E3: The Best of the Rest

Dragon Age: Inquisition (PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One)

Step forward, BioWare’s response to its open-world RPG competitors. While the last Dragon Age game was marred by a disappointingly small world with muddy, unpolished visuals and decidedly ugly character models, Inquisition is set to remedy the sour taste.

Among the features of the game are more dragons, over 200 combinations of spells and talents across classes, 40 endings, various mounts, and more romances than ever. I don’t know about you, but that will do very nicely for me.

Out: 7 October 2014

Destiny (PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6RZlKWkTyg

The alpha is available for a select few lucky players, and the feedback has been as exactly as Bungie had wanted.  After a generation of shooters conforming to a modern military setting, strict linear singleplayer gameplay and a focus on relatively finite multiplayer matches, Destiny is refreshing. It combines the MMO with the shooter, like PlanetSide 2, but Bungie takes it further and offers a whole Solar System to explore, whether solo or with online co-op.

Bungie popularised the console FPS with Halo: Combat Evolved. Can they ignite a second revolution and popularise the console MMO? Let us wait and see.

Out: 9 September 2014

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (PS4)

I am an enthusiastic Uncharted fan, and I was waiting for the fourth instalment to show up in LA. Though disappointingly the trailer was excruciatingly short, we know it runs natively on the PS4, so based on the graphical fidelity of Nate’s face and the lush jungle around him, this is going to look stellar.

Judging by the title, this may well be the last adventure for the wisecracking protagonist. Expect an explosive climax, and one that Naughty Dog is famous for.

Out: TBA 2015

Final Fantasy Type-0 HD (PS4, Xbox One)

After much grassroots demand for the PSP game to be localised as a Vita game, Square-Enix finally announced it, only as a PS4 and Xbox One game, without a Vita version in sight.

Despite that, Type-0 is an original Final Fantasy game of its own, unrelated to other entries in the series, and despite starring twelve high school students as main characters, is the heaviest, most hard-hitting Final Fantasy yet. It is all-out war in the land of Orience, and soon Aerith’s death will look like a mild one in comparison. Fans of action-RPGs will find love here.

Out: TBA

Halo: The Master Chief Collection (Xbox One)

This is undoubtedly the best time for anyone unfamiliar with the franchise to get into the Halo series. This collection, though missing ODST and Reach, features in one package, every numbered Halo game thus far, as well as the TV series Nightfall, and, come December, the open beta for Halo 5. 

Out: TBA Q4 2014

Grand Theft Auto V (PC, PS4, Xbox One)

It has been long demanded, and it was finally announced. For the PS4 version, Sony have confirmed that you can transfer your GTA Online account and data from your PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game into the PS4 version, and we are yet to hear from Microsoft whether the same will occur for the Xbox One release.

Perhaps the most exciting thing to come from this announcement is the inevitability that with a PC release, the GTA V modding scene will take off from here.

Out: TBA Q4 2014

Homefront: The Revolution (PC, PS4, Xbox One)

The first Homefront elicited only a lukewarm response, and the overarching story of a unified Korea under the leadership of Pyongyang successfully occupying much of the United States was a farfetched one to swallow. This sequel, while it does not dispense with the Korean occupation plotline, promises to be a fresh, ambitious take on the original.

Now featuring an open-world occupied Philadelphia, you play as a guerrilla fighter seeking to drive out your city’s oppressors from the shadows. With gameplay that reminds me of Far Cry and Freedom Fighters, this could turn out to be a surprise shooter hit for an otherwise muted IP.

Out: TBA 2015 [divider_top]

Have a look at our Top Ten of E3 here, or tweet us at @BoarGames