Games you cannot miss: Key highlights from E3 2021

The fully online E3 2021 showcased many anticipated sequels and updates including Elden Ring, Halo Infinite, Starfield, Breath of the Wild 2 and so on as the biggest gaming conference in the world hits 26 years.

If you are not yet familiar, E3, or Electronic Entertainment Expo, is a conference held annually in Los Angeles where hardware manufacturers, software developers, and publishers from the video game industry present upcoming products and interact with the gaming crowd. The event had been rebranded as the Electronic Entertainment Experience 2021 after a gap in 2020 due to Covid-19. If you are looking for a new game, here are the best ones that E3 2021 had to offer:

Forza Horizon 5

Set in Mexico and featuring a much bigger world than its predecessor, Forza Horizon 5 won as the Most Anticipated Game for this year. It will include a special Forza Edition Mercedes AMG-One hypercar along with many offroad cars such as the Ford Bronco and the Land Rover Defender. You will be able to explore the full world in the new campaign mode and race to a random point with another random gamer online as Battle Royale makes a comeback. The game will come out on November 9, 2021, and will be exclusive to Xbox and PC.

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy

Announced during the Square Enix E3 showcase, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy will appeal to the fans of the MCU. You will play exclusively as Star-Lord in this single-player action-adventure with all the Guardians by your side. The game doesn't have the faces of the actual Guardians and oozes microtransactions, implying a possible mixed reaction when it comes out on October 26, 2021. However, we like the new and sick beard on Rocket Raccoon and the rock songs from the '80s by Iron Maiden, Rick Astley, Kiss, and Wham, so check it out.

Breath of the Wild 2

Nintendo finally gave us some gameplay footage from the sequel to the widely popular The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with its second iteration. The video shows Link falling from the sky which will be explorable in the game. The floating islands, new powers and skydiving ability promise a good experience for the console exclusive. Although the release date is a disappointing 2022 without an exact month mentioned, It will not be quiet when it comes out.

Elden Ring

The two-year-long wait came to an end with the release of Elden Ring, the product of a collaboration between director Hidetaka Miyazaki and author George R.R. Martin. FromSoftware has created a vast world for this action role-playing game. You will be able to summon the spirits of deceased enemies and use them as allies in battles, leap up sheer cliff faces with your horse, and not to mention, use about a hundred magical skills. They want to give you 'a free level of progression and exploration' no matter which direction you choose to go in. The Elden Ring is coming out on January 21, 2022, on all major consoles and PC.

Halo Infinite

343 Industries has showcased Halo Infinite as well as a multiplayer version which is free for everyone. A section of the offline campaign was shown where Master Chief was seen pulling through wreckages in zero gravity and teaming up with Cortana to get some destruction done. A signature element of the multiplayer however has been axed for the upcoming game: the assassination animations. The game will be available for PC and Xbox at Game Pass but the release date, however, is a mystery.

There were many more notable returns and new releases in this year's E3. For 2.5D titles, we couldn't help but notice Replaced, an original and awe-inspiringly beautiful action-adventure game. The main character, an artificial intelligence trapped inside a human body, wanders in a dystopian, cyberpunk version of the USA. It is an Xbox exclusive coming out in 2022. Metroid Dread, a Nintendo exclusive, also caught our attention as it makes a return after being shelved for more than 15 years. Metal slug is also releasing a new game called Metal Slug Tactics for PC.

The E3 2021 event is still available to watch on E3 Expo Portal's website till June 30.