E3 2016 has come and gone and with it, the hopes and dreams of the new consoles and video games awaiting us in the future. Some companies got a head start before the E3 week began by releasing trailers of their upcoming games and generating some hype around it before showing it on the big stage. One of those people were NetherRealms Software released a trailer of Injustice 2 early in the week before E3 and then showed official gameplay the following Saturday during the Mortal Kombat X ESL Finals. Sunday finally kicked things into gear and I was locked into nearly every waking moment. So who are the big winners of this years showing?

EA showed up first on Sunday and I have to say I was very disappointed with their performance. EA only really showed off Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, and announced a few new Star Wars games coming as well as Battlefront 2. We got the usual next sports installments for Madden and FIFA 17. Madden is getting a competitive league added on and FIFA is getting its own story mode similar to NBA 2K16's. They specifically wanted to drive that home by having the principal actor emphatically shout this to the audience. Pass. One thing that definitely caught my attention is the indie game under their EA Originals program. FE. They did really well with Unravel and I'm excited to see more of this game in the future. You know what I was really looking for? Mass Effect: Andromeda. Yet this year we got more conceptual and behind the scenes footage and no actual game play to show off. It's been 4 years since Andromeda was announced and there's still nothing but abstract ideas that BioWare wants to implement. Overall, the only points I tuned in were for Titanfall 2, FE, Star Wars and Battlefield 1. A lackluster showing but nonetheless passable.

Bethesda came out next with their conference and they did pretty well. Coming hot off the presses with the amazing Doom reboot, Bethesda decided to try their hand at a new Quake title: Quake Champions and a Prey reboot. Both trailers were fantastic. Quake seems to be leaning toward the hero shooter genre and Prey is taking on a Groundhog Day like narrative with events repeating themselves. They showed off The Dark Brotherhood expansion for The Elder Scrolls Online game as well as what could essentially be Elder Scrolls: Hearthstone. I'm not a fan of it but for those who play, congrats to you all. I was praying for The Elder Scrolls VI since its been a long time since Skyrim but instead we got Skyrim: Special Edition. They have said that a 6th installment is on the way. Its a remaster of sorts that also adds mod support for consoles so get your Macho Man or Thomas the Tank Engine dragon mods ready and dive back into Skyrim this fall. Doom DLC was announced as well, the Unto Evil pack which adds more multiplayer maps and modes and much more and there are free SnapMap updates coming as well. Please give me more reasons to keep playing Doom, Bethesda. More of Dishonored 2 was shown as well and the next Fallout 4 DLC, Nuka World. VR experiences for Doom and Fallout 4 were announced also. Bethesda did a good job this year and I'm excited to see more from them, particularly Prey. Good job Bethesda, you came to E3 strong this year.

Microsoft opened up strong. Starting off with Gears of War 4 gameplay done by in game voice actor Laura Bailey. I was happy to see Gears return for this year especially the trailer that shows us old Marcus Fenix. There was more Battlefield 1 and the Forza Horizon 3 showcase. I skipped over those, the third installment looks great but it never really caught my attention. ReCore and Final Fantasy XV showed up as well with Final Fantasy having the weaker presentation of having a uneventful boss fight that ends with a quick-time event. ReCore looks cool with its third person shooter aspect with 3D platforming and I hope character switching between the main character and her robot companions. Killer Instinct got no time to shine, only showing a mini trailer of their newest guest character General Raam from Gears of War. Inside and We Happy Few blew me away with their presentations. I didn't know what was going on but I want to see more. CD Projekt Red let me down with the announcement of Gwent: The Witcher Card Game. No news about Cyberpunk 2077? Guess not. Tekken 7 was announced to be moving to consoles early next year. The fighting game fan in me was very excited to hear that.What absolutely floored me was the Dead Rising 4 reveal, I would've never seen that coming. I screamed and lost my mind. Thank you Capcom for another installment. Other reveals showed Platinum Games' Scalebound, Sea of Thieves, State of Decay 2 and Halo Wars 2. Sea of Thieves looks great in theme but I'm still not sold on it. State of Decay has been a mystery to me and I don't know much about it so I can't say much on it. Halo Wars was the first RTS I've ever played and I had the most fun with it so I am glad to see a second installment. I can't wait to play it when it releases. The biggest announcements were the Xbox One Slim and their new Xbox One console under the name, Project Scorpio which will be coming Holiday 2017. Microsoft showed up relatively weak this year as well.

Ubisoft opened with a dance presentation for Just Dance 2017. So check that off the list, we desperately NEEDED to know it was coming. Ghost Recon: Wildlands came back and I've been itching for a new Ghost Recon game. I was really happy to see it and some gameplay footage. The mission displayed was really well executed and the chase scene at the end was cool. South Park got its next game, The Fractured But Whole, taking place after the events of The Stick of Truth. This time around the fantasy element is abandoned and the kids take on superheroes, taking humorous jabs at the Marvel and DC franchises along the way. I missed out on the last game and I might give this one a chance. The Division showed off the next DLC Underground and Survival. Ubisoft also took a trip into the VR world with a demo of Eagle Flight. It looks very rough but I hope the developers can pull it together and polish it a little. Their second VR game was with Star Trek and they got titular characters from the show and films to play it including LeVar Burton and Karl Urban. I am not excited for this game at all, it looks ugly as sin and Burton was not even remotely close to convincing me that I needed to play it. For Honor got me extremely hype. I missed out on the Chivalry: Medieval Warfare bandwagon so I was need of a similar game. For Honor came back this year and showed off the ferocity and brutality of Viking combat against samurai as well as the single player campaign. Grow Up came as the sequel to Grow Home. It looks interesting and sounds like it has a lot of cool ideas. I'm looking forward to it. Watch Dogs 2 showed off more about the upcoming sequel. Here's to hoping that it is much better than the first. I really liked what the mechanics of the first game presented but the rest of the game fell flat in a lot of other areas. Steep was an interesting new game that Ubisoft presented. It looks like a snowboarding/skiing sports game thats all about the fun. It feels like a grown up version of SSX. Also announced was Trials of the Blood Dragon,that has Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon infused Trials levels with bonus mechanics thrown in. Ubisoft also talked about the developments of their upcoming Assassin's Creed, Watch Dogs, and The Division films. I wasn't impressed or disappointed with their E3 showing. For Honor and Steep were the only games that had me paying attention.

Nintendo had really nothing to offer for this year. They opted for their Nintendo Treehouse streams spending a lot of time their next Legend of Zelda installment: Breath of the Wild. I'm really happy with what I saw from all the information they revealed. The game looks amazing, We know so much but still know so little about it. Pokemon Sun and Moon were also showed as well revealing the new free for all Battle Royal mode as well as a few new Pokemon. Nothing else really stood out so Nintendo goes home packing.

Sony burst through the gates riding a tank firing off games every second. They opened with a live orchestra performance that also played live music for the games being shown. The first game was God of War revealing an older, grizzled Kratos who is much more toned down and less angry than his other games. This time we're tackling Norse mythology and I couldn't be anymore happier. This game also re-invents the God of War formula and narrative. It shifts from the zoomed out camera of the hack and slash to the third person action combat and Kratos seems to know that his actions in the previous games were bad and he is aware of that and is now trying to live a normal life. We saw more of The Last Guardian, Detroit: Become Human, Horizon: Zero Dawn and a game with zombies, Days Gone, which is attempting to rival The Last of Us. The heavy hitters were definitely Hideo Kojima, now released from his Konami prison and striking out on his own he revealed his newest project: Death Stranding. I never would've expected him to have something ready to go so soon. Capcom also dropped Resident Evil 7 on us in the most unexpected fashion; through a VR experience. Sony also announced Crash Remastered, which contains the first 3 games. Better than nothing I suppose. Skylanders Imaginators appeared, Call of Duty Infinite Warfare and Modern Warfare Remastered and Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens too. A surprise came in the form a PS4 exclusive Spider Man game under development by Insomniac Games. It isn't tied to any Spider Man film so all the content and story will be original. I'm happy to see Marvel games making a comeback and I've needed one ever since I played Spider Man: Shattered Dimension. Sony also pushed VR heavily this year. They decided not to really talk about their PS4 Neo and try to match Microsoft's Xbox One Slim but announced a ton of VR games coming. Farpoint, a sci-fi first person shooter, Batman, Final Fantasy XV VR, Star Wars: Battlefront VR X Wing Mission as well as Resident Evil 7 having VR support as well. Sony came out swinging and destroyed their competition this year hands down.

VR is a cool idea to implement but I feel like this year everyone is dropping all their eggs into this basket. They're attempting really high quality ideas for something so new. Taking a look at the weak launch of the Oculus Rift should give developers something to think about. This year of E3 wasn't very strong. I was only looking for a select few titles and they didn't show up and not a lot of new IPs were announced. We got a lot of information on games previously know. Nevertheless, I'm excited for what's coming and I'm looking forward to next year.