5 Questions E3 2018 Needs to Answer
We can’t believe E3 is almost upon us yet again. Will we see next year’s consoles? (Doubtful.) Will Below be back? (We pray.) Will there be on-stage awkwardness? (Oh, no doubt.) But as we look ahead to this Saturday and what to expect in the coming few days, there are 5 burning questions we need E3 to answer.
5. What is Rocksteady doing?
When E3 rolls around it will be close to Arkham Knight’s third anniversary and while we think the franchise was on an inevitable decline after the outstanding Arkham City, it’s hard to overstate how impressive Rocksteady’s incarnations of Batman was. Since concluding the trilogy Rocksteady has been relatively quiet about their next title but many suggest it could be a Superman. It doesn’t really matter, Rocksteady could be making an Ambush Bug game and it would be amazing. We can’t wait to see what they have up their sleeves and pray they make an appearance at E3.
Real heroes stare into the camera while breaking bones
4. Can Microsoft give us a worthy console exclusive?
It would be hard to an Xbox-only gamer these days. With God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, Last of Us, Bloodborne, etc., Sony continues to seem to have the most interesting exclusives. We’ve grown out or tired of console fanboyism so we couldn’t care less where the truly unique titles appear, but we’d love to see Microsoft have a win sooner or later. Halo has been a bust for a while now and promising games like Cuphead or State of Decay failed to excite when they finally arrived. And as much as I love the always likeable Terry Crews, I’m not sure he enough is going to save Crackdown 3 from disappearing into obscurity once it finally arrives. Let’s hope Microsoft has something impressive to show this year because it’s been a while since we’ve had a reason to turn on the Xbone.
Yay?
3. Can Borderlands 3 survive Rage 2?
Two weeks ago Bethesda casually dropped an unexpected but impressive teaser for Rage 2, a sequel to a game that underwhelmed everyone except Jessie Pinkman. But we trust Bethesda and the preview looks promising enough, offering an open world of possibilities instead of a mindless linear experience that was the first game. It’s a colorful and vivid version of the post-apocalyptic world (learning the valuable lesson of Mad Max: Fury Road). Most importantly, it’s taken the wind out of the tired sails of a potential Borderlands 3. Gearbox hasn’t announced it yet, but we all know it’s coming, and we can’t help but feel like delays of a reveal are due in large part to Rage 2. After the backlash over a regrettable Duke Nukem and a severely downgraded Alien game, we’re not sure Gearbox can take another blow. Rage 2 may be the last nail in Gearbox’s coffin.
We may be too busy with Rage 2 to pay much attention to Pandora again
2. Where is Cyberpunk 2077?
CD Projekt RED is a fan favorite largely for the near-perfect Witcher 3 and generous expansions they released to provide way, WAY too many quality hours of gaming to gamers for next to nothing. The dollar per quality hour spent ratio for Witcher game is staggering (like $0.50 / hr at $50 game that can take up to 200 hours). So needless to say, gamers are stoked at whatever CD Projekt RED has to show us next. Cyberpunk 2077, based on the table top Cyberpunk 2020, game was announced in 2012 and as of this week was officially trademarked in Poland so we hope to be blown away by this title very soon.
I wish I had this on my lunch box growing up
1. Who is going to win the MMO console space?
We’re pretty clearly Destiny enthusiasts having written dozens of articles about our experiences and spending just about any free night grinding for higher light levels in D2 now. But we admit the game has its fair share of problems (i.e. lackluster story, arduous grinding to even attempt end game content, a screwy gun layout design, etc.). The problems are big enough that we think there’s room for a new contender. Bioware’s Anthem looks promising as we haven’t had a great Iron Man game like ever. Division 2 could absolutely take over as later DLCs basically reinvented the original showing us the experience could be captivating. But Destiny 2’s latest Year 2 reveal also shows strong competition. We expect all 3 of these games to have a strong presence at E3 trying to corner the console MMO market (cross platform play would significantly help, guys!).
We’re pulling for Anthem. It’s got to be better than the last Mass Effect, right?
