A LOOK BACK AT E3 2016

The first press conference was by Square Enix. The conference started off with a cinematic trailer for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Following the success of the mobile games Hitman GO and Lara Croft GO, Square Enix announced their next mobile game, Deus Ex GO. The gameplay will be similar to the other games in the GO series but it will introduce a Puzzle Creator tool as well. The multiplayer mode of Mankind Divided, dubbed as "Breach Mode" was revealed. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is set for an August 23 release.

EA had a pretty strong line-up of content this year. Titanfall 2 was announced to be released on October 28 for the PC and Xbox One and PS4. This game will feature six titans each with its unique set of abilities and a single-player campaign. Aaryn Flynn, General Manager of BioWare showcased the highly anticipated Mass Effect: Andromeda. 

A gameplay trailer for FIFA 17 was premiered showcasing the gameplay changes and the prowess of Frostbite. FIFA 17 will feature a story mode and Premier League managers on the pitch. All EA Sports games in the future will feature three tournament modes – Challenger (where players design their own tournaments), Premier (small-scale tourneys by EA) and EA Major (world-wide tourneys by EA).

Jade Raymond, General Manager of EA Motive discussed all the upcoming Star Wars games in development. Battlefield 1 received a new gameplay trailer and a 64-player gameplay demo. 

Bethesda's press conference kicked off with a gameplay trailer for Dishonored 2. This was followed by announcements of a Prey reboot and a multiplayer Quake game from id. The Quake trailer teased a potential Wolfenstein sequel titled "The New Colossus". A remastered version of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was announced for PC, PS4 and Xbox One. VR versions of Fallout 4 and Doom are expected to arrive on HTC Vive in 2017. 

Microsoft's conference was heavily concentrated on "Xbox Play Anywhere", which lets Xbox One users play their games on PC and enables cross-platform multiplayer between Xbox One and Windows 10. A slimmer and more powerful variant of the Xbox One, named Xbox One S was announced along with a new Xbox controller. The Coalition Studios showcased a gameplay demo of Gears of War 4 which is slated for release on October 11. There were some pretty big games announced as well – Forza Horizon 3 (September 27), Recore (September 13), Inside (June 29), Tekken 7 (Early 2017), Dead Rising 4 (Holiday 2016), Scalebound(2017), Sea of Thieves, State of Decay 2 (2017) and Halo Wars 2 (February 21). Lastly, Microsoft unveiled "Project Scorpio", the rumoured upgraded version of Xbox One with 4K and VR support. Project Scorpio will feature an octa-core processor, 320 GB/s memory bandwidth and a 6-Teraflop GPU. It is expected to arrive in Holiday 2017. 

AMD's PC Gaming Show was quite interesting as well. The developers of ARK: Survival Reloaded announced an ARK game where the players take the role of the dinosaurs. Deck13, the studio behind Lords of the Fallen introduced a third-person shooting game titled "The Surge". AMD showcased three of their latest GPUs, RX 460,470 and 480 which they claim are made for eSports.

Ubisoft's press conference was a treat, both because of the content line-up and because of host Aisha Tyler's tongue-in-cheek sarcasm. The conference started off with the announcement of Just Dance 2017 releasing this October on PC, PS4 and Xbox One and next year on Nintendo NX. Watch Dogs 2, Ghost Recon: Wildlands and For Honor received new gameplay footage. South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker discussed "The Fractured But Whole". The combat system is now more detailed and the gameplay footages showed the excellent humour we expect from South Park. Fractured But Whole will be released on December 6 for all current-gen platforms and Stick of Truth will come free with the game.

Sony absolutely stole the show with their conference. Gameplay demo for a new God of War debuted at the beginning of their conference. Days Gone, a zombie survival game by Bend Studio, received an announcement trailer and a gameplay demo. Even though zombie shooters are getting stale, the fast paced gameplay of Days Gone will hopefully keep it fresh. The supposedly cancelled game "The Last Guardian" made a return and will release on October 25. Horizon: Zero Dawn (February 28), Detroit: Become Human and Call of Duty Infinite Warfare received gameplay trailers. An untitled PS4-exclusive Spider-Man game by Insomniac was announced. Resident Evil VII was announced for a January 24 release and the demo is available to PS Plus members right now. Crash Bandicoot fans will be happy to know that Crash 1, 2 and Warped are being remastered for PS4. The PlayStation VR got an October 13 release date and lots of VR titles, including a Batman Arkham VR game by Rocksteady, were announced. The highlight of the conference was when the visionary game creator Hideo Kojima made an appearance with his new game "Death Stranding". 

There were big announcements outside the conferences as well. Injustice 2 surfaced with a cinematic trailer and gameplay footage. Mafia III got a new gameplay video and Dontnod's Vampyr received its first trailer. 

This year's E3 was an engaging affair as all the studios gave their best to outdo themselves. If they can deliver according to their promises, the world of gaming is going to be fascinating in the coming months.