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Getting handsy: Best 5 games I actually played at E3 2016

E3 is a strange affair in 2016. It’s a massive hype machine designed for an online audience, yet still clings to its origins as a behind-closed-doors event for media and industry professionals – demos and presentations you, dear reader, don’t see, so we have something to write about.

With the rise of online streaming, most of the biggest games on-show at E3 this year couldn’t actually be played. Dishonored 2 – actually everything from Bethesda except The Elder Scrolls card game – couldn’t be played. Mafia III, one of my most anticipated games of the year, was a hands-off presentation, as were the PlayStation showstoppers God of War and Days Gone.

We’re still able to see extended presentations for those games, often played live by a developer, but it’s not the same as being able to take the controls. So here are my favourite five games, in no particular order, that I actually played at E3 2016.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is one of the longest demos I’ve ever played in five years of going to E3 – I went hands-on for 45 minutes. I hate to break the illusion, but the previews you read online and in magazines are often formed after playing between 10 and 25 minutes of a game, joined by a chat with a developer. We regularly play anywhere from one to six hours when we preview games at other times throughout the year, but at E3 (and Gamescom) there just isn’t time.

Nintendo made time for Breath of the Wild by having no other games at its booth. True to its word, Nintendo only had one game at E3 – other games were included in the livestream, but none were actually at E3.

In one word it’s simply extraordinary. Nintendo has always found ways to reinvent The Legend of Zelda, without actually changing much.  Breath of the Wild is an unprecedented departure not seen since Majora’s Mask in 2000 – and even that didn’t tinker with the core gameplay mechanics; not like this.

From actually having to hunt and eat to replenish health (no more hearts in the grass), to an open area that isn’t as focused on hoping between dungeons as quickly as possible, and an entirely different reliant on items, which actually break – plus the ability to jump and climb. None of these are innovative measures on their own accord; they’ve frequented action-adventure games and RPGs for years, but they unite to drastically reinvent The Legend of Zelda.

For more, check out our detailed hands-on preview.

Forza Horizon 3

Forza Horizon 3

Forza Horizon 3 is simply stunning. During a hands-on demo, I was able to test drive buggies, new to the series, and drive a Lamborghini Centenario through roads resembling the Northern Territory (the Outback, if you must) and across an overcast beach integrated into The Great Ocean Road. It’s deeply satisfying to edge a $2.5 million supercar increasingly closer to breaking waves; I know this is fantasy, with a rewind button, but I still couldn’t bring myself to risk plunging it directly into the deep.

Australia is affectionately recreated to marry the best of our vast country into an open world, twice the size of Horizon 2, that makes sense for a social racing game. From the glimpse I played, Playground Games has nailed the variety of Australia, and it was awesome recklessly barrelling through dense woodlands in a ute – a term sure to confuse the Americans, the Brits for that matter.

Check out our full preview for more, where we look at the how Australia has been created, the amazing technology behind the skies, the new customisation options and the co-op functionality that’s cross-play with Windows 10.

Horizon: Zero Dawn

HorizonZeroDawn-feature

Horizon: Zero Dawn was one of the most exciting, and frustrating, games of E3 2015. It’s the perfect example of a game too reliant on its PR campaign, and last year Guerrilla Games wasn’t permitted to say enough; its mission was to build hype about the potential, not the actual game.

This year most of our questions were answered, and we actually got to play Horizon for about 25 minutes. The hands-on demo was restricted to a small area within the open world – so quests still remain a mystery – but I got to fight some machines and explore Aloy’s combat mechanics, which are heavily reliant on stealth.

It felt like a survival game that isn’t entrenched in horror. The machines could destroy Aloy with ease when she’s outnumbered, but there are no jump scares or risks of running out of supplies – staples of the survival genre that needn’t necessarily be the only way.

The combat felt intuitive, remaining hidden for as long as possible for deciding to pounce in a moment when Aloy vocally proclaims it’s time for fight or flight. She has a survival instinct to pinpoint weakness, and is able to capture machines by quickly anchoring them into the ground. From there, she can override their system to turn them against their own kind, or become a stead for her to ride. It was awesome fun, but only a demonstration of the basic mechanics. With its delay into 2017, Guerrilla is still being cautious about how much it’s willing to show.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands

Ghost Recon Wildlands

Ghost Recon: Wildlands is the best co-op game I played at E3 2016. While games like The Division and Destiny have changed how we approach multiplayer this generation, Ghost Recon: Wildlands provides an alternative for action-adventure fans who just want to have the option to play with their mates without the hassle of committing to a long term group – and still have the option to play any mission alone.

That’s exactly what I want from a co-op shooter: for it to work just as well single-player. We only got to explore a small area of Boliva in a 30-minute mission – read about and watch me play it in our preview – but it looks massive. As a military shooter, don’t expect to mingle with civilians for wacky side quests, but the sandbox world is open to explore in ingenious ways with a plethora of vehicles; think GTA Online, but with more of unified purpose in commanding a fleet of Apache helicopters with your mates.

Battlefield 1

BF1header

I was tossing up between including Titanfall 2 or Battlefield 1 – and it was weird playing them in that order. At the reveal event, DICE told us Battlefield 1 retains the series’ pacing and isn’t slowed down by the limitations of World War I technology. That’s true, if you forget about some of the faster vehicles, but doesn’t take into account the speed of the first person shooter genre in general.

This generation, multiplayer shooters have been becoming increasingly faster, led by Call of Duty venturing into the future and Titanfall blending slow mechs with hyperactive soldiers. After a single game of Titanfall 2, which felt very similar to the original  (only with a DualShock 4 – that’s different), Battlefield 1 felt extremely slow; that’s exactly what I want.

It’s an unhurried and methodical shooter that harks back to the considered pace of Battlefield 1942. While there were planes in the sky and tanks amongst the 64 players spread-out between capture points, it isn’t as frantic as the futuristic shooters with lower player counts. I felt like I had time to catch my breath.

Truth be told, a 15-minute match wasn’t enough for WWI to flourish in its own right. It felt, from a gameplay standpoint, the same as WWII shooters that flooded the middle of last-generation. Yes, I know there are a lot of differences, and they’ll become more apparent with each passing moment. But strictly talking about the pace of gameplay, there’s no better comparison than Battlefield’s origin.

Now we really need to see more of the single-player. There was never any doubt of the ability for DICE to deliver on multiplayer. But can it make a quality single-player campaign based on World War I?


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About the author

Ben Salter

Ben has been writing about games in a professional capacity since 2008. He even did it full-time for a while, but his mum never really understood what that meant. He's been part of the Stevivor team since 2016. You will find his work across all sections of the site (if you look hard enough). Gamertag / PSN ID: Gryllis.