Having already twittered quite enough about the entire thing today I thought I would break the blog out of semi-retirement for a short babble on some of the things that impressed me most from the first day of E3.

Obviously the big things were the Microsoft and Sony presentations but I don’t have a lot to say there that hasn’t been said everywhere else already. Sony “won” the traditional battle of E3. Microsoft put on a good show for their console but pretty much every fair criticism of the Xbox One is something Sony is doing the “right” way with Playstation 4. Coupled with smart multimedia deals, pursuing indie developers to get them onboard and some neat exclusive games and if you can only purchase one console the PS4 is the clear choice. All that could change before launch, but Microsoft’s pretty deep into their particular hole, so I’m not betting on it.

But what about the games?

There were a few standouts for me, so in no particular order:

• Destiny (Gameplay video) – From Bungie, the guys who made Halo, comes another shooter which I had honestly dismissed prior to E3. The images shown prior could just as easily have been from a Halo title and nobody would have known. Seeing it in motion is a whole different thing. Beautiful lighting, vibrant colours, some interesting AI to fight, literal drop-in multiplayer, a public event (read: boss battles) system and bunches of loot to collect? Very much my cup of tea. (Multi-platform)
• Ryse: Son of Rome (Gameplay video) – Better known for Far Cry and Crysis, Crytek have branched out for an historical action fighter-y thing. The gameplay video shows the player storming a castle as a Roman Centurion, which is a thing I would like to do. The quick time events system may end up ruining this as there was a lot of “Press X to finish him” stuff going on… but it’s Rome and sword and such! (Xbox One)
• The Division (Gameplay video) – It’s actually “Tom Clancy’s” The Division, but who cares. Shortly after the breakdown of society in an open world setting you raid buildings for supplies and… you know, I’m really not sure what the goal is, other than shooting a bunch of things. But it all looks fantastic. The gameplay video has players shooting precise bullet holes through glass and metal on cars, using skills and combined tactics to defeat their enemies and at one point a drone pilot drops in to assist them before buzzing back off to parts unknown.

Those’re just three truly new games I saw that really grabbed my interest. There are no doubt more I’ll see in the next week that I’ll also fancy. Not to mention games I already knew were coming, like Watch Dogs.

But the one I’m most excited about is also the one there’s virtually no information on: Star Wars Battlefront, coming from the creators of the Battlefield series of games, DICE. And that’s all the information there is on Battlefront.

Please sir, I’d like some more!