E3 2014 is a huge rarity for me because it’s one of the first ones where I am actively looking forward to and anticipating games from third-party publishers and developers more so than anything the “big three” are offering. I’m keen to see where 2K and Turtle Rock are taking Evolve, and whether they have learnt much about offering a multiplayer-only experience from Titanfall, arguably the biggest litmus test for this kind of game. I can’t wait to see more of Bethesda’s The Evil Within, and on a similar note to see where Capcom are going to take Resident Evil for its seventh instalment after a polarising sixth, or if they’ll bring back one of their legacy franchises like Dino Crisis or Onimusha.
Of course, Konami will be showing an allegedly controversial trailer for Metal Gear Solid V, and hopefully we’ll get a release date too. Sega will show off Alien Isolation, which is another game I’m interested in.
But nobody has got me more excited than EA, Ubisoft and Warner Bros. Assuming all these games make an appearance, EA has a stellar line-up that I just can’t wait to see. Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mirror’s Edge 2, Star Wars: Battlefront and the long awaited Mass Effect sequel are some of the games I absolutely cannot wait to see. Ubisoft have Far Cry 4, which I’m intrigued by despite having seen no footage – as well as yet another Assassin’s Creed.
I do grow tired of them, but I am keen to see if Ubisoft will attempt to reinvigorate the franchise and also what they do with the apparently unique game released for older consoles. Warner Bros. have Batman, Dying Light and Shadow of Mordor – all great looking games that I can’t wait to sample. But the biggest and most exciting announcement of all, for me, was Mortal Kombat X. I cannot wait to see what Ed and the team at Netherrealm deliver and how it’ll differ from the last Mortal Kombat game, which was pretty close to perfect.
Let’s not forget two huge developers are doing conferences as well: EA and Ubisoft.
And speaking of EA, will we finally see some footage of the massively anticipated Battlefront? More so, do we even want to after the absolute mess that was Battlefield 4? I’ve learned never to buy a EA game on release, especially a multiplayer focused one. Keep your eyes out for this one.
Confirmed to also show up is Battlefield: Hardline, a new instalment and debut from Visceral Games. It seems that EA want the same two-year cycle, two different developers thing that Call of Duty did (now that they’ve moved on to three developers for three games over three years). Frankly, I don’t see much in Hardline, and I don’t see why EA just doesn’t let Visceral ruin another horror franchise.
Dragon Age: Inquisition looks good but after the backlash from Dragon Age II, it’s hard to get too excited about this. No, the only thing that really piques my interest is Mirror’s Edge 2, and I’m not sure we’ll get to see much footage of that this year. Oh, and the Sims 4, I suppose.
Ubisoft have an impressive amount of work to do in order to win me over. After the controversy of the E3 2012 Watch_Dogs demo, it’s hard to take anything Ubisoft presents without a grain of salt. Of course, I’m looking forward to Far Cry 4. It’s one of my favourite gaming series, so it’s hard to go wrong here and I’m excited to see what Far Cry 4 offers outside of rideable elephants.
Assassin’s Creed: Unity? Despite my love of Black Flag and of the series, I’m very worn out by the constant sequels. Especially since Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Watch_Dogs all share similar assets, I’m quickly becoming worn over the ‘Ubisoft formula’. If Unity can break the cycle that would be great. Otherwise, I’ll be looking at The Crew as the only real standout Ubisoft game. And let’s not even mention The Division. Suffering from numerous delays and a supposed whistle blower that laments how little has been done, I wouldn’t take any ‘gameplay’ shown at this year’s E3 seriously.
You already get a sense that it’s going to be a big E3 for the third-party.
Ubisoft’s big draw this year is without doubt The Division, the dystopian New York third-person shooter. Said to include an “unprecedented level of realism,” in Ubisoft’s words, I’m just sad it has slid down the order to release sometime next year. Though it’ll have a presence at this year’s expo, so another glimpse at it should tide us over for a little bit while we set in for the long wait.
The publisher are also set to show off Unity, the next in the Assassin’s Creed series, which isn’t even close to my radar, so it has the potential to catch me off guard. Same goes for Far Cry 3, I feel they’re jumping into a sequel a little too quickly, but hey, I’m open-minded.
As for EA, we pretty much know what to expect for the most part.
They’ll bring Battlefield and a score of sporting titles that I’ll absolutely never play, I’ve played one FIFA title out of the last half dozen and that’s because it was free with my Xbox One. But what I’m keen to see from EA are the games we don’t quite expect. Anything Star Wars at this stage would tear the roof off the auditorium, and now would be the time to reveal if they want to build hype and launch in the same holiday period at the next film.
But don’t forget about Mirror’s Edge.
Could we see Fallout 4 or Mass Effect 4? That’s the big question on everyone’s lips. The latter is no secret and is expected to be revealed soon, but the former is the one that people are clamouring for. There have been rumours it could be locked down as a console exclusive, but even the thought of that seems bewildering. Imagine the coin it’d take to secure it.
During the past year, the third-party developers have seemed to struggle with a change in generations and with tight deadlines. We have seen some excellent games come out from third-party developers since the last E3 but it seems like there have been more misses than hits.
This last year has also seen the rise of the “limited” edition. With seven or eight editions of the same game starting to become the norm, gaming is starting to become even more expensive than it ever was.
Whether you loved or hated Watch_Dogs, it is easy to agree that it wasn’t what it was supposed to be. With a couple of big titles that have been significantly delayed and falling short when they finally see the light of day it is hard not to wonder if Ubisoft are over-thinking things a little. No doubt we are going to see more from Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry 4. I hope that Ubisoft can inject some much needed life into the former and innovate more with the latter.
I hope Ubisoft can resist going down the path of evil and not announce there will be two hundred different versions of each new game that they release. I also hope they can finally do away with an even worse evil, timed exclusive DLC content.
EA’s show will be big and flashy. I predict that they will also try and drive home the message of people playing together and the successes of some of their bigger franchises. The irony is that Battlefield 4 is still broken in multiplayer across both the current generation consoles and sadly, it will probably never get fixed, despite their claims of remaining committed to the game. I hope that EA have nice surprises in store for us and give some substantial information about what is going on with the next Mass Effect game and that we’ll see a playable demo of Dragon Age: Inquisition.
We will see the next iterations of the EA Sports line-up for the next twelve months. Everyone will complain that they are barely different from the year prior, but will strangely still buy them up.
If rumours are to be believed, we will also be seeing Resident Evil 7. If this true, the team at Capcom really must build the series from the ground up much like they did with Resident Evil 4. Their last effort was wildly unpopular and Capcom would do well to listen to the criticisms of that sixth iteration and take that feedback on board.
Will we or won’t we see Grand Theft Auto V for the PC and current generation consoles? That is the big question. And will we finally see Rockstar’s successor to Red Dead Redemption? If so, will it be a cross-generation title? I expect answers will come sooner than later.
I am looking forward to seeing Sonic Boom on the Wii U. I hope that Sega can finally do something with the Sonic licence that doesn’t involve gamers scratching their head and wondering why.
I hope we see some news from Sega regarding some HD Dreamcast reboots or updates for this generation.
Also, Shenmue 3! Please Sega, please!
Ubisoft really need to lift their game, after the bug ridden tripe that was Watch_Dogs. I have basically lost all faith in them as a company. Releasing Watch_Dogs how it was only revealed them as underhanded, putting out underdone titles to line their pockets.
It is probably too late for me, but for Ubisoft fans who are feeling the same, one can only hope they strike half a chord of honesty and integrity with their yearly release series, Assassin’s Creed. A lot is set to be revealed for the franchise this year with a dedicated game to both last and current generation. Hopefully Ubisoft can reinstall some faith in their disappointed fans with these reveals by taking on board a few suggestions that fans have been begging to get for years now.
Batman: Arkham Knight got delayed and that’s fine with me.
Rocksteady have earned the gamers trust and respect by already delivering two marvellous Batman games and I think the can all agree that a delay isn’t a sign of struggle for Rocksteady, but rather a sign of respect that they really want to give the fans what they deserve in an epic conclusion to their Arkham trilogy. I am still expecting to see some more gameplay information reveals here however, perhaps even the inevitable Collector’s Edition could be revealed.
Mortal Kombat was recently revealed with a CGI trailer, so no real gameplay was shown but scrutinising the footage it may hold a few hints as to what new features the game may contain. I look forward to more information on this game, particularly as I adore NetherRealm timing for reveals. Just about every four to six weeks, or if a convention is in town, you can expect a character reveal, as their drip feed of information keeps fans in the loop.
E3 2014 is here and now more than ever, people seem to be more excited about what third-party have to show. I’m really excited to hopefully see FIFA 15 revealed. FIFA 14 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One was a huge advance over what we’d seen in the past but I believe that the team can take the game even further and use the processing power to create a smarter AI which will lead to a better overall game. I’m really excited to see how Mirror’s Edge 2 is shaping up, however I feel that it’ll still be quite early in development and won’t be released for quite some time.
Ubisoft will be the most interesting conference from my point of view. They’re splitting the Assassin’s Creed series into two directions. One will be for the current generation and one will be for last generation. I think we know what to expect from the previous generation version however it’ll be exciting to see how Assassin’s Creed makes use of the newer consoles. I believe that we’ll see a more integrated multiplayer world, like the one we saw in Watch_Dogs. We’ve seen a ton of Assassin’s Creed games in the last seven years so it’s going to take a lot for fans to get excited.
I’m super excited to see how Far Cry 4 is shaping up. Far Cry 3 was one of the best games of the last generation and really came out of nowhere. I believe that the game will be phenomenal and most likely take the open-world shooting genre to another level.
Ubisoft will possibly announce a Wii U specific game. Fans are really excited for a sequel to ZombiU, however I believe that they’ll go in a new direction and possibly announce something else.
From Activision I don’t feel that we’ll see anything too exciting. I’m sure they’ll push Call of Duty and Skylanders to death and that’s what they do best. It wouldn’t be an E3 without a Call of Duty getting shown.
I’d love Rockstar or Bethesda to make an appearance and announce something for the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One that would really get gamers talking but I just don’t see it. They’d be better off waiting to announce it in their own time. I just really hope that we see third-parties taking the leap. I’m really tired of games being announced for cross-generation. I want to see the power used to its full potential.