E3 2017: The 10 Most Anticipated Games

9. Far Cry 5

Ubisoft gets a lot of heat for releasing annualized sequels that don’t really push the envelope, but the publisher has been doing an excellent job of projecting itself a company that understands it needs to make some adjustments in the lead-up to this year’s E3. Case in point: the recent reveal of Far Cry 5, which has quickly become one of our most anticipated games of 2018. While Far Cry Primal was an interesting departure for the series, it’s nice to see Far Cry return to modern day and to the United States of all places!

Whether or not Far Cry 5 turns out to be any good, you have to give the team at Ubisoft Montreal credit for going in such a bold (and some might say, controversial) direction with the game’s setting and story, centered around a violent religious cult’s takeover of an otherwise idyllic Montana town. Far Cry games have always been fun to mess around in, so we’re sure Ubisoft has an entertaining gameplay demo lined up for E3, but we’re honestly even more excited to learn more about the game’s colorful cast of characters.

Ubisoft

8. Star Wars Battlefront 2

The 2015 reboot of Star Wars Battlefront was the best looking and sounding Star Wars we’d ever seen, so it was all the more disappointing to find that it was a somewhat empty experience that failed to live up to the pedigree established by Pandemics original Battlefront titles from a decade prior. Thankfully, EA and developer DICE were listening intently to fan feedback and have gone back to the drawing board for the upcoming sequel, which promises to address pretty much every complaint with the first game.

No Story Mode? Battlefront 2 has one set between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens that will be considered official canon going forward. Too little content? How about maps and characters from all three movie trilogies? No space battles? Well … you get the idea. So far, Star Wars Battlefront 2 is shaping up to be the perfect kind of sequel, but we still need to see if the actual multiplayer gameplay is compelling enough to keep players coming back long after they’ve blown through the single player campaign.

Electronic Arts

7. Final Fantasy VII Remake

Final Fantasy VII is a game that truly needs no introduction, which helps explain why fans lost their collective minds when Square Enix revealed that they were working on a full remake of the PlayStation classic at Sony’s now-legendary E3 2015 press conference. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to gauge just how much of the game Square Enix will be showing off at E3 this year, or if they’ll show anything at all. The remake’s release date is still a ways off, with the publisher stating that they hope to have the game out “in the next three years or so.”

It was also reported earlier this week that development on the game was shifting to “internal setup” so that Square Enix can better “control everything, including quality, on a stable schedule,” so there’s a good chance that things are a bit too tumultuous right now on the development side to have something ready to show off at E3. Still, it would be surprising if Final Fantasy VII Remake isn’t at E3 in some capacity; maybe not in playable form, but even a new trailer (hopefully featuring some gameplay footage) would help hold impatient fans over as they continue to wait for this and Kingdom Hearts 3.

Square Enix

6. Crackdown 3

Microsoft has to do something big at E3 this year and while they’ll certainly need to show more than just Crackdown 3 to get people excited about Xbox again, it wouldn’t hurt to make the game a big part of their showcase. Crackdown 3 has been in development for years at this point and it’s time that Microsoft finally gives us some concrete details on it that go beyond the tech demoey trailers they’ve shown up to this point. Of course, Microsoft should definitely make the game’s impressive, cloud-powered mass scale destruction engine a major focal point, but they also need to emphasize that this is the evolution of the addictive parkour action everyone loved in the original Crackdown. Plus, a firm release date would be much appreciated; preferably this year since the upcoming Xbox Scorpio will need some killer games at launch if it’s to have any hope of competing with the PS4 and Nintendo Switch this holiday.

http://www.gamesradar.com/crackdown-3-effectively-turns-your-xbox-one-most-powerful-console-ever-made/ Source: gamesradar.com

5. Spider-Man

One of the most pleasant surprises of last year’s E3 has to be the announcement of a PS4-exclusive Spider-Man game developed by Insomniac. The brief trailer showed off a gorgeous open-world New York City for Spidey to swing around in and we can’t wait to see how the game’s come along over the last year. It’s been far too long since we’ve had a legitimately good Spider-Man game and while it’s still to early to tell if this game will be able to top Treyarch’s Spider-Man 2 (arguably still the greatest Spidey game ever made), even the brief glimpse we’ve been given so far has us hopeful that Insomniac will pull it off.

Gaming has come a long way since the PS2 era and the increased horsepower of the PS4 will allow for a much more interactive New York than in previous Spider-Man games. Insomniac is also a developer with a great track record and they’ve already cut their teeth on the underrated Sunset Overdrive, which nailed character movement in an open-world environment — something that will figure prominently into Spider-Man’s gameplay. We just hope they get rid of that ugly white logo on the Spider-Man’s chest …

https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/games/spider-man-ps4/ Source: PlayStation.com

4. Red Dead Redemption 2

Every publisher putting out a game this fall likely breathed a collective sigh of relief after hearing the news that Rockstar was delaying Red Dead Redemption 2 to 2018 but for the rest of us, the long wait for this much-anticipated sequel just got even longer. To be fair, delays are almost always a good thing and it’s safe to say that the extra development time will make Rockstar’s open-world Western even more polished, but we’re also chomping at the bit to play this thing.

Unfortunately, there’s a very good chance that Red Dead won’t be at E3 at all, as Rockstar tends to skip the event, but seeing as how Sony has an content exclusivity deal with Rockstar, there’s a possibility that the game will figure into the PlayStation press conference. If so, we’re not really expecting much more than a new trailer but even that will probably be enough to carry us through the next few months until Rockstar teases out something new.

Rockstar Games

3. God of War

One of many PS4 games that wowed the crowd at Sony’s press conference last year, Santa Monica Studio’s ambitious God of War reboot is easily one of our most anticipated games. It’s safe to say that the game will play a key role in Sony’s E3 presentation this year and will almost surely be playable on the show floor, as game director Cory Barlog confirmed back in December that he completed a full play-through of the game, so it’s clear that the game is quite far along in development.

That’s why we’re also expecting to get a release date announcement and that it will be coming out sometime this fall, as Sony doesn’t actually have a ton of exclusives lined up for the holiday season. As excited as we are by the game’s transition to a behind-the-back 3rd person perspective, we’re even more intrigued by God of War’s central relationship between Kratos and his son, and hope that Sony keeps the family dynamic stuff front and center during its demonstration.

https://www.playstation.com/en-ca/games/god-of-war-ps4/ Source: PlayStation.com

2. Super Mario Odyssey

Super Mario Odyssey is Nintendo’s most important upcoming game and the fact that it will be playable on the show floor practically guarantees that it will be one of the most talked about games of E3. Originally announced at the Nintendo Switch presentation in Tokyo back in January, Super Mario Odyssey is the next 3D Mario game and so far, it looks both delightful and bizarre. We’re used to seeing Mario jump around all sorts of whimsical environments, but seeing him running around a New York City-like level (it’s actually called New Donk City because Nintendo is the best at naming things) rubbed some people the wrong way, prompting many comparisons to Sonic the Hedghog 2006, aka one of the worst games ever made. Sure, it’s more than a little off-putting to see Mario interacting with humans, but Nintendo has yet to let us down when it comes to traditional Mario platformers and Odyssey looks like it has personality and creativity to spare. Don’t be surprised if this one ends up being many peoples’ Game of Show.

Via: Nintendo

1. The Last of Us Part II

The original Last of Us is an absolute masterpiece, so it goes without saying that we’re dying to see what Naughty Dog has in store for us in the sequel. Announced at last year’s PlayStation Experience event, all we really know about The Last of Us Part II so far is that it takes place five years after the first game and features Ellie as the main playable character this time out. Somehow, the sequel looks even darker than the original and this sentiment is echoed by game director and writer Neil Druckman, who has said that the central theme of Part 2 is hate, in contrast to the first installment’s focus on love.

It’s looking like The Last of Us 2 won’t be ready until 2018 at the earliest, so it’s doubtful that the game is far enough long in development for Sony to have a playable demo ready for E3, but even a new cinematic trailer that shows off more of the game’s story (and hopefully a bit of gameplay) will be enough to score a big win for Sony, who once again look like they have the best lineup of upcoming games heading into E3.

Sony