Saturday, May 28, 2016

Preview: E3 2016

E3 is right around the corner (June 14-16, 2016), so here are some guesses for titles that will be featured over the course of the event.


Oddworld: Soulstorm
An upcoming remake of 1998's Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus. The game will serve as a direct sequel to Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty.


Mass Effect: Andromeda
The first major spin-off in the widely popular action RPG shooter series. You are able to play as either a male or female human character. The game takes place long after the events of the first three Mass Effect games.


Scalebound
An action role-playing video game played in a third-person perspective, in which players assume control of Drew, as he progresses through the world of Draconis. Players are bonded to and accompanied by a dragon called Thuban, who can breathe out fire and assist players throughout the game. Thuban is controlled by artificial intelligence, but players can give commands to the dragon when performing attacks.


Shenmue III
The long awaited open world, action adventure game that stirred up major news when a Kickstarter campaign was used to crowdfund Shenmue III. The campaign met its initial target of $2 million USD in under eight hours, making it the fastest Kickstarter campaign to reach that amount. It ended in July having raised over $6 million, making it the highest-funded video game and the sixth highest-funded campaign in Kickstarter history.


Legend of Zelda Wii U/NX
The Zelda game that has been in development for the past few years. This game will be released on the Wii U and Nintendo's new system currently codenamed "NX". The game allows the player to have more freedom, allowing them to decide their destination and method of travel. The overworld can be traversed on foot or on Link's horse. The game is said to be the largest of any Zelda game, and is as large as the Wii U's hardware can handle.


Final Fantasy VII Remake
The game that all RPGs fans have been eagerly waiting years for, and then it was announced at last year's E3 . It was then announced that this would be release in an episodic way, and that they are changing some other functions from the original. Hopefully they don't change too much and ruin what was once magical.


Gran Turismo Sport
The newest installment in Sony's long lasting racing simulator series. The big reason Sony is going to be hyping this up this title at E3 is because of the Playstation VR support.


Kingdom Hearts III
The next game in the Kingdom Hearts series sees the unbelievable mix of Disney and Final Fantasy coming together again to tell the next part of this epic tale. Due to Disney owning Marvel and Star Wars, these worlds could possibly be included in the upcoming game.


Resident Evil 2 Remake
Resident Evil fans went crazy for the remake of the original Resident Evil, and this upcoming remake will only be better. Double the story lines, double the playable characters, and its a full remake.


Metroid Prime: Federation Force
This game garnered majored headlines last year because of severe major fan outcry over this title. Let's see what Nintendo has changed from last year to this year.


Attack on Titan
Flying around and chopping up titans in glorious HD. Let's hope it all goes according to plan and that they don't mess it up, like the last Attack on Titan game for the 3DS.


Final Fantasy XV
This game was announced in 2006...yes, it has been over 10 years since this title has been announced and finally a release date is in sight. They have released 2 playable demos and they have been awesome. Let's see what other craziness Square-Enix can throw at us this year. 


Gears of War 4
The next installment in Microsoft's monster franchise. It features a new Combat Knife, which can be used for melee attacks and allows new ways to perform executions. New weapons have been introduced and players can also perform a short distance shoulder charge, knocking enemies off balance and enemies can also pull players out of cover and perform their own takedowns. The game will also feature four categories of weather.


Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon
The latest generation of the franchise that is celebrating it's 20th anniversary this year. They haven't unveiled much besides some quick gameplay, the region (based on Hawaii), the starters, and the legendary Pokemon. Nintendo will be going all out with Pokemon this year at E3.


Gravity Rush 2
The sequel to the gravity defying action adventure game that picks up right where the first one left off. Sony is promising that this gaming is massive in comparison to the original title with the three times more missions to do and a map that is over double in size.


Halo Wars 2
Halo Wars has filled the void that Command & Conquer has left on consoles. The first Halo Wars was extremely fun, so hopefully the next one is even more fun.


Paper Mario: Color Splash
Not too much has been revealed bout this title besides that it will continue the gameplay of the previous Paper Mario which has caused an outcry from longtime fans of the series. This title will definitely be featured during Nintendo's showcase.


ReCore
Microsoft will undoubtedly unveil a lot about this game at E3 being this game comes out this year and still very little is actually known about it.


South Park: The Fractured But Whole
What do you get when you take Obsidian Entertainment (who developed Fallout: New Vegas, and Star Wars: KoToR II), the satire and crudeness of South Park, and you throw it in a blender? You get one of the funniest and most fun RPGs that I have played. Now take that same formula and add in the recent superhero craze and you have a recipe for another amazing game. Hopefully, we see more of this title this year from publishers Ubisoft.


Yooka-Laylee
One of the biggest franchises for the Nintendo 64 was Rare's Banjo-Kazooie. Now over a decade later, some former Rare employees are making a spiritual successor to Banjo with Yooka-Laylee. From what has been shown, it looks like it has the same magic as Banjo and Kazooie had but with a Lizard and Bat.


Vampyr
This action RPG revolves around vampire doctor Jonathan Reid who is coming to terms with his undead condition. He must deal with being torn between the Hippocratic Oath and his newfound bloodthirsty nature. The player is under no obligation to kill to finish the game. Dialogue options can be used for hunting prey to feed on, which replenishes strength and levels up the lead character. Vampyr is based on the 1918 London Spanish flu pandemic.

Sea of Thieves
An upcoming adventure video game developed by Rare and published by Microsoft Studios for PC and Xbox One. The game features user-generated content, in which players have the ability to craft their custom stories by using in-game tools.


Yo-Kai Watch 2: Bony Spirits and Yo-Kai Watch 2: Fleshy Souls
Level 5's answer to Game Freak's Pokemon. Last year Yo-Kai Watch came out and it was a huge hit. This year, they are taking another characteristic from the Pokemon series by releasing two versions of their next title. Let's see if the sequels are as good as the original.


Sony VR & PS 4 Neo
Sony will undoubtedly show off its VR headset and some of the software that will go along with it but recent reports are also saying that Sony is working on an updated PS4 that will most likely be shown off at E3.


Xbox One Scorpio
Just as Sony is making an updated PS4, Microsoft is doing the same with the Xbox One. Microsoft will definitely be showing this off if reports start coming out that Sony is showing off theirs.

Mother 3
Last year, Nintendo shocked US fans buy announcing that Earthbound Beginnings (aka Mother) was finally being released in the US after 25 years. This year is the 10th anniversary of Mother 3 and US fans have yet to play an official release (there is an amazing fan translation available though). I am willing to bet that we finally get Mother 3 this year being the past two years we got the previous two installments on the Wii U Virtual Console. Hopefully this is the year for an official release (My guess for a name would be Eathbound Finale).