God of War 4
Sony kicked off its E3 conference with a demo on the latest God of War game. It’s a reimagining of the franchise, shifting from Greek to Norse mythology, and appears to be slower, more confident and with a heavier emphasis on storytelling and character. It looks absolutely beautiful – no surprise to anyone who's played one of developer Sony Santa Monica’s previous games – and the direction feels like a much-needed shake-up to a franchise that had run out of ideas.
Days Gone
Days Gone is the new game from developer Sony Bend Studios and it looks like The Last of Us meets Sons of Anarchy. Its somber, post-apocalyptic tone feels heavily inspired by the recent antics of Naughty Dog – industry darling famous for the Uncharted series and The Last of Us. Most interesting, Days Gone is a biker game – part shooter, part stealth game, part adventure – although the game’s exact structure seems unclear at this stage. It looks great, and features a lot of zombies – no word on a release date yet, but 2017 would be a safe bet.
The Last Guardian
The Last Guardian arrives on PS4 this October 26; only seven years after it was initially announced. A further look at gameplay revealed a lot of similarities to Team Ico’s previous games, Shadow of the Colossus and Ico. The game still looks fantastic despite clearly lagging behind on the tech side of things, and the magical guardian itself is still as adorable as when we first saw it years ago. A huge roar of applause erupted throughout the convention centre when the release date popped up on screen, and quite right too – they’ve taken their time.
PlayStation VR
Sony then showed off a sizzle reel for PlayStation VR and announced its release date (October 13). More importantly, we now have a price: £349. It’s not cheap, but with a roster of 50 games planned for this year, including Star Wars: Battlefront, Batman and Resident Evil 7, it looks like PSVR will be a promising proposition for anyone who wants to strap a big visor to their head and step into the next generation of gaming.
Death Stranding
An eerily nonsensical trailer revealed Hideo Kojima’s latest game, Death Stranding, starring The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus in the lead role. The trailer showed Reedus’ character stark naked on a beach covered in dead fish and whale carcasses. There was a baby, then there wasn’t a baby, but oil-slicked baby hand prints hinted at some kind of alternate reality. Then there were the five ominous figures hovering high above the beach. It was all very strange; Kojima is famous for his weird stuff, and Death Stranding looks like it continues that trend with aplomb.
Detroit: Become Human
Detroit is another of David Cage's choice-driven narratives, but seems like the most accomplished version of that formula yet. You play as an android criminal investigator in a near-future sci-fi city, where androids are the servants of humanity. It’s a well trodden concept, but Detroit seems to handle it in an interesting enough way. The trailer itself demonstrated the vast number of ways a single scenario could play out, as well as some startlingly pretty production values.
Resident Evil
The boys at Capcom have clearly taken note of the intense popularity of Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro’s PT demo and have injected the latest Resident Evil with the same chills. Resi 7 – or 'Resident EVII' if you’re being a smart arse – takes the series back to its survival horror roots, and is a welcome departure from the action focused nature of its most recent predecessors. There’s a Resident Evil 7 demo available right now on the PS4 store, too, and PlayStation VR support is promised later this year as well - if you can handle that level of fright.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
The Call of Duty franchise is at the point where its creators have clearly realised they can do what they want providing they add in a couple of cool new ideas and don’t fix what isn’t broken. Infinite Warfare looks like it might be the biggest, loudest Call of Duty in some time, and possibly the most interesting, too. A space battle, zero gravity firefights and more ridiculous insanity makes Infinite Warfare one of the best-looking shooters of the year so far.
Spider-Man
Finally, a Spider-Man game that looks like it might live up to the standard set by Rocksteady and its Arkham series. Developed by Insomniac, this not-yet-titled Spider-Man game embraces the freedom of movement of the web-slinger in a new open world. There’s nothing on release date, and the game looked like it could be in the early stages of development so could be a little way off yet, but it’s still great to know that we’ll be web-slinging through Manhattan at some point in the near future.
The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
Nintendo’s showing at E3 has diminished in recent years, with the company foregoing a large conference and instead running a series of digital live streams. With very few new games to show off, Nintendo went big with the latest Zelda game, which looks absolutely gorgeous and a true evolutionary step. With a huge open world, new mechanics like climbing, and an RPG-alike loot system, *Breath Of The Wild ditches a lot of franchise traditions to go all-out for next-gen. It’s straddling two consoles - Wii U and the undetailed NX system - and is set for release at an undetermined time in 2017.