Microsoft said it at the start of their media briefing, E3 is ALL about the games. And while we have finally seen some gameplay footage for games we knew were coming, such as Watch_Dogs and Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, there were also a number of first time reveals. Some of these games have been rumoured but were until now unannounced. Some of them have had a community begging for them for a number of years. And some of them have come completely out of the blue and blown us away. Here are my top 5 game reveals from E3 2013:
5. The Crew
The Crew was announced by Ubisoft and will be coming to PS4, Xbox One and PC. From the reveal trailer and gameplay footage that they showed, it seems to be lying somewhere between the Fast and the Furious films and Test Drive Unlimited. The game is set in the United States, and it seems possible to drive from coast to coast. It’s not a complete mapping, but they do seem to have several of the big cities in the game, such as Las Vegas, New York, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles and Detroit. It has seamless singleplayer to multiplayer gameplay, much in the same way that Test Drive Unlimited had, but is a lot more focused on cooperative-competitive play. It also has some pretty cool customisation features. As a fan of the original TDU and car customisation, this one definitely makes me happy.
4. Star Wars: Battlefront
Ever since EA acquired a multi-year exclusive deal for the Star Wars franchise, it had been rumoured that DICE would be working on a Battlefront remake. When the short teaser clip above was shown during their briefing, the response was resounding. Using the new Frostbite engine, DICE will be looking to reinvigorate a series that faltered along its way. While there are little details about the game yet, DICE have said that it won’t simply be Star Wars + Battlefield, as that would be boring.
3. Titanfall
At the moment it’s a Microsoft exclusive in terms of consoles (though it will also be coming to PC), but they haven’t ruled out the possibility of it eventually appearing on Playstation 3/4. While the teaser reveal was nice, the gameplay demo blew people away. The large yet agile mechs, aka Titans, that seem to have similar abilities to those that the plasmids gave you in Bioshock are supposedly balanced out by the pilots. And we see this in the gameplay video as the player is in a Titan and loses a gunfight against another Titan, but with a skilled eject is able to land himself on the enemy Titan and take it down. It’s another game where they are trying to haze the lines between singleplayer and multiplayer, but one thing’s for sure, the gameplay on show looked a hell of a lot of fun.
2. Mirrors Edge
People have been pleading with DICE to make a sequel to Mirrors Edge since not long after the original came out. There had been plenty of hints leading up the E3 that there would be an announcement, and EA kept it right to the end of their briefing to make it. We see a glimpse of familiar looking gameplay, and Faith getting her tattoos, which suggested that this is in fact a prequel. DICE have since confirmed that it is, and that they are looking to restart the story, suggesting that more than one Mirrors Edge game is in the pipeline. When though? We will need to wait and find out, with the video ending with the tag line “Coming… when it’s ready.” One things for sure, I’m ready for it.
This was Ubisofts ace up their sleeve. They already had one of the most impressive line ups at the show with Watch_Dogs, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, The Crew and Rayman Legends to name but a few. Even the Ubisoft host, Aisha Tyler, didn’t know the announcement was coming. Again, details are still sparse but it’s another game that tries to blur lines between singleplayer and multiplayer with drop in and out cooperative play. The video shows one of the players dropping in controlling a flying drone, and this is actually controlled by a companion app on either an iOS or Android tablet. The developers have talked about how the map of the game (it’s set in New York) has certain areas on it that will be PvP, allowing you to go seamlessly between PvP and PvE play. The footage all in all is pretty incredible, and just look at that UI.
Right now, no matter what you think about the next-gen consoles, there are definitely some good games on the horizon.