This week capped off another very eventful year at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, known more colloquially known as E3. E3 is the biggest expo of the newest videos games, systems, and innovations in technology. Yes, it’s just as nerdy as it sounds, but trust me it’s awesome -- take my word for it, don’t click away. I’m here to tell you the biggest announcements by the biggest companies and what people are the most excited to see in the near future.
Virtual Reality has completely taken the world by storm. It is absolutely everywhere, from the Oculus Rift to Samsung’s Virtual Reality headset, and this year’s E3 was full of this new craze. Sony and Microsoft released information on the VR coming to the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4, respectfully. But they were not the only ones. Virtual Reality was all over the expo, with people testing out the newest innovations in this revolutionary tool. For example, tech giant Nyko was showing off its “VR Guardian” which is an add on which will add invisible walls to your VR experience, which will save many people from traveling all over the house/potentially breaking things, and staying in boundaries by wearing a bracelet which will notify you when you left the boundaries. Not only did they unveil this, but also a “VR Motion Band” which will supposedly ease the nausea caused by virtual reality. Nyko was not the only one though, company TurtleBeach showed a headset, meant to enhance the experience and eliminate outside sound. With over 30 hours of battery-powered amplification, a removable noise cancelling microphone, and audio controls to keep you fully immersed in the VR. These will most definitely be the top of the line in virtual reality products, and if this VR boom keeps accelerating the way it has been soon we will all be immersed in a cool different world, and I cannot tell if that’s cool or horrifying.
Okay now to the things that has been plaguing your newsfeeds: the video games. The games announced this year are either the most innovative games to date or extremely nostalgic and I don’t know which I’m more excited for. The first game I want to discuss is on for the aforementioned PlayStation Virtual Reality. What is described as a “surreal horror experience” Sony announced ‘Here They Lie’ with a really creepy teaser trailer and it’s the kind of thing that is going to make me scream like a child (but I’m excited nonetheless). It looks like a new approach to virtual reality games and if it is as surreal as Sony says it is, we might be looking at a brand new type of game. Sony also teased some nostalgia, with a remastered HD Crash Bandicoot (announcement at 1:25:13) which makes the seven-year-old mesmile, also showing a trailer to ‘Kingdom Hearts 2.8’ which makes the nine-year-old me smile, and a new ‘God of War’ game which makes the very violent 11-year-old me laugh maniacally. Nintendo showed off the newest Legend of Zelda game, which everyone is excited about because it’s about time the most beloved Nintendo franchise that isn’t a short Italian plumber gets a new installment. One particular Xbox One game I am curious about is the dark, monochromatic platformer ‘Inside’ with a trailer that makes this look like a very compelling game, while also being a very mysterious one, and with a Mature rating I’m curious on what it has in store. Not only these but there were so many more cool new innovative games and if I talked about them all I would be here for a very long time. I implore you to look up all the announcements to see more.
This year’s E3 was a great one, and in my opinion was better than last year’s. But that’s just the trend because with all these great innovations and ideas, next year’s will blow this year’s out of the water. If you want to see more, there are loads of videos and profiles on the biggest and best in electronic entertainment.
