Where as the other two console manufacturers showed off plenty of games and even some hardware, Nintendo appears to have been like the lethargic schoolboy rushing to put something together to show that they've done something by turning up to E3 with little more than a new Legend of Zelda game and yet another Pokémon game. I can't say I blame them however. In terms of E3 and the audience that follows it, Nintendo don't need to be too concerned about what to bring to the party. After all, their market is families and parents, not hardcore gamers and the media that serves them.

Nevertheless, gamers are still wont to buy Nintendo products for certain first-party gems among the family and child-oriented games. Knowing this, Nintendo dedicated the best part of their conference to showing off the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The game looks stunning and Nintendo says that players will get to roam freely around a sprawling open world.

Nintendo also spent a significant amount of time showing off the new Pokémon games: Sun and Moon for the 3DS. Compared to the most recent entries, it's hard to see how much has changed. There are new Pokémon of course, but other than that, there's a better battle camera. I'm sure there'll be many minor improvements and additions that Pokéfans will love but personally, I've left the series behind a long time ago and couldn't imagine finding the interest now to return to it.

And that was about it for Nintendo. They showed off a few other games but nothing special or wow-inducing. Aside from the Big Three however, we did get some juicy footage from the likes of EA in the forms of Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, Mass Effect: Andromeda and FIFA 17. Battlefield 1, set during WWI looks to play about as you'd expect for a Battlefield game now at this stage with a few new additions such as large blimps that rain down terror upon the battlefield, a greater level of destruction and a dedicated Tank class.

Titanfall 2 on the other hand promises to address the issues that made the first game suffer in spite of a popular beta and slick gameplay. The trailer shown at E3 looked great. Developers, Respawn Entertainment have said that greater customization and more ways to play with new mech types and a greater focus on infantry combat should address the concerns players had with the first game. In addition to the multiplayer improvements, a single player campaign is present this time around but it has yet to be seen if it will be little more than an on-rails experience or something greater. I'm betting on the former.

Mass Effect Andromeda was further shown off with some in-engine footage of the new locations players can expect to visit once the game releases at the end of this year. Bioware have side-stepped the issues with Mass Effect 3's ending by throwing the player into a new galaxy to explore and have promised an all new story separate from that of Commander Shepard and his crew.

EA also surprised a few people by announcing a story-driven single player campaign for the new FIFA 17 featuring a young footballer rising the ranks of football stardom. For a series that has often been accused of being little more than an annual release with an updated roster and better graphics, FIFA 17's story mode could set it apart and bring new players to the already hugely popular series.

The last game to catch my attention came from Ubisoft in the form of Watch Dogs 2, which like many games shown off at E3, promises to address the concerns players had with the previous entry. Only time will tell if it truly will or if, as was the case with the first game, Watch Dogs 2 will fall flat in comparison to the hype that surrounds it.

And that's all folks! E3 had plenty more on show worth checking out so hit up your favourite gaming site to delve deeply into all the news from the convention. I hope these highlights however gave you some idea of what to expect over the next year or so of gaming.

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While Microsoft came to E3 showing off new hardware, Sony took a different approach, left Playstation Neo at home, and went all out with new game announcements and a live orchestral score underscoring the entire event. In the opinion of many gamers, their conference at E3 trumped the rest thanks to high quality games and plenty of juicy gameplay footage.

The highlight of the Sony conference and possibly the entire convention was probably the announcement of a new God of War game. The new game, simply called God of War, appears to be a reboot for the popular series. Perhaps taking influence from the popularity of the TV show Vikings, the new God of War ditches Greek mythology to place Kratos (or whatever he'll now be called) deep in Norse mythology. The footage they showed was spectacular with crisp textures, smooth gameplay, and tons of action. If any game from E3 is going to be a system seller, it's probably the new God of War.

Not content with wowing audiences with a new God of War, Sony showed off the tense, open-world zombie survival game Days Gone. The gameplay trailer is non-stop in terms of action with the intensity level turned up to 11 thanks to an endless horde of the fast and vicious zombies of the game.

The fun didn't stop there though, Sony also took the time to debut the trailer for Death Stranding, Hideo Kojima's first game post-Konami starring Norman Reedus of The Walking Dead and Boondock Saints. far from the action-packed affairs of Days Gone and God of War, Death Stranding held back on gameplay footage and opted instead to deliver an emotional and enigmatic teaser. The question remains however whether Kojima will deliver in the long run, free from the chains of the Metal Gear series that made him such a behemoth in the industry.

Then there's the reveal of Detroit: Become Human, the new brainchild of David Cage and Quantic Dream, developer of the critically-acclaimed Heavy Rain. The trailer promised a game that builds upon the formula that Cage used for Heavy Rain and with a bit of luck will mean a more meaty gaming experience than its predecessor.

Another stand-out title came from Killzone developer Guerilla Games in the form of Horizon Zero Dawn - a post-apocalyptic, open-world game set a thousand years after the fall of civilization in a world that eschews the wastelands of many post-apocalyptic worlds for one filled with verdant plants and wild animals. Also populating the world, aside from the surviving humans are the robotic creations of the bygone civilization. The game itself looks like it takes some influence from the Monster Hunter series of games with the developers making nods to both GTA and Skyrim in describing the type of game it will be.

Finally, for all you horror fans out there, Capcom revealed Resident Evil 7 which looks set to not just scare the proverbial shite out of you but very likely scare the actual shite out of you with its first-person VR focused perspective. A teaser demo for the game is now available from the Playstation Store.

Now I leave you with the live orchestra opening up the Sony conference for your listening and viewing pleasure. Come back tomorrow for highlights on the rest of E3 where we'll see the new Zelda game, Battlefield 1, Watch Dogs 2 and more!

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Every year in the Los Angeles Convention Center, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is held. Publishers, Developers and Hardware Manufacturers from around the world come to show of their latest games or pieces of kit for the media and gamers everywhere. For many gamers, E3 is the event of the year, eclipsing the European Gamescom convention and the Asian Tokyo Game Show. This is the event where the console manufacturers unveil their consoles and provide us all with what we can expect from them in the year to come.

E3 2016 was no different. The big three put on their shows and the biggest publishers showed off their upcoming games. Here now are my personal highlights from the convention; What stood out and what piqued my interest. Take note however that this is in no way a comprehensive collection of what E3 had to offer. There was so much on display and so much to talk about that I can only direct you towards dedicated Video Game websites for more information and a full accounting of the convention.

Microsoft

The first of the Big Three to take to the floor was Microsoft. With Sony recently having announced a new, more powerful PS4 model, codenamed "Neo", Microsoft hit back with their own upgraded Xbox One in Project Scorpio. Project Scorpio will feature a new GPU that allows for playing games at 4k resolution and an increase to 12GB of GDDR5 memory. Early reports hint at the GPU being based on a cut-down version of AMD's Vega architecture and pumping out 6 Teraflops with a clock speed somewhere around 800Mhz. The memory supposedly has a throughput of 320GB/s so the assumption is that we'll be seeing 12GB of GDDR5 on the board. All in all, Project Scorpio, when it launches, looks like it could be on track to beat the Playstation Neo in terms of raw performance. Whether Microsoft can compete with Sony on the games front however, has yet to be seen.
Oh yeah, and there's a new slimmed down model of the standard Xbox One on the way.

Speaking of games, Microsoft showed off some shiny new exclusives for XBox One. But they also revealed just how exclusive they would really be with the announcement of Play Anywhere which will ensure the release of Xbox One exclusives on PC and allow gamers to buy one of the supported games for Xbox One and play it for free on PC and vice versa. Of course, when I say PC, I really mean Windows 10 so if you're still (like me) hanging onto the great Windows 7, you'll be shit out of luck.

The exclusives they showed look promising and while stalwarts such as Gears of War 4 and Forza Horizon 3 were to be expected, they did show off a new game from the makers of Limbo called Inside that looks to be an evolution upon that game and could well be as great and introspective of an experience as it was.

Another game that looks like it could be a lot of good fun is Recore, a charming yet challenging looking platformer from Keiji Inafune, the man behind the classic Mega-Man. Being the character designer on those games certainly seems to have paid dividends for Recore and the art style and designs look superb. Meanwhile, the combat and platforming seems set to be action-packed and full of interesting ways to play.

Yet another noteworthy exclusive came from the critically-acclaimed Platinum Games in the form of Scalebound, a co-op action adventure game that I can best describe as the child of Digimon and Devil May Cry.

The last title that stood out to me, but certainly not the least was Sea of Thieves. Developed by Rare, Sea of Thieves looks to be a return to old form for the developer as they rise from lackluster Kinect titles to produce a multiplayer game about pirates that promises to be a rip-roaring favourite for online play.

Finally, Microsoft showed off their new custom controllers, that allow for gamers to professionally personalize their gamepads and stand out among their friends. The controllers will retail for $79.99 so expect the EU and UK cost to be a little higher.

Come back tomorrow for a highlights from Sony's E3 Press Conference where they showed off a child killing their first animal and a naked Norman Reedus!

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