As the harbinger for both Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One, E3 2013 was a contentious battleground for GameRevolution's coveted Best of E3 Awards. None of the titles we gave a Best of E3 award last year received the same honor this year. That's not to discredit them, not in the slightest, but to peer over the sea of the future and view a new landscape as the game industry opens another chapter into the next generation.
And what we see most clearly is that this will be a generation for everyone and for every developer. Our list contains several current-gen titles, several indie titles, several silly titles, and one Nintendo title—for in the looming shadow of Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo still has a light.
But if there is a hallmark of what it means to be a next-gen title, it is a seamless integration between single-player and multiplayer, where the separation between them cannot be easily defined. The current console generation has melded elements of the RPG genre so deeply into nearly every game that it's difficult to determine what is and what isn't an RPG. And for this console generation, we will say the same for the MMO. ~Ed. Nick Tan
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Bungie
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360
Excerpt: "The game was shown running on next-gen hardware, and visual disparity between current-gen games and Destiny was surprisingly large. It does look strikingly similar to Halo (go figure) in style, but everything is super-crisp and detailed, with light reflecting off of Earth's surface in unbelievable fashion. Bungie clearly spent a lot of time fleshing out this futuristic take on Earth, a planet that has since been devastated where only a pocket of civilization remains alive underneath a massive structure known as the Traveller. Naturally, it's up to you and you buddies to serve as the last bastion of hope and save the human race. Epic."
Read the full Destiny E3 2013 Preview>>
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Respawn Entertainment
Platforms: PC, Xbox One
Excerpt: "Most mech games tend to have lumbering quality to them, which makes all the sense in the world, but Titanfall doesn't stop for anyone. Soldiers sprint from one point to the next, free-running on the side of walls like ninjas, shooting bullets that can curve from a Smart Pistol, and falling from any height without damage. Once your Titan mech is ready, you can call for its deployment and watch as it roars down from the sky like a bolt of metallic lightning. The Titans themselves are highly maneuverable, have incredible firepower, and can be used as a lift to a higher ledge, in case you want to flank some unsuspecting opponents from above."
Read the full Titanfall E3 2013 Preview>>
Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: PopCap Games
Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox 360
Excerpt: "The action is frantic, fun, and features co-operative multiplayer for the campaign with up to four plant players. It’s designed in such a way that it’ll instantly be familiar to Plants vs. Zombies fans, but accessible to anyone who has ever played a shooter game. Zombies still attack in waves, but now they’re much faster, and spread around a hectic battlefield. The Plants, which have now sprouted “legs” that let them run freely are equipped with the same sort of weaponry as before, but slightly altered for the war at hand."
Read the full Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare E3 2013 Preview>>
Publisher: Thekla, Inc.
Developer: Thekla, Inc.
Platforms: PC, PS4
Excerpt: "It’s an open-world puzzle game set in a serene, yet eerie, island filled with strange, maze-like puzzle panels. When you first arrive, you’re not told who or where you are, or what you’re there for. The game unfolds using non-verbal communication—the atmosphere, your surroundings and the puzzles themselves provide the answers to any questions you might have and teach you how to complete any puzzles you encounter."
Read the full The Witness E3 2013 Preview>>
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Developer: WB Games Montreal
Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U
Excerpt: "Heading into new parts of Gotham hasn't forced WB Montreal to change things unnecessarily. Arkham Origins feels like more of the same at this early point in the title, but that's exactly what I'd hoped for. If the formula is perfect, you don't need to mix things up as much as Rocksteady had to moving fromAsylum to City. Origins can relax on its training, but that doesn't mean WB Montreal has copied and pasted Rocksteady's work."
Read the full Batman: Arkham Origins E3 2013 Preview>>
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Platforms: Wii U
Excerpt: "What you will get, though, is tons of fun, simple, and incredibly satisfying platforming with up to four players at time. You can even play as Princess Peach, which was nice for a change, and she looked purr-fectly adorable in a cat suit taking down a massive multi-tier snake boss with some paw swipes and a new dive attack. Cat suit also allows you to climb straight up walls to access otherwise unreachable areas."
Read the full Super Mario 3D World E3 2013 Preview>>
Publisher: Bethesda
Developer: Bethesda
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
Excerpt: "On production alone, The Elder Scrolls Online has Daedric-level appeal, and that's just based on its current closed beta. It already has the power to draw every Elder Scrolls fan into its ridiculously expansive world, and now it has the potential to challenge the mightiest MMOs on the market. I've been meaning to build a new PC from scratch anyway, with an amount of money my financial advisor says is "irresponsible." Okay, I lied. I don't have a financial advisor. Oh well. *smirk*"
Read the full The Elder Scrolls Online E3 2013 Preview>>
Publisher: SuperGiant Games
Developer: SuperGiant Games
Platforms: PC, PS4
Excerpt: You could loosely refer to it as an action RPG, but you can't hack, slash, or button mash your way about here. Different skills are mapped to the face buttons, but they aren't of the spammable variety. They come out more deliberately, and none of them can be considered a “primary” attack in the traditional sense. For instance, the skill “crash” is a short range attack with average speed and damage, where “breach” is a slow-starting, long-range projectile that pierces through enemies and cover points alike. Each attack, no matter how basic, looks fantastic—wreathed in crackling energies of every kind and animated silkenly smooth.
Read the full Transistor E3 2013 Preview>>
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Massive Entertianment
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One
Excerpt: "The RPG elements start to kick in when one player opens up another holographic display, this time a generously-sized skill menu. The Division employs a classless system where you can mix and match abilities and weaponry freely, giving you the flexibility to adapt your play style to the situation at hand. Infrared scans reveal heat signatures through walls for everyone in your group; seeker mines tumble along the ground, snuffing out foes behind cover; and still plenty more abilities such as “Pulse” and “Shock Grenade” could be spied on the skill screen, though we never got to see them in action. Cooldown timers and floating damage numbers popping up over enemy's heads completed the picture: The Division is no less an RPG than Borderlands is."
Read the full Tom Clancy's The Division E3 2013 Preview>>
Publisher: Deep Silver
Developer: Volition
Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Excerpt: "Within the first thirty minutes of Saints Row IV, you and your motley crew of Saints are bombarded by gun-toting alien soldiers, whisked off into the sky by red tractor beams, and forced into a Matrix-esque virtual simulation. Luckily, the technogeek Kinzie Washington from the last game seemingly understands the situation and tasks you with the destruction of the simulation by becoming one with your inner Neo. By completing various activities, the virtual world trapping the Saints will gradually deteriorate. That's the plan, anyway."
Read the full Saints Row IV E3 2013 Preview>>
