What Are The Best PC Games From E3 2015?
With so many games announced at E3, it can get exhausting trying to memorize which games are worth your time and which ones aren't.
To make your life easier, here's a list of 20 of the hottest PC games, their release dates and trailers.
Enjoy!
20. Mass Effect: Andromeda
Staring off into the sunset of this Brave New World
Mass Effect originally followed the journeys of Commander Shepard as he set out to save all galactic life from a race of murderous AI named The Reapers. However at the end of the third game, every option left Shephard with dire consequences for the rest of the galaxy. It’s for this exact reason that a new trailer for the newest Mass Effect is important- everyone wants to know how the story ended.
As a Mass Effect fan, I’m saddened that all we got was a trailer for the next game. But on the bright side, we got a new trailer for the next game! The moment I saw the Carnifex in the shadowed figure’s hand, I knew what game it had to be. The graphics and gameplay look beyond gorgeous. It also appears that Bioware has given the Turian Ghost jetpack melee to the new main character. The trailer also showed that the Mako will be back in some form.
If you’re a lore junkie like I am, you may have noticed that this trailer has created a lot of questions. For example, that ship this character was piloting travelled without the use of a mass relay. This may seem odd to fans of the previous installments since, at the end of ME3, all of the mass relays were destroyed. So how the heck did this guy manage a lightspeed-esque jump? And how about the enemies that were shooting at the main character? They were making Reaper noises. Are they related to the Reapers? Who are these people?
So many questions remain, but hopefully EA will release more information sooner rather than later.
Release Date: Holiday season 2016
E3 Intro cinematic:
19. Dark Souls 3
I’m looking forward to more intense hack and slash in the years after its release date
Dark Souls was a game infamous for making hundreds of gamers want to smash their TV in frustration over just how difficult the game is. The game takes place in a world where death and life are strangely blurred, and grotesque creatures roam the landscape.
While the story of Dark Souls is interesting, the main attraction for this game is the combat system. A new addition to this game is being able to put your character into a “ready stance” that allows you to either launch a powerful attack that can break guards, or an attack that can launch opponents into the air.
Release Date: TBA
E3 Announcement Trailer:
18 Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Despite the hate against them, augmented humans are pretty awesome in this game
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided takes place 2 years after the events of Human Revolution. During this time, suspicion and fear of augmented human beings reaches a climax when a bombing occurs that kills several innocent people. From that point on, augmented people are treated like threats to society and segregated away from the general populace. The protagonist, Adam Jensen, returns as the main character in this game and must work to show the world the conspiracy behind why the world the way it is and clear the name of augmented people.
E3’s trailer shows Adam Jensen as he blasts and fights his way through hordes of enemies to bring light on the conspiracy that has lead to the current hatred against augmented people. The weapons in this game and the augmented abilities look fantastic and hopefully more gameplay videos will be revealed as time goes on.
Release Date: Q1/Q2 2016
E3 Trailer #1
E3 Trailer #2
17. Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2
This seems like a Titanfall reference
Plants Vs Zombies had a very simple premise: zombies are trying to attack your home and you defend yourself by growing plants. When the first Garden Warfare came out, this premise changed into a team vs team third person shooter where players could play as both the plants and zombies. Now in Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, the zombies have finally won and conquered all of suburbia. But this doesn’t mean the plants are dead. Instead, the zombies are now on the defensive as the plants invade to take their homes back.
E3’s gameplay reveal shows the audience some of the different classes that are new to the franchise. The Super Zombie class caught my eye the most since it looks like a mix of Green Lantern and parts of Superman. Also showed in the reveal trailer was the Imp which could call down a mech suit for it to fight bosses better.
Release Date: Q1/Q2 2016
E3 Gameplay Trailer:
E3 Cinematic Trailer:
16. Gigantic
Skirmishes can range from a simple 1v1 to enormous 5v5 team fights with Godzillas in the middle
Gigantic is a third person MOBA shooter created by Motiga. The beginning of each game has players fighting over summoning circles that help power their respective guardians until it can fly out and then attack the opposing team. These circles can also be used by players to summon their own mobs to also further trouble their opponents. But unlike other games, at the end of a round in Gigantic, these huge guardians fly into the center of the map and have one large confrontation. The game will end when one of these guardians is dead. During this time, slaying an opposing player will add more strength to your guardian’s attacks, increasing the odds that your team will emerge the victor..
The E3 reveal showed some characters in action, but also showed the effect of summoning specific mobs to attack the enemy team with. Gigantic promises that every game will end in an epic clash between the two teams instead of a fizzle or a one sided fight.
Release Date: TBA 2015
E3 Trailer:
PAX Trailer:
15. For Honor
Samurai, Knights and Vikings all in one big bloody free-for-all. What is there not to love?
This is one of those games that I’m absolutely ecstatic over. For Honor is about medieval battles where the player can choose between being a Samurai, a Knight or a Viking. Once their faction has been selected, they can then go to war in a Dynasty Warriors style game where each player is an elite soldier in an army of AI controlled faceless minions.
What makes this game incredible is how players can act and feel like an elite soldiers. You can cut through the hordes of minions with ease, but the moment you come across an opposing player, it’s almost like having an “oh shit” moment; the feeling that something epic is about to happen is almost tangible.
That exact moment was captured in the E3 gameplay trailer where you can see a Knight face-off with a Samurai. Players can choose which direction they can attack or block, which makes each battle an intricate dance of trying to force your opponent to make a mistake. Based on the E3 video, it looks as though this game will play like a medieval version of Star Wars: Battlefront.
Release Date: TBA
Gameplay video:
Cinematic Trailer:
14. Rainbow Six: Siege
Matches in this game can be pretty intense
Rainbow Six: Siege tells the story of an unknown terrorist organization attempting to destroy the world. In response, the nations of the world have joined together to combat this threat with a specialized group of soldiers. Up until now, fans have seen gameplay regarding the 5 vs 5 game mode where one team plays as the terrorists defending a bomb or hostages, and the other team is playing as the counter-terrorists. What makes this game unique is the emphasis on both destructible terrain and completing an objective. Is the bomb just below you? You could just blow a hole through the roof and drop down.
In the E3 gameplay trailer, I found it interesting to note just how much information players can gain from either cameras in the location or from scout drones. This seems like a small effect at first, but having a tactical overlay of a situation allows players to think about these problems in a similar way a real life SWAT team might.
Once this game is released, I’m sure fans will not be disappointed at this change of pace from the constant warfare simulation games to a hostage rescue situation.
Release Date: October 13th, 2015
E3 Player vs Player combat:
Terrorist Hunt:
13. No Man's Sky
Some planets can be like Jurassic Park
No Man’s Sky is a universe size sandbox game that allows players to explore an entire universe. The scale of No Man’s Sky is gigantic. The universe is filled to the brim with galaxies made of solar systems that each have several planets players can explore. Each individual planet will also have its own form of life and ecosystems. Players can leap out of their starships and explore planets from a first person perspective, or they can fly around the system in their spaceship. All terrain is destructible and wildlife can be killed by the player.
PvP can occur through either ground battles or Interstellar battles. For interstellar battles, players can pilot ships that range from the size of a small fighter to massive battleships, while on the ground, players will have access to a variety of weapons to shoot eachother with.
While this may seem hard to believe, watching everything from the Sony press conference is the best way to truly grasp how large the scope of No Man’s Sky is. There are hundreds of planets that are made by the game system in No Man’s Sky, and as the presenter himself said, there’s a good chance some of these planets will never be visited by a human player.
No Man’s Sky looks like it will leave other MMOs in the dust when it comes to immersing one’s self into a brand new universe.
Release Date: TBA 2015
E3 Sony Press Conference showing of No Man’s Sky:
12: Cuphead
I swear this game is more like an M rated cartoon from the 1930’s than anything else
Cuphead, created by Studio MDHR, follows the characters of Cuphead and Mugman as they journey across their cartoon landscape shooting up characters that get in their way. After losing a bet against the Devil, the pair now have to repay their debt by doing his bidding. The game plays out like a platformer combined with a bullet hell shooter. What makes this game amazing is the stunning graphics; the game looks as though it fell straight out of the 1930s.
Keep an eye on Cuphead because it looks like it will be a sleeper hit. The animations look beautiful and offer an experience that you can’t find with any other game on the market right now. On top of all this, Cuphead will have a local co-op feature so you and your friend can play on one console.
Release Date: TBA 2016
E3 Trailer:
11. Star Wars The Old Republic: Knights of the Fallen Empire
Poor guy has been through a lot.
The Old Republic is an MMO made by Bioware that takes place hundreds of years before the Star Wars prequels. The game has players pick what class and faction (Republic or Empire) they wish to play as. But in the Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion, players will have to unite in order to defeat a new threat that wishes to conquer the galaxy.
The trailer shown at E3 features two brothers as they go through a rough upbringing with an even rougher father figure. The two brothers are shown killing forces of both the Republic and the Empire before everything they do ultimately culminates in a violent duel between the brothers that leads to one of them being mortally wounded.
Bioware promises to return to their roots of character driven story telling and will release this expansion for free to all subscribers of The Old Republic.
Release Date: October 27th 2015
E3 cinematic trailer:
10. Dishonored 2
Why can’t Disney have princesses this cool?
15 years after the events of the first Dishonored, Corvo, the main character of the previous game, teaches Emily, the princess and empress of the Empire of the Isles, how to be an assassin. The characters are put into a similar situation as the first game when another power seizes the throne and the characters are framed for a murder they didn’t commit. Over the course of Dishonored 2, Emily and Corvo must work to clear their name. Just like in the first game, players are able to make significant decisions that can change the entire course of the plot. For example, going through the entire game without killing a single person will reward a different ending (and plot development) than going through the entire game butchering civilians for fun.
The trailer shown below was also shown at E3 2015 and it revealed how players can now take control of Emily or Corvo. The video also features an interesting hookshot-esque mechanic that allows Emily to traverse across terrain with incredible ease or escape through traps. Combined with the ability to temporarily slow down time, Emily appears to offer a different style of gameplay from the first Dishonored.
Release Date: Q1/Q2 2016
E3 Announcement Trailer:
9. Gears of War: Ultimate Edition
It looks scary, but it’s really just a big pushover
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is a remake of the first Gears of War game that also includes 5 unreleased chapters in its campaign. The game itself is about a military group known as the Cog who defend humanity from an alien invader known as the Locusts.
The gameplay at E3 showed how the entire game was remade from the ground up to be something that is better than the original but also doesn’t stray too far away from what made the Gears of War franchise so popular. Back are the cover hopping and execution mechanics that kept players on their toes. This game is also one of the few times a former Xbox exclusive game is able to be played on the PC (before this it was Gears of War 1 and Halo 2). It was also revealed that players who purchase the Ultimate Edition are also eligible to join the Gears of War 4 Beta.
Release Date: August 25th 2015
E3 Behind the Scenes Ultimate Edition:
8. Star Wars: Battlefront 3
These missions are great if you want to play as rebel scum
Star Wars: Battlefront 3 is the third game in the popular Battlefront series and the first one to be created by DICE. This game is renown for having players take up the roles of the faceless soldiers that fight and die in the background of the Star Wars movies. Each battle features both a large number of players and AI controlled characters fighting over territory and re-enacting key points in the Star Wars franchise.
EA treated its fans to a 5 minute clip of the Battle for Hoth in Battlefront 3’s engine. This was the first time players got a taste of what the game would be like and assuaged away the many worries that plagued fans about DICE creating this game. The trailer ends in a lightsaber lock between Luke Skywalker and his father, Darth Vader, which hints that there will be specific interactions between heroes beyond just swinging at each other and hoping the other one falls down.
Release Date: November 17th 2015 for NA
November 20th 2015 for UK
E3 Hoth Battle:
E3 Multiplayer Missions:
7. Mirror's Edge: Catalyst
Faith is probably one of the few Asian protagonists out there
Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst explores the questions of, “what if corporations took over the world?” and “what if privacy ceased to exist?” The game follows a character named Faith as she explores this dystopian world. This game also serves as a prequel to MIrror’s Edge, which was released on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 back in 2008.
While the world this game is featured around may be fictional, these questions force players to see a world that modern society may be heading toward as corporations play a larger part of politics and individual privacy is sold for more convenience and safety.
At E3, the audience was dazzled by the graphics this game had to offer. But in regards to gameplay, this game was able to stand out because it didn’t feature the main character shooting their way through the world’s problems. Instead, the main character free runs from place to place and uses her martial arts to beat opponents that stand in her way.
Release Date: February 23rd, 2016 for NA
February 26th, 2016 for UK
E3 Announcement Trailer:
6. Doom
Gotta love the smell of roasted demon
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if we put humanity’s greatest technological and scientific achievements against the nigh-unstoppable horrors of hell? In Bethesda’s latest installment into the Doom franchise, players can finally discover an answer to that question. Doom’s story revolves around a mining company on Mars that accidentally opens a gateway into hell. The game puts players behind the gun of a futuristic super soldier that blasts, punches and shoots his way through the hordes of hell as he tries to save whatever remains on Mars.
When this trailer aired at E3, the only thing that came to mind was just how brutal the game looked. It looks as though Bethesda realized what the best points of the older Doom games were and spent years trying to perfect it into the futuristic demon shooter we saw on the show floor. This is definitely a game players should check out for the experience alone.
Release Date: Q1/Q2 2016
E3 showcase:
5. Shenmue 3
Who doesn’t like nice walks along a river side.
Based on the original Shenmue games, Shenmue 3 allows players to take control of the main character named Ryo Hazuki as he searches for his father’s killer. In doing so, the player will have a chance to play out what Ryo’s life is like. This includes getting a job and working to earn money for his journey or playing a plethora of minigames at local shops and parlors. The game will primarily take place in China and revolve around Ryo and his companion Ling Shen Hua.
At E3, during the Sony press conference, Yu Suzuki, the game’s creator, announced that this game would be funded through Kickstarter.The creators of Shenmue 3 were asking for $2,000,000 which was reached in less than 9 hours, making it the fastest game to be funded on Kickstarter. At the time this article was written, the game has reached over $3,000,000.
Release Date: Estimated to be shipped out before 2017
Kickstarter video:
4. Tom Clancy's The Division
Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!
In Tom Clancy’s The Division, a virus is unleashed on the US which causes the government to fall apart. Society soon follows as the world is plunged into complete chaos. In the wake of modern society’s death, sleeper agents from an organization known as “The Division” activate to help piece together civilization.
At first, I wasn’t very excited for this game. It looked like just another shooter with futuristic tech in a post-apocalyptic world. The problem was how this game just didn’t look like it had any personality beyond good looks.
Then at E3, Ubisoft released the Dark Zone trailer. I can definitely say I’m hyped for this game’s release now. The trailer shows its audience what a virtual friendship graveyard looks like. In the Dark Zone, players will encounter AI controlled enemies they can kill for loot and other players that can either be friendlies or enemies depending on what both parties feel like. Each player also has the option of leaving their friend’s party and immediately betraying them. The benefit to all of this violence and Game of Thrones style betrayal is simple: you get to steal everyone’s loot. Do you like that gun your friend is showing off? Well, now you can shove a bullet in his unsuspecting face and steal it from his cold, dead corpse.
Through the Dark Zone, The Division creates a perfect simulator of the intense situations that can occur when two groups of survivors meet one another. You should probably play this game with friends who you know won’t be too angry at you for betraying them.
Release Date: March 8th, 2016
E3 Dark Zone Gameplay Trailer:
E3 Trailer:
3. Battleborn
This game looks pretty fun and quirky
Battleborn is Gearbox Software’s latest endeavour after Borderlands. The game takes place in a universe where a horrible catastrophe has destroyed the majority of other planets. As a result, all of the remaining species have fled to a planet known as Solus. There, the factions squabble over a limited number of resources until a larger threat appears in the form of Varlesi who was the origin of the catastrophe. Each faction makes peace with each other and sends their greatest champions (named Battleborn) to combat the threat.
While this game is usually talked about as a Third Person MOBA, the trailer at E3 shows us how the story is going to work and reveals a few new characters in action. Battleborn looks like a spiritual successor to the famous Borderlands series in that they both incorporate RPG elements such as levelling your characters and loot systems.
There are two differences large differences between Battleborn and Borderlands. The first is that Battleborn looks as though it’s not afraid to take the cartoon element and run with it. But that doesn’t mean it will be devoid of mature themes; any game that talks about a war over limited resources and mass genocide is going to have to explore those themes eventually. Another difference is that Battleborn will have a heavy focus on its player vs player multiplayer modes instead of just a single player.
From my point of view, I was amazed at just how gorgeous the characterization was. Each Battleborn seems like they could be the main character of their own story.
Release Date: TBA 2015
E3 Trailer:
2. Fallout 4
What a great way for a game to begin
The story begins just before the atomic bombs plunge humanity into a post-apocalyptic world. You are living in a suburban home with your spouse, taking care of your newly born baby and just enjoying your life. Unfortunately for your character, that’s when the bombs go off. Your family rushes to the vault but are submerged in dust as another atomic bomb goes off nearby.
Your character awakens, 200 years later, unaged and as the only survivor of vault 111. Now you must find a way to survive the desolate wastelands and reunite with your family if they’re still alive.
Fallout 4 was announced a few weeks before E3, but being able to see it in all of its glory at the show was amazing. If there’s anything you should look at in that video though, please glance at the character creation section. Gone are the days of endless scrollers and feelings of “I think that looks okay. I just wish I could make the hair a smidge shorter.” Bethesda has raised the bar on easy-but-intricate custom character creators by making character creation as simple as clicking and dragging what you want to change. They have even made it so the game will generate a baby based upon the couple you make.
Release Date: November 10th, 2015
E3 Trailer:
Official Trailer:
1. Call of Duty Black Ops 3
YOU HAVE FAILED THIS CITY
Call of Duty Black Ops 3 takes place 40 years after Black Ops 2. Humanity has used technology to improve the human species beyond what was previously thought capable. Super soldiers stride across roaring battlefields as robots play a larger and larger role in every theater of war. The single player campaign will feature the player taking control of a squad of super soldiers as they complete Black Ops missions.
The Multiplayer reveal trailer showed fans a small taste of what multiplayer will be like. Fans of Titanfall may have noticed that Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 uses a similar mantle and wall running mechanic. While I would love to have seen Titanfall be the one to improve on that system, it looks as though Treyarch made the right decision in this adaption since gameplay looks smooth and fast paced.
On a personal note of interest, Treyarch has added a compound bow with explosive arrows. My interest suddenly piqued when the player jumped off a wall and launched an arrow straight into someone’s about-to-be-exploded face. This game is definitely a day one purchase for me just for that alone.
Release Date: November 6,th 2015
Multiplayer Trailer:
Cinematic Trailer:
This has been a great show!
WIth the show almost over, which games did you like the most? Which games are you hyped for?
Leave a comment down below with your favorite title from this year!
