Writer Evan Killham
More Last Guardian disappointment
How many years have we been waiting for more information on Team Ico’s latest project? And how many E3s have left us wanting?
I don’t even know the answers to those questions because I stopped counting a couple of years ago when I decided to drown my sorrows in as many pancakes as the folks at my local flapjack establishment would give me before they had to close. And I’m really looking forward to doing that after we don’t hear anything this year. Because I love pancakes. And if I don’t make a tradition out of mainlining them for a very specific reason after E3, then I’m just that sad guy in the corner asking for still more syrup.
I’d honestly love to hear more about The Last Guardian, but I’m not holding my breath. I will, however, be holding the biggest stack of grilled batter you’ve ever seen.
Above: We don’t know much about Halo 5, but the series about Master Chief hasn’t let us down yet.
Writer Gavin Greene
The unknown knowns
E3 always has the potential to surprise us with something completely out of left field. But multiple studios have already begun to capture the preshow news cycle with psuedo-announcements. Deep Silver will be revealing two new “triple-A games” at this year’s E3, and both Microsoft and Sony are desperate to either avoid or repeat their game showcases from last year. The already teased Halo 5 and Uncharted 4 are well on their way to the next stage in the hype lifecycle. Nintendo’s doing the livestream event again this year, but the Big N is in a good place to finally have a “Wow!” moment for the Wii U. It’s getting that last little chunk of information, those announcements that manage to hide in plain sight, that makes the show worthwhile.
Dishonored II would be also wicked awesome.
Writer Samir Torres
Street Fighter vs. Mortal Kombat
Many fighting-game fans have dreamed of a Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat crossover for years, and it’s about time we finally get it. If Capcom can strike deals with SNK, Tatsunoko, and Namco, then they can sure work something out with Warner Bros. and NetherRealm Studios.
And speaking of NetherRealm Studios, Kiefer Sutherland mentioned recently that he had done some voice work for a Mortal Kombat title. Could we see a new entry in the series at E3? Is Kiefer voicing Raiden, Shinnok, or Bo’ Rai Cho?
Above: From left to right: Yoshiaki Koizumi, Shigeru Miyamoto, and Kenta Motokura.
Writer Daniel Crawley
Nintendo finally doing something with NFC
When I first heard that the Wii U GamePad came equipped with near-field communication (NFC) technology, I thought Nintendo had hands-down won the console war. Releasing a Pokémon game with interactive figures and cards would surely be its first priority. Even the (then exclusive) Rayman Legends teased a mashing of toys and games in a leaked trailer.
It’s taken 18 months, however, for Nintendo to finally talk about tapping into the Wii U’s NFC potential, with a project codenamed Nintendo Figurine Platform. Is it too late to save the Wii U from its disastrous retail performance? Possibly. But it’s probably the best chance Nintendo has.
Writer Giancarlo Valdes
Star Wars: Battlefront and Eve Valkyrie
I haven’t stopped thinking about Star Wars ever since Lucasfilm announced the cast of Star Wars: Episode VII last week. In between binge watching episodes of The Clone Wars on Netflix, I’ve thought a lot about what EA’s new Battlefront game might look like. I just hope they can capture some of the magic from the old games; I have a lot of good memories of playing them with my buddy on PlayStation 2.
Eve Valkyrie was my game of the show at last year’s E3, and I can’t wait to see how this Oculus Rift game has changed since then. Aside from reading about a major announcement or two (they hired Katee Sackhoff, who play Starbuck from the Battlestar Galactica reboot!), I’ve purposely kept myself in the dark.
Above: We’re ready for more Persona.
Writer Stefanie Fogel
Anything and everything Persona
Atlus recently revealed it’s expanding the Persona universe with a number of new games in development, and I can’t wait to hear more! It’s been six years and one full console cycle since we last saw a new entry in the main series. Now, we not only have Persona 5 on the PlayStation 3 to look forward to, but we have spinoffs like Persona Q (3DS), Persona 4 Arena Ultimax (PS3/360), and Persona 4: Dancing All Night (Vita) as well.
>Hopefully, fans of the series will get to hear more about all of these games next month.
Writer Stephen Kleckner
Alien: Isolation … aka I’m excited! I think. Yes! Definitely excited! Wait! No. Wait! Maybe?
Alien: Isolation is causing me a severe case of envy toward my game press colleagues. Why? I’m one of the few Alien fans in this line of work that has not been able to sit down to a demo yet. Worse than envy, however, is the child-like excitement this game has put me in while not actually having experienced any of it. Adding on top of this, or at least making things more bi-polar, are some mood spoiling truths hanging in the air that are threatening my potentially gullible buzz.
The first crack in my excitement occurred when the mixed word-of-mouth was getting out from those who had played an early version of Alien: Isolation. A lot of verbal “enh” and “hmmm”’s followed by shaky hands and stark face expressions.
There’s also those times where I play amateur game producer and question its scope. The stealth, hunted-in-a-confined-space design premise is the sort of creative thinking the franchise needs, but it is also the sort of hook I would expect in a smaller downloadable game from an independent developer. With this project shooting for a retail shelf release of a big Twentieth Century Fox property, is Sega trying to stretch an intimate experience on a bloated summer blockbuster body?
I also can’t ignore the recent history associated with Sega and Gearbox Software’s Aliens: Colonial Marines. A different developer, The Creative Assembly, is working on Alien: Isolation, but I’ve heard rumors that the Isolation concept was an early internal pitch for the project slot that Colonial Marines filled. The pessimist in me is wary about that possible connection.
These circumstances have put me in the “pregame giddy” dilemma. Am I being embarrassingly naïve when I work myself into excitement over Alien: Isolation (or any game in 2014), or would it be unfair to dial my hype meter way down and toss-up my ridiculously jaded defenses? Sega, when you go to E3, do an Alien fan a solid and put me out of my first-world misery.