My E3 2017 wishlist because a boy can dream

It’s one of the best times of the year, with E3 kicking off this weekend, followed in a month by Awesome Games Done Quick. In short, time to watch a lot of livestreams. Either way, I’m always excited to hear about new developments in the industry, even if I ultimately never procure many of the new machines or play a majority of the big name games to come. It’s fun being in the know, and I love the nightly interview segments with a mix of industry peeps over at Giant Bomb. Still, I do have some desires for this year’s event, and they are as follows:

Borderlands 3

Look, it’s time. It’s beyond time. No one really got into Battleborn, so Gearbox needs to accept this and move on to the thing that retains a strong fanbase to this day–the Borderlands series. Specifically, the one where you collect a million guns and shoot them at cel-shaded enemies, not the one where you talk your way out of a bad situation into a worse scenario. I’ve been dipping my toes back into Borderlands 2 over the last few months, but a service built solely for these new consoles would be extra great, and I’d love to see something along the lines of Hitman contracts with new raid-like bosses to attack every few weeks instead of a lackluster DLC package.

Death Stranding

We already know this game exists, but I want more info on it. Especially since Mel and I have been working our way through Hannibal and I’m finding Mads Mikkelsen to be highly watchable as an unpredictable villain. I’m still curious if it’ll play like Metal Gear Solid 4 or be a completely different thing. I suspect Hideo Kojima really likes stealth action, so it’s a good bet, but he himself can be unpredictable. I don’t expect the narrative to be clear until the game is out and played through multiple times; I just want to know what the running around is like. Either way, tell us more.

The Elder Scrolls VI: Valenwood

Fallout 4 did not take hold of me and never let go. Instead, I played it, enjoyed a decent chunk of it, beat it, murdering a lot of people to my dismay, and have not really gone back to the thing. I’ve thought often about returning to Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, but that would require booting it up on my Xbox 360, and I don’t want to do that. I’d rather wait for the next installment. Which, maybe, might be set in Valenwood. I don’t know. Your guess is as good as mine, but Bethesda is hosting its own press conference again this year, so maybe we’ll get some updates about what is next from their blockbuster high fantasy RPG time-eater. There’s probably going to be a Doom sequel too for those believing that lightning can strike twice in the same spot.

LEGO james bond

Rest in peace, Roger Moore, my favorite 007, but maybe we can bring you back to life in LEGO form. There are still plenty of LEGO games I haven’t gotten to play yet, but if this thing became a reality it would move right up to the top of my priority list. Traveler’s Tales could either do like they did with LEGO Harry Potter and split this across multiple games, or, if they loved us even just the littlest bit, put out a super compilation of Bond’s best and coolest movies for us to play through. These have everything a LEGO wants: colorful cast of characters, cool gadgets and gizmos, enhanced vehicles, and globe-trotting adventures.

Picontier

I don’t remember when this “slow living miniscape RPG” was announced, but it was some time back. Immediately, it reminded me of Stardew Valley and Rune Factory, which is great, and it was destined for the Nintendo 3DS. It’s also now coming out for the Nintendo Switch. When that is, I do not know, but I love the retro look, and having this kind of experience on the go is really appealing to me. Hopefully we’ll get some more concrete coverage during Nintendo’s streaming hours. Or it’ll just be a tiny tidbit hidden in some press release that goes out after their Nintendo Direct vid.

Suikoden VI

This is never going to happen. I know that, you know that, Konami knows that. But still, a boy can dream. Is it too much to ask for a game with an empty castle that one can fill up with people they meet along their way to stop an evil thing from becoming the ultimate evil thing? No, Dragon Age: Inquisition–you do not do the job well enough.

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Right, right. What games are you looking forward to hearing more about at this year’s E3? Speak up and share your wishlist in the comments section. Be sure to include Suikoden VI and get it trending on social media.

Another year means another chance for E3 to disappoint

Generally, I’m a quiet, but interested observer when it comes to E3. For those that don’t know, that’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, an annual video game conference and show taking place at the Los Angeles Convention center. It’s been going on for some time, shrinking and growing and mutating into a mix of hype and showmanship. In fact, I don’t think I blogged about anything E3-related last year, but I’m basing that only on Grinding Down‘s search bar power and not actually going through the archives day by day. Before that, I did tackle a few different subjects:

• Top five E3 2011 announced games that I desperately do want
• Let’s give it up for extreme violence at E3 2012
• The missing videogames from E3 2012

Now that I spend most of my days on Giant Bomb, I love watching the conferences through their eyes and ears. I’m looking forward to their coverage and lengthy, nightly podcasts with a slew of folks. It’s going to be a week of information, of absorbing and digesting. Of looking forward, maybe even to the possibility of me purchasing one of these current gen consoles, but that’s probably only likely if Bethesda does what we all what the company to do. No, not drop Horse Armor DLC for Elder Scrolls Online. Not that one bit.

Anyways, I thought it’d be good to put down some of my hopes and dreams here on digital paper. That way, if any come true, we can all point back to this moment and say I called it. Let’s break this down into some specific categories.

Games I Want to be Announced, but Most Likely Won’t be Announced

Suikoden VI. Or Suikoden: Come Up With a Cool, Pronounceable Name. Whatever it wants to be called is fine by me, so long as it exists. I can understand Konami not wanting to take a large gamble on a loved–but fairly forgotten–JRPG series at this stage, so I suggest they play it safe and release it for the Nintendo 3DS. We all saw how surprisingly well Bravely Default: Flying Fairy did, and now I’m just sitting here thinking about all the different ways Streetpassing could upgrade your castle HQ. Oh man.

Fallout 4. The rumors are out there, with the setting supposedly based around Boston. So long as I can explore the bombed out ruins of the “Cheers” bar and loot a Nuka Cola off Norm’s skeleton, I’m in. But seriously. It’s been long enough, and I’m thirsty for more VATS action, more exploring, and better dialogue options thanks to that new engine from Skyrim. I am worried that, if announced, it’ll only be for new consoles and probably not until next year, but I’m sure it’ll be worth the wait. Guess I can still attempt beating Fallout: New Vegas on hardcore difficulty until then…

Beyond Good & Evil 2. I recently finished up another playthrough of the first game, and so of course I’m reminded that more is to come. When? I don’t know. Maybe when that Rayman well runs dry. New consoles can certainly enhance the look and speed of action, but I just want more alien animals to photograph and observe.

The Last Guardian. Hey, it’s going to happen one of these years, right?

Console Trends

Backwards compatibility. Look, I know the new consoles are already out and designed in such a way that backwards compatibility is a no-go, but there are other ways to get older games playing on newer systems. It’s called loyalty, and I’d love to see some kind of system implemented that, if you have already purchased a last-gen game, you can somehow confirm that and redownload it on a new system, either for free or a greatly reduced fee. I know Sony is working on some workaround called PlayStation Now for PS1, PS2, and PS3 games on the PS4, so I’m looking forward to hearing more about that.

I mean, really. My setup at the moment is my PS2 and then my PS3 on top of it. This allows me to play everything in my collection, but requires constant unplugging and switching wires and controllers and can be a wee hassle. I want one machine that does it all, but I don’t want to have to pay for everything all over again. It’s all about loyalty again. I’ve shown mine, Sony. Your move.

PS Vita price cut. I’d be much more interested in the system if it dropped in price, especially since I can already grab a bunch of freebies for it thanks to PlayStation Plus. Maybe lost $50-75 in the price. That’d be awesome to see, as well as a greater push from Sony on why it is important to own this handheld device.

Other Stuff

The videogames industry is clearly a competition, but some days I wish it wasn’t. It can be very tiring and depressing to constantly listen to claims that Nintendo is doomed or that Sony is beating Microsoft here and there, but not in this other way. I’d love to see the industry come closer as a community, though I’m not sure how we get to that place. There will never be one videogame console; I know that. But maybe we can grow together to become one community, that loves and critiques games because we love them so, that only wants the best and most fun experiences for everyone out there.

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Those are my thoughts. What predictions for this year’s E3 do you have?