STACK #141 Jul 2016

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That's an E3 fact... Twitter registered seven million E3- themed posts.

changes, will undoubtedly test the team in Australia when it comes time to present it to the ratings board – we’d love to be a fly on the wall for that submission. Elsewhere on the stand, time spent with Watch Dogs 2 , now set in San Francisco, revealed a game that felt tighter than the original, and offered more gameplay options when completing missions. With no Assassin’s Creed this year, Ubisoft are banking on this one filling the gap. Ghost Recon: Wildlands gave us our Tom Clancy fix – annual leave has already been reserved for this release and the four-player co-op mission we played through merely hinted at the sheer size of the game; the ambition here is admirable. For Honor also stood out at E3. This is a thinking person’s hack ‘n’ slash title. In the game, blocking a riposte is as important as delivering an offensive stroke, so a great degree of thought has to be applied to your combat strategy. If you’re looking for a booth of E3 award, 2K had it in the bag for Mafia III . It was two stories, had fortune tellers inside, and even a jazz band on hand. We were here to see the aforementioned game, and it didn’t disappoint. Inside a room designed to look like an old cinema, gameplay was presented across a

Saint’s Row fans will be happy to hear that Volition are back with its latest...

development at Arkane Studios, is reportedly not a direct sequel to the original game released back in 2006, and will replace the troubled development behind Prey 2 . Quake is finally returning after an extended absence, with id Software’s Quake Champions ; an eSports focused title coming to PC only. Saints Row fans will be happy to hear that Volition are back with Agents of Mayhem , a game vaguely tied to the SR universe. Choose from three agents, each with their own unique abilities and all of which are playable, in this insane mash-up of comic books and cartoons. After about 20 minutes of gameplay, we declare it’s a lot of fun. The Square Enix booth was the usual hive of activity, with extensive queues forming for Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, due out in December of this year. A 25-minute gameplay for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided welcomes back Adam Jensen in another, and somewhat darker, adventure, with emphasis on options for players. Go loud, or stealth – the choice is yours. While Final Fantasy XV wasn’t playable at E3 this year, a gameplay demo at the Microsoft press conference kept the faithful happy ahead of its September release. Upstairs in the meeting rooms, Namco Bandai were showing off Tekken 7 – built on Unreal Engine 4 and featuring Street Fighter’s Akuma – in a behind-closed-doors session. In a second presentation, the developers behind Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 told us that all the improvements were based on player feedback. They also promised to support the game for up to a year after release. The only one of four (at the time we played it) to blow up the bridge in the Sniper Elite 4 level on show at Rebellion, we received… a handshake. There is always something

Attano and his daughter, former Empress Emily Kaldwin, each versed in different powers. The rumours surrounding a current gen upgrade of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim proved to be correct – our Alesha is still barely controlling herself at the news. While Todd Howard did

confirm the existence of an Elder Scrolls VI game, he also said there are two big games due before we can expect to see it. Prey , due in 2017 and now in

That's an E3 fact... More decibels were measured in the toilets at E3 than on the show floor.

GAMES

giant screen, outlining more about the story. The setting, New Bordeaux, will feature ten districts spread across a huge gameplay area. This year, Bethesda’s big focus was Dishonored 2, with the first gameplay video on show at the publisher’s press conference. In the sequel, players can flip between original Dishonored protagonist Corvo

Dishonored 2 Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

JULY 2016

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