It’s easy to get caught up in the furor of the press conferences, where the big boys go to display the stuff they want the masses to get hype about, but not everything gets time on the big stage, or gets overlooked in the crowd. Pressers, after all, basically conclude in the first day, and then its onto the floor. So, with that in mind, here is a list of some of the games that had a presence at E3 that didn’t get the main stage love they deserved, or that we simply ran out of word count to mention.
Alien Isolation – An Aliens game that’s actually scary? And with a female protagonist? What a concept. I don’t understand how this franchise can have been fumbled so badly for so long, but it looks like we may have a turnaround here. May I be the first to say ‘hallelujah’.
Dying Light – With all the zombies we have collectively put back down as gamers, it’s sorta hard to imagine a truly ‘big deal’ in the undead genre. If you spend a minute thinking about it, I bet you can name a dozen very different Zombie / Infected / whatever they want to call it we know what it is, experiences, and so, can we really make waves at this point? I believe so. This natural mix of the open world / survival horror / free running appears lovingly crafted, and delivering on that long sought ‘actually surviving in the undead apocalypse’ thing so many of us are piqued by.
Doom – All these years and we still have Doom. Along with Wolfenstein, I got to experience this as a youngster on school computers and the houses of friends whose parents thought a computer was only for learning. I don’t typically enjoy being scared, but there’s always been something titillating about playing Doom with a cringe on my face, backing away from the screen even as I approach what must surely be a monster closet. Though it was just an announcement trailer, and all CG, I’m pretty sure the reaction it got from most of us was ‘….cooooool…’.
Tales from the Borderlands – After The Walking Dead, and increasingly as they deliver uniquely Tell Tale experiences on and about some of our favorite IPs, pretty much anything they’re involved with deserves a notice, this not the least of which. ‘But Kurtis, we already have Borderlands games, made by the actual Borderlands Developer!’ True, but not like this. Telltale’s shtick is finding interesting angles and unique experiences inside pre-existing media. The ‘bickering parents’ narrative of Rhys and Fiona, non vault hunters telling a story of survival on Pandora is just that sort of thing.
The Evil Within – This goes out to those of you who like to be horrified and disgusted, for those of you that don’t, just… avoid the video below. If something about it strikes you as ‘Resident Evil but even more gross’ that would be because Shinji Mikami of Resident Evil fame is involved. I don’t want to dwell here, because these sorts of games don’t make me feel very well, but this looks truly horrific – in the ‘good’ way.
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris: Much like its older sibling, the first child in this particular family, Lara Croft and the Temple of Light, this is an isometric number. Temple of Light was also the first refreshing / ‘good’ Tomb Raider game to happen in a long while (before the reboot). Temple of Osiris is an Isometric tomb raiding adventure, this time with up to four players playing co-operatively. Though perhaps a less epic tale than its 3rd person relations, these are lots of fun.
BattleCry – Something like a fantasy Team Fortress 2 with a Medieval European feel, I’m not sure how much more I need to say to cover this off. If you like killing people in multiplayer maps, but also like Sword and Sorcery this might be one for you.
Eve Valkyrie – Eve, for me, has long been a wistful idea… a concept I absolutely loved, but that was too oblique, the barrier to entry just too much for me to handle. Now there’s Eve: Valkyrie, A spaceship dog fighter that still has a barrier to entry, but it’s a cool one. Operating on the emerging VR tech coming out of Project Morpheus for the PS4 and the Oculus Rift on Windows, Valkyrie makes a compelling argument for the early adopters.
Dreadnought – What is this? Good question, some research indicates airship battles on a huge scale (the trailer is clearly poking fun at single craft ships) but little else. The trailer was awesome though.
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel – The first in the series to be developed by another studio, we’ve covered this before. All the zero gravity gameplay aside, I am as interested in this game to see how the whole thing turns out as I am because I’m always down for more Borderlands.
As I have mentioned at least once in every other article for this years E3 (which has been an absolute monster) this is just a sampling… there is so much more at this show. Looking back at what we’ve seen from E3 2014 it’s almost laughable to think that, in my lifetime, games have been thought of as a ‘passing thing’ ‘for kids’ and that not so long ago, people were seriously wondering ‘what’s the future of this industry’. Turns out, this industry IS the future. It’s a great time to be a Nerd.
And stick around over the weekend as the compiling of epic information and the handing out of awards begins.
