Every Game From E3 In One Place, With Videos And Commentary
All Of E3 In One Place
E3 is in full swing. The announcements and press conferences are done, and attendees are getting down to the business of playing games, chugging energy drinks and wondering when it will all be over (TODAY, IT WILL ALL BE OVER TODAY). Pip is on-site but the rest of RPS stayed home, watching from afar. We've covered the showcase events, gathered all of the news and shouted CUPHEAD until our lungs burn.
Below, you'll find details of every major PC game at the event, including those that were revealed for the first time. All of the trailers and videos are in one place, along with our thoughts about what we've seen.
Anno 2205
Ubisoft are taking their city-building series to the moon and we’ve already visited.
Alec: That I like science-fiction so much more than history is why I shall forever be an idiot, but it does mean that I’m rather looking forwards to this one.
Adam: I haven’t played an Anno game for ages but I want to play this Anno game. That has as much to do with Cities: Skylines rekindling my love of citybuilders as anything specific I've seen so far.
Ashen
The cooperative exploration of Ashen might be the closest we get to a Team ICO game given Sony’s ownership of the resurfaced Last Guardian.
Adam: I love the faceless people and I love cooperative hand-holdy games (Team ICO created the genre, I believe; Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons reinvented it spectacularly), but I never want to see two characters pulling levers at opposite sides of a door again.
Assassin's Creed: Syndicate
Dickens, Darwin and now Evie Frye, the first playable female character in a non-spinoff Assassin’s Creed game.
Alec: This must have taken them forever to animate! Anyway, let’s hope the Star Trek Movie theory continues to apply to AssCreed, and we get a goodie after Unity’s blehness. Blimey luvaduck knees up muvva brown who’s a pretty boy then.
Alice: As a Londonfolk, I now know the horror Parisians, Venetians, Damascans, and so many other poor people must have felt seeing Ubisoft make terrifying caricatures of their cities.
Battlecry
Bethesda’s free-to-play class-based multiplayer shooter, with art design by the remarkable Viktor Antonov of City 17 and Dunwall fame.
Alec: I don’t particularly want to play it, but I very much want to look at it.
Adam: Does this mean Antonov isn’t working on Dishonored 2? I am sad.
Battlezone
A VR-focused reboot of the original Atari tank-shooter.
Alec: A follow-up to Activision’s RTSy 90s Battlezones would have been far more interesting, but this might be a suitably dizzy, theme park ride-like showpiece for whatever facebox I end up with.
Alice: The FPS-RTS really was good, wasn’t it?
Adam: It really was. Does this have a Daft Punk soundtrack?
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
Set in 2065, the new Call of Duty contains lots of military robots. BOTBLOPS.
Alec: This actually looks like it might be fun. Have I crossed the Rubicon?
Alice: It does look pretty fun, and Call of Duty still has some of the best spectacle around.
Castle Crashers Remastered
While we wait to hear more about The Behemoth’s latest, a remaster of their multiplayer sidescrolling brawler isn’t unwelcome.
Alice: Not much to say about this, is there? The original was nice so I imagine this will be too but it’s more a happy side-effect of an Xbox One release than anything to get excited about? Okay, sure.
CUPHEAD
CUPHEAD CUPHEAD CUPHEAD CUPHEAD CUPHEAD
Alec: CUPHEAD CUPHEAD CUPHEAD CUPHEAD oh doing this isn’t going to be anywhere near as joyous when it’s out and it’s just OK, is it?
John: Gosh this just looks so beautiful. Max Fleischer lives. But dammit people, reveal something about the game.
Alice: John, that is the game. Notice the shooty shooty platforming. I am in favour of both that and this art style.
Adam: I hope it’s as hard as a Salford boozer.
Dark Souls 3
Miyazaki is back on board as director which means we should get the real thing rather than the efficient cover version of Dark Souls 2.
Alec: I’m the world’s leading authority on Souls games but I’m going to cruelly deny you my insight about this.
Alice: Goodness yes. Dark Souls Nites will return.
Adam: Return of the king.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
The adventures of Adam Jensen continue in early 2016.
Alec: I sort of asked for this, but I wish it was a new character and much later in the timeline. But, let’s be honest, this is the only game other than XCOM 2 that I’m actively clearing my calendar for.
John: On the strength of their first game, and the assumption that they've surely learned their lesson with boss fights, then I can only look forward to this.
Adam: If the story is strong enough to justify the use of the term “Mechanical Apartheid”, Mankind Divided will be hugely significant. Sci-fi should deal with powerful, emotive issues but there are still doubts in some quarters as to whether games are the place to do that. Narrative Director Mary DeMerle has spoken to Destructoid, addressing the concerns: “When we make a decision like embracing that term, 'mechanical Apartheid,' we do it with a lot of thought and a lot of specific concern about how we're doing it.” I want science fiction that is bold but, like District 9, Mankind Divided is likely to stumble on issues of tone if it treasures its action sequences too much. And unlike District 9, Deus Ex is likely to have fifteen or twenty hours of action sequences with unintentionally comedic corpse physics.
Dishonored 2
Now with two protagonists - Corvo and Emily Kaldwin, each with their own unique skills.
Alec: Former RPS contributor Cara Ellison did some writing for this, so if we’re lucky there might be dongs everywhere.
John: Dishonored was one of those games I so thoroughly enjoyed at the time, and then haven't given a thought to since. Which is good enough for me. I hope it's thoroughly enjoyable all over again.
Adam: I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about Dishonored since I first played it. And I’ve replayed it twice. The DLC was superb, the trailer makes me think of The Metal Age. I’m excited.
Doom
Gore, chainsaws, strafing, snapmaps. Doom is coming.
John: I forget how much I'd love to play a game as immediate and brilliant and terrifying as the original Doom until I see footage like this and wonder how they'll fuck it up.
Alec: THE COLOURS ARE ALL WRONG but I like that it’s fast. In the wake of Wolfenstein: The New Sequel being surprisingly ace, I’m willing to give Bethesda some benefit of the doubt here too. Part of me wants to roll my eyes at the OTT gore, but I suppose it’s Doom now trying to be like Doom seemed then. It’s just that it seems contrived rather than transgressive.
Jem: I wasn’t immediately sold on this, but then I heard the door-opening sound effect and now I’m sold on this.
Alice: I don’t care what it is or isn’t named, I simply want to do this face-shooting.
Adam: Cautiously optimistic. The melee attacks look like they might break the flow but I am ready for a bit of the old ultraviolence.
The Elder Scrolls: Legends
From Skyrim’s Hearthfire to Bethesda’s Hearthstone. An Elder Scrolls card game.
Alec: Kids today.
Jem: If this is even half as fun as Hearthstone, maybe I’ll actually learn something about Elder Scrolls lore.
Adam: I’m with Jem here. The Witcher 3 should be making every open world RPG series think long and hard, so I’m hoping when The Elder Scrolls does return, it’ll have taken a few steps forward from Skyrim. For the sake of Legends, standalone Gwent is hopefully confined to Tabletop Simulator for a while.
Alice: Featuring such iconic characters as That Guy With A Face Like A Potato, That Silly Cat, and That Lady With A Face Like An Old Potato.
Fallout 4
Now with extensive character customisation (still blocky butts though) and an invincible dog.
Alec: Fallout 3 left me completely cold, and while this fortunately doesn’t suffer from the same visual drabness I’m going to need some pretty darn sparky writing and acting to seal the deal. Still, Skyrim was a whole lot more likeable and less clunky, so it’s probably that rather than F3 I should be using as a benchmark. Really looking forwards to the mods too, presuming this too launches with Steam Workshop support.
John: I agree with Alec. (The sound of mountains cracking in two.) Fallout 3 never told me a reason to play, so I always wandered off. I would adore it if Fallout 4 gave me a reason to go anywhere.
Jem: I too became bored of Fallout 3 quite quickly, but the inclusion of colours that aren’t brown and an invincible dog friend is enough to make me give Fallout 4 a shot.
Adam: I agree with my esteemed colleagues. New Vegas won me over though. More of that, please.
Final Fantasy 7
The remake isn’t yet confirmed for PC but it’ll almost certainly appear.
Alec: DON’T LEVEL AERIS
Jem: It sounds like this will be more of a ‘reimagining’ than a ‘remake’. Some fans won’t stand for that, and that’s going to be really fun to watch. Please look forward to it.
Firewatch
We’ve already played Campo Santo’s stunning adventure but didn’t know about the turtle petting until now.
John: I've played a chunk of it, and can confirm that this is so worth looking forward to. For days after playing it I had this nagging feeling there was this awesome thing I should get back to, before realising it was Firewatch and I won't be able to for months.
Alec: Lovely, lovely, absolutely looks like My Sort Of Thing. Though naturally I’ll be trying to walk in the opposite direction to any objectives at all times.
Jem: This flew under my radar until recently, but now I’m enamoured. I would dearly love to explore this mystery as soon as possible, please.
Adam: If only we could talk to the fires.
For Honor
Ubisoft’s knights vs samurai vs vikings game doesn’t contain any pirates.
John: It was very generous of Ubisoft to invent a new genre, then go back in time to tell other people about it before waiting years to make their own.
Adam: The combat system looks nifty and, in a broader sense, I’m pleased that melee combat isn’t crap anymore.
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition
The first game remastered in stunning soul-patch-o-vision.
Alec: Do I need to buy one of those ultra-widescreen monitors to fit the shoulders in?
Alice: Gears games are daft but pretty solid fun. After Kane & Lynch 2 and Rogue Trooper, they’re some of the best cover shooters.
Gigantic
Gigantic is a ““third-person shooter and action game with strong strategic elements” from James Phinney, lead designer of StarCraft. We learned all about it during an interview with Phinney last year.
Alec: A BIG BIG LOVE A BIG BIG LOVE What? No, sorry, I don’t know anything about this.
Jem: The first MOBA-no-not-a-MOBA that actually brings something new and compelling to the table. It’s hard to tell how well it plays, but there’s definite potential here. Plus, the art is pretty.
Hitman
Agent 47 is back in a game that promises to wash away the taste of Absolution with sandbox stealth and artful assassination in a steadily expanding set of locations around the world.
Alec: Any promise of a return to the values of Hitman: Blood Money is a wonderful one, and I am totally onboard if that’s the case, but there’s also a certain discomfort around the idea of a studio possibly forcibly departing from something they clearly wanted to explore - the grime and nastiness of Hitman Absolution and Kane & Lynch - in favour of what the audience demands.
Adam: My review of Absolution is probably the most negative article I've ever written on RPS but I reckon IO Interactive have the chops to turn the series around. Taking the attitude that we all learn best from our mistakes, I'm hoping that the whole Absolution experience was like a postgraduate degree and visit to the mountaintop sage rolled into one. I’m really excited for this and even the plan to deliver new areas sounds like a good thing - gives me hope that each one will be a thing to savour and experiment with rather than a stepping stone in a story I don’t care about.
HoloLens
The HoloLens appears to have fallen into 2015 from some future age where everybody plays holographic games on their dining room table.
Alec: My house is very small, so I’m not really onboard with this until the Hololens can also project a hard-light table to play its games on. I’m also worried that it means the death of skyboxes.
John: Doomed.
Adam: The presentation was a lie, I hear, with impossible FOV and other trickery. I’d probably just want to use it to put Football Manager matches on my table.
Alice: Come back and show me what you’ve got in five years.
Ion
From zombies to space exploration - Dean Hall left Bohemia and DayZ to make “a game that is not a game...a game that is a universe.”
Alec: Shoulda called it No Man’s Z.
Alice: The mention of Space Station 13 as an influence has me hoping it’ll pick up a bit of the tone as well as the simulation.
Adam: YES! That’s agreement with Alice rather than resounding joy about the idea of another big, loose game. I like serious space but there’s not enough silliness in space. It won’t be as good as Space Station 13 though.
Just Cause 3
We’ve already been hands-on with Avalanche’s skydiving grapplefest and liked what we saw.
John: They're going to let the game get in the way of the fun. They always do. It's a disease.
Alice: They’ll probably try, John, but it seems they’ve also crammed in more fun with a wackier jetpack and grappling hooks. I would like to explode and fling things in this game.
Adam: I’ve already written loads about this because I played it a couple of weeks ago. With dev tools to spawn vehicles and weapons, the game didn’t have a chance to get in the way of the fun.
Killer Instinct
A beat 'em up with monsters alongside the usual array of martial artists and magical maulers. Coming to Windows 10 after a period of Xbone exclusivity.
Adam: I've never played a Killer Instinct game but I would like to punch a dinosaur.
Mass Effect Andromeda
A new galaxy, a new adventure, a new Mako. Mass Effect steps into its own future with Andromeda, a game set “far away from and long after” the events of the trilogy.
Alec: Definitely down for more Mass Effect, though I dearly hope it can be less tied up with a vast overarching story and be more about exploration and vignettes. Mass Effect’s at its best when you’re planet-hopping.
John: I don't agree with Alec there. (Mountains restored.) While I don't want something spanning three games, I would love to be told another enormous story from the provincial perspective of beautifully developed characters. Confine it to the one game, though.
Alice: A one-gamer sounds grand, John. I dig Mass Effect a lot but it sprawled too much. As each game changed a fair bit from the last, or at least introduced odd new bits, I’m curious about what this will even be.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
We’ve heard about the open world stealth and the animal-kidnapping. Now, with a Kojima-directed trailer, Metal Gear gets weird.
Jem: Kojima’s swansong. Or is it? The mysteries surrounding the development of this game are almost as compelling as those around the game itself. Based on what we do know (base building, wolf raising and open world stealth) this will be another bonkers Metal Gear game. Just as I like it.
Alice: Yes, thank you, yes.
Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst
Rebooted after just one game, Mirror’s Edge has ditched the rigidity of a level structure for an open world with no gun combat.
Alec: I cheer at open world, standing ovate for no guns, then shake a fist at the sky for origin story. It doesn’t quite look like Mirror’s Edge, but wouldn’t an aesthetic repeat just be tiresome anyway>
Adam: See, I find the opening of the world slightly distressing. It could work and I really hope it does, but Mirror’s Edge felt like a game with direction and flow, tightly designed and poised. In an open world, Faith is probably going to perform distinctly unimpressive tumbles and scrapes while trying to find the bits of the world that she can run across smoothly.
Jem: What Alec said. It looks like Mirror’s Edge with the bad bits removed, except for the clumsy narrative. Wasn’t Faith’s origin explored in the comics, anyway?
Alice: Ubisoft’s recent output has me wary of open-world games, and origin stories are typically tedious, but solid first-person parkour and swift combat would make up for a whole lot.
Need for Speed
With “five action-packed overlapping stories”, Need For Speed will “unite the cultures of speed”. Yes.
John: Stories? Oh please. Just be a good car driving game.
Adam: Are they going to try and cosy up to the Fast and Furious crowd? The latest film did enormous business and from baggy beginnings, F&F has successfully reinvented itself as a legitimate blockbuster action series. Talk of the “cultures of speed” makes me think Need for Speed - as in its film form - is hoping for a slice of whatever the Rock is cooking these days.
No Man's Sky
Confirmation that Hello Games’ colourful space exploration game is coming to PC at launch is cause for celebration. Now we just need to know when launch actually is.
John: The focus on resources and ship management was inevitable, but still disappoints me. I'd so been hoping for pure exploration without all the bloody space shopping. If it can live up to its promises and be malleable to different approaches, then this could be incredible.
Alec: I’m very much looking forwards to No Man’s Sky no longer being a misty-eyed talking point and instead a thing, a real thing, that we can play and understand and maybe be realistic about.
Adam: First-person Spore looks nifty but I think everybody should lower their expectations about how varied planets and creatures will be.
Jem: This E3 Hello Games proved that there’s actually a game hidden within No Man’s Sky. Exploration still looks the most compelling part, though. I’m hoping to be proved wrong.
Pillars of Eternity: The White March
The first expansion for one of the best RPGs of recent years will contain a new storyline, set after the original game, and new recruitable companions.
Alec: WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE, or more to the point what is right with your lives, THAT YOU COULD POSSIBLY HAVE THE TIME FOR EVEN MORE
John: The trick, of course, is to make playing games your job. Everyone do that, and then there's plenty of time for more of this stunning game.
Adam: I would like regular expansions to Pillars of Eternity forever.
Planet Coaster
When Frontier aren’t looking to the stars of Elite: Dangerous, they’re working on Coaster World, a theme park management game. Or having some lunch and some time away from their screens.
John: Significantly disappointed to learn this is yet another theme park game, and not a tale about a planet populated by sentient beer mats.
Adam: Has there been a really good theme park management game since Rollercoaster Tycoon 2? I’d love for this to be the one but I prefer the style (and name) of Parkitect.
Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2
Another crop of third-person zombie blasting, this time set in suburbia and in the shadow of a terrifying orange.
John: Hey, remember PopCap?
Adam: I realised that the orange is played by Guy Fieri this morning.
Jem: Garden Warfare 2 marks maybe the 12th shark jump for the Plants vs Zombies franchise. So sad.
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Still not confirmed for PC, Lara’s latest adventure brought ice-climbing to E3.
John: It would have to struggle to have a worse story and more infuriating interruptions than the morbidly overrated previous edition. Hey guys, how about some tombs to raid this time?
Adam: I enjoyed the previous game until the village where everything exploded. The ice-climbing video makes me think Uncharted more than Tomb Raider.
Rising Storm 2: Vietnam
“We’re bringing our gritty and realistic military shooter gameplay forward to a time when assault rifles ruled the ground, choppers ruled the skies, and every tunnel could hide an ambush,” said Tripwire of their latest.
Alec: I’m only playing it if the entirely of Cosmo’s Factory is on the soundtrack.
Sea of Thieves
Rare’s attractive multiplayer pirate adventure is coming to PC, exclusively for Windows 10 users.
Alec: Exclusively for Windows 10 means ‘we’ll never hear of it again’, of course.
Adam: I love the art style and the high seas stuff looks great. The Windows 10 exclusivity bothers me less than the multiple players - I need to know how that side of things will work.
Jem: Like Adam I’m curious about how the team mechanics will work. Who decides who is captain? Can crews mutiny? Will my friends throw me overboard? Maybe I should stick to Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.
Shenmue 3
The $2m Kickstarter target toppled rather quickly and now Sony have confirmed that they’ll be part-funding the long-awaited sequel.
Alec: Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
John: Boring nothing game will be a boring nothing game for a new generation.
Adam: It's possible that I played the first game too late, when what had seemed like the future to so many had become a relic to my eyes. Or maybe I'm just not cut out to be a forklift driver.
Alice: It’s a terrible thing, having your dreams come true.
The Solus Project
A first-person singleplayer survival game from the minds behind puzzler The Ball.
SOMA
Sci-fi horror from the creators of Amnesia.
Adam: Whenever there's a drought of horror games, I complain. When there's a new game due from the makers of Amnesia it is only fair that I celebrate. SOMA has been an intriguing proposition since the early live action videos teased its existence, and everything since has helped to convince me that Frictional might be placing their scares in a meaningful context this time around. If it all comes together, SOMA's likely to be one of my favourite games this year.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole
Under development at Ubisoft San Francisco rather than Obsidian, The Fractured But Whole has ditched the fantasy RPG trappings and wrapped itself in superhero costumes instead.
John: Perhaps if they bug test this one it could be an improvement. And then perhaps balance it so you don't win every fight on your first turn. i.e. Remember the game as well as the story.
Jem: Words cannot describe how much I adore this game’s name. The shift from fantasy to super heroes is a great move, too. I’m into this.
Star Wars Battlefront
Before you know it, Star Wars is going to take over the internet, the television, the cinema and your computerbox. There might even be another Christmas Special if we’re lucky.
Alec: AT-ATs are the only Star Wars thing I still get excited about, so as long as this has AT-ATs in it I’ll play it. I do love an AT-AT, me. Big white metal donkeys. Also can I set up a Patreon where I get people to buy me a Lego AT-AT? I’ll do an unboxing video or something. No? Fair enough.
Jem: All throughout the E3 demos for this game I kept waiting to see the ground-to-space transition. Sadly, it’s not happening. Battlefront still looks great, but oh god just imagine what it could’ve been. It’ll probably get modded in.
SUPERHOT
Stylish and inventive first-person shooting with a (time)twist.
Alice: Probably the prettiest game of E3.
Adam: I am so into this. Loved the prototype.
Tacoma
Fullbright’s space station adventure is like a great big mysterious box that is probably full of emotions.
Alec: I’m a mite concerned that Tacoma won’t have the same sense of mystery as Gone Home, in which I spent as much time thinking “what is this, exactly?” as I did “what’s going to happen.” But that presumes that Fullbright’s second game really is a known quantity, and the more I see of it the less sure I am that’s the case. Lost in space without monsters/ghosts is where I want to be.
John: Space + Gone Home = Space Feelings. Good enough for me.
Alice: Did you catch that sign language password? Very nice.
Adam: I showed Gone Home to a friend who knew nothing about it and she immediately assumed it was a horror game. She spent the entire game waiting for something to jump out of the shadows, which entertained me enormously. I’m hoping Tacoma lulls everyone into thinking it’s a game about Space Feelings and then turns out to be set on the most frightening space station since System Shock 2.
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands
Open world four-player co-op man-shooting.
Alec: Do they pay drunk hobos to make up names for these things now?
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege
Ubisoft announced that Siege will have a singleplayer campaign as well as solo or cooperative terrorist hunting along with its already announced competitive modes.
Adam: I’m looking forward to this because it isn’t Rainbow Six: Patriots.
Tom Clancy’s The Division
Delayed until March 2016, The Division had its multiplayer revealed to the world at E3.
Adam: I reckon E3 2016 will be The Division’s strongest showing yet.
Total War: Warhammer
A chaos injection might be precisely what the venerable Total War series needs.
Alec: I’m just so very, very happy that someone’s finally doing Tzeentch in a Warhammer game. Gimme my big bird.
Adam: If Creative Assembly get this right, it will be a glorious thing. Meanwhile, I hope the Alien: Isolation team can snag the Jurassic Park license. They’d do a good Trespasser, I reckon.
Trackmania Turbo
The new Trackmania game has a random track generator and a two player mode in which both players attempt to control the same car.
Alice: COLOURS! SPEED! LOOPS! TRACKMANIA!
Transformers Devastation
Platinum, creators of some of the best action games in existence, are making a Transformers game. Alec is vibrating happily. Or is he?
Alec: Not that happily, actually: the robots, while pretty, appear to be made out of loo rolls rather than Cybetronian metals. Looks wonderful and I’m sure it’ll be good fighting, but I’m not convinced it’ll feel like the kind of Transformers that a hopeless manbaby like me wants.
Alice: I care not one jot for Transformers but I do dig Platinum’s games. The Legend of Korra was a reminder that they can phone in licensed games, though - not everything they drop will be Revengeance-hot.
Unravel
A wooly yarn, without a Yoshi in sight.
John: Adam, can I bagsie review of this one?
Alice: You and your emotions!
Jem: I would like to be the creative director’s friend more than I want to play the game itself. And I would like to play this game a lot.
Adam: I just hope we can find someone to review it.
The Walking Dead: Michonne
A Telltale Walking Dead miniseries focusing on the sword-wielding wanderer.
Jem: Telltale trying to bridge the gap between the Walking Dead games and comics is a good thing. Miniseries focusing on single characters are a good thing. I think that basically this game is a good thing.
XCOM 2
Some game about aliens.
Alec: Boring! Should be a console-exclusive first-person shooter with quick-time events.
GIVE IT TO ME NOW.
Jem: *Sets Geoscape time settings to 1 day per tick*
Adam: Carrying wounded soldiers is my everything.
This page will be updated with links to further thoughts as we write them and if there are any late surprises, we'll add the details here.