Most Anticipated of E3: Emily

E3 is all but upon us, and the hype trains are running totally out of control. Remember that bit at the end of Back to the Future Part III? That’s what they’re like this year. Where we’re going, we don’t need roads… although we sort of do, actually, because Los Angeles is like one giant freeway with a few shops next to it.

In this series of articles, VideoGamer.com staff members single out some of the games they’re most eager to see at this year’s show. Today it’s Emily’s turn.

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

Skyrim: My heart beats only for you.

The game was officially announced last December at the lad-centric television event Spike Video Game Awards and the results were twofold: a rush of puns on the Internet that rivalled Amazon.com’s comments section for Penetrating Wagner’s “Ring”, and my own slack-chinned glee. Little can break into this ice cold rock of my journalist heart, readers, but after that trailer I think maybe…maybe…I can love again.

The game is being developed by Bethesda, which has been nurturing the Elder Scrolls series since the 90s. Interestingly, it’s not being billed as a sequel to 2006’s Oblivion – the most recent offering to the franchise. The game’s executive producer has been describing the Skyrim world as a combination of the earlier Elder Scrolls Arena and Dagger, while its art director has hinted that Skyrim will be very different to the series’ 2006 entry.

What do we actually know about the game so far? The designers have already implied they want to develop a more realistic experience, we know dragons are included, we know the legitimately brilliant Max Von Sydow (also known as “that one from The Seventh Seal and The Exorcist”, cinema fans) has been hired on for character dialogue. We also know Oblivion had been called one of the best RPGs ever made, so you’re right to assume my fingers are tightly crossed on this one.

Bioshock: Infinite

Some journalists have their Watergates or their Nam coverages which represent the single shining moment of their career, and I have that one time when I hugged Ken Levine in Germany and then tried to smell his hair.

This actually happened, and if you get close enough to your monitor when reading this interview I had with him at last year’s Gamescom, you too can get as close as you’ll likely get to ever smelling a real Levine.

This is the guy who developed what is hands down on of the best games of the 90s, if not one of the top games ever made. System Shock II is the reason we have the wonderful BioShock, BioShock is the reason we have the quite good BioShock 2 [a game that wasn’t developed by Levine’s studio], and BioShock: Infinite is set to be the first full new title Irrational Studios has released since 2007.

The skeptics have called it Skyoshock after a trailer showing the game taking place on a floating city, moving from the underwater city of Rapture to new airborne real estate. But our very own Neon Kelly was able to get a closer look at Infinite recently, and hints at a very different atmosphere than anything we’ve seen in previous titles.

Despite sharing the same universe, Infinite moves away from the Randian philosophy that spurred the original game’s plot and goes forward with a biting and critical interpretation of the dark side of American exceptionalism. This seems to be very much its own animal.

Mass Effect 3

I like to think the fact that Mass Effect 3 will be taking place in a future megacity based on my home town, Vancouver, means BioWare have been getting my fan mail. All that time I spent sending them personal fanfiction (where Garrus is inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and I am his wife) wasn’t all for naught.

This isn’t overstatement: Mass Effect 2 ultimately stands up as one of my favourite pieces of entertainment, let alone video games. Even more specifically, it’s one of very few games whose characters I feel legitimately protective of.

So the announcement that we’d be seeing the likes of Garrus, Jack, Tali, Mordin, even Joker, is enough to satiate me until its release. A release which, at this point, has been pushed from its original “late 2011” status to early 2012.

The game’s gameplay designer Christina Norman has already reportedly said of the upcoming E3 demo: “No doubt in my mind our best demo, and our best game, ever.” Needless to say, you’ll have to take with a grain of salt anything someone says of their own work. Regardless, this third and final instalment is set to be one of the most anticipated titles of the event. A return of the Reapers, and the introduction of Earth? Yeah, that sounds alright to me.

Other games I’m eager to see: Uncharted 3, Batman: Arkham City, XCOM, Devil May Cry, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine