Luke Brown

Dontnod Entertainment surprised just about everyone with Life is Strange in 2015. The episodic mystery covered a range of topics from regret, sexual assault, mental health and suicide, bullying, and most of all, trying to survive as teenage girls in a modern high school. While the dialogue could be clunky at times, the overall package was one that won Dontnod a lot of fans, and the support to craft a sequel. While the French developers were moving forward, Square Enix tapped Deck Nine Games to look at Life is Strange's past. We got our first look at the prequel, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, last week, and it looks like it has the same heart even though it's a different developer.

There are three things that define Mario as an icon. The first is his mustache, the second is his overalls, and the third is that bright red cap. Over the years, Mario's worn a number of different outfits, but the mustache and the hat have always been a central part of identifying Nintendo's star mascot. With Super Mario Odyssey, Nintendo is finally giving the hat a bit more of a purpose, and a personality. By making Mario's chapeau a living, breathing character with its own abilities, Super Mario Odyssey opens a range of possibilities that are a lot of fun to explore.

Last year, Spider-Man fans were delighted to see Insomniac Games had taken up the charge on a new web-slinging adventure for the PlayStation 4, Marvel's Spider-Man. At the time, all we got was a brief teaser hinting at the possibilities, but at this year's E3, Insomniac unveiled the first actual gameplay from its upcoming action title. We got to see Spider-Man in action like we hadn't seen before, and learned a bit more about Insomniac's vision for what's sure to be one of 2018's most spectacular games.

Nine-hundred and ninety-nine feet below the surface of Donut County, there is a group of people gathered around a camp fire. Everyone there knows exactly how they each came to be in this strange new place, but none of them can agree on the reason. Could it be snakes? Perhaps it was the devious raccoons? All anyone can say for certain is Mira, the owner of the local donut shop, seems to be at the center of it all. We know better though. We know "a hole" lot better.

11 Bit Studios caught the attention of the gaming masses a few years ago with the release of This War of Mine. The survival sim tasked players with setting up shop in a war-torn Sarajevo, trying to stay alive as long as possible and managing whatever it took to do so. The complexities and moral quandaries raised by This War of Mine are what helped set the game apart from a deluge of survival sims, and its those same societal challenges that 11 Bit hopes will aid its upcoming city-management sim Frostpunk stand out from the competition.

Announced earlier this year, Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite looked like nothing more than another sequel to the wildly successful and popular crossover fighting franchise. It wasn't until we got to go hands-on with the upcoming fourth entry in the series that many of it differences became obvious. Most importantly, Marvel vs Capcom Infinite introduces new elements to lower the barrier for entry, while still keeping that trademark Capcom fighting system depth longtime fans and players have come to know and love.

For a franchise built on the back of Mecha-Hitler, what Machine Games did with the Wolfenstein franchise in 2014 was exceptional — and that was before modern-day America had a Nazi problem. Three years doesn't seem like a long enough time for the cultural climate to have shifted as much as it has between 2014 and 2017, but Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is releasing in a very strange time. There's more than a bit of catharsis in continuing BJ Blazkowicz's quest to rid the world of Nazis, but it would be meaningless without Machine Games' excellent gameplay and witty, frightening story holding it all together.

After going hands-on with Star Child, it gave us great hope that PSVR will see the same kind of quality games its parent console hosts.

The week of E3 is filled with so many games, it's often hard to find a way to stand out from the crowd. Sure, there are major sequels fans have been waiting for and splashy new titles from respected studios, but it takes a special kind of game to be heard above the traditional noise. One way to accomplish that is by doing something completely unexpected, say like teaming Mario up with the Rabbids. That only gets your foot in the door though. By making that mash-up a quirky tactical-strategy game in the vein of XCOM, you don't only get into the room, you take over the conversation.

The cold was getting unbearable as the storm rolled in. What's worse, all the snow and winds had made it harder to know whether our quarry was lying in wait, or quietly stalking us without our knowledge. As we made our way through the shrinking arena, a feeling of creeping dread washed over us. Suddenly, we were struck from behind. That dastardly opponent had been with us the entire time, biding his time for the perfect kill. Fortunately for us, the Director had other plans, and our battle on The Darwin Project was only just beginning.