E3 2016 - ANNOUNCEMENT AND REVEAL ROUND-UP!

Hello all, how ya doing? Apologies for not posting this past month, I've been buys doing personal stuff! But that doesn't matter, it's that time of year again! Yes, E3, the time of year when we get our fill of video game news! Are ya ready?

I've been following E3 and all the major conferences and showcases, and I have collected all the major news from each conference and put it all here! I hope you have a good read!

Just FYI, I will be putting all the trailers and gameplay videos in the YouTube playlist below. That way there isn't 20 + videos clogging up the post!

E3 2016 YouTube Playlist

EA:  

EA went first this year with their own show, EA Play and boy, did they not disappoint!

• Titanfall 2 was not announced, but a Single Player Campaign was confirmed for this iteration in the series. There was a new action packed trailer, showing off Mech Battles, and other Mech related action. They also announced that there will be a Multiplayer Beta. I'm not too sure what to feel about Titanfall, but I guess I'll just have to wait for the beta!

• Battlefield 1. It was crazy. They not only showed off a gritty gameplay trailer, but three whole matches, pitting celebrities against eachother! The likes of Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa, and Emily Ratajkwoski all took part. It looked insane. Not much else was shown off, but all I can say is, I want!

• Next, Mass Effect: Andromeda got a new trailer, as well as some new Story details, like we'll be seeing a female protagonist for the first time in the series. Now I'm not sure if this was announced at EA Play, but Andromeda will release early 2017. Good times!

• Now, Star Wars. Star Wars had a lot to show off. I say that, but we didn't actually see a lot, but we heard a hell of a lot. For example, Star Wars Battlefront will be getting a new DLC pack sometime soon, also, it turns out that are multiple Star Wars games in the works, with multiple developers working on these titles. We don't really know much else, but here is a list of the developers and what they are working on. 

         EA Star Wars Games in Development:

• DICE - Collaborating with Motive on new Star Wars Battlefront game, coming in 2017.
• Criterion - Assisting with development on unspecified Star Wars project
• BioWare - Continued development on Star Wars: The Old Republic
• Capital Games - Continued development on Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes
• Respawn - Third-person action adventure game (no release date)
• Motive - A new Star Wars Battlefront game, in collaboration with DICE.
• Visceral Games - New action game coming in 2018

• Finally, we had some stuff from FIFA 17. Probably one of EA's most successful series, it would make sense to see some stuff  from FIFA. Obviously we had the normal FIFA stuff, new passing mechanics, defending mechanics and all that. The cool stuff this year is 'The Journey'. This new mode allows players to take control of 'Alex Hunter' and take him on his journey to fame. You can play for any of the Premier League clubs, your form on the pitch will affect the scenes you see off the pitch and there are dialogue options like there are in Mass Effect! Seems like we'll have quite a lot to do in this new mode!

Microsoft:

So Microsoft went first with E3, and, well, they announced quite a bit! The major news being that Xbox have plans to release two, yes TWO consoles with within the next two years! 

First up is the Xbox One Slim. The 'launch console' will cost £349 and will release in August, which comes with 4K (only with video, not actual games) and HDR (High Dynamic Range imaging) support, as well as a big 2TB hard drive and front facing USB ports (finally)! It is also 40% smaller and the clunky power brick will now be inside the console. There will also be a 500GB console which will cost £249 and a 1TB console costing £299. Not only that, but the new console will come with a new controller that has twice the range the current controller has, as well as bluetooth support and textured grips and thumbsticks!

Next up is the mysterious 'Project Scorpio'. This new console, which is set to release in September 2017, will apparently be a monster of a console. It has a bunch of techy specs such as featuring 8 cores, 320GB memory bandwith and six teraflops(??) of performance, which could result in uncompressed 4K gaming, unlike the Xbox One S which simply has 4K video support. Apparently the console will be used to power VR games, as well as being able to reach a smooth 60fps. Now to those of you who know your stuff will realise that it will take a lot of hardware to reach those targets. VR games are graphically demanding and take a lot to run, so Microsoft setting these goals suggests they're really going for it!

Now of course, a whole range of other things were announced at their conference too.

• First up, Gears of War 4 wasn't announced, but we did see a whole lot of new stuff for the game, for example, there will be a new horde mode, as well as the inclusion of a co-op campaign. We also saw some gameplay, which looked awesome as well as seeing a special edition Xbox One Elite Controller!

• Next up, Dead Rising 4 was announced, again with a pretty cool trailer. It looks like these iteration of the series will be taking place at Christmas time, with main character Frank West making a return!

• For those of you enjoy some racing, Forza Horizon 3 was announced, with both a snazzy trailer and some early gameplay being shown off at the Microsoft event.

• Halo War 2 also got announced, with a release date of February 21st 2017! Oh there is also a beta live right now, so go and check that out, after you've finished reading through all this first!

• State of Decay 2 will be coming out in 2017 sometime, again, there was an announcement trailer!

• Finally, Tekken 7 was also announced for the Xbox and PC, and will be coming out early 2017.

Now that's it for the gaming announcements for Microsoft. They did however mention some other cool stuff, such as a new program that means that when Xbox users buy a game on their Xbox One, they can play it on their PC for free! They also announced Design Lab, a cool service that allows gamers to create their own Xbox One controllers, with over 8 million combinations available! Unfortunately for us in Europe, it is not available to us as of yet!

Ubisoft:

Next up, Ubisoft. Their conference wasn't as big as Microsoft's in terms of announcements, but that doesn't mean some cool stuff wasn't announced either way!

• Tom Clancy's Ghost  Recon: Wildlands was announced. The new game in the Ghost Recon franchise will launch next March, which will feature a co-op campaign. The announcement was revealed with a trailer and a gameplay walkthrough of  'El Pozolero - Takedown Mission'. I must say, it looks very impressive, with a gorgeous environment being shown off as well as the typical Ghost Recon mechanics that makes the series what it is!

• Watch Dogs 2 was also officially announced, again with a trailer and a stage demo, we do not have a release date as of yet though. The stage demo looked very impressive, with the use of of drones to spy on targets, as well as little RC cars. I mean, what else would you expect from Watch Dogs?

• Steep, an Open-World Actions Sports Game was also announced. It seems like its a game very similar to SSX, but includes a wide variety of different extreme sports, including skiing, paragliding and wingsuiting, if that's a thing? Again, it was announced with an action packed trailer.

• South Park: The Fractured But Whole was revealed, with a rather South Park esque trailer to go alongside it. The game will release December 6th, and, this bit is cool, if you pre-order The Fractured But Whole, you'll get the previous game, Stick of Truth free. That is mental, is it not?!

• Finally, For Honor, again, not exactly an announcement, as we saw it for the first time E3 2015, but some new stuff was shown off, such as a Single Player campaign, a new trailer for the campaign and a walkthrough of a Viking campaign mission! So much slashing! So much blood!!

Sony:

Finally, we have Sony. The last major E3 conference that happened on Monday. Again, like Ubisoft, no major hardware announcements, just game announcements, and some pretty big ones at that!

• God of War for PS4 was revealed, again with a gameplay trailer. We don't know much else yet, but a God of War for PS4 is pretty cool!

• Do you all remember Hideo Kojima, the guy that made P.T, that kinda disappeared off of the face of the Earth? Well he's back, with a new game exclusively with PS4, called 'Death Stranding'. The reveal trailer was rather interesting, but I'm not quite sure what to make of it? 

• Sony also revealed a new IP called 'Days Gone'. It's a post-apocalyptic survival game featuring a whole load of zombies! We were treated to both a stage demo and a reveal trailer. Watch the trailer, you'll see what I mean about a whole load of zombies!

• Speaking of P.T, the next Resident Evil game is looking a lot like how P.T felt, creepy. The creators of Resident Evil, Capcom, have claimed that Resident Evil are going back to their roots with Resident Evil 7, yet, after watching the trailer and gameplay, I am feeling creeped out. It seems they have moved on from the zombie stuff to psychological horror, which is defiantly cool with me!

• Next, the new Captain America movie may have influenced this next one, but it looks like we'll be seeing a new Spider-man game soon! Ratchet & Clank developer Insomniac shows off a new Spider-Man game, with a very life like looking trailer. Whether a Spider-Man game is your thing or not, it looks cool either way!

• Now probably the most important news of the whole of E3, Crash Bandicoot is being remastered! The Playstation classic is back, or will be back at least! We don't know when, but we do know that Crash Bandicoot 1, 2 & Warped will be remastered for the PS4! It's about time!

Bethesda:

Bethesda had their second ever conference this year. Whether it topped last years conference remains to be seen...

• First up, we got a new Dishonored 2 gameplay demo and trailer, showing off some of the new abilities in the game, as well as gameplay as the new character, Emily. Bethesda also warned that the Collectors Edition of Dishonored 2 will be in limited supply, so if you want it, order now!

• Next, Prey, a game that came out a while ago that everyone thought was dead, isn't dead! It was revealed that the reboot is in the works, with a trailer showing it all off.

• Last year, Bethesda announced Fallout 4, and well, everyone went crazy. This year, they announced three new DLC packs, 'Contraptions Workshop', 'Vault - Tec Workshop' and 'Nuka - World'. Nuka - World looks like it's going to be another large DLC pack, taking place in  a Raider filled Theme Park! It was also announced that Fallout Shelter will be coming to PC, and Fallout will be getting a VR port, as well as DOOM! Exciting times if you own a HTC Vive!

• All aboard the nostalgia train! First a Prey reboot was announced, now fan favourite, Quake, will be making a return! 'Quake: Champions' is a reboot of the PC shooter Quake, and it looks like it could be coming to consoles. All we got from Bethesda though was a trailer, but either way, it looked pretty cool!

• Finally, The Elder Scrolls Series had good time! Firstly,  a Skyrim Remaster was announced for PS4, Xbox One & PC! About time! Also, if you own all of the Skyrim DLC or own the Collectors Edition, you will get the remaster for free! There were also some updates announced for The Elder Scrolls Online and The Elder Scrolls Legends gets a release for Mac, Android and iPad!

And as quickly as it came, it left again, E3 is done for another year. Fortunately, they left us with some wonderful reveals and announcements. For example, the two new Xbox consoles, Crash Bandicoot and Skyrim remasters and all that Battlefield 1 gameplay! It did not disappoint!

What was your favourite piece of news from E3 this year? Let me know in the comments down below!

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great day!

Connor :)