The Electronic Entertainment Expo is over for another year and before we finally rest our weary heads, we have to sort through our feelings, try and rebuild everything we saw and experienced over the last three days and figure out what we liked the most. The Iris Games team takes you through our favourite titles from this year’s mammoth event.
Leah Williams, Contributor:
Spider-Man (PlayStation 4)
The world needs a great new Spider-Man game. Not since the dizzying heights of PlayStation 2’s Spider-Man 2 has the franchise ever amounted to anything worthwhile. While 2010’s Shattered Dimensions came close to recapturing the fun of being Spider-Man, it looks like Insomniac’s Spider-Man will knock it out of the park. Being quite uncoordinated, the QTEs have me a little bit worried, but the vast open world and the gorgeous looking combat have me absolutely convinced. Kudos to Insomniac for choosing to showcase a Spidey fight against a lesser-known villain, too. Mr Negative was first introduced in 2007, and has since become a powerful enemy of Spider-Man in the comics, as well as a favourite of mine. For too long, Spider-Man games have revolved around the classic villains of the past, and it looks like Insomniac is delving deep into Spidey’s mythos for their new game. I’m very much looking forward to this title dropping.
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows PC)
It’s about time that Billie Lurk got her time in the spotlight, although I rather wish she didn’t have to kill the Outsider to get it. The mythology behind Dishonored is deep, and it looks like Arkane will be diving in headfirst with this Dishonored 2 DLC, expanding the story started in the original game. The trailer was short and information is relatively scarce, but what little we saw of it had me excited for more. It might be too much to hope that the Outsider survives an expansion pack entirely about his death, but whichever way this title turns out, it’s sure to present an intriguing tale.
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Matthew Arcari, Contributor
Coming mostly from Sony, God of War and Days Gone were shown in much more detail and I just can’t wait to get my hands on them both! Super Mario Odyssey also looks like a ton of fun! However my overall favourite would have to be Anthem. It looks like a great new IP, and developer Bioware seem right at home with this game. A new sci-fi open world action RPG?! What’s not to love?!
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Chris Singh, Editor: Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo Switch)
Nintendo are finally doing something they have needed to do for a long time — adding substantial and modern twists to their tried-and-true formulas. We’ve already seen what this can lead to with The Legend ofZelda: Breath of the Wild — a sprawling, absolutely breath-taking game that floored even the most jaded Nintendo critics. Now that we’ve got a closer, more in-depth look at Super Mario Odyssey, I think it’s safe to assume that we’re about to see something similar here too.
Of course one of the biggest takeaways from the game’s appearance during Nintendo’s E3 presentation was that you can possess anything and everything — even Bullet Bill — which is something vastly different from what has become the norm for Mario games. But that wasn’t all — we got a better look at some of the worlds and levels that have been designed for this game, beautifully immersive and inventive sets that push away from the usual desert and ice landscapes. Nintendo have always pushed the envelope with each new instalment of their signature platformer, but here it looks like they’ve ripped the whole thing up and making something entirely new from the debris. This is the kind of courage the Wii U needed.
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David Smith, Editor:
Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo Switch)
There isn’t much I can say about this one that hasn’t already been said by many others, both on this site and elsewhere about the wider web. Super Mario Odyssey is still four months out from release and somehow it already feels like vintage Nintendo — rock solid design fundamentals, charming presentation and a gimmick that is at once deeply strange conceptually and wonderfully simple in terms of game logic. My unblinking wait for the end of October begins now.
Skull and Bones (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows PC)
One of my Dream Journal, Pie-In-The-Sky, Wouldn’t-It-Be-Great-If hopes of the last few E3’s has been that Ubisoft would get their act together and turn the sailing in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, arguably the best feature from one of their most popular games of the last five years, into a full-fledged title of its own. Imagine my surprise when it finally happened. I absolutely cannot wait to roam the high seas with my friends, looting, pillaging and scarpering the King’s Navy to my heart’s content. Thanks for hearing my plaintive cry, Ubi. I feel like I owe you one.
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David Smith is the former games and technology editor at The AU Review. He has previously written for PC World Australia. You can find him on Twitter at @RhunWords.
