E3 2014: My 14 Favourite Trailers

Super Ultra Dead Rising 3 Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX Plus Alpha

This trailer just looks super fun and whacky. I love all the homages to Capcom’s past titles. If this was a standalone piece of DLC after seeing this trailer I would have downloaded it immediately.

Kingdom Under Fire 2

The battle in this trailer is mind-blowing. The number of detailed character models all battling and reacting to massive magical attacks is unreal. It says that everything seen was actual gameplay footage. Now that seems a little unbalanced, what with one guy ending every soldier with a single attack, but more than that it seems totally badass. Plus the guy can force-choke!

Tom Clancy’s: The Division

This is an intense, and I would even say powerful, trailer. So far the in-game footage hasn’t conveyed this type of drama or any similar emotions, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is a great trailer.

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Lara Croft went through a lot in the first game, so I am glad that they are going to show that those events still haunt her and that she hasn’t simply brushed them off and become an unstoppable action hero. I wonder if there will even be a single point in the game where you are in a therapist’s office. I kind of doubt it.

Rainbow Six: Siege

The problem with a lot of multiplayer stage demos is that everything works out flawlessly and dramatizes things to make them more compelling than the vast majority of matches would be. With that said, it did show off a number of cool features like the ability to pick where you enter from, setting up defenses and being able to destroy the environment to give yourself or an ally the proper line of sight. I really hope people online are willing to work together and coordinate, so that we can at least have our matches come close to resembling this.

No Man’s Sky

No Man’s Sky presents a limitless universe filled with countless planets all of which are procedurally generated and distinct. I like objectives in my games so just exploring a lot of different places aimlessly without any real benefit or purpose doesn’t appeal to me. This trailer though is so compelling; I love how the music builds as the action escalates and the flying part seems really cool. I also love how you can leave one planet, encounter a group of spaceships and pursue them onto another world without ever having to stop and load anything.

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

This trailer is visually stunning and the music fits the tone of the story and the character of Big Boss really well. Kojima has been knocking it out of the park with The Phantom Pain’s trailers so far (they all say that he personally directed them). I’ve also allowed myself to become convinced that the message “Coming 1984” actually means September (9) 8^th (8) 2014 (14). Kojima has said that it won’t be out this year, but he loves messing with people’s expectations and this is the possible date based on rearranging the number 1984 that makes the most sense to me.

Batman: Arkham Knight

Batman: Arkham Knight is gorgeous. The city seems appropriately alive with police cars chasing after criminals as Batman zooms by in his Batmobile, which seems to handle pretty well and just smash through whatever you happen to hit. I like the movement on display, whether it is calling in the Batmobile to show up as you land or ejecting out of it to carry your momentum into your gliding, chaining takedowns or even sliding down ladders and vents everything seems to allow you to get around quickly and with ease. Then there is the Scarecrow section at the end that is properly chilling; it’s interesting how they have changed his face since Arkham Asylum and I wonder if he is working with the Arkham Knight or if they are two separate major villains like Hugo and Joker in Arkham City.

Assassin’s Creed: Unity

Both the cinematic trailer and the in-game one are absolutely worth a watch. As we have seen in the past with previous Assassin’s Creed games, Ubisoft always nails the pre-rendered hype trailer. It is great to see Assassins being badass in the first trailer and then seeing that type of awesome coordination and dominance in the second where people are actually playing.

Splatoon

Splatoon was a wonderful surprise. I think listening to the ideas behind the game and what you can do is really interesting. I would love to get together with a bunch of friends and play this. Also it is great that Nintendo is showing that you can do something fun and unique with a shooter. Not to mention the fact that this is a game that actually makes the screen on the Gamepad a handy thing to have.

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

Uncharted 4 looks interesting, we’ve seen Nathan Drake injured and in trouble before but the title and the dialogue throughout adds an ominous vibe to the whole thing. It makes you wonder if they brought Drake back just so they can end him.

Phantom Dust

I loved the original Phantom Dust, so seeing it again was great and I love the fact that the characters are using moves from the game as they battle. Also as an added bonus I had it pointed out to me that there is a very visible Halo Wars poster in the trailer. Who knows, maybe they are making a sequel.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection

Master Chief giving the Covenant back their bomb is one of the seminal moments in the Halo franchise. It is different in this trailer, but it is cool to see that moment reimagined. Also that it sets up Halo 5 by introducing Agent Locke who is with The Arbiter, whom we haven’t seen since Halo 3, is really cool.

E3 2014: The 10 Games I Am Most Excited About

          To start things off I want to point out that this list is in no particular order and is not based on the quality of the game’s showing at E3, all it has to have done to qualify is be at the show in some way.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection

          This is pretty much a dream come true for me. The Master Chief Collection comes with: Halo 1 Anniversary except the Halo Reach multiplayer has been substituted for the original multiplayer now on Xbox Live for the first time ever, Halo 2 Anniversary with cinematics being remade by the incredible Blur Studios, all maps ever released and 6 of those maps will come with an additional version that has been updated to look like Halo 5, plus Halo 3 & 4 with all of their maps and some visual touch ups. It sounds amazing and I can’t wait to relive the terrific multiplayer experiences that were Halo 2 & 3 and getting to finally play Halo 1 online. It even comes with a campaign feature where you can make playlists of different single player levels across all four games and play them in any order you want alone or co-operatively.

Phantom Dust

          Now the odds are that the reveal of Phantom Dust returning wasn’t a big deal to you. Most gamers have never even heard of Phantom Dust, let alone got to play it back on the original Xbox. I, however, did and it was one of my favorite games on the console. Phantom Dust is a post-apocalyptic real-time pseudo–card-battle game that is far better than its description sounds. The truth is words can’t describe the greatness that is Phantom Dust, there is nothing else like it and I am extremely happy that more people will get the opportunity to play it. I just hope that Microsoft’s Major Nelson’s comment about it being a “remastering” means that it is a full Xbox One remake rather than simply Phantom Dust HD and that it can be successful enough to get a real sequel.

Star Fox

          Nintendo is best known for their stable of great franchises. Unfortunately some get a great deal more attention than others. Every year I wait for the day when Nintendo finally announces a new Star Fox. This year it finally happened. Now there isn’t an official trailer yet, and the people who have gotten a chance to play it have said that it is very rough and clearly early in its development, but the fact of the matter is I don’t care. It is a new Star Fox where Fox stays in his vehicles and that is all I have wanted for more than two console generations.

Mirror’s Edge

          EA showed some very early footage of Mirror’s Edge at their press conference this year. It was kind of disappointing because it didn’t show anything that you wouldn’t have seen before in the original game and didn’t divulge any specifics about the new story, but it is nice to see that things are moving along and that the game is coming “when it’s ready” as they teased at last year’s E3. I’m really excited for this game in spite of its less than impressive showing because I thought the original Mirror’s Edge was a fresh, unique and great game.

Assassin’s Creed: Unity

          Assassin’s Creed Unity looks absolutely stunning. The graphics are incredible, the game can supposedly support 5000 gorgeous NPCs (non-player characters) at a time and once again the series seems to have out done itself with remarkably smooth and varied traversal animations. Unity has a large focus on co-op, which bothers me because I know that personally I won’t have three friends with the game ready to play whenever I feel like progressing through the story. With that said there seems to be a lot of cool content that you can explore all by yourself. I like the side quests, such as the murder mystery that you can stumble upon, and how you can seamlessly enter and traverse through one out of four buildings in the game so far. I am also glad that they have finally added the ability to crouch and use cover effectively, so that you can be stealthy and sneak around in the game about being a stealthy assassin who sneaks around and eliminates his targets by surprise. After Desmond’s story rapped up at the end of Assassin’s Creed 3 I thought I was done with the franchise, but the French Revolution and the apparent improvements have me willing to give it another go.

Batman: Arkham Knight

          Rocksteady’s Arkham games have been praised countless times for making you feel like Batman, but until now they have left out one huge part of what it means to be Batman and that is the Batmobile. Now they have finally corrected that great error. The truth is I was apprehensive about the Batmobile when I first heard it would be in the game. I’ve driven around open world’s plenty of times, so I figured it wouldn’t offer anything unique or special to the experience. Then I watched the gameplay footage from E3 and it looks amazing. The Batmobile tears through anything in its way and can turn into a tank and quickly strafe around the battle field using its weaponry to take out any enemy foot soldiers or vehicles around. Another cool feature is that you can now chain stealth takedowns allowing you to clear out more bad guys in a shorter period of time. Rocksteady has said that this game will end the Arkham series and so far it looks like they will be going out with a bang.

Destiny

          Destiny didn’t introduce anything new that we hadn’t seen before at this E3, but they did start their Alpha on PS4 (which is really phase 1 of their Beta as they have now opened their game up to testing outside of their company therefore making it a Beta and not an Alpha, but why nitpick) which allowed some players a chance to try it out and from the videos I’ve seen things look good. I’m not in the Alpha so I won’t know if the shooting is as good as I want it to be (see Halo for reference), but I do like the number of abilities, weapons and gear plus I think the way they merge players into each other’s games so that they can play co-operatively if they choose to, a la Journey, has the potential to be much better than simply being assigned a couple of teammates at the beginning of your session. I really hope Destiny can live up to the high bar Bungie previously set for themselves with Halo and that is why I am so excited for it.

Rise of the Tomb Raider

          The rebooted Tomb Raider was a great game and I thought it did a good job of grounding the character of Lara Croft and making her more believable than how she had been depicted before. I like that they appear to be trying to continue Lara’s progression as a character in order for her to become the legendary figure she had always been. Crystal Dynamics has also stated that Tombs will be larger and more important this time around, which sounds good. I thought Tomb Raider was one of the best games of last year, so I’m eager to pick up that awesome bow again and raid some tombs.

Halo 5: Guardians

          I’ve already mentioned previously in this article that I love Halo. I think 343 Industries failed to maintain the same level of quality that Bungie achieved for the main games in the series, but that Halo 4 was still great. I am interested in seeing where their story goes following the events at the end of Halo 4 and I am curious as to why The Arbiter wants Agent Locke to find Master Chief. I am also hopeful that 343’s work on The Master Chief Collection, feedback from their Halo 5 Multiplayer Beta that will start nearly a year before the game is released and their decision to refer specifically to Halo’s “arena” multiplayer at Microsoft’s Press Conference means that they will work to correct the mistakes made to Halo 4’s multiplayer.

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

          Metal Gear Solid 5 looks like it will be an incredible experience. Kojima has said that Metal Gear Solid 5 won’t shy away from topics that might make people uncomfortable or that might disturb them. There are artists in every medium available that have used sensitive subject matter and abused it to be edgy and generate attention for what they have made or are making, but I do not believe that is what Kojima is doing here. The English version of MGS5’s E3 trailer from this year put something from the E3 2013 trailer into context for me (if you want to avoid spoilers don’t go back and watch it, but if you choose to then it will hopefully be quite obvious what I am referring to). Last year I worried that the scene would be in the game for shock value, but now I see the way that Kojima and his team are handling things in MGS5 and I found myself in awe of it. I think that the way they are tackling very sensitive topics and images will end up being controversial, but that it will be handled in such a way that it will actually set a new bar for the medium of videogames and potentially move the industry forward. And if that isn’t something to be excited about I don’t know is.