That Green Dude

E3, the hype extravaganza has been and gone. Now the days after E3 are when people catch up on any game showcases they may have missed and developers and publishers get back to normal It’s also around this time when people choose what their favourite games of E3 are. So like nearly every other Tom, Dick and Harry I’m choosing my favourite games of E3.

Assassin’s Creed: Origins

After all of the leaks about Assassin’s Creed Origins during the run-up to E3, I wondered if there was anything else they could actually show us. The answer, yes, there was plenty to show us. The Ancient Egypt setting was confirmed and goddamn did it look beautiful. The gameplay showed of a new UI, new protagonist, new gameplay elements and a new combat system. You can control an eagle in AC: Origins which is brilliant. The eagle acts like a drone of sorts, marking out enemies far away, it’s pretty damn cool. The UI has been changed too. It looks cleaner and more RPG-like. The gameplay looks smoother and more fluid than before and there’s a skill tree to upgrade the protagonist. There are clear RPG elements and influences, no doubt inspired by The Witcher III. There’s a new protagonist called Ba-Yek. We only know little about him so far but he looks cool and has that sense of intrigue that Altair had.

The year-long break for the Assassin’s Creed series seems to have done it wonders, from what we have seen. Will the final product be good? That remains to be seen but I have high hopes for this.

Dragon Ball FighterZ

A new Dragon Ball game, ooh. A new Dragon Ball fighting game, Yes! A new Dragon Ball fighting game by the developers of Guilty Gear and Blazblue, I’M SOLD. TAKE MY MONEY NOW. I love Dragon Ball, it’s one of my favourite anime series and Guilty Gear is one of my favourite fighting games. So a Dragon Ball fighting game by Arc System Works, the developers of Guilty Gear. It can only mean good things. Guilty Gear has always been good but lately, the series has been on a roll. Xrd Sign was great, Revelator was fantastic and is one of the best fighters I’ve played this generation. I haven’t played Rev2 but it seems that it carries on the trend of awesomeness. What was shown of Dragon Ball FighterZ was just simply brilliant and apparently it is still early in development, which is impressive. I have high hopes for this game and given that it is being developed by Guilty Gear and BlazBlue developers, Arc System Works, I don’t have any worries at all.

If you haven’t seen any gameplay of it check some out here. It is truly amazing and it would be great if we get to see this game at EVO eventually.

Days Gone

We knew it would be shown off at E3 but what was shown, holy hell was it good. The zombies Days Gone aren’t your typical slow lumbering flesh eaters. In Days Gone they roam in packs or crowds rather and when they run, it looks like something from 28 Days Later or World War Z. These zombies are going to get you if you aren’t careful. In the gameplay shown during the PlayStation conference, we see protagonist Deacon ride his motorbike and fend off some zombie dogs. He then gets into some trouble but swiftly sorts it and then he makes his way through a forest. The biggest part of the gameplay was when he blew up a gate and hundreds of zombies came flooding through the gate. They tore through the encampment like a knife through butter. There was one thing that caught me off guard and that is the zombie bear. I was not expecting a zombie bear but that made me even more hyped for this game.

We now know that Days Gone is releasing sometime in 2018. We’ll probably get a solid date at PlayStation Experience in December.

Super Mario Odyssey

What can I say about Super Mario Odyssey other than, sweet mother of god does it look good. I haven’t got a Nintendo Switch yet but I do intend to pick one up and Super Mario Odyssey will be the first game I’ll get for it. It looks so cool and colourful and the Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine vibes, are very strong here. The trailer that Nintendo showed off during their Spotlight event was brilliant. It showed off all it needed to get me even more hyped for it. The music in the trailer was really catchy too. I haven’t been this pumped up for a Mario game since Super Mario Galaxy. I think that Super Mario Odyssey will be a best seller.

Aside from the trailer that was shown, they also showed the game off during their Treehouse event. Super Mario Odyssey looks like it will be so much fun.

Spider-Man PS4

We finally got to see some gameplay of the Spider-Man game for PS4 and dear god was it good. It was nearly nine minutes of awesomeness. First off Spidey looks great in this, his suit looks fantastic. The graphics for the new Spider-Man game are jaw-droppingly beautiful. You can see the fibre in his suit and the detail in the world is fantastic. The gameplay looks fun, it looks as if Spider-Man and the Batman Arkham series (not the awful Arkham Knight though) just merged together. The stealth is there and the free-flow combat is too. There are some QTE’s which I don’t mind personally but I know that will annoy a few people.

Everything in this trailer was great and we know that the game is coming out in 2018. This is shaping up to be something fantastic, the folks at Insomniac Games should be proud of what they have done so far.

The Evil Within 2

I loved the first game, yes it had many flaws but it was a survival horror game that brought me back into the genre. Survival horror/ horror games have become more and more popular because of let’s players on YouTube and such. A large portion of horror games a few years ago were first-person, where I couldn’t attack and the only option was to run and hide. Now I don’t mind those kind of horror games but there were so many of them that I got burned out. So when the first The Evil Within came out it was a breath of fresh air, I could once again fight back instead of running and hiding all the time. (Just want to put this out there. Alien: Isolation another horror game that came out around the same time as The Evil Within is brilliant, give it a go if you can)

Roll on to E3 2017 and The Evil Within 2 was revealed. The game was announced via a brilliant CG trailer and from what we can gather, this time around the story will be more personal. Sebastian Castellanos the protagonist from the first game returns and in the trailer, we see him running through a forest and he’s trying to reach out to someone who looks to be his daughter. Not much else was shown of The Evil Within 2 but one thing is for sure, I can’t wait to play it.

Middle Earth: Shadow of War

I’m not going to waffle on about Middle Earth: Shadow of War as many people who know me, know how hyped I am for this game. The game was shown off at Microsoft’s E3 conference and what they showed off it was great. It further highlighted the changes and improvements developer Monolith have done to the game and its standout feature, the Nemesis System. The already impressive Nemesis has had numerous enhancements and from what we can tell so far, they have all be positive. We also get to see Bruz a rather chipper fellow who’s optimistic. I like Bruz, he seems like a cool dude.

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor was one of my favourite games of 2014 can Shadow of War do the same? I’ll find out when the game releases on October 10.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Wolfenstein is my favourite first person shooter series next to Doom and Shadow Warrior. We knew a new Wolfenstein was happening given the subtle hints was dropping since E3 2016 and that Wolfenstein: The New Order did well critically and commercially. I love Wolfenstein because it’s old school through and through and that it just wants you to have fun shooting Nazis. Machine Head Games, the developer of Wolfenstein: The New Order are back and from what was shown, they have improved on what they did with The New Order and made it even more fun.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus was revealed during Bethesda’s E3 conference and this time we’re in America. The trailer was very well put together and was one of the best trailers throughout E3. There are several other Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus videos that explain more of the game, that Bethesda released on their official YouTube channel. I’ll be getting The New Colossus day one, I can’t wait for it.

Crackdown 3

The most bombastic trailer during E3 has to go to Crackdown 3. First of all, Terry Crews!. Right now that’s out the way, the trailer for Crackdown 3 was great and it showed of the series art style, destruction, explosions and most importantly, the orbs. We saw agility orbs and the sound set off the collecting maniac in me. I NEED to get all those agility orbs like have done in the previous two games and I won’t stop until I have them all.

There was also gameplay some shown off during E3 and it erased any fears I had for Crackdown 3. It plays like the first Crackdown game which is what fans of the series want. Finally after so long we got a release date for Crackdown 3, November 7. So if you want me in November, I’ll be jumping around a city collecting orbs.

Metro: Exodus

One of the games in my wish list got announced and it was a new Metro game called Metro Exodus. Metro Exodus was announced during Microsoft’s E3 conference and caught everyone including myself off guard. The Metro series is different to many first person shooters, it’s story, gameplay and it’s gorgeous, desolate post-apocalyptic world. We didn’t get much at E3, the announcement trailer and that it is scheduled to release in 2018 was pretty much all we got. I would explain how the trailer goes but that would ruin the surprise, if you haven’t seen it yet.

According to PC Gamer, the game is going to feature some more open environments but it isn’t going to stray from what series is known for, which in my opinion is good. Obviously we don’t know a great deal about Metro Exodus as of yet but I am already hyped for this. 2017 has already been a good year for games and 2018 is looking to be another good year too.

I know that there was a Kingdom Hearts III trailer during E3 time but it was shown off, at the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra concert. If the trailer was shown at E3, then Kingdom Hearts III would be on the list. All that said though that new trailer was absolutely amazing.

So there’s my list of favourite games of E3 2017. Of course there are plenty more that impressed me but these stood out. Which games stood out for you? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter @ThatGreenDude95.