It’s the start of E3 tonight with EA kicking things off with their EA Play event, before Sunday, Monday and Tuesday are graced by half a dozen more manufacturers and major publishers all trying to get us hyped for their upcoming games.
Are you going to be living on LA time to watch them all? Who has you most excited? And has the string of pre-E3 announcements dulled your enthusiasm?
As you might expect, it’s those numerous announcements that are dominating the news this week, but first, the press conference schedule.
E3 Press Conference Schedule
- EA – 19.00 BST, Saturday June 9th – Twitch, YouTube
- Microsoft – 21.00 BST , Sunday June 10th – Twitch, YouTube
- Bethesda – 2.30 BST Monday June 11th – Twitch, YouTube (Apologies for the mix up in time)
- Devolver Digital – 04.00 BST, Monday June 11th – Twitch
- Square Enix – 18.00 BST, Monday June 11th – Twitch, YouTube
- Limited Run Games – 20.00 BST, Monday June 11th – Twitch
- Ubisoft – 21.00 BST, Monday June 11th – Twitch, YouTube
- PC Gaming Show –23.00 BST, Monday June 11th – Twitch, Mixer, Steam
- Sony – 02.00 BST, Tuesday June 12th – Twitch, YouTube
- Nintendo – 17.00 BST, Tuesday June 12th – YouTube, Twitch
TSA E3 Bingo!
As with every year for the last nine years – nine! – we’ve got our traditional E3 bingo. Reckon you can peer into the crystal ball and pick the most likely announcements and things that will happen at E3? Will you go with low risk certainties or high risk nonsense? Make sure to enter today before 7PM!
Click the truly fabulous banner below to go and play:
In the News This Week
- Hitman 2 is coming in November, and it’s not episodic
- Team up to fight robots in Generation Zero, the new IP from Just Cause’s Avalanche Studios
- Days Gone will be out in February 2019
- Crackdown 3 has been delayed until 2019
- Dead Or Alive 6 has been revealed, and it lands in early 2019
- Dontnod’s next game, Twin Mirror, has been revealed
- Just Cause 4 appeared briefly on Steam
- Devil May Cry 5 domain has been registered
- Bungie to self publish next game, $100 million investment from chinese firm
- Destiny 2: Forsaken out in september – reveals major overhaul for Year 2
- Paladins has been confirmed for Switch, and it’s out next week
- The Walking Dead: The Final Season debuts August 14th
- Insomniac reveal Oculus exclusive game Stormland
- Tetris Effect announced for PS4 and PSVR
- BattleTech & Shadowrun devs Harebrained Schemes acquired by Paradox Interactive
Games in Review
Even in the run up to E3, the review schedule has been unrelenting, as developers push to get their games out just before the traditional summer lull. Did Vampyr live up to expectations? Did Evo’s risk come off in Onrush? How’s that first Far Cry 5 DLC? Let’s find out:
- Just Shapes & Beats – Switch, PC – 9/10
- Onrush – PS4, XBO – 8/10
- Runner3 – Switch, PC – 8/10
- Shio – PS4, PC – 8/10
- Vampyr – PS4, XBO, PC – 6/10
- Shape of the World – PS4, XBO, Switch, PC – 5/10
- The Piano – PC – 5/10
- Far Cry 5: Hours of Darkness – PS4, XBO, PC – DLC, no score
- Aragami: Nightfall – PS4, PC – DLC, no score
Reviewed platform in bold.
This Week’s Features
Naturally, we were looking forward to E3 this week, as I brought together some a collection of thoughts, rumours, speculation, leaks and early game confirmations to predict what will be revealed.
Our first preview of the week was actually from E3, in a way. We got to go hands on with Team Sonic Racing, as well as chat to some of the guys from Sumo Digital about the game’s new team-based gameplay.
Sticking with racing games, I shared my impressions from MXGP Pro’s training compound, while Jim shared his own thoughts on Codemasters Evo’s daring new twist on the arcade racer, Onrush, in addition to our review.
I told you that, even before Forsaken kicks off Year 2 of Destiny 2, the Warmind expansion restores much of what made Destiny as compulsive as it once was, before hopping into the co-op snipe ’em up of Hitman 2’s pre-order bonus Hitman: Sniper Assassin. Steve then returned to The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker, to see how the text adventure holds up on console instead of PC.
Regrettably, there was a mix up with the code distribution that saw Jason playing the Early Access version of Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr for review while thinking it was the full version. As such, that review can now be viewed as an “in progress” review, but you can catch his thoughts on the game and see his original score.
Finally, What We Played features Onrush, Hitman: Sniper Assassin and Vampyr
Trailer Park
Head to Sweden for Avalanche Studios’ Generation Zero announcement
Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn has a new launch trailer
Check out GRIP’s new E3 trailer
Rafa Nadal battles a washed up old plumber in a game of tennis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKaUchyvPk8
Check out Strange Brigade’s E3 co-op trailer
Your Achievements
Let’s check in with the community this week:
- tactical20 had barely got back home from Paris before he set off on adventures old and new in Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 5’s Vietnam DLC.
- Detroit’s story is “brilliant” in JR.‘s opinion, but then he’s been playing classic Marvel games on PS3 this week, like Iron Man 2 and Captain America: Super Soldier. Oh, and he’s also picked up PSVR on the cheap.
- Aerobes played Detroit through in just a single sitting, before putting a big chunk of time into God of War. He preferred Detroit.
- XCOM 2, Monster Hunter: World and Guitar Hero Live have all been on MrYd’s playlist.
- Another one to be thoroughly absorbed by Detroit was TSBonyman, who also delved into XCOM 2 thanks to PS+.
- It was a mixture of frustration in GTA Online’s Doomsday Heist and recouperation in Burnout Paradise Remastered for ron_mcphatty.
- Gernoes finished Titanfall 2, played more of Stories: The Path of Destinies, started Unravel and rode into Trials Fusion from PS+.
- Andrewww can’t remember his name, he’s so excited for E3.
If you want to be included in this section, make sure to comment on What We Played of a Friday evening.
The Week Ahead
You’d think that everyone would avoid releasing in E3 week, but apparently not, and there’s actually one of the most highly anticipated games of the year coming out!
- Jurassic World Evolution – PS4, XBO, PC – 12/06
- Super Bomberman R – PS4, XBO, PC – 12/06
- Tennis World Tour – PC – 12/06
- Bus Simulator 18 – PC – 13/06
- LEGO The Incredibles – PS4, XBO, Switch, PC – 15/06
Enjoy the press conferences, make sure to check back on TSA for all the trailers and news from the next couple of days, and we’ll catch you next week!
