For better or worse, one of the best things about E3 is that you never know what you are going to get. Will there be huge surprises or has everything been leaked. It seems that since we are so close to the launch of the next generation of consoles most developers are playing it safe and pushing most of their projects to the next gen. Which sometimes doesn’t always make sense to me because at the end of the life cycle of a console is when there is the biggest install base which would lead to potentially more sales. However, for my personal tastes, I felt like every press conference felt a little weak in some aspect or another, whether the big reveal they had planned had already leaked or what was shown was unimpressive. There were a few bright spots and here are my top 5 (ok maybe 6)

Rainbow Six Quarantine

There were a lot of things I was hoping to see at the Ubisoft conference including Splinter Cell or Prince of Persia.It felt like Ubisoft played this year pretty safe most likely holding onto brand new entries from Splinter Cell and Rayman for the next gen launch as Ubisoft is one of the biggest supporters of new console launches when it comes to third party developers. This announcement came out of nowhere and at first seemed like another timed exclusive event like the one that happened last year for a few weeks called Outbreak. It was a nice change of pace as well as a good use of the tools and engine that RS6 is built on. It clearly connected well enough with fans as it looks as though Ubisoft will launch a similar game in early 2020. It will be a three player co op that from the trailer looks like it might be the next big co op horde survival shooter since Left 4 Dead.

CyberPunk 2077

As if the hype levels weren’t already thought the roof with this game but CD Projekt Red came out swinging with a brand new super stylish trailer, a release date and Keanu Reeves!!!!!! Where to start with this trailer other than it has been the only moment where I have actually been pleasantly surprised. The release date for this game currently is April of 2020 which is actually closer than I expected it to be. I thought this was a game that had a chance of being later in 2020 if not well into the next console cycle as it has just looked too promising, especially when you consider the world they built with The Witcher 3. Its unclear what Keanu’s role will be but based on some of the comments he gave when he came out on stage after the reveal he will be heavily involved. 2020 is already looking to be quite a send off year for the PS4 and Xbox One with games like Halo infinite, Rainbow Six Quarantine, Last of Us 2, and this game. The hope is that all of these games will be cross gen and playable on both with technical sliders if you are playing on the better machines because I would love to see the best version possible of all of those games.

DeathLoop

Arkane Studios has a great track record with games like dishonored 1/2 and Prey and even though all we got was a super slick trailer with a little information about the game I am excited for this one. The trailer showed two people against each other stuck on an island and trapped in a time loop. The question becomes what is the gameplay about as its most likely not a 1v1 online multiplayer game. Based on the previous work from Arkane, you would have basically two campaigns to be playable in whatever order you prefer. They came out on stage to say that this would be in the vein of the Arkane games you know and love with meticulously designed levels and great gameplay.

Halo Infinite

There wasn’t much in this trailer but at least it was better than Master Chief walking in the desert with a poncho. This trailer was shown right after the talked about Project Scarlett and gave a sizzle reel about the specs and the team working on it. Shortly after Phil Spencer announced that the next Halo would be a launch title and then we were treated with the reveal. The biggest reason I am excited for this is at the start of the trailer it noted in the bottom corner that this trailer was using game engine and it looked amazing. From the ambient lighting when the power went out to the frost and breath in the subzero space temperatures. I believe firmly in Xbox and 343 learning their lesson on the last game and will basically keep this game as close to a reboot as possible. I will be looking forward to seeing a full gameplay reveal in 365 days if not sooner. You have to look past the fact that we barely saw anything more than we saw last year when we got the mood trailer that showed the warthog driving across the plains. The hope was that year we were going to see some actual gameplay.

Links Awakening

In my opinion the Nintendo Direct was a little lacklustre in terms of big wow moments. From Luigis Mansion 3, a game that I am excited for, not getting a release date to Animal Crossing getting pushed into an Already crowded March of 2020. What did look fantastic was Links Awakening and what looked even better was the release date for it. I had assumed that with Pokemon being the big Nintendo release for November that Links Awakening would be the December game. I didnt think it would be the October game because I expected and still do expect Luigis Mansion 3 to be released in October, it just makes too much sense. They didnt announce a release date either because the game isn’t ready and possibly wouldn’t have been able to meet the October launch or the other option is that they want Luigis Mansion 3 to be a focal point of an upcoming Nintendo Direct. Back to Links Awakening, the great news was that this game is coming out in September, which is a little over three months away. It looks like a great reimagining of the original Gameboy classic from 1992 except with a new art style and modern features. Without any mention of a virtual console successor this will be our last chance at a top down Zelda for a while but in full glorious HD.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake

There are a few negative things to get out of the way first about this remake. First, is that after all this time the game still isn’t coming out until early next year which looks to be getting crowded already. Second, is that they have officially announced that the game will still be releasing in episodes and they haven’t said how many and with no date given for the next installment. No price has been given but its safe to assume that we are looking at multiple full priced games. A big question is how many instalments are we going to get. They have already announced that it’s so big that part one will be shipping on two blu rays. My interest level in this remake has been up and down since it was first announced. The first trailer that was shown at E3 years ago looked very promising but then four years past and we didnt hear much until this year just recently we were shown some footage and it didnt look good in my mind. It had appeared that the art and style of the game had changed from the first reveal of the remake they showed us. However, at the Square Enix conference they showed the game off again including actual gameplay and I am back on board. The game is featuring a hybrid battle system that looks to combine elements of the original FF7 and more recent RPGs including real time battles. The trailer and gameplay looked great for the game, now just to see if they can stick the landing.