What are GameSpot’s Editors Looking Forward to at E3 2015?
E3 2015 is only a few days away, and it looks set to be one of the biggest shows we’ve seen in several years. There’ll be plenty of exciting news and first looks at some hotly anticipated games, but which ones are GameSpot’s editors looking forward to the most? We’ve asked them to pick their favorites from the gamut of previously announced games (no non-confirmed titles allowed).
Fallout 4
Obsessions over in-game graphics tend to reach their peak-zeal during the early stages of a console cycle, with fans measuring (and, indeed, mocking) the technological gains made when shelling out for pricey new hardware. So it’s high time that Fallout 4 puts an end to this charade, because if turns out to be anything like its predecessor, it will deliver an opportune reminder that the defining games of a generation will be about cherished memories and shared stories, not texture density and polygon counts. So far, only a short trailer of Bethesda’s new flagship RPG has been showcased, and while it was no Sistine Chapel, it signalled a return to that powerfully fascinating post-war world gone nuclear. Expect it to be as open as a jar of pickles in the hands of The Rock, offering an unbelievably broad range of options to draw your own narrative path through its wasteland. — Rob Crossley
Halo 5: Guardians
After getting a taste of Halo 5’s multiplayer during the Christmas beta, I’m quite excited to see and learn more about the next chapter in Master Chief’s saga at E3. There is still so much to learn. What is the story? Who is Agent Locke and why is he hunting Master Chief? How will large-scale multiplayer work? Will we finally see Steven Spielberg’s Halo TV series? After the struggles of The Master Chief Collection, I’d also like to hear Microsoft talk about why that won’t happen again this year. Being one of Microsoft’s crown jewels, you can bet Microsoft will spend a lot of time on Halo at E3 this year. I can’t wait. — Eddie Makuch
Star Wars Battlefront
There’s more than just the personal geek appeal of Star Wars that makes me excited to see Star Wars: Battlefront at E3. It’s the fact that for me, the modern military fatigue is real, and I can’t wait to see what DICE does with a setting that’s instantly more appealing than another war-torn urban environment. This is the first time that we’re going to see iconic Star Wars locations and battles rendered with the kind of extreme attention to detail that DICE has demonstrated with Battlefield, and I imagine playing the game will invoke a strange combination of nostalgia and awe. It’s rare to get that kind of a reaction during the chaos that is E3, but it’s exactly the kind of thing that would make a game like Battlefront memorable. — Daniel Hindes
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
With the map boundaries of modern-day shooters extending further and further outwards, there’s nothing more exciting to me than a multiplayer experience designed to keep players within knifing distance of each other at all times. The likes of Battlefield and Call of Duty may capture the shock-and-awe of modern warfare, but they don’t hold a candle to the anxiety felt during a one-on-one hunt in the tight corridors of Counter-Strike’s cs_office. The drip-feeding of XP is a fleeting satisfaction compared to the euphoric oh-my-god-I-forgot-to-breath moment when you successfully defuse a bomb as bullets criss-cross over your head on de_dust. And let’s not forget the horror of leading a conga line of nervous (and prone to getting stuck behind obstacles) hostages from one side of a map to the other as enemies comb the map for your location. Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Siege isn’t Counter-Strike, but the core design principles at the heart of Valve’s shooter clearly inform it. By confining the action, creating destructible maps, and placing a heavy emphasis on objectives, Siege aims to put tension back into shooters. Set your palms to sweaty. — Tamoor Hussain
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain has been a long time coming. Not just because it was unveiled back in 2012, but because it fills in the last major gap in the Metal Gear saga. It will finally give us insight into how Big Boss, aka Naked Snake, transforms into the character we encountered in the very first Metal Gear game all the way back in the late 80’s. The name “Big Boss” may not have had much meaning when it was assigned to the seemingly generic character back then, but for people like me who’ve gone to great lengths to keep up with the ever expanding Metal Gear story over the years, his name carries a lot of weight. That’s not to mention that Phantom Pain also looks great in action. The variety of set pieces that we’ve seen in trailers is promising, and the open world seems to create a new set of challenges. The prologue released last year, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, was an appetizer; I’m ready to dig into the main course. — Peter Brown
Kingdom Hearts III
When the credits rolled on Kingdom Hearts II in 2005, we already knew a Kingdom Hearts III was imminent. We’ve gotten four main series games and four remastered editions of series games since then, and Kingdom Hearts III has yet to happen. We’ve been teased with trailers and small bits of news the past two E3s, but nothing can compare to good old-fashioned hands-on time. Now that director Tetsuya Nomura is no longer splitting his time with Square Enix’s other massive in-development RPG–Final Fantasy XV–we’re hoping this will be the E3 we get a little more face time with the latest entry in the beloved Disney-meets-FF series. — Alexa Ray Corriea
Guitar Hero Live
After five years off, Activision is finally getting the band back together for another gig. While I definitely enjoy Rock Band (which is also coming back this year), nothing beats Guitar Hero in my book. The tracklist so far has been impressive (everything from Ed Sheeran to Mastodon), and the new first-person perspective and live crowd visuals certainly change things up in an exciting way. On top of that is the new controller (no more pinky stretching!) that should make things feel fresh again. And further still, I’m eager to learn more about Guitar Hero TV, the new online mode that basically guarantees that I’ll play the game every day. Rock on! — Eddie Makuch
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
It’s not due out until next year, but it’s unthinkable we won’t see more of Uncharted 4 at E3. Uncharted 4 looks like it’ll be the final entry into Nathan Drake’s story, as its title, A Thief’s End, suggests we’ll be bidding the dashing bandit who popularized the half-tuck goodbye as its credits roll. As one of our most hotly anticipated E3 games, we’re making a beeline for Sony’s booth the second we get to the show floor. — Alexa Ray Corriea
Street Fighter V
It’s been six years since Capcom first released Street Fighter IV, and although the game has been treated to several tweaks and re-released multiple times since then, I think both the series and fighting game scene would benefit greatly from a new numbered entry. Street Fighter II gave us combos, Street Fighter III introduced parries, and Street Fighter IV debuted Focus Attacks. I want to see what new system Street Fighter V will give us. Producer Yoshinori Ono has promised that Street Fighter V will be “something that nobody is expecting” while also encompassing “all that Street Fighter has become.” I am hoping this means a fresh new mechanic which makes matches more hype and puts emphasis on good decision making. I’m excited to see where the fighting game genre goes next, and where better place to do that than with the series where it all began. — Zorine Te
Persona 5
Atlus swears Persona 5 will launch worldwide this fall, so why wouldn’t they show us the game in detail at E3? We’ve briefly seen its main character, its Personas, and it’s gorgeous UI, but we know very little about the story. Pandering to a niche audience with a love of sci-fi/fantasy and in-game relationship simulators, Persona 5 is one of the bigger 2015 games tailored to RPG fans. We want to learn more about heros, fuse some Personas, and maybe figure out how we can romance that cute guy in the spandex suit… — Alexa Ray Corriea
Tom Clancy’s The Division
I’ve been waiting for The Division for a long time. I expressed my excitement for it as one of my Most Anticipated games back in 2013, interviewed the director in 2014 when I was shown a new build of the game, and I’m back again in 2015 to remind Ubisoft that there are people who have been patiently waiting for this third-person shooter since it was first revealed. The Division may have faced multiple delays, but my attention on it still remains undivided. I am still ready to take a squad of friends into post-apocalyptic New York and carve a path through the open-world. I still want to watch more of the game’s dynamic weather in action. I still want to find out whether the behaviour of the AI-controlled enemies is as adaptive as I hope it is. I still want to see if Ubisoft will delay this game one more time and shatter my hopes to play it next year. If that happens, then that’s when my feelings will be divided.
No Man’s Sky
No Man’s Sky is the anomaly to nearly every industry trend you can think of. It’s a new IP with the same gravitas as an established triple-A franchise; It’s a game with an imponderably vast universe built by a team the size of a twinkle; It’s a sci-fi epic that replaces the infinite blacks of space with bright bursts of colour; And it’s an impossibly ambitious endeavour that everyone still believes can arrive in our lifetime. Here’s to the crazy ones, Jobs said. — Rob Crossley
Mirror’s Edge
Revealed at E3 2013, absent from but teased at E3 2014, and the lusty object of every first-person speed-running game lover’s eyes, Mirror’s Edge 2 needs to be at E3 2015. It just needs to be. We need to see it. We need to touch it. We don’t know how we survived the past seven years without another Mirror’s Edge, and we don’t want to know what it’s like going another year without it. — Alexa Ray Corriea
Doom
It’s been a long time since I’ve played a pure first-person shooter. Wolfenstein: The New Order, the latest iteration of Doom’s own ancestor, came close. But its focus on narrative, while accomplished, made it a different experience. Purity, in this case, means the kind of run-and-gun gameplay that the original Doom is known for. It’s about simple pleasures: the shuck of a shotgun reloading; the crunch of a demon exploding into gibs; the wild visual palette that melds science-fiction locales with hellish, otherworldly intrusions. Doom itself was a sensory overload, and if this reboot is returning to style and design of the original, then the sensory overload that is E3 will be the perfect place for me to experience the game for the first time. — Daniel Hindes
Mario Maker
Chances are you’ve already experienced that boredom-induced epiphany, when trudging through a particularly bad video game, that you become certain you could have done a better job yourself. Mario Maker is an opportunity to test whether those assumptions were correct, only, in this instance you’ll be making your own version of perhaps the most important video game franchise of all time. No pressure then. Since Mario Maker was first used as an internal game design tool at Nintendo, chances are that the apparatus at your disposal will be rather powerful, and for that matter, something that legitimately works well with the Wii U GamePad touch-screen. The option to upload creations to an online community will inevitably bring with it a wave of copyright takedowns and irreverent levels designed as phalluses and related appendages. But likely within this sea of smut and Green Hill Zones, the next Miyamoto might be making their mark. — Rob Crossley
Rock Band 4
I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of money on Rock Band DLC over the years, and while I don’t regret having blown all that cash on songs, I assumed that all of that content was gone now. Forever lost to the digital aether where all of our last-gen downloaded games go. But Rock Band 4 promises to bring those lost tracks back from the dead. Not only that, the plastic instruments packaged away in my closet will see life once again–provided I remembered to take out the batteries and they didn’t leak out that horrible, crusty acid everywhere. As a party game, Rock Band was incomparable; a place for friends to get together and show off their respective musical strengths. Belting out karaoke, mashing rhythms on guitar and drums. And if your friends were terrible, No Fail mode ensured that everyone had a great time. I look forward to reliving all of that again, but also to new customizations for my rocking avatar. a new progression through the game with RPG-like elements. and the ability to become a complete sell-out. — Justin Haywald
Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem
The Odd Couple of video games, or the perfect peanut butter and chocolate-esque combo of RPG bliss? Atlus and Nintendo announced their Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem crossover in January 2013. We heard absolutely nothing about the game for two years, before it re-emerged in a Nintendo Direct with a lengthy trailer and release window. We know next to nothing about this Wii U exclusive, other than it melds the two series’ worlds in a way that blends the borders of the real world and a more fantastical one–one filled with sweet, sweet Fire Emblem character goodness. This would be the developer’s time to show it off and show us what it’s made of. Literally, what’s in it? We still don’t know. — Alexa Ray Corriea
Star Fox Wii U
Star Fox is one of my favorite Nintendo series, so it was quite a pleasant surprise to see Star Fox for Wii U announced at last year’s E3. It came out of nowhere! Justin Haywald was lucky enough to take a spin in the new Arwing, but I was not. His account left me optimistic however, so I’m hoping this year is my year if it’s playable at the show. Nintendo’s focused on integrating the GamePad’s unique functionality into new games at the moment, and I think it’s started to find its groove; Splatoon is a great example this. Given that Star Fox is mostly on-rails, with the camera moving forward automatically, using the GamePad’s screen for the cockpit view makes sense, and it could work really well if Nintendo’s level design ultimately strikes the right balance between flight- and combat-based obstacles. — Peter Brown
Untitled Mass Effect
We’ve been teased and tortured with small leaks and news bites for over a year. For a series so beloved, so critically acclaimed, there’s no reason BioWare wouldn’t give its fans what they want: another Mass Effect. In April, a survey sent from BioWare to select fans included some very specific details that could possibly be plot points for the next game. Humanity desperately searching where to place its next colony? Dozens of solar systems to explore? A brand new hero AND the ability to still pick the companions you take on missions? This all sounds great, and with tension at all time high, an E3 reveal would be a logical next step. — Alexa Ray Corriea
The Last Guardian
We want to believe. — Alexa Ray Corriea
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