Best of E3

Four pages of gaming expo highlights

DUE 26OCT

ISN’T IT MARVELLOUS?

MARVEL’S GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY PS5, PS4, Xbox, PC, Switch (via cloud)

When a publisher like Square Enix gets hold of the Marvel licence, you naturally expect big things – and even more so when the word ‘Avengers’ is uttered.

But it’s fair to say last year’s video-game take on everyone’s favourite superhero collective was a mixed bag, with a host of performance issues hurting the live-service title at launch, and grindy post-game content failing to give players much incentive to stick around once the entertaining campaign was done with.

So what’s next? Well, it’s perhaps not surprising that we’re getting a Guardians of the Galaxy game this year… but we wouldn’t have put any money on it being the story-driven, entirely single-player title unveiled at E3. In Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy you play as Peter Quill, better known as Star-Lord, the self-appointed leader of those intergalactic outlaws, in an original comics-inspired adventure that looks very promising indeed.

And we hope Star-Lord is your favourite Guardian, because you only play as him. When beating up aliens in the game’s third-person combat sections, Quill is able to issue instructions to the other AI-controlled Guardians in real time, while there will be dialogue choices that affect how the story plays out. For example, in the fairly lengthy E3 gameplay demo, we saw the Guardians squabbling over whether to sell Rocket or Groot in an attempt to make a bit of fast cash, with the final decision being left to Star-Lord. It’s a fun idea that seems well suited to a game featuring the Guardians, whose strange alliance is what makes them so watchable.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Guardians of the Galaxy game without a soundtrack rammed full of ’80s bangers, and here they’ll kick in when you trigger certain special attacks – because what fight in space can’t be improved by a bit of Bonnie Tyler? It’s due out in October.

STARFIELD

XSX/S, PC Bethesda’s first totally new franchise in a quarter of a century was first teased three years ago, but we finally got a very brief look at what to expect from Starfield – and when to expect it. This space RPG, which its developer calls ‘the game we’ve dreamed of playing’, will let you create any character and explore with ‘unparalleled freedom’ when it arrives in November 2022.

METROID DREAD

Switch Quite literally the first entirely new side-scrolling Metroid game in 19 years, Metroid Dread captures the spirit of the seminal 2D classics with a dazzling new look. And while that will thrill old-school fans, it’s not all familiar mechanics: Samus has a new slide move and Phantom Cloak suit. We’ll get this one in October, and yes, Nintendo is still working on Metroid Prime 4…

ELDEN RING

PS5, PS4, Xbox, PC Elden Ring has been one of the most anticipated games on the horizon for a while now, as not only the latest game by FromSoftware but also a collaboration with Game of Thrones mastermind George RR Martin. The first proper gameplay reveal showed an epic fantasy battler that seems to have a bigger emphasis on magic in combat. It’s due out in January.

DUE 9 NOV

MEXICAN RAVE

FORZA HORIZON 5 Xbox, PC

E3 specialises in dangling flashy trailers in front of us, before cruelly revealing that we won’t actually be playing those games for several long years. But this is never the case with the Forza Horizon.

When Playground Games unveils a new entry in its great open-world racing series, it usually looks very nearly ready to send out of the door… and it’s the same story with Forza Horizon 5. Out in November and looking predictably stunning in 4K @ 60fps with ray-tracing on the Xbox Series X, this title takes the series to Mexico in what its maker is calling its biggest game to date.

The diverse racing locales range from deserts and jungles to modern cities, crumbling ruins and even a snow-capped volcano, while dust fills your windscreen and tropical storms rage as Mexico’s dynamic seasons test your car-handling skills. There’ll be a bigger focus on story than before, with a host of characters to assign you missions, plus a huge selection of vehicles to take on and off the roads.

Forza Horizon 5 will undoubtedly be a riot for strictly solo players, but this will once again be an online open world that lets you seamlessly enter challenges and events with both friends and strangers as you play – and if its predecessor is anything to go by, new content will keep coming until the inevitable arrival of FH6.

Also new is Events Lab, which lets players create mini-games within the game, while cars can once again be given custom paint jobs that you can share with other players online. The only negative we can find is that November still feels like quite a while away. Sigh.

SEA OF THIEVES: A PIRATE’S LIFE

Xbox, PC Sea of Thieves… but make it Jack Sparrow. Yep, the online multiplayer pirate-’em-up has joined forces with Disney for a new storyline that will centre around the Pirates of the Caribbean rum-swigger.

FAR CRY 6

Xbox, PS5, PS4, PC, Luna, Stadia Far Cry’s oddball personality still shines through in the latest entry, with entertaining weapons and vehicles plus a wild rooster who can do your bidding. Add-ons will bring back previous Far Cry villains as playable characters.

HALO INFINITE

Xbox, PC We still don’t have a nailed-on release date for the next Halo game, but Microsoft did show a snippet of campaign action as well as giving us a look at Infinite’s multiplayer, with a trailer featuring lots of jumping and explosions.

WARIOWARE: GET IT TOGETHER!

Switch Finally, Wario gets his day in the sun on the Switch, with a new WarioWare entry launching later this year. Expect the wacky vibe of past micro-game collections but with some new elements.

BATTLEFIELD 2042

Xbox, PS5, PS4, PC The next Battlefield game was revealed ahead of the expo, but it was at E3 that we got our first look at gameplay. The 2042 trailer showed off the new shooter’s 128-player battles, which look incredible – and bonkers.

The near-future setting means these massive matches will be sprinkled with futuristic tech, and we saw everything from parachuting tanks to explosive quad bikes. Players can use wingsuits to quickly move from ground skirmishes to the action taking place high above street level, while sandstorms and tornadoes will very quickly put an end to any strategy your squad might have. You just can’t legislate for your chopper being hurled into the side of a building.

The lack of a campaign might disappoint some, but Battlefield 2042 could be the multiplayer event of the year when it arrives on 22 October (2021, not 2042).

FRESH NINTY BREATH

ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD SEQUEL Switch

Since its surprise announcement at E3 2019, we’ve heard almost nothing about the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, other than Nintendo occasionally telling us it doesn’t have anything to show.

But while we still have very little information, not even a proper title, we did finally get a new trailer at this year’s E3. And we’d advise Zelda fans who haven’t yet seen the new BOTW2 footage to hunt it down the second you’ve finished reading this, as it really does look absolutely stunning.

The big takeaway is that we see Link soaring over what appears to be a collection of floating islands, above a much more familiar Hyrule than the one we saw in the original 2019 reveal. His trusty paraglider is seen cutting through clouds, and it appears our hero can even teleport upwards through solid surfaces. This one should be out next year.

SABLE

Xbox, PC, macOS We’ve been staring dreamy-eyed at this open-world exploration game for years now, whenever it’s emerged from its development cocoon… and this latest trailer is the most stunning yet. The release date is 23 September.

MARIO + RABBIDS SPARKS OF HOPE

Switch Ubisoft’s mash-up franchise is getting another entry in 2022 with this follow-up to the early Switch gem Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, taking its inspiration from Super Mario Galaxy.

…AND WHAT WE DIDN’T GET

While there was news aplenty at this year’s show, E3 isn’t the extravaganza it once was.

There was a PS5-shaped hole in proceedings, with Sony opting once again to give it a miss. PlayStation has recently showed off a chunk of its biggest upcoming game, Horizon Forbidden West (above), but we’re still awaiting more information on what the future will look like for PS5 players.

The other major absence was EA, which opted to stream its annual EA Play Live event in late July. Turns out, you get more love if you show off your wares when nobody else is. Except here, EA.

As for games that didn’t show up, well, we couldn’t fit them all in here if we tried. Skull and Bones (above), the Ubisoft pirate game that’s been in development for a lifetime, was nowhere to be seen. Nor were Fable 4, Pokemon Legends: Arceus or Everwild.

But perhaps the biggest surprise E3 no-show was the so-called Nintendo Switch Pro. Rumours of a powerful OLED-screened Switch with 4K graphics have been raging for a while… those are no longer rumours, it’s coming in October.