STACK #141 Jul 2016

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That's an E3 fact... Free gum distributed at the show actually tasted like the smell of Deep Heat.

Call of Duty: InfiniteWarefare

largest queues. Graham Jennings from 343 Industries told an assembled crowd during a gameplay demo that Halo Wars 2 was back through massive fan demand. The studio is partnering with Creative Assembly on the title, which is due in February 2017. For us, and we’re generally not overly interested in racers, Forza Horizon 3 , set in this fine country, was the standout. Visually this game is astounding, and the forgiving demo presented an off-road course and a road race that eventually headed onto a beach. Twice the size of Horizon 2 , and featuring a diverse range of settings, the game will start with 350 cars, including the classic 74 HQ Sandman. We’ve become accustomed to a kick-arse Tom Clancy game at the conclusion of the Ubisoft press conference, our ears ringing as we file out of the Orpheum Theatre. This year, it was new extreme sport title, Steep , and we’d be lying if we said we weren’t left wanting after the announcement. But with hands-on at the Ubi booth two days later, it started to make sense. Steep is a true open-world mountain where players undertake challenges like wingsuit racing, skiing and snowboarding. A consistent sporting franchise is missing from the Ubisoft stable, and this could prove to be the missing link. South Park: The Fractured But Whole , a sequel to The Stick of Truth and featuring a new combat system amidst the gameplay

would be folly to dismiss this one. Both levels displayed intense combat, both on Earth and in space, and Infinity Ward are clearly trying hard to bring something a little special to the annual franchise. As an additional bonus to the presentation, the devs took us through the second campaign level, Crew Expendable , in the forthcoming remastered Call of Duty: Modern Warfare . It's a knockout. Kudos to Microsoft, who had practically every game on its booth playable. Recore

The haters are always going to hate, but from what we saw at E3, it would be folly to dismiss this one

GAMES

and the well-received, pirate-themed Sea of Thieves , where players can grab their shipmates and sail on open oceans, were drawing the

That's an E3 fact... E3 Live apparently attracted 20,000 fans, although it didn’t look like that to us.

Steep

JULY 2016

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