What We’re Most Looking Forward to at E3 2018

E3 2018 officially begins on June 12th, but the press conferences and announcements will start rolling in before that. We already know it’s going to be a big year — both by the amount of titles we’re already locked in to see, and the sheer number of unannounced titles. This is one of those years in which large blocks of game writers’ schedules are reserved for… well, no one knows yet.

We’re already super excited about some of the things we’ll definitely be seeing. You can visit FANDOM to watch all of the announcements come through, and we’ll have more interviews and gameplay impressions on the most promising games during the show.

Here’s what’s piqued our interest the most so far.

Shadows Die Twice

After FromSoftware teased its next game at The Game Awards, this has been our reason for getting up in the morning. Could it be Bloodborne 2? Could it be Tenchu?

We’ve heard that Bandai Namco won’t be showing a FromSoftware game this year, so our many eyes (geddit?) will be on the Sony press conference to see if any Yharnamites appear. To be fair though, it would be strange. The obvious Eastern setting, in that era, would mean Bloodborne 2 was kind of copying Nioh, which was kind of copying Bloodborne.

We recently went through all the possibilities of what the creators of Dark Souls could be up to:

Though there are some strong real-world hints towards Bloodborne 2, it seems just as likely it could be a Tenchu game, or Shadow Tower, or even Kuon.

Cyberpunk 2077

CDProjekt will almost certainly be showing its next big game at the expo, and we didn’t need a leak to tell us that.

With the massive success of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, all eyes are on this one. And rightly so. The Witcher 3 set the bar for traditional storytelling in games, and years later it still maintains a spot in the yearly top seller’s list.

The vigilant will also be looking for tie-ins to Wild Hunt, as there have been hints toward connections both in-game and out. Developers have teased the idea, and after Ciri gained her world/dimension travelling abilities, she talked about spending time on an advanced planet where everyone “had chips in their heads” and could wage war from afar.

Valkyria Chronicles 4

This franchise’s blend of an anime World War II setting, turn-based tactics, and real-time movement and aiming seriously won us over as soon as we tried it. As it did many others.

There’s a host of Valkyria Chronicles fans out there who have only played the first game. Its sequels went through an unfortunate phase of being limited to the PSP. And as good as this franchise is, few would have bought a new system for it. This new instalment will be on PS4, Xbox One, and Switch.

That means Valkyria Chronicles 4 is the first proper sequel for many a turn-based tactics fan. There’ll be a host of improvements and features added, and we can only hope the wider availability of Valkyria Chronicles 4 is reflected in the story. It’d be a shame for a large section of the audience to be punished for not having a PSP.

The Last of Us Part II

This is an interesting one. We’re incredibly interested to see what Naughty Dog will bring to the table this time — especially since this is one of those sequels no one was really asking for.

We don’t mean that in a bad way. The Last of Us was incredible. What it achieved with Ellie’s arc was a real achievement and it paved the way for God of War. How do you even follow that?

What’s more, how do you continue that story? Why do you continue that story? We’ll be keen to see if this is just a straight continuation from the ending of the last game and DLC, or if something more interesting is afoot. There’s the potential for this to go either way, but if there’s a studio you’d put your trust in, it’s Naughty Dog.

Fallout 76

What other game can keep people glued to a stream for hours on end, in the hopes of spotting some tiny detail?

Instead of Fallout 6, we have Fallout 76. Bethesda surprised us not too long ago with a Fallout release just a few months away from its announcement at E3. We’re very much a fan of that kind of no-nonsense hype cycle. Here’s hoping it does it again.

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey

This little announcement comes by way of keychain.

Most of all, we’re excited to see where this franchise is headed this year. And by that, we don’t mean the setting. We mean we want to see if Ubisoft is back on the Assassin’s Creed treadmill of annual releases.

There was a break of a few years before Assassin’s Creed Origins, and the series was all the better for it. Origins is a decent game. Ubisoft’s next move could be very important — crank out as many as it can on this new engine or take the same amount of care with each release?

Remedy’s ‘P7’ Game

Another one we know little about, the new game from Remedy is dubbed “P7,” which we’ll find more about at E3.

This is the studio that brought us Alan Wake, and many are understandably expecting Alan Wake 2. Time will tell.

All the Unannounced Games

This year is going to be big for unannounced titles. It won’t be a quiet E3. Some of them we already know about (but can’t say yet), and some of them have been kept quiet.

Be sure to check back here at FANDOM during E3 2018, June 12th-14th, when we’ll be putting up all the gameplay, interviews, and impressions for these.