4. Halo 4
Microsoft kicked off their presentation with the first ever single player gameplay footage for Halo 4, and you have to agree, they did so in style. Not only does Halo 4 seem to have the typical action-packed, intense and tactical shooting that other Halo games do, it’s also a gorgeous looking game with beautiful textures, detailed environments, excellent weapon and enemy design and a rock solid framerate. Halo 4 also seems to have a larger focus on story and character development. Needless to say, the Halo 4 demonstration looked excellent, hyping us up even more for the game’s release in November this year.
3. Assassin’s Creed 3
Everyone who was saying that the Assassin’s Creed franchise was stale and has reached a point of saturation was proven comprehensively wrong with this demo. Assassin’s Creed 3 looks very different from the previous games, almost like a reboot. From the jaw dropping graphics and animations, to its absolute mastery of atmosphere, from the stunningly fast paced gameplay, which involves stealth obviously, and combat against both animals such as wolves, and humans, on all sides of the war, Assassin’s Creed 3 seems to have nailed it. Then there was the excellent naval combat gameplay trailer, which showed a spectacular section from AC3 the likes of which have never been seen in the franchise before. The trailer also was excellent, enough to get even the biggest of cynics hyped.
2. Watch Dogs
These days, when a developer announces a new franchise, you always get the feeling that you’ve played that game already. They hardly ever innovate. That’s rarely ever been the case with Ubisoft, though. And it wasn’t the case this time either. Watch Dogs is a new IP. It’s a new concept. It’s nothing like anything you’ve ever seen before. While some might call it a futuristic GTA rip-off, they wouldn’t know the half of it. The demo that was shown on stage was excellent, integrating all that is good with video games these days into one experience. It almost looked too good to be true. Imagine, if you will, a game with GTA’s open world, a futuristic setting, the best third person shooting combat and gameplay elements from Deus Ex- and that doesn’t even scratch the surface. Watch Dogs is coming out next year, and we couldn’t be more hyped.
1. The Last of Us
There is no way I can describe this gameplay demonstration without coming across as a super-excited, hyperbolic fanboy. The demo was just so good, there’s no way we would have put it at any position but at the top. The visuals, for starters, were very impressive, and I’m pretty sure TLoU will be console graphics king when it comes out. What stuck us most, though, was that fact that everything was shown in real time, in-engine- nothing was pre rendered or computer generated. And everything was part of the gameplay, nothing shown in the video was scripted or part of a cutscene. Looks like Naughty Dog has taken interactive cinematic storytelling to the next level.
Tell us which E3 demonstrations you thought were the best via your comments below!
