Five Favorite Games from #E32019

Taking a break from books for a moment to celebrate one of my other favorite passions: video games!  This week is E3, the big week when developers show off upcoming games, announce release dates, and occasionally reveal a surprise or two.    I’ve highlighted some of the games that caught my eye this year – what are you looking forward to?

FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE
Let’s get the big one out of the way.  I admittedly have way less nostalgia for this game than others, having only recently borrowed a friends PS2 and powered through.  I’d told myself I would watch from afar and that I didn’t need to replay this game. And then the gameplay trailer dropped and OH MY GOD GIVE IT TO ME NOW.  The game looks gorgeous, the combat looks great, and suddenly this is one of most anticipated releases for 2020. Now the big question mark is the fact that they are splitting FFVIIR into multiple games, so when will the next one come out?

ORI AND THE WILL OF THE WISPS
Mostly we just saw a gameplay teaser at E3, which seems to emphasize combat a lot more in this iteration than in its predecessor, ORI AND THE BLIND FOREST.  Regardless, this will likely be a release day purchase for me, given how much I LOVED the first game.

STAR WARS JEDI: FALLEN ORDER
I am admittedly not 100% sold on this game, but I’m fairly eager to have a new Star Wars game in my life, so I have to get a little bit excited.  While the gameplay we saw at E3 was fairly linear, the developers have said elsewhere that the majority of the game will be more akin to BREATH OF THE WILD, where you can go to which ever planet you want, with certain areas blocked until you unlock certain abilities.   This one remains in the question mark pile, and I’ll probably wait on reviews before digging in.

ASTRAL CHAIN
Every time I see this game I am reminded of just how much I love a good anime aesthetic.  I can tell you pretty much nothing about the plot, but damn if a kickass anime woman with a mysterious cyber partner conjured by a chain weapon (??) isn’t very much everything I want in a game.  Reviewers who got to play the demo were impressed, so hopefully this will be a solid game!

DEATHLOOP
We pretty much only saw a cinematic trailer for this game, which seems to comprise two assassins caught in a sci- fi Groundhog’s Day scenario.  One assassin wants to “preserve” the loop, the other wants to break it.  No indication of how this concept actually manifests in terms of game play, but I’m definitely keeping an eye on this one!

CYBERPUNK 2077 – Now with Keanu Reeves!
I have very mixed feelings about next year’s big RPG release, CYBERPUNK 2077.  Last year’s demo trailer didn’t impress me in terms of dialogue, which seemed to insert a curse every other word in a sentence, which came across to me as a desperate attempt to prove how “mature” and “edgy” the game was.  One the one hand, I love how many customization options you are (seemingly) given based on what we’ve seen in demos, and I do love an RPG.  But with the game going out of its way to prove how violent and mature it is…I may have to give this a pass.  That said, Keanu Reeves coming on stage to announce he’s a character in the game was the best moment of E3, and I dare anyone to prove me otherwise!

There are definitely other games I haven’t mentioned (LINK’S AWAKENING looks absolutely adorable) but these are my top choices for now.  What games have looked good to you this week?