Skip to main content

What to Expect at This Year’s E3 Show

There might be something for everyone at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Once a boisterous bastion for geeky gamers, the gaming industry’s annual convention has in recent years morphed into a more modest showcase of the latest in hardware and games from publishers and developers who now want to reach consumers of all kinds — not just guys. This year’s E3 is likely to mimic last year’s shift to a cautiously glitzy affair.

Recommended Videos

Nearly 250 exhibitors, including publishing giants Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, plan to hype their latest games and gizmos. The Entertainment Software Association expects 45,000 attendees this week, which would be 4,000 more folks than last year. That’s still shy of the massive crowd of 70,000 who flocked to the Los Angeles Convention Center back in 2005.

“I think there will be a couple of surprises and a couple of expected things,” said Greg Zeschuk, co-founder at Electronic Arts’ BioWare. “Obviously, the thing that Sony and Microsoft are going for is to broaden their reach with consumers. It’ll be interesting to get hands on and see what kind of products they’ll have that use the motion controls.”

Microsoft and Sony unveiled their respective motion-control doodads at last year’s E3 and will focus their attention at this year’s show on games that use the camera-based systems. Nintendo, who launched motion control into the mainstream in 2006 with the Wii, will meanwhile flaunt their pulse-detecting Wii Vitality Sensor and the 3DS, a 3-D handheld device.

In anticipation of the expo, which has events beginning Sunday but officially kicks off Tuesday, Sony lunged into 3-D gaming last week by releasing three downloadable 3-D games for the PlayStation 3. The publisher plans to demonstrate 3-D versions of bigger games at E3, such as “Killzone 3” and “Gran Turismo 5.” Other game makers will also exhibit 3-D titles that require a 3-D TV or computer.

Besides motion control and 3-D gaming, many attendees will no doubt be buzzing about what effect mobile and cheap-to-produce-and-play online games, such as “FarmVille” and “Mafia Wars,” will have on the industry, though such titles won’t have a major presence at the convention. Developers of bigger games are now paying attention to the popular little guys.

“I see it as quite an interesting challenge,” said Jamie Jackson, creative director at Activision’s FreeStyleGames. “It feels to me it’s the start of a new type of gaming. It feels like it’s going to be here to stay. It doesn’t feel like it’s going to go away. It almost reminds me of when handheld blew up again, and we started seeing the DS and the PSP.”

Jackson will be showing off “DJ Hero II” at E3. The music game boasts new modes and songs featuring Lady Gaga and Rihanna. In a sign that the genre isn’t played out, game makers will add the adventurous “Guitar Hero: Legends of Rock,” hip-hop rap-along “Def Jam Rapstar” and “Rock Band 3,” which introduces a piano controller, to the E3 mix.

E3 will also include celebrity appearances and absurdly lavish soirees. “The O.C.” actress Rachel Bilson is hosting THQ’s “Homefront” pool party while “Saturday Night Live” cast member Kenan Thompson is throwing EA’s “Bulletstorm” bash. “Deadliest Catch” captain Sig Hansen and “Man vs. Wild” explorer Bear Grylls will descend on the Crave Games booth.

More importantly, the convention will serve as an opportunity for people in the gaming industry to see what their peers have been working on. Josh Olin, community manager for “Call of Duty: Black Ops” developer Treyarch, is looking forward to experiencing “Gears of War III,” the third installment of Epic Games’ bloody third-person shooter series.

“I’m a big ‘Gears of War’ fan,” said Olin. “They have always told a great story, and they have a great narrative. Personally, I’m a single-player guy. I really live for good action stories. With ‘Black Ops,’ of course, we’re telling a pretty good story this time, so that makes me happy, but ‘Gears of War III’ is another big one I’m looking for at E3.”

Other new installments slated to be on display include intergalactic first-person prequel “Halo: Reach,” expansive role-playing sequel “Fable III” and cyborg blaster “Deus Ex: Human Revolution.” Among the anticipated franchise follow-ups are survival space thriller “Dead Space 2,” futuristic shooter “Crysis 2” and behemoth zombie slasher “Dead Rising 2.”

There will probably be surprises of new sequels, too. Games rumored to be making their debut at E3 include a next-generation edition of the James Bond first-person shooter “GoldenEye 007,” a new “Legend of Zelda” title for the Wii and possible third chapters of the alternate history first-person saga “Resistance” and action-adventure series “Uncharted.”

Make sure to check out Digitaltrends.com/E3 for this years show coverage.

Also check out our best games of 2010 story

Ian Bell
I work with the best people in the world and get paid to play with gadgets. What's not to like?
Topics
Every confirmed skater in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4
Three skaters doing tricks in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4.

The original Tony Hawk games were full of secrets and Easter Eggs to find, including a ton of special characters to play as. The latest remake, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4, is bringing back nearly everything included in those original releases, alongside new levels, songs, and even skaters. While the character creator will let us put basically anyone we want into the game, it isn't quite good enough to recreate our favorite pro skaters as well as the developers can.
All confirmed skaters in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4

These are all the known skaters coming to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4, including returning skaters, new skaters, and DLC characters. We will update this list as more are revealed.
Returning skaters

Read more
Spider-Man 3: everything we know so far
Miles and Peter standing next to each other staring at the camera. Peter is in the Venom suit.

There were still some loose threads left hanging after the end of Insomniac's Spider-Man 2 that begged for a sequel. Besides also being one of the best superhero games of all time, these games are easily two of the best PS5 games you can play so another entry was always assumed to be coming just like Ghost of Yotei. We know that a Wolverine game is also in the works, but Spider-Man 3 might not be as far down the list of upcoming PS5 games as you might think. We've used our spider senses to web up all the details there are so far about Spider-Man 3.

While a lot isn't known about this game, we do know it won't be on our lists of upcoming Xbox Series X games or upcoming Switch games lists, but there are plenty of games coming to those platforms you should read up on.
Release speculation

Read more
Virtua Fighter 5: R.E.V.O could pick one of the best fighters ever up off the mat
Kage kicks Jeffry in Virtua Fighter 5: R.E.V.O.

My favorite feature in Virtua Fighter 5: R.E.V.O., a new PC port of Sega’s classic fighting game, isn’t its rollback netcode or 4K visuals. It’s that you can watch other people play matches from the main menu.

I don’t know how this works; whether it’s real-time, whether it’s pulling replays, or some other kind of wizardry. I kind of don’t want to know, to be honest. All I know is, whenever I fire up Virtua Fighter 5: R.E.V.O., and I’m deciding what I want to do (do I want to practice some combos with my boy Jean? See if my friends are up for some games? Venture online? Try out somebody new?), I have to actively pull myself away from that screen. You can even watch the matches in full-screen if you really want.

Read more