CanGeeks top 12 reveals from E3 2017!

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) has come and gone for another year, and gamer's the world over have been left salivating as they eagerly wait for the next game they just have to play!  

From Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, to Electronic Arts, Bethisda and Ubisoft, developers came ready to fight - Because E3 is all about winning the hearts and minds of consumers, that's were the product life-cycle really begins! 

Everyone will have their own opinions on what the biggest announcements from E3-2017 were, below is my top twelve picks in no particular order, hope you enjoy!

1. Assassin's Creed Origins: Ubisoft is gong back to the beginning with the Assassin's Creed series. This new game will be set in Egypt with players assuming the role of Bayek - the last of the Medjay and presumably the first of the Assassins.  

If you've watched our recent E3 YouTube video then you know I'm looking forward to this game but would have been much happier if this had been Assassin's Creed Japan!

2. Anthem: Bioware USUALLY doesn't disappoint, or at least they didn't use too....  Either way their back with this Sci-Fi action adventure which will have players taking on the role of a "freelancer", a individual responsible for exploring new environments and protecting mankind with powerful exo-suits.

I can't imagine why this game kind of reminds me of Destiny, either way I'll give it a shot!

3. Beyond Good & Evil 2: They say that sometimes you have to look at where you've been to know where your going, I guess that's how we ended up with a prequel for a sequel to Ubisoft's 2003 smash hit - Beyond Good & Evil 2 will take place before the birth of Jade.

4. Dishonored - Death Of The Outsider: Bethesda is billing this title as a stand-alone expansion to Dishonored 2, players will take on the role of Megan Foster who is an ally to both Corvo & Emily.

The real question here is with a new character, and a new story doesn't that equal a new game? 

5. Kirby: Nintendo may have FINALLY given me a reason to buy a Switch because I'm a sucker for Kirby! But with the game neither possessing an official title or release date I guess I still have time to save my money and wait for a price-drop.

6. Skull & Bones: This game really sounds like World Of Tanks with the tanks being replaced by pirate ships!  Either way, with 5V5 navel battles it sounds like Ubisoft has another hit on their hands - Yo Ho Yo Ho it's a Pirates life for me!

7. A Way Out: When I saw the reveal for this game the VERY FIRST thing that came to mind was Prison Break!  From the studio that brought you Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons this multiplayer title will follow two escaped convicts as they work together to stay one step ahead of the law while trying to come to terms with the choices that have lead them to were they are now.

8. Wolfenstein II - The New Colossus: BJ Blazkowicz is back in this direct sequel to 2014's Wolfenstein: The New Order, this time around BJ will be operating in Nazi-occupied America - this looks like another Homefront style game but it can't be nearly as bad!

9. Crackdown 3: Finally Microsoft has given me another reason to use my Xbox One, guess I need something else to hold that door open now! Crackdown 3 is due to release November 7th and will once again find players working as genetically enhanced super-cops in an open world environment - Its time to blow some shit up!

10. Spider-Man (PS4): Sony scored a major victory at E3-2016 when they announced that Insomniac Games was working on an open world Spider-Man game that would be exclusive to their platform.  This Year they showed off the first game-play.  The title is reminiscent of Rocksteady's Batman games with the focus being on the web-slingers grace and agility.

All we need now is a release date.

11. South Park - The Fractured Butt Whole: After being pushed back a couple of times already Ubisoft confirmed the release date for this title, October 17th 2017 - I want to believe, I really do.

12.  Star Wars Battlefront II: We saw game play, lots of game play, most of this we have seen prior to E3 though.  You would almost think that Lucasfilm and Disney are using this game to build hype for The Last Jedi.  With the introduction of a single player story and space battles I'm guaranteed to purchase this game BUT after the disappointment that Star Wars Battlefront was I think I'll wait for some reviews first - Unless of course EA wants to give me an advanced copy (wink wink, nudge nudge!)

These are my twelve picks for the biggest announcements and reveals at this years Electronic Entertainment Expo, what did you walk away from this years E3 feeling happy about?  Let us now in the comments and remember to follow us at cangeek.com.

Thanks for reading!

Assassins Creed: the CanGeek Review

Movies based on video games are usually notoriously awful, the complex backstories developed for most games just don't transfer well to the silver screen.

If you have any doubt about this then you need not look further than Wing Commander, Max Payne, Street Fighter, Double Dragon, or DOOM.  All of these titles offered an enjoyable game play experience, but none of them provided a satisfying viewing experience.

However having said that I keep coming back for more, because were there have been some truly repulsive ports to the big screen there have also been some fantastic attempts made, Mortal Kombat was never going to win an Oscar but it was still a lot of fun to watch!  

So what about the Assassins Creed movie?

Developed by Ubisoft, Assassins Creed is a series that has done an outstanding job of creating a lavish story, a story depicting a centuries old battle between the Knights Templar and the Assassins.

The Templar's seek to bring peace to humanity through control, this will be accomplished utilizing The Animus as a means to an end.  The Animus is a machine which allows a person to relive the memories of their blood ancestors through a virtual reality experience.  With this technology a mega-corporation known as Abstergo, which is the public face of the Knights Templar, secretly abducts individuals who are known to be descendants of long dead Assassins.

These individuals are then forced to relive moments from their ancestors lives as the Templar's search for clues which will lead them to the Pieces Of Eden.  The Pieces Of Eden are artifacts believed to hold great power, power which will give the Knights Templar the ability to strip away humanities freewill.

For the abducted over exposure to the Animus has several side effects including dementia, insanity, and brain damage, but it also causes a bleeding effect which bestows the skills and abilities of the users ancestor upon them - newly awoken Assassins!  Like their long dead ancestors these Assassins seek to protect our right to freewill at the cost of their own lives.

With a story that has spanned across multiple consoles and game installments could a single movie hope to do this franchise justice?  No but it was a good start!

With a cast which included Michael Fassbender, Jeremy Irons, and Marion Cotillard, the Assassins Creed movie followed the story of Callum Lynch, a death row convict who is executed only to wake up days later as a guest of the Abstergo corporation.

Lynch is manipulated into reliving the events of his ancestors life through the Animus while the Templar search for the apple of Eden, an artifact that his ancestor Aguilar is known to have had at one time. Much like the peaces of Eden the Templar's believe the apple of Eden holds the secret to our control.

Although the cast and crew did a decent job of translating the basic backstory from game to film its obvious that we should expect at least one or two sequels to fill in the blanks in the near future.

With only two real complaints, the unnecessary use of subtitles and the animus fight scenes which saw Fassbender being thrown around like the feather in the opening sequence of Forrest Gump, The Assassins Creed film is a good start and worth watching at least once.

Have you seen this movie yet?  Do you agree or disagree with us?  Let us know in the comments below and remember to follow us at cangeek.com.

Thanks for reading!

Whats happened to Cyberpunk 2077?

When I was fifteen years old a close friend introduced me to this amazing new tabletop RPG that he had just purchased.....

Published by FASA (the makers of both Mechwarrior and Battletech) this new game used a not to distant dystopian future as a backdrop and incorporated both science fiction and fantasy as a means of engaging its players in some truly creative storytelling.

Needless to say that by the end of our first adventure I was in love with Shadowrun!

My fascination for Shadowrun prompted me to develop a love for all things within the cyberpunk genre and as a result i sought out more games, more books, more movies, if it was cyberpunk themed then I wanted it!

Over the years however I had engrossed myself so deeply into this subculture that I began to lose interest in it, the truth is that anyone who says you can't have to much of a good thing is sadly deceiving you.

However this all changed for me once again in 2012, that's when the trailer for Cyberpunk 2077 appeared on YouTube:

Developed by CD Projekt Red (the publishers of The Witcher franchise) and based on the Cyberpunk 2020 tabletop game, Cyberpunk 2077 was originally slated for release on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, so what happened?

The answer is simple, CD Projekt Red threw all of their development power behind The Witcher to ensure it would be the acclaimed success that it has ultimately became.  With the release of "Blood & Wine" which is the final DLC for The Witcher 3, we now eagerly await the release of Cyberpunk 2076, and it promises to be worth the wait!

Reports have suggested that Cyberpunk 2077 with its sandbox environment and optional first person/third person game play experience will be the largest open-world RPG ever created by CD Projekt Red.  

Further facts to support this include CD Projekt Red's decision to devote a larger team to the development of Cyberpunk 2077 then was allocated to The Witcher 3, also during the most rigorous period of The Witchers development CD Projekt Red opted to began upgrading the REDengine 3 game engine in preparation for work on Cyberpunk 2077.

Another aspect of game play that has been suggested is multiplayer which is highly unusual for a CD Projekt Red title.  Realizing the idea of a multiplayer experience could alarm its dedicated fan base, CD Projekt Red's managing director Adam Badowski told Eurogame during a 2013 interview

"It will be a story-based RPG experience with amazing single-player playthroughs, but we're going to add multiplayer features.  We don't know much beyond that"

As usual the developers are taking a "When it's done" approach in regards to the games release date, however it has been suggested that the release window expands anywhere from 2017 to 2021 with the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC now being their target platforms.

In my opinion this developer has a successful track record of releasing powerful and engulfing role-playing games that at their core have never failed to provide an exceptional experience to the end user..  With that fact in mind i enthusiastically and somewhat impatiently await the release of what i expect will be CD Projekt Red's best game to date.

Thanks for reading and remember to follow us at CanGeek.com