E3

Epic’s creed for Paragon is one of constant evolution, of continuous updating of both the game and its ecosystem, and so far the project seems to be off and running.

After persistent rumors and a few leaks Watch Dogs 2 was finally revealed just before E3 2016, moving the franchise from the urban jungle of Chicago to the sunny skies of San Francisco. With a new locale comes a new main character in Marcus Holloway, a hacker working in collaboration with the Anonymous-esque group called DedSec from the first game. Both the new face and the new digs bring a lot of improvements to the previous game, as my hands-on demo at Ubisoft’s booth can attest.

South Park: The Fractured But Whole is shaping up to be the same kind of extended and interactive episode of the popular TV show as its predecessor The Stick of Truth.

Do not think this is simply a rehash of the same in-game experience as its own release however, as Gwent will potentially absorb just as many hours from its players as Wild Hunt.

The anchor of Ubisoft’s E3 2015 press conference was a wild four-player co-op experience, with a team of special agents infiltrating a cartel base. That game was Ghost Recon: Wildlands, and since then we’ve not heard a lot about the game. That all changed at this year’s E3, where the game not only have major stage time during the 2106 Ubi conference, but a playable demo was available at the Ubi booth. A trio of media and I suited up and joined a member of the dev team on a secret Ghost Recon mission, and I’m very intrigued by what I played.

Absolver is not your average fighting game. The term “fighting game” normally elicits two immediate thoughts: 2D fighters like Street Fighter or 3D brawlers like Tekken. While Absolver looks like it should fit the 3D fighter mold, this is a game that acts more like Journey than it does a typical fighter. That sounds like a strange combination but it absolutely works, and my time with the game at Devolver’s E3 parking lot jamboree has planted Absolver firmly on my most anticipated list.

At E3 2015 Ubisoft debuted For Honor, a brand new action game focusing on the brutal art of swordfighting. The knights, vikings, and samurai of this war-torn world dazzled me during that show, giving me high hopes that this year’s E3 would give me even more epic sword battles to feast upon. Ubisoft happily obliged, introducing a brand new chapter in the game’s campaign mode and letting me once again take up my sword against the enemy hordes, and I left E3 2016 just as high on For Honor as I had the year before.

This year's Electronic Entertainment Expo was full of amazing visuals. It makes sense given that most games shown off this year are developed on the cutting edge of console power, pushing the systems to their limits for robust, eye-catching graphics. It takes a special kind of game to stand out from the cluttered crowd, particularly at Sony's PlayStation booth, which was brimming with some of the most talked about games this year. Whether it's the amazing architecture or incredible detail on the repeating structures, there's just something special about Manifold Garden that makes it pop.

The fighting game genre is in full renaissance mode, with Street Fighter V and Mortal Kombat X leading the charge into the newest generation of consoles. E3 2016 was a haven for the next chapters in the genre’s history with Tekken 7 and Injustice 2 featuring heavily throughout the Los Angeles Convention Center, but one particular title seemed to have been overlooked amongst the hustle and bustle of the show. The King of Fighters XIV from SNK Playmore is taking some big strides for the franchise, ditching the hand-drawn sprites of the two previous games for full 3D environments and character models and bringing 50 characters to the tournament this time around. Luckily the action translates perfectly to the new look, as my time with the show floor demo proved to be a ton of fun.

After achieving super-stardom thanks to the popular Saints Row franchise Volition has decided to introduce a brand new group of fearsome fighters. They are the Agents of Mayhem, an elite squad charged with keeping the world safe from whatever threats may emerge. This new team is less Third Street Saints and more GI Joe, although the trademark Volition attitude and humor is still very much intact. Agents of Mayhem is a step in a new direction, and so far it’s shaping up nicely.