Most Anticipated of E3: Martin

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 Martin’s turn.

Mass Effect 3

Even though Emily mentioned it yesterday, and even though I’m sure it won’t win me any favours with Tom, I can’t help but mention Mass Effect 3 – easily my most anticipated game in the galaxy. If I had to murder all the other games to ensure Mass Effect’s survival, I would do so without hesitation.

I want to see Mass Effect 3. I need to see Mass Effect 3. My entire body is screaming out for Mass Effect 3, and I follow the Twitter feeds of BioWare staff just get snippets of what’s coming up in the promised live demo. When they announced Mass Effect was slipping from 2011 to 2012 I literally fell to me knees and wept. It took three people and 14 tranquilizer darts to finally sedate me.

I have to write this without spoiling anything, but one of the reasons Mass Effect has burrowed its shiny space-hooks into me is because of the sheer strength of its cast. I couldn’t give a rats pooper about most game characters; I was genuinely hoping [redacted] would snuff it in Heavy Rain, for instance, just because it might make my cold, black heart actually feel something other than utter despair at all the wonky French accents. But Mass Effect somehow found my conscience and beat it to a bloody pulp, so now I’m saying a prayer every night for Shepard and desperately hoping Garrus doesn’t get killed by the Reapers.

Really, though, it’s one of the few games that’s become more than the sum of its parts – Mass Effect has the potential to be the strongest trilogy ever seen in video games. I am completely baffled at how anybody could be more excited about anything else.

Uncharted 3

Uncharted 2 is another one of that extremely rare breed of games that mix action and story in a way that isn’t complete guff. I think Naughty Dog’s series works so well because of its small cast – I remember originally thinking that Chloe and Harry might even overload the first game’s perfect mix of character, but I was proved completely wrong. Provided there’s still a bit of banter between Sully and Drake then my heart will forever belong to Naughty Dog.

When it comes to character, few games do it with this much charm. Just take Uncharted 2’s closing moments, where [redacted] asks Drake how upset he was that they almost died on a scale of one to ten, and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about. Team Bondi could use the TRON laser to actually implement the real-life Aaron Staton into LA Noire and it still wouldn’t be able to tickle my emotions like some of Uncharted’s conversations do.

Naughty Dog has also said Uncharted 3 won’t be trying to hit all the same notes as Uncharted 2, and that’s exactly what I needed to know: they’re not trying to replay their last work, but instead make a whole new tune. That’s music to my ears.

Man, I’m good at analogies.

But, seriously, few developers have Naughty Dog’s talent for adapting their most fundamental elements. For instance, take the level featuring Temzin in Uncharted 2, which I think is one of the most adventurous steps taken by a developer this generation. To have a series notable for its dialogue and banter-packed exchanges have you paired with a character that doesn’t speak English for the best part of an hour was absolutely ingenious, and it also proved Naughty Dog were talented enough show character development with very little dialogue. Plus you could pat a Yak. Job done.

Battlefield 3

I need to see this running on console, but I’m fairly sure EA is only going to show it running on PC during E3. I don’t really care about hardware – I’d say I was platform agnostic if it didn’t make me sound like such a colossal dweeb – but Battlefield is a social game and most of my friends play on consoles. Ergo, I need it on console.

Normally I couldn’t give a thrupenny bit for hardware, which is why the NGP and Project Cafe do very little to my personal hypometer, but I need to see how this game looks on Xbox 360 and PS3. Sure, what we’ve seen on PC looks phenomenal and DICE is aiming for parity – but is it actually achievable? I think it’s safe to say the framerate has to take a cut, but provided it keeps it steady at around 30fps it should be fine for online play.

So far EA and DICE have sold us on a concept, but the ideal of Battlefield 3 is exciting enough to put it leaps and bounds ahead of the competition. DICE’s pedigree is also particularly strong: Bad Company 2 is, without a doubt, the Xbox 360’s finest team-based multiplayer game. A good bout of Team Fortress 2 on the PC might just edge it out in terms of raw quality, but a squad of you and three other mates dropping bombs in Valpariso is absolutely divine.

Battlefield 3 has extraordinary potential, and that’s why I’m going to make an immediate beeline for the game at E3. I know there’s a single-player campaign, and the footage looks absolutely great, but I simply don’t care about going it solo all that much; it doesn’t set my pulse racing in the way that even the thought of Battlefield 3’s multiplayer does.

Awesomenauts

I’m only supposed to write about three games, but I can’t sign off without devoting a small bit of time to this. Awesomenauts is a rare beast: a downloadable game that’s hoping E3 will showcase its delectable wares. It probably won’t – most journalists (including us) will be off somewhere else, bugging someone to talk about their opinion of Bobby Kotick or whether a hardcore game could ever work on Kinect. Alas.

Still, that doesn’t mean I’m not eagerly anticipating Awesomenauts – it looks like what would happen if Super Smash Bros and Castle Crashers got together for a steamy debauched romp and one of them (whoever is the female in this analogy) accidentally got pregnant. Yes please. Between looking up footage of the other games with bigger budgets, would you kindly do me a favour and spend a couple of minutes checking this out?