麻豆约拍

By Aaron Bayne // 麻豆约拍 The Social contributor // 16 June 2021

E3’s first all-digital event wrapped up last night, closing out four days of game announcements and reveals. This year’s conference was muted somewhat by the ever-looming threat of delays, as the industry still gets to grips with hybrid work-from-home models, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t plenty to get excited about.

In case you didn’t have the time to watch hours upon hours of digital conferences, I’ve rounded up a list of my five biggest announcements at this year’s E3.

Nintendo rounded up E3 with another of its Nintendo Directs, and while it showed off a new Metroid and a new WarioWare (no, I can’t wait to use the joy-con to pick noses either), we were only really there for one thing. Breath of the Wild 2 finally unveiled a gameplay trailer, revealing beautiful vistas, a long-haired Link, some neat looking enemies, and did we mention beautiful vistas?

It has been two years since the sequel was announced, and in that time not one shred of information has surfaced. However, with its full two minutes of gorgeous gameplay, Nintendo revealed that the game would expand up to the skies above Hyrule as part of its enormous map. Story details are still relatively light, but I’d wager it’s got something to do with that pesky Ganon.

Nintendo seems content with taking their time on the development of Breath of the Wild 2 but did reveal that they are aiming for a 2022 release. Guess, you’ll just need to go and play the first game again in the meantime.

Battlefield 2042 was revealed during its own stream a couple of days before E3; however, it was during the Xbox/Bethesda conference on Sunday that we got our first look at actual gameplay.

The Battlefield series has stumbled away from what made it special in recent entries, with a lack of vehicular and destruction-based combat. However, Battlefield 2042 looks to correct this with some truly spectacular all-out warfare.

Bringing an astonishing 128 players into matches (on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series) 2042 is big, brash and distinctly Battlefield.

And while its streamlined weapon customisation, and abundance of vehicles were a welcome sight, an entire tornado rocking up as one of the games many dynamic events, whipping players and vehicles up into the air, ensured for myself and many Battlefield fans that this is a day one purchase.

Arkane Studios are some of the best developers currently working. With titles such as Dishonored and Prey under their belt, and the highly anticipated PlayStation 5 exclusive, Deathloop on the horizon, anything with the Arkane name attached is likely to turn heads. And heads they turned, with Arkane Austin’s cinematic reveal of their online open-world shooter, Redfall.

Redfall has unique characters, stylish vampires and supernatural abilities, so it already feels decidedly Arkane.

However, with the studio wandering into uncharted territory with its online co-op side, it’ll be interesting to see how they take their traditionally tight-knit semi open-world design of games like Prey and apply that to an online open-world structure.

While it is disappointing that Redfall’s reveal only allowed for cinematics, even with a nearby 2022 release, Arkane have rarely missed the mark, so it’ll be interesting to see their take on an online experience.

Ok, this may not have been what anyone was expecting, or the best game to close out the Ubisoft Forward event, but an Avatar game is actually something to get excited about.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is an open-world first-person adventure game developed by Massive Entertainment, the studio behind The Division. Whether you are a fan of the Ubisoft open-world formula or not, with the vast lore available from James Cameron’s blockbuster of the same name - Pandora is the perfect setting for a video game.

This title is being developed exclusively for next-gen as well, meaning that Pandora will be realised in stunning fidelity. Whether you are there for the sequel or the game, 2022 is shaping up to be a big year for Avatar.

After the hodge-podge experience that was Marvel’s Avengers, MCU fans looking for their gaming fix will have been happy to see the Guardians of the Galaxy show up during Square Enix’s conference.

Guardians of the Galaxy, to the relief of many, is a single player experience where you play as Star Lord, aka Peter Quill. This third-person action-adventure will take you and your rag-tag family on a bunch of whacky and dangerous adventures. Some gameplay revealed at the event showed off Star Lord, Drax, Gamora, Rocket and Groot taking on the hilariously dangerous gelatinous cubes.

Much like Eidos Montreal’s previous game Dues Ex: Mankind Divided, Guardians of the Galaxy will include dialogue options that won’t only influence the story, but your relationships with the other Guardians themselves.

Guardians of the Galaxy will be out in the wild this October, and I for one can’t wait to go on an adventure with everyone’s favourite space family.

E3 may not have been what we are used to, with no Keanu Reeves-based breathtaking moments, but with the afore mentioned revealed (and those that didn’t make the cut) it still rounded out as a solid experience with a bunch of games I can’t wait to play.