Thursday 30 May 2013

The Road to E3 2013

E3 2013 is almost here, and with it comes an entirely new generation of consoles, games - and much, much more. But of everything we think and know is coming, what has us excited? Though publishers and developers are still working on confirming and discussing what will be coming to E3 2013, in the IGN offices we're still chatting about what we hope we'll see and play from June 11 to June 13.

Just to be clear, we don't entirely know every single game that we're going to discuss will definitely be at the show. Some of them will. Some won't. Some games that ought to have a presence won't make it. Regardless, we're hopeful we see all of this and plenty more that we don't expect.

Are you ready to take a tour through the madness that is E3 2013? Join us as we walk through 30 of the biggest games we want to see at E3 - two per day over the span of 15 days. And tune in as our coverage fires up on June 10 - and perhaps even in these final days and weeks leading up to the event.

LAST UPDATED: Thursday - May 30, 2013

Publisher: TBA

Developer: Number None

Platforms: PlayStation 4, PC, iOS

Release Date: 2013

Jonathan Blow’s Braid follow-up, The Witness, is finally almost here after over five years in development - and I can’t wait to get lost and confused on its isolated, puzzle-filled island. The Witness seems to reward pure curiosity in a way that’s all too rare in most modern games.

I doubt that an E3 demo will answer any of my burning questions. Who built this island? Why am I here? Is this place really controlled by an interconnected series of puzzle panels? But I have faith that it will all make sense in the end. Blow is a big-thinker that truly considers concerns like ludonarrative dissonance and player agency. The only thing I expect about the secret lying at the heart of The Witness is that it will be wholly unexpected.

E3 won’t show me The Witness’s big picture, but it will give me another opportunity to adventure through the game’s stark island. And that’s enough, for now.

-Justin Davis

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

Developer: Polyphony Digital

Platforms: PlayStation 3

Release Date: Holiday 2013

We’ve heard rumblings about Gran Turismo 6 since 2010, but now we know for sure: it’s finally official and it’ll be out this year. When it comes to racing sims, Polyphony is unmatched, and considering that the series has sold 70 million units and counting, it’s clear that Sony has plenty of reasons to make sure the franchise doesn’t go away any time soon.

Gran Turismo 6 will still have your favorite cars and tracks from GT5, plus 200 new cars, 19 new courses, a new physics engine and a new course creator. That means the game is launching with 1,200 cars, 33 locations and 71 course layouts -- and that’s not even counting all of the planned DLC. The surprise here was that Polyphony’s latest is staying current-gen instead of heading to PlayStation 4 (at least for now), but that actually makes perfect sense when you consider PS3’s massive install base. Will we eventually get a Vita version, too? Hopefully we’ll get the answer at E3.

-Andrew Goldfarb

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

Developer: Quantic Dream

Platforms: PlayStation 3

Release Date: October 8, 2013

Quantic Dream’s Beyond: Two Souls excites me so much because it promises to tackle themes that other games won’t, or can’t. We already know that Jodie Holmes’ life-spanning story arc covers periods of homelessness and helplessness, culminating in a suicide attempt. Love, loss, family... these are easy ideas to sketch down on paper, but Beyond: Two Souls seems to make a much more earnest attempt at actually portraying them effectively than most video games.

I have my doubts about Beyond’s ability to straddle these and other all-too-real examples of human drama with more outlandish elements like CIA training and angry ghosts. But in Quantic Dream and heavy-hitting actors Ellen Page and William Dafoe I trust. I hope a strong E3 showing will put my fears at ease and prepare me for ambitious, emotional storytelling.

-Justin Davis

Publisher: EA

Developer: Respawn

Platforms: Unknown

Release Date: TBD

All we know for sure is that A) Respawn’s game is finally being unveiled at E3, and B) Co-founder Jason West left the company before even announcing his game, let alone getting it out the door. Still, Respawn is staffed by fellow Call of Duty co-creator Vince Zampella and much of their core ex-Infinity Ward team, so it’s a good bet to be awesome. Recent rumors suggest it’s a first-person, online multiplayer-focused shooter codenamed Titan that may (emphasis: may) be exclusive to the Xbox Infinity. After Perks and multiplayer ranking systems changed the multiplayer shooter landscape, can Zampella and his team cause another paradigm shift in the genre? We wouldn’t bet against it, though it’s going to take a lot to make any inroads against the Call of Duty juggernaut the staff of Respawn created back at Infinity Ward.

- Ryan McCaffrey

Publisher: Bethesda

Developer: Tango Gameworks

Platforms: Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4

Release Date: 2014

There will be a group of people that assume The Evil Within is basically a new version of Resident Evil 4. Considering both games are directed by survival horror genre father Shinji Mikami, and both feature a chainsaw-wielding maniac confronting a police officer isolated from his team, the similarities are worth noting. But there's a tone and style to Evil Within that feels completely different from the Resident Evil franchise, which has increasingly resembled something out of a Michael Bay movie, with spectacle and explosions being emphasized over the kind of claustrophobic fear that we all want in survival horror.

And that's what Evil Within embraces. Watching a demo of this game is quite honestly terrifying, at times a thrilling cat and mouse game with the aforementioned chainsaw beast, at times a standoff with dozens of mutant/zombie type things in a shack, and at times a mad dash away from some sort of undead woman with spider arms bursting from her sides. Each sequence I've seen has been more tense and more disgusting than the next, and it'll be fascinating to see how it all binds together as an experience. We're a ways away from this one, but I'm looking forward to seeing what else I can learn about this project. It seems as though Mikami, in his quest to save Resident Evil, may have pushed the survival horror genre in the wrong direction. This is his attempt to fix that mistake. And I for one am really liking his efforts so far.

- Rich

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal, Reflections

Platforms: PC, PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Wii U

Estimated Release Date: November 19, 2013

At this point, I don’t even need to see more of Watch Dogs before its release – what Ubisoft’s shown so far has proved impressive enough to convince me I’m there on day one. If I have one concern, it’s the protagonist. I’m not completely sold on Aiden Pearce as a main character; he occupies a moral gray area that can’t be convincingly explored in a demo, and until I see his arc from start to finish, I’m unsure about whether his Dark and Mysterious Past is enough to build Pearce as a person.

That said, I’m ecstatic to see what he’s like, to explore him as I explore (and exploit) his Chicago. Aiden’s non-traditional means of infiltration, stealth, and combat give Watch Dogs a unique edge over its open world competitors, including the likes of Assassin’s Creed. The “hack the planet” mantra Watch Dogs lives by is unfamiliar in all the right ways, and taking down The Man while dealing with the more granular concerns on the mean streets appears to be a lot of unpredictable fun.

- Mitch Dyer

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Nintendo

Platforms: Wii U

Release Date: Fall 2013

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is one of the gems of the GameCube library, and now we’re finally being treated to an HD remake of Link’s beloved adventure at sea. One of the highlights of the experience is its stunning, cel-shaded art style, so we’re excited to see what this already gorgeous game looks like with a fresh coat of paint. The funny thing is that Wind Waker is one of the shining examples of a game's graphical style standing the test of time, but we're anxious to see how the Wii U hardware can improve its already impressive visuals. That GamePad also seems like a match made in heaven for this game, so hopefully it's used in some creative ways.

Since its announcement, we’ve seen and heard very little about Wind Waker HD – but hopefully that all changes at E3. The game’s appearance hasn’t been made official quite yet, but given it’s not too long until Wind Waker HD sails onto store shelves, it’s a good bet that it will be there. Will there be new dungeons? New areas? A new challenge mode? Hopefully all will be made clear soon, but even if it’s just an HD version of that same game we played all those years ago, we can’t wait to see it with our own eyes.

- Audrey Drake

Publisher: Deep Silver

Developer: Volition

Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC

Release Date: August 20, 2013

What's exciting here is the fact that the additions to Volition's open-world shooter are so completely over-the-top insane that it makes the last one look tame by comparison. Combining the already cartoonish open-world mayhem with big stompy mech suits, shapeshifting aliens, goofy dub-step guns, and superhero-style powers makes it look like the same kind of crazy tongue-in-cheek fun we loved in Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. Since it's hard to imagine how it might top the madness we've seen so far, we can't wait to see what new tricks Volition has been saving to show off at E3.

-Dan Stapleton


Source : ign[dot]com

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