It’s that time of year again when all the nerds in the office climb out of the cupboard to tell you how good a year it was for games and how you should be excited about the latest Naughty Dog masterpiece, and so on.
E3 often provides some moments of gold to look out for, especially in the sporting world, with EA dominating the main stage with FIFA, Madden, NHL and a number of other sports titles, so we’re taking a look at what we want to see at this year’s E3! (And then I’ll return to the cupboard)
FIFA 20
Right, anyone that’s played FIFA 19 this year, you know that it’s been a long painful year for a former beast of the gaming world.
It seems that the eSports approach to online play has killed the game for many of its casual players, shown by one of the Trophies/Achievements on the game unlocked by qualifying for the ‘eSports ready’ FUT Champions mode, with just 13.5% of all players playing this mode.
We’d love to see some new features for Career Mode and Pro Clubs, two extremely malnourished game modes in dire need of refreshment. With ‘The Journey’ coming to an end as well, it should allow more time to be spent on these game modes, as well as adding a casual game mode to Ultimate Team, allowing people that don’t live and breathe FIFA to be able to enjoy it at their own pace.
Fight Night Champion 2
This is the holy grail. The one everyone’s been waiting for. We haven’t had a Fight Night game since 2011 (excluding mobile games) and it’s about time we got another.
We’re hoping it’s a follow up on Fight Night Champion, just to bring back the old rivalry of Andre Bishop and Isaac Frost.
It’s nice having UFC 3 include them as extra characters but it’s just not the same without the bare knuckle fights in prison, the challenges to win a fight and the ability to fight online from your own gym!
Just imagine the addition of classic fighters like Calzaghe, Tyson and Ali to the modern day brawlers like Joshua, Wilder and Fury, it would be carnage!
UFC 4
UFC 3 was a delightful fighting game with everything that you could possibly want from an MMA experience from the comfort of your own living room.
The combination of a lengthy career mode, combining the out-of-octagon experience with some brutal fighting, alongside multiple online and offline game modes, allowing you to play against friends or anybody around the world is something that really sold the game.
A fourth instalment of the current UFC title could expand on the existing version’s career mode, Ultimate Team and add even more fighters to the roster.
The recent additions of being able to pair Conor McGregor and Bruce Lee in the Octagon is something to keep the casual players happy, but the only way is up with any new instalment of the series.
Session
You’ve probably missed out on this one unless you were watching a Microsoft live stream about it last year.
Basically, it’s another reboot of a skateboarding game - that isn’t named after Tony Hawk.
In fairness to it, it’ll be following in the footsteps of the Skate series that was beloved by many and has some promise, however we want to see more of it before making a final judgement.
BRING BACK THE HALL OF MEAT FROM SKATE 3!
Simpsons Hit & Run: Remastered
We hear what you're saying: “You should only be promoting sports games as a sport-based company”, but find me someone in the world that didn’t love this game.
The writers and producers of the show have confirmed they will be in attendance for a presentation on the mainstage on Tuesday, for something that no one knows, besides a special episode named ‘E my Sports’.
This could be a remaster or even a follow up to the classic fans have wanted for years - and we’re praying for it too.
