Besides yarn, one of the biggest trends at E3 this year was open world gaming. Open worlds fulfill the next-gen promises of player freedom and a seamless melding of exploration, combat, and narrative. This year we have robot dragons, post-nuclear Boston, and a dictator's picturesque island paradise. Read on to learn more about the virtual worlds we're all going to be exploring in the coming months.
Ghost Recon Wildlands
Ubisoft is taking two of their
popular Tom Clancy games open world. Ghost Recon Wildlands is set in a Bolivia
torn between a corrupt government and a bloodthirsty drug cartel. Players can save the country together with drop-in, drop-out co-op. Missions can be approached from
multiple angles, ranging from loud and dumb to smooth and stealthy. Read our hands-on here.
Fallout 4
Bethesda kicked off the show this year and they did it in style by dropping the Fallout 4 bomb. We finally got to see over 30 minutes of gameplay from the long-awaited title. Fallout 4 takes place 200 years after the nuclear war, set in the wasteland of downtown Boston. While Dogmeat stole our hearts, the sprawling world set our imaginations racing with post-nuclear implications. We've assembled everything Bethesda revealed about the game here.
Just Cause 3
The third entry in this ridiculously over-the-top franchise looks to be the best one yet. Rico Rodriguez returns to his mother’s homeland of Medici when a tyrannical dictator assumes control over the peaceful inhabitants. Avalanche Studios has crafted over 400 square kilometers worth of infrastructure to utterly destroy. Thanks to the best grapple hook in video games and a wingsuit, players will have unparalleled mobility that matches the game’s frenetic action. Don’t worry. The laws of physics don’t apply in Medici. Check out our coverage hub for even more info.
Horizon: Zero Dawn
Guerrilla Games, best known for the Killzone series, surprised everyone this year with a stunning look at Horzion: Zero Dawn. The game takes place sometime in the far future, when the world has been overrun by both nature and an entire ecosystem of robotic animals. Our bow-wielding hero Aloy is from one of the human tribes that dot the globe and fight to survive. Horizon’s world is draped in mystery and nuance. The trailer raises all of the right questions about this unique take on the post-apocalypse: what happened to humanity? What (or who) created the robots? The brief time we had with the game only intrigues us more.
On the next page we travel to New York, London, and Afghanistan...