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We went to E3 so you didn’t have to

Tech
Jun 20, 2018

We went to E3 so you didn’t have to

BY : BENJI KARMIS

The Electronic Entertainment Expo, known as E3, is essentially Mecca for video games and the people who love them. E3 heralds a slew of new games to get hyped on, so we made sure to stop by the LA Convention Center earlier this month to get our hands on the hottest hitters. Here’s our favorites.

Fallout 76

In a surprising change from earlier games in the series, Bethesda announced that the upcoming Fallout 76 will be survival based and set in the West Virginia region. The open world will be four times as large as in Fallout 4, which was already a whopping four virtual square miles. But the biggest change is that Fallout 76 will be played with others online instead of focusing on offline single-player RPG. Players can team up or go it alone and cleanse the mutants from the wasteland, build camps to trade, and thrive among other survivors, or become raiders and attack other players. If you choose to fight, there are even nuclear missile silos set around the world that can be used to nuke whatever – or whoever – you please. Fallout 76 is available for preorder now and launches soon on November 14th. How rad.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate

This classic has come a long way from the ones you played growing up, but don’t worry: it won’t be too unfamiliar. Super Smash Bros Ultimate’s biggest announcement this year is that it will have all the characters from every previous installment. That’s right. Every. Single. Character. That means a new Super Smash Brothers like this one will balance a great party game with friends around a TV while still serving as Nintendo’s viable entry into eSports. It will launch on December 7th on the Nintendo Switch.

The Last of Us Part II

Naughty Dog is back with another gripping journey in a zombie-ridden apocalypse. The Last of Us Part II demoed the dreary setting in their gameplay reveal video, revealing a gruesome combat system and an intriguing and slightly risqué plot guaranteed to ruffle a couple feathers. While not much else was revealed, we’re excited for whatever happens next in the typically PlayStation exclusive series.

Death Stranding

The mysterious title from video game legend Hideo Kojima got another trailer, which gives us a (slightly) better look into his gloomy new world. Though we don’t know much, we did figure out the hush-hush plot dabbles with invisible monsters between life and death in a somewhat apocalyptic world. The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus stars as the main character and other famous actors like Mads Mikkelsen, Lindsay Wagner, and Emily O’Brien are also featured. Only time will tell what Hideo Kojima has left in store for us, but the anticipation is killing us.

Insurgency Sandstorm

Insurgency has always been more of a combat simulator than a game, and New World Interactive’s sequel to their 2014 underdog hit is more hardcore than ever. Featuring airstrikes, new weapons and attachments, co-op missions, and a full-blown plot this time around, Insurgency Sandstorm promises to be one of – if not the most – realistic shooters of all time. Communication is mandatory to succeed in the unforgiving heat of firefights, which is a stark difference to Call of Duty and similar games where a casual bullet to the dome can be shrugged off after waiting behind cover for a couple seconds. Plus, being run on the Unreal 4 engine instead of the Source engine this time around, the game looks substantially more vibrant. Expect to see more mainstream gamers sand-storming off less believable AAA titles for the more realistic Insurgency Sandstorm in September for PC, and in 2019 for Xbox and PlayStation.