The 5 Biggest Announcements That Came Out Of E3 This Year

Every year E3 happens out in Los Angeles and tends to show all of the cool shit we can expect for the next few years in the world of gaming and cool consumer electronics. This year was really no exception, with a number of high profile announcements that forced me to listen to my inner child and spend all of my money on pre-ordering games that I’ve wanted sequels to since I was 10. I’m beginning to think the little bastard has permanent veto over my spending and budgeting.

 

Final Fantasy 7 Is Getting A Reboot

We’ve all been clamouring for a remake of Final Fantasy 7. For me it was the first RPG I ever played, and the story was incredibly deep for the time. Plus, I don’t know if you remember the PS1, but those blocky graphics were absolutely cutting edge at the time. Things have definitely improved in the mean time, so I’m hoping we see a high-tech FFVII with chocobos, ludicrous ways to murder your enemies with summons and all of the insanity of the Gold Saucer returning with more than just a fresh coat of paint. Also, expect the spikiest of hairstyles, because Japan is strange like that.

 

Fallout 4 Looks Goddamn Amazing

Do you love dogs? Do you love apocalypses? Do you love building things? Boy, do I have some good news for you. Fallout 4 is going to have all those things, plus the city of Boston (and presumably mutant Redsox fans, which will be difficult to distinguish from normal Redsox fans). Fallout 4 is shaping up to be the game to compete with The Witcher 3 and its sex on a giant stuffed unicorn scenes for dominance this year. I’m looking forward to the battle royale between CD Projekt Red and Bethesda for best RPG of the year. Whoever wins, we also win. I already tried throwing money at my computer screen, but that didn’t seem to help much with getting Fallout sooner.

 

The Great VR Arms Race Is At Hand

With Microsoft, Oculus and Valve all jumping in the ring to sell their respective VR kit, it finally looks like VR may be taking off in the near future. Considering it’s been on the horizon since the mid-90s, it’s about time. Valve is trying to give everyone their own holodeck, Oculus is trying to scare us to death with VR horror tie-ins and teach us remote surgery with immersive sims and Microsoft wants you to be able to play Minecraft in your living room. If these things don’t sound cool to you then clearly you don’t appreciate the fact that we’re basically 30 years from Star Trek levels of absurd VR technology. No word on if major porn studios are trying to get in on the action with VR porn.

 

No Man’s Sky Lets You Travel The Whole Galaxy

I’m not quite sure how to quantify 18 quintillion planets, but No Man’s Sky has them. All of them just waiting to be discovered and potentially named by the player. You’re a one man universal exploration team, though you can also run into other players as you explore the universe, looking to make your way to the galactic core. There will also be giant, first person space battles, because there is nothing like watching giant capital ships duke it out and explode off the horizon into tiny, potentially salvageable bits. The E3 demo showed a giant AT-AT style walker on a random planet, so expect life to not always go quietly into that surveying ship you brought with you.

 

You Can Play Xbox 360 Games On Your Xbox One

Those of you that wanted to play Modern Warfare on your new Xbox don’t have to wait much longer. 100 titles are coming to the platform by the end of the year as downloadable for those that have already bought the games. It looks like emulation on the system is finally good to go, so you can stash your old console on the verge of the red ring of death and stick to the new one for anything you still want to play. As someone who had one too many close calls with booze and consoles in college, this is good news, because I’m pretty sure mine is on its last legs and I don’t want to lose access to my whole game library.