy.
Martin, the guy Tyreese and Carol tied up in the cabin, told Tyreese right to his face that he and Judith are going to die.
Now Judith apparently has to die now.
Also, there was no Beth in the episode. She isn't around anymore.
Things that have yet to happen:
Carol acted like a walker to get into Terminus. Will she become one later in the season/series?
Glenn almost gets hit twice with a baseball bat. He also picked one up and the camera showed it a lot in the mid-season premiere. Is a serious injury coming up for him?
Remember this guy? He took over Terminus in a flashback and then was let out of a box car by Glenn, only to be killed after he yelled "We're all the same!"
I delayed posting this one because I did't know what it means, but he has face tattoos in the present, unlike the flashback where he took over. In the midseason premiere set in Noah's old neighborhood, walkers have the letter W carved onto their forehead, and later there's graffiti on the wall saying "Wolves are coming". It's been stated that his backstory "may" be explored.
True Detective
The 8-episode HBO crime miniseries starring Matt and Woody. The first season was a very good character drama, as well as an intriguing mystery. Every season will be a different story and cast so hopefully it's great again.
Fargo
The sequel-but-not-really to the mid-90s movie, Fargo is set in 2006 and stars Martin Freeman and Billy Bob Thornton. This is actually the show that made me a fan of Freeman. If you're a fan of the movie, you'll like the show, same tone, humor, kind of crime. It's 10 episodes, with season 2 set in 1979 and being a different story.
Silicon Valley
A show about nerds making an app. Raunchy, nerd and sex humor. Some great comedy actors in it, TJ Miller obviously, and some random ones you've seen in random stuff such as Martin Starr (the bearded one) and Kumail Nanjiani. The red-hoodied one makes a super sweet app that Hooli (a made-up company making fun of Apple) tries to buy. Season 2 starts April 2015.
The Leftovers
3% of the entire population disappear at the exact same time. The show is the aftermath of that happening. Nobody knows why. Coming from one of the two main writers of Lost.
Disappointments:
Crisis
A terrorist organization takes a bus-load of important kids hostage. It tries to be intense and have a complicated plot. I only made it through 5 episodes, and then was cancelled.
Believe
This one was a bit better, and it came from Alfonso Cuaron (the famous movie director), and some things he did good, such as the main character, but the rest was just them running around, and not getting to know the characters to care. Only watched 5 episodes as well.
Has Potential:
Helix
Season 1 starts out with a bad biological virus starting in Antarctica and the CDC trying to contain it. The show started out good, then went down to kinda-good around episode 6. If it was less cheesy, and more gory, it'd be a much better show. Season 2 starts January 16, 2015.
The 100
This is mostly for season 1, since season 2 (and even at the end of season 1) already righted it's wrongs.
The Strain
A vampire virus is spreading around New York but we didn't feel the danger we should have. Also, some of the characters thought stupidly, especially for CDC scientists. Season 2, starting July 2015, will hopefully course-correct.
