E3 2016 is over, but now the real fun begins. Now we get to assess everything that we saw and decide what is looking like the best stuff in video games for the coming year, and beyond. Will and I were there all five days, including the press conferences, and have a whole lot of thoughts about what we were able to see and play. While we will get fully into it in this upcoming week’s AOTF Podcast episode, I went ahead and did a final recap of the week on the final day of the expo. You can check out that video below for my thoughts.
All-in-all this E3 was very different than past years. The shift toward a standalone event for EA left them a bit outside of the conversation. We checked out EA Play, with some nice time spent on Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2, but it was a muted event that lacked the luster of E3 proper.
In terms of the actual press conferences, I think you know who I thought won. Sony had an hour of nothing but massive surprises and blockbusters. God of War, Death Stranding, and a final release date for The Last Guardian. It was, once again, like they had been reading my diary and made a show full of all of my hopes and dreams.
E3 2016 Wrap-Up Video
Microsoft on the other hand was offering hopes and dreams, but with nothing to actually show for it. The games were mostly all known quantities, and the hardware was a confusing mess. So we have a new, slim Xbox One S, but a year from now we will be getting something that practically makes it obsolete? And this new console will offer 4K gaming and “the highest quality pixels” all at what price exactly? Microsoft was offering a grand vision, but it’s still to be determined if that vision is a good one.
For the actual games, my entire E3 was just an exercise in patience, as I waited to try The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Finally going hands-on with this game was the highlight of the show, and easily cemented it as my personal “Best Game of E3 2016”. It’s just so different, melding together a lot of stuff that open world and RPG titles have been innovating on for years, while keeping that classic Zelda feel.
Second and third place on my favorite games of E3 list were Resident Evil 7 and Agents of Mayhem. You can see my thoughts on RE7 right here, but I’m still mulling over Agents of Mayhem. The game didn’t really push boundaries, or try to be something it wasn’t. It was just a nice, humorous action game, and somehow that was all that I was wanting. It might say more about where games are right now, than it does about the game itself that it impressed me so much. Still, definitely keep an eye on that one going forward.
But there were tons of other games at E3 2016. Attack on Titan, Dawn of War 3, Batman: The Telltale Series, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, and lots more. Check out the AOTF Podcasts from and after E3 to get the full rundown on those things.
