7 of the Best Things I Saw at E3

For over 20 years, E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo) has served as the A1 event for the video game industry. Every year the biggest names in gaming make their way to downtown Los Angeles to show off their latest and greatest offerings. What’s the next indie sensation? What game will allow me to quit my day job for eSport fame and glory? How does the new Call of Duty play? (There’s always a new Call of Duty). But if you were a fan wanting the answers to these questions, your only option was to rely on the news from the media covering the event. Over the course of its 20 plus years of existence, access to E3 has been strictly limited to those in video game industry—San Diego Comic Con this is not! That industry-only policy, however, changed this year when admission to the expo was opened to the general public. Now, gaming enthusiasts are free to pack the halls of the Los Angeles Convention Center for a chance to demo the hits of tomorrow … after several hours of standing in line, that is.—Chantel Delulio

The PvE game “Fortnite” pits players against the forces of the post-apocalypse, with a wide array of weapons to craft, heroes to recruit, and fortresses to build. “Fortnite” offers a wide array of ways to fend off zombie hordes without sacrificing fluidity.

The latest entry in the “Assassin’s Creed” franchise is aptly named as it could have just as easily been called “Assassin’s Creed: Back to Basics.” While previous entries have struggled from time to time with the sheer vastness of what players can do “Origins” seems to have streamlined the process. Which is not to say “Origins” doesn’t innovate, since it introduces an RPG-esque skill tree system and subtracts the “Eagle Eye” function. Also—the horses are back!

If you’ve ever been playing a fighting game and thought, “This is great and all but what I’d really like to do is literally dunk my opponent through a basketball hoop” then “Arms” is for you! “Arms” allows players to not only select characters with specific abilities but to customize their chosen fighter’s appendages. “Arms” is the unabashedly, cheerfully weird evolution of a fighting game only Nintendo could deliver.

Sometimes you just want the sweet, sweet nostalgic comfort of something like the three remastered “Crash Bandicoot” games to transport you back to a simpler time.

Is a game that bravely asks the question “What will sports look like in the year 2150?” and thankfully answers with “Like Tron in an arena.” Players face off for the control of nodes in an arena in an attempt to take control of the field and take out the opposing team with (what else) lasers beams. You know a game is good when you can already have the sense that many a friendship will be tested.

Because after hours of waiting in lines, trudging through crowded corridors and wondering faintly what year it is … you need a Dancing Tomato promoting “Just Dance 2018” to assure you that we’re all in this together.