It may come as no surprise to anyone that we love being excited about games and this year’s E3 had plenty of those and then some. Here are the handful of titles we saw at the show that made us excited for this year and beyond.
Andrew Passafiume
Honorable mention
Grim Fandango is one of my favorite games of all time, and knowing that it’s getting an official re-release is enough to get me excited. Above all else, I’m just happy more people will get to play it!
As much as I want to write a bunch about the new Witcher game again, I think I’m going to talk about something different this time around. No Man’s Sky, the new procedurally generated indie title from the small team at Hello Games, looks stunning. It’s hard to say if the final product will live up to the video we saw at Sony’s conference, but I’m remaining hopeful that it’s going to be something special.
Eric Albuen
Honorable mention
I had so much fun just duking it out with my friends in Phantom Dust on the original Xbox, and now I’ll be able to relive the fun with a brand new set of friends who haven’t played it yet. But first, I have to show them what they missed…
For years, I’ve been waiting for a new Star Fox game. Since Command,we were constantly teased about how fun it would be to play the game on a Wii (Thanks, WarioWare: Smooth Moves), and Fox and Falco themselves have always been representing the franchise through Smash Bros. Now, Miyamoto is showing off what kind of potential the Wii U has, and how this can change the series as we know it.
Chris Ingersoll
Honorable mention
2015 looks like it is going to be especially brutal on me. Am I seriously going to have to choose between Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, Xenoblade Chronicles X and the open-world Wii U Zelda?!
Nintendo packed so many awesome things into that 40-minute Digital Event and follow-up Treehouse Live coverage that I’d be very hard-pressed to pick just one. But in terms of surprise value… man, who could have predicted Splatoon coming? I’m no online team shooter fan by any stretch of the imagination, but that looked like so much pure, distilled fun that I just have to give it a try! Hopefully by that point more of my friends will have Wii Us so we can collectively paint the town red. Or blue. Or even Snackbar Games orange.
Graham Russell
Honorable mention
Any new Intelligent Systems announcement has my attention, and when it takes cues from XCOM, Valkyria Chronicles and Skulls of the Shogun, I’m definitely on board. I just hope that Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. doesn’t tie up too much time and delay the next Fire Emblem or Advance Wars.
As cool as new reveals are, sometimes it’s better to know that something that’s already good is headed your way so you can play it. That’s definitely the case with Fantasy Life, the Level-5 open-ended RPG-sim that was quietly announced for localization by Nintendo. It’ll appeal to fans of traditional RPGs like Dragon Quest IX as well as games like Animal Crossing and Monster Hunter, making it a real treat for those of us who like more than one of those things.
Henry Skey
Honorable mention
How can I not be thrilled at a new Star Fox and …wait, Grim Fandango? If Grim Fandango can come back, then so can many of my personal jewels (Suikoden, Breath of Fire, Chrono). Right?
This year, it was refreshing to see the Big Three deliver a ton of content that was a combination of expected, surprising and satisfying. I was giddy checking out every trailer I possibly could and watching highlights from the conferences, but I was thrilled to see more of Xenoblade Chronicles X than we’d ever seen before. Lengthy gameplay videos indicate to me that I’m going to absolutely love this game. I can’t get over how good the game looks. This is the reason I bought my Wii U.
Justin Last
Honorable mention
I’m ridiculously excited for the PlayStation TV. I don’t realistically think I would take a Vita with me to work or on vacation, but I’m certain I’d play the games on my television, and having access to the PS4 on another television in the house sounds great. Limited compatibility or not, the price point is right on for an impulse purchase for me.
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End looks amazing. I wasn’t sure we’d get a fourth game, as Naughty Dog seems to get to three and move on or get to three and make a kart racer. I’m not too proud to play Unkarted (as Sully, of course), but I’m thrilled to see Drake and Sully get a new adventure on the new hardware. It’s hard not to put Mass Effect 4 here, as the worlds BioWare is making look amazing, but Uncharted 4 was shown as a game instead of a collection of places where a game might eventually happen.
