Truth be told, E3 2012 was a pretty underwhelming show overall, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t some awesome things to see there. Since we can’t possibly list them all in one article, we’ve picked out five things we loved during this year’s E3 for this week’s The List.
5. Dishonored
Yes, yes, this isn’t even close to an MMO, but frankly, there weren’t that many MMOs at the show and this game was shown following our presentation of The Elder Scrolls Online and it really blew me away. In short, imagine Assassin’s Creed meets BioShock and you’ve got a good idea of how Dishonored plays. Each level is handcrafted to give players extreme flexibility in how they pursue objectives and we were shown a couple examples of this with a dual playthrough of one of the game’s missions. The first run showed a possible stealth approach. This consisted of possessing a fish in order to gain entrance to the mission location and eventually the possession of one of the key targets himself. Once our marked man was possessed, he was guided out onto his balcony and then flung over it in what was made to look like suicide. As for the second run? Well, let’s just say it was a vicious and brutal murder spree that really got me excited for the game’s possibilities.
4. Brickforce
What do you get when you combine Minecraft and an FPS? Brickforce! Brickforce allows players to design their own game maps for up to 16 players (two teams of eight) and shoot each other in their oversized noggins. Each map can be tailored to a number of different game types, including FPS staples such as CTF, Deathmatch, and Team Deathmatch. We were also shown two new game modes: Build and Destroy and a variation on Survival. The former gives players two minutes to build whatever they can to defend their position before duking it out to the death. It’s a pretty neat concept and while not strictly an MMO, the Minecraft-esque elements and multiplayer gameplay look promising.
3. End of Nations
Before E3 2012, I hadn’t seen End of Nations since pre-Alpha when I visited Trion Worlds in the Fall of 2010. I was there to see RIFT (which was in Alpha at the time) and End of Nations. RIFT definitely stole the show as End of Nations looked promising, but quite rough. However, at E3 2012, End of Nations was looking much more polished and seemed to draw quite a crowd at Trion’s booth. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a hands-on with EON at the show, but if any game has a chance at crossing the RTS over to the MMO space, it’s definitely End of Nations.
2. The Elder Scrolls Online
Honestly, I really wasn’t sold on ESO when it made its debut in PC Gamer earlier this year. It just didn’t look or sound like The Elder Scrolls series I’ve loved for years. Instead of outright hating it on little information, I basically told myself I’ll see if Zenimax Online could sell me on it. I’m a clean slate as far as ESO is concerned. With that said, E3 2012 went a long way towards improving my outlook for the game. We were treated to a 30 minute presentation at the show behind closed doors and what we saw looked a lot more like The Elder Scrolls I know than what was shown in stills a couple of months back. I’m still not entirely sold on the combat system; it looks a bit slow at the moment. But I think some of the reactions we’ve seen on our boards and elsewhere may be a bit premature. Keep an open mind and maybe you’ll be surprised with what Zenimax Online has in store for you with The Elder Scrolls Online.
1. PlanetSide 2
I really can’t get enough of this game. I attended the debut presentation at this year’s GDC and was totally blown away. I really liked SOE’s talk, but at E3 2012 I got to experience the walk when I played the game myself. From what I can tell, PlanetSide 2 is everything you could hope for in a persistent MMOFPS. The integrated mobile app was a real killer too. Be careful with this one, it may just steal your life away when it comes out!
