E3 2017: 10 Games We Want To See

6. Wild Arms 6

When I was thirteen years old, my father got me my first job working evenings in the produce packing facility he worked at for a few weeks so I could buy myself a Playstation (a PS One, actually, as this was in the fall of ’01). Along with the Playstation, I had enough cash to buy one game. Much to my dismay, There were no Final Fantasy games in the display case at the store I was at and I really wanted an RPG to go along with my new console, so I took a shot in the dark on a game that happened to catch my eye: Wild Arms 2.

I immediately fell in love with the game’s characters, story, music, battle mechanics and puzzle heavy exploration. Wild Arms 2 quickly cemented itself as one of my all-time favourite games and turned me into a huge fan of the series overall, which is why I’m so crestfallen that the series fell off the face of the earth after the fifth entry released in 2005.

For those not in the know, the Wild Arms games are JRPGs with a wild west setting that has elements of fantasy and science fiction with some entries leaning more heavily on the sci-fi than others.

The series differentiates itself from others JRPGs by including a lot of puzzles and problem solving in their dungeon design. Each character has their own “tools” they can use to solve puzzles as well as reveal secrets and loot, and gives dungeons a vague “Legend of Zelda” feel.

Later iterations introduced a strategic battle system based around character movement and positioning on a hexagonal grid which added a lot of depth to the fighting without making each fight a slog. Attacks and effects wouldn’t target characters or enemies but rather the hexes they were standing in. Some abilities could target more than a single hex and combo attacks required characters to stand in the same hex in order to execute, you could trap enemies in a hex that had a debuff effect and wail away, etc. It’s this battle system that, in my opinion, makes Wild Arms 5 in particular one of the best RPGs available on PS2, and considering the amount of top notch games in that genre on the system, that’s some pretty high praise.

While a new Wild Arms title is highly unlikely to be announced at this year’s E3, a new entry has been teased a time or two over the years. Wild Arms has historically been a series that tried to really evolve and improve with each iteration. Each new entry featured new things and core ideas and it’s just such a shame to see a series like that fall by the wayside. I would love to see what the horsepower afforded by the PS4 could do for the Wild Arms series. I’ve been hoping, wishing and dreaming of a new Wild Arms for over a decade now and while it’s not likely, it is entirely possible. The Final Fantasy VII remake and Shenmue 3 prove that you can never really say never in the video game industry, so I remain hopeful that I can visit the dying world of Filgaia just one last time.

 

7. Red Faction

There’s no shortage of shoot-shoot-bang-bang games around, especially in the last decade or so, but the ability to destroy and deform the environment around you has helped Red Faction stand above the pack, for me at least.

The series hit its peak with 2009’s Red Faction: Guerilla, which was an open-world action game set on Mars that gave you the ability to demolish any structure. And I don’t mean blowing up “certain” walls or any sort of scripted destruction. Every man-made structure in that game was pieced together by all the bits and bobs you might expect, and you could destroy them as you saw fit. Want a backdoor? Here’s some grenades, remote charges, a sledgehammer, even a rifle that fires vaporizing rounds. Make a backdoor. Make a skylight. Hell, knock the whole place down, piece by piece, if you like. Each structure had weight and stress, so destroying the appropriate parts of the building would send it toppling down exactly as it would in reality, or at least as close as a video game from that era could render. It was nothing short of amazing and I poured countless hours into Guerilla tearing down random buildings with nothing more than a jetpack and a sledgehammer.

There was one more entry in the series, Red Faction: Armageddon, which retained the ability to destroy any man made structure and even added in the ability to rebuild things to destroy again. But it was set entirely underground and was no longer open-world, and as a result lost the “magic” that its predecessor possessed and it flopped. Hard.

Since the last Red Faction game released, its parent company, THQ, has gone belly up and kinda-sorta reemerged as THQ Nordic. In a nutshell, Nordic Games bought a lot of IP as THQ was liquidating and then inexplicably rebranded itself as THQ Nordic. Among the IP purchased was Red Faction, so the hope lives on that we’ll get another Red Faction that could reach the heights of Guerilla. It sends a chill down my spine to think of what could be done on current gen consoles as far as structural destruction and general in-game physics go. Especially with the absolutely insane amount of power the current generation of consoles possess when compared to the PS3 and Xbox 360.

So much power, in fact, that we may see something return to the series that has been absent since its initial release: Terrain Deformation. In the original Red Faction, it was entirely possible to tunnel through the underground mines of Mars with explosives in addition to the destruction of manmade structures.

Now, a new entry isn’t likely to be announced at this year’s show, given the fact that THQ Nordic just recently announced Darksiders 3, another IP that was acquired during the liquidation of THQ. But, just because it’s not likely, doesn’t mean it’s not possible. And this is a list of things I want to see, not what I think we’ll get, and I absolutely want a new Red Faction in my life.

 

8. Insomniac’s Spider-Man

At last year’s E3, it was revealed during Sony’s press conference that Insomniac Games, the creators of Spyro, Resistance and Sunset Overdrive, would be helming a PS4 exclusive Spider-Man game. They gave us a short sizzle-reel trailer that piqued interest without really giving any answers. In fact they really didn’t tell us anything about the game. Even the title, Spider-Man PS4, is a working title. The only other thing they mentioned at E3 2016 was that this game would not be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe or tied to any particular iteration of the comic, which means it will stand on its own– a statement punctuated by the brand new duds Spidey is seen sporting in the aforementioned sizzle-reel.

Over the past year, we’ve learned precious little about the wall-crawler’s next video game outing other than it will be an open world game and we will be playing as a mix of Spider-Man and Peter Parker. It’s recently been reported that Spider-Man will release sometime in 2017. If that last tidbit is true, expect Sony and Insomniac to blow the doors open on Spidey’s next adventure at this year’s show and answer some burning questions. Like, who can we expect to be duking it out with when the game releases? Doc Ock? The Green Goblin? Venom? Carnage? I’m personally hoping for all of the above, as they would all make for incredible boss fights. What will playing as Peter Parker actually entail? That has the potential to give us some unique moments and perspective that we haven’t had in a Spider-Man game as of yet, but it will have to be handled carefully.

Playing as a super-hero’s less-than-super alter-ego has to be it’s own experience. If you throw Peter Parker into a situation that Spider-Man should handle, like any fighting whatsoever, it’s not going to be a good time. But if you put Peter in situations involving people like Mary-Jane/Gwen, Aunt May, or J. Jonah Jameson, or even situations that require the player to choose between handling a situation as Peter or Spidey? Those could serve as excellent narrative points and serve to elevate the game as a whole. There’s one more question I’d like to see answered. The question on everybody’s lips: Can a Spider-Man game finally top the web-swinging mechanics from Spider-Man 2 on PS2?

 

9. Pokemon Switch

This almost seems like a given. The mainline pokemon games have always been handheld exclusives by design. Pokemon is short for Pocket Monsters, after all. But with the Switch being a hybrid console/handheld there’s a very good chance we may finally get what many fans, myself included, have been pining for for many years: a fully 3D, high fidelity, Pokemon RPG on a “home” console.

Ever since Pokemon Stadium released on the N64 many years ago, I have wondered why Nintendo wouldn’t make a full on Pokemon game on a home console. And while that question has been answered over the years (It was always a series intended to be played on handheld, portable devices) It hasn’t made me want a console Pokemon game any less. Now, we have the Switch. A portable gaming console with the horsepower of a home console, able to be hooked up to a television; a true hybrid. Now there’s nothing stopping Game Freak from making the Pokemon game I and many others have always wanted and I sincerely hope we get to hear about it at this E3, even if Nintendo doesn’t have an actual press conference.

 

10. Square Enix’s Avengers Project

There’s really not much to say for this one. Not because it’s obvious that this is going to be an incredible game or anything, but because we know literally nothing about this game other than it’ll be a game about The Avengers and will be made by Eidos Montreal and Crystal Dynamics, a few of Square’s western studios that were behind the recent Deus Ex and Tomb Raider games, respectively.

Based on the resumes of each studio, it’s a fairly safe bet that when we step into the boots of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. we can expect an action based game with open-ended areas and RPG elements. I could be totally off the mark here, but I doubt it. I hope I’m proven right at this year’s E3. Or proven wrong, for that matter. I just know I love The Avengers and both studios involved with this project and I desperately want to know more.