E3 2012 contained many solid titles (mostly sequels), but only one can be deemed worthy enough to earn the title of “Best at E3”. So, which one impressed fellow writer Richard Subia and I above all else this year? Read on to find out.
Josh Garibay: Watch Dogs
I’m sure you’ve heard it a million times by now, but Ubisoft easily showed up the Big Three this year. Things started off strong with Assassin’s Creed 3 naval combat gameplay, Far Cry 3’s single player demo and 4-player co-op announcement, Wii U’s very own first-person survival game ZombiU and the first-ever footage of Splinter Cell: Blacklist. However, none of those could touch Ubisoft’s unveiling of their new IP, Watch Dogs. This year’s E3 contained very little in terms of reveals and my expectations began to dwindle. That is, until I saw the Watch Dogs announcement. An open-world title revolving around a hacker assassin that can interact with all electronics? Yes, please! The demo showed off a gorgeous open world with crisp, detailed graphics that are rare for games of this scale.
The demonstration showed off the protagonist, Aiden Pierce, interact with cell phones, cameras and traffic lights. Anything electronic could be manipulated by this deadly hacker, and we were lucky enough to see how it all played out. The best part was easily when Pierce changed the light at a busy intersection from green to red, causing the target’s vehicle to get t-boned by another car. It was time to forget about the flashy tech for a second and focus on good ‘ol fashioned third-person gunplay. The adaptive cover system, slow motion sequences and gritty kills were all present. Obviously, we only saw a small snippet, but the game looks to be full of potential and may very well become one of the most successful new IPs. Maybe if Agent or GTA V had made an appearance, it might have had some stiff competition, but that wasn’t the case. Watch Dogs stole my attention as one of the few games that wasn’t a sequel, continuation, etc. and has me keeping a close eye on it, and I recommend you do the same.
Richard Subia: Borderlands 2
Borderlands offered players a fun shooter that mixed genres and delivered on the promise of thousands of crazy gun combinations. Borderlands 2 kicks that up and gives players new characters, a new story new environments and a bazillion more guns. After getting some hands-on time with the game at E3 2012, I can safely say it is the best things that I saw during the event. The guns were even crazier (I found a pistol that shot sticky grenades out of it) and there were new skills to go along with the new characters.
Borderlands 2 manages to take everything that made the first game awesome and make it even more awesome and epic. Being a huge fan of the first game, and having played the second, I can hardly wait to get my hands on the full game. I am also glad it is bringing back both online and split-screen co-op so I can play with friends and family no matter where they are at. Gearbox has definitely found something that works well for them. I just hope they don’t see it as more of a money maker and start turning it into Call of Duty.
In case you missed it, a “Worst of E3” article was also put together. If you’d like to see the titles that evoked emotions opposite of the two games listed above, you can read about them here.
