Every year, dozens of games show up at E3. It's always exciting, but sometimes it's a little daunting to know which games to look out for during the coverage of the conference. That's why we've put together a list of all of the games confirmed to appear.
Of course, every E3 has its surprises, so come back to GameSpot next week to find out all of the big announcements and reveals.
Confirmed to be at E3 2015:
Title
Developer/Publisher
Platforms
Firaxis/2K Games
PC
Did we forget any games that are confirmed to be at E3? Let us know in the comments!
Danny and Tamoor join forces to piece together weird sounding Swedish furniture in this GameSpot Plays of Home Improvisation, available now on Steam Early Access.
Decades of what we'll call... light incest finally blew up in my face. I'd crushed the Cadence at every turn for 150 years. They could not stand up to the unified might of the houses that protected the realm, the houses that had fought the demonic incursion for generations. Their ancestors had lived and died--some on the battlefield, more at home in their beds; they had married and borne children and ruled the lands. But they were mortal, and I was not, and I didn't merely witness the rise and fall of dynasties: I guided them. I forged marriages and alliances and ensured a stream of children for the war effort. But... best laid plans and whatnot... I learned that I was not cut out to meddle in eugenics.
I'd spent so long focusing on maximizing the fertility of the land that I'd lost sight of a more important concern: can any of these love-crazed rabbits actually fight? And while my soldiers were many, they were weak; my hunters (read: archers) had the vision of Mr. Magoo and the mobility of Chris Redfield in the 1996 . For instance, I didn’t realize that one of my "reveler" heroes was hungover until he suddenly couldn’t move as many spaces. Characters that are "strong-willed" (which means they're unlikely to get the traits of their parents) don't project any force of personality on the field. When the game puts so much effort into creating a genetically diverse breeding pool of clashing and conflicting personalities, it's disheartening that little of it can be seen in battle.
Ah. Nothing like deluded meta-physicists during wartime.
The heroes of Massive Chalice felt more real to me as mythic heroes of bloodlines--their indelible effect on generations of warriors not fully understood--than they did as the figures they cut in battle. In the grand strategy portions, they were part of families with house sigils and house words and adopted children. On the field, they were hit point boxes killing other hit point boxes and I couldn't care less about them as individuals beyond being tools for securing ultimate victory. The game's lifeless artwork did little to alleviate this problem. Although watching the members of your Vanguards or Regencies age and wither away until death was fascinating, the look of the heroes was devoid of detail, and left me with an endless trail of blonde/brunette/ginger men and women with caberjack/crossbow/alchemist claws.
That's ultimately Massive Chalice's most unfortunate shortcoming. It’s a game with enough ambition and execution to spark the imagination, and enough organic entropy to let you suspend your disbelief about the families you help sire. But Massive Chalice extends you the invitation and then offers you a half-empty world in return. Massive Chalice's entropy speaks to me. The random chaos that one marriage can wreak over the decades is a mysterious well of excitement. But the flatness of its world and the tedium of several core elements of the Massive Chalice experience is a high price to pay.
Shadowy conspiracies, supernatural voices, and fearsome blizzards. Mass murder, wandering spirits, and glimpses of a world beyond our own. These are Kholat's ingredients--ingredients that could have comprised an enthralling story, and one that Kholat itself doesn't tell. This exploration adventure squanders its foreboding icy atmosphere on a nonsensical tale that mixes age-old cliches like secret experiments and government cover-ups into narrative mud. Trudging through this mud proves exhausting; every story morsel is another bog to traverse, and the impenetrable ending is pure quicksand, sucking you and the hours you spent to reach it into a vortex of nothingness.
Story and atmosphere are all Kholat has, making its poor storytelling all the more egregious. The "based on a true story" setup is promising, at least: in 1959, nine hikers exploring the chilly Ural mountains died in bizarre circumstances, inspiring years of speculation, along with numerous novels, films, and television inquiries. Kholat has you retracing those real-life hikers' steps from a first-person view, taking its cues primarily from games like in which your primary way of interacting with the world is to wander through it and read the diary entries inexplicably littered throughout.
This is what most Kholat screenshots look like.
I say "inexplicably," though I presume there is a reasonable explanation for why these pages haven't become sodden by the falling snow or blown away by the howling winds of Dyatlov pass. Kholat's final moments have the air of a grand reveal; the cryptic narrator makes a resounding declaration, as if he is providing an answer to the game's mounting questions. This is to be the "a ha!" that ties it all together, but after two entire playthroughs, I'm not sure I can tell you what all the questions are, let alone make sense of the narrator’s answer. The clues are found in the pass itself, where metaphysical sights appear before you in eerie shrines and dark caves. They are also found in the diary entries left in the snow and tacked to trees, of course, which divulge confessions and weird science experiments in far more words than is necessary. In mystical stories like this, not everything requires easy explanation, but there's nothing to invest in when you can't make out a basic shape amidst the static.
You're left with snow, and lots of it. You cover a lot of uninterrupted space as you make your way around the pass, seeking the nine landmarks earmarked on your map. This map is Kholat's most promising aspect. The game does not feature a traditional interface; there are no waypoints leading you to your destinations, the map doesn't show you your current location, and you are given no standard quest objectives. Instead, you have a layout of the area, markers that show you the camps (that is, save points) and notes you have already found, and a sequence of geographic coordinates that indicate where you can find the vital landmarks. You journey forward based only on your reading of the map, and the occasional map coordinates that someone has scrawled across the rocks and walls throughout the region.
Ooh is something about to happen? Yes. But nothing interesting.
Navigation thus requires patience, thoughtfulness, and an appreciation for a measured pace. These aren't unreasonable things for a game to ask of you. However, Kholat doesn't progress at a pleasant adagio, but at an excruciating largo. The success of a slow pace rests on the impact of the moments that break it, yet such key moments are too rare, too broken, and too annoying to make exploration worthwhile. A few central revelations bring some percussion to the minimalist droning, including an event in which you flee danger amid a mass of glowing figures. The rest, however, prove problematic.
There are the ghostly silhouettes that roam a few of Kholat's areas, for instance, which kill you should you make contact with them. Sometimes, you collide with a spirit you couldn't have been expected to see; Kholat springs the entire mechanic on you without warning, and doesn't provide proper audiovisual cues to communicate when there is immediate peril. A couple of traps you couldn't have seen--or even suspected would exist--can have you falling onto wooden spikes and cursing at the 30 minutes you lost due to the infrequent save points. (You may also lose progress to the game's occasional hard crashes, an equally curse-worthy event.) Some ledges you are meant to drop down onto; other ledges of similar distance are off limits, and send you sliding into oblivion. "Gotcha" deaths are difficult to get away with in games, because they often feel unfair, but they can serve a purpose if used as a learning tool. In Kholat's case, there's nothing to learn from some of these deaths, because it isn't clear enough what you did wrong in the first place.
One of the bridges of Dyatlov pass.
In many stories, blizzards and the frigid cold provide a specific kind of terror, and Kholat's moaning winds cry out tales of lost souls that the game ignores in favor of shapeless nonsense. Its ideas reveal the game Kholat wanted to be, but its aspirations soar far higher than the game it became. What good is a mystery if you don't care about what it might tell you?
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The Dallas Cowboys, one of the most famous teams in the NFL, are trying something new to train their quarterbacks. The team has signed a two-year deal with a startup calledto the story.
According to Re/code, "After donning the headset, players see a live-action 3D video replay of a football play from the quarterback's perspective, and can review that play from a first-person view over and over, looking in any direction."
The current iteration of StriVR's headset is not interactive, the site points out. But as it stands, coaches can test a quarterback's decision-making skills, while another benefit is that players can "practice" without the entire team.
StriVR was developed by former Stanford kicker Derek Belch. The technology is used at Stanford, and also at a variety of other colleges. The Dallas Cowboys become the first pro team to use the technology. They have not won a Super Bowl since 1996.
E3 is drawing near. Lots of companies, lots of announcements, and lots of leaks. We're using our powers of prognostication to try and separate fact from fiction and figure out what might happen at this year's show. Image source: Wikipedia
Fallout 4 is Coming This Year
Good boy.
The existence of Fallout 4 was probably one of the worst kept secrets in gaming. We now know officially that it's a real thing, and we know it's going to be a centerpiece of Bethesda's Sunday press conference. But is there a chance that game could also come out this fall? Our sources seem to say yes.
Dark Souls 3 at E3
After From Software's success with the Dark Souls franchise and another huge success with Bloodborne, the reveal of a new multiplatform Dark Souls game seems only natural. Rumors abound that we'll see an E3 reveal of some type for the notoriously challenging series.
No, Silent Hills Isn't Coming to Xbox
It's probably not any better outside.
Rumors circulated recently that Microsoft had bought the Silent Hills horror franchise from Konami for "billions" of dollar. Xbox boss Phil Spencer took to Twitter to set the record straight, however: it's not happening.
Big Call of Duty News
Staring contest.
We already know the next Call of Duty game is Black Ops 3, so what surprises could Activision have? An anonymous source says you'll want to pay careful attention during the game's E3 stage debut this year.
New Metroid
Parasites.
Samus and crew have been on an extended hiatus, but multiple sources say that vacation is going to end this E3.
The Last Guardian (no, really)
It feels like we say that The Last Guardian will finally get some E3 news this year, but the chatter this year has been more persistent than ever. The most interesting tidbit we've heard: it might also release this year.
New Xbox One Controller and 1TB Console
New jacks.
Leaked images indicate that Microsoft is going to release a new version of the Xbox One with some slight modifications, including an improved controller and a larger hard drive.
Forza 6
More cars.
Accidentally leaked by the Japanese Xbox site, it sounds like we'll get some (official) news on the next Forza during E3.
Battletoads
Teasing T-shirts.
Spencer wore a Battletoads shirt during a Windows 10 event earlier this year. In his words, "I don't think I've ever worn a t-shirt that's been a complete head-fake."
Media Molecule's Next PS4 Game
Shall we dance?
Back in 2013, LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule showed of a mysterious trailer that involved music and waving Move controllers. The the studio went silent for two years. We've heard rumblings that that silence will be broken at this year's E3.
Gears of War and More
Moody.
The studio formerly known as Black Tusk has been not-so-secretly working on a Gears of War project. Rumors indicate that, not only will we see a new game in the franchise, we'll also get a remake of at least one earlier Gears of War game.
That's the tagline from a new teaser video released today for the. "Still, it's that rare shooter whose world and characters might put a smile on your face, making it a refreshing entry in a genre that usually takes itself really seriously."
What would you like to see from a Garden Warfare sequel? Let us know in the comments below.
Capcom on Monday announced Mega Man Legacy Collection, an upcoming game that includes "faithful reproductions" of the original six Mega Man games. The collection also comes with a new challenge mode and a collection of images, concept art, and other assets from the iconic franchise's history.
will make its first appearance at a major event at E3 next week. There will be a tournament stage and "interactive" photo opportunities.
E3 2015 kicks off this coming Sunday and runs through the following week. GameSpot will be on the ground in Los Angeles, bringing you all the news from the show as it's announced.
Danny and Tamoor join forces to piece together weird sounding Swedish furniture in this GameSpot Plays of Home Improvisation, available now on Steam Early Access.
Forza 6 screens and info leak ahead of the E3 announcement, filmmaker Uwe Boll freaks out at the internet, and The Order: 1886 reports solid sales!
Not sure how to watch this year's E3? Check out GameSpot's guide on how and when to tune in for all of your E3 2015 coverage.
E3 is full of crazy and unexpected moments, here are some of the very best from over the last decade!
Chris Watters and the GameSpot crew jump into the action in Payday 2!
Check out this trailer remix of a few of our most anticipated games that are going to be at at E3 2015.
