[promo title=”Fallout 4 – 5%”][/promo]
Rumors notwithstanding–even the convincing hoax site thesurvivor2299.com–Fallout 4 is without a doubt the most hyped game on this (or probably any other) E3 predictions list. The Elder Scrolls and Fallout are Bethesda’s bread and butter, and we’ve seen two TES releases in the past few years and… oh, about zero Fallout releases since 2010. It’s long overdue, but I’ve got a hundred caps that say it’s not ready to officially show off just yet.
The last we heard of it:
Last December, Kotaku claimed to be in possession of real casting documents from a Bethesda project known as “Institute”. Fallout fans will recognize the opening line to the sample script: “War. War never changes.” (The phrase was used in the intro scenes of Fallouts 1, 2 and 3.) In the same “reveal”, Kotaku relayed rumors that Bethesda employees had been scouting the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, perhaps indicating that Fallout 4–whenever it’s revealed–might be set in Boston.
[promo title=”A new Star Fox for Wii U and/or 3DS – 15%”][/promo]
In addition to being my personal biggest hope for a surprise E3 reveal, a new Star Fox game would be extremely timely right about now. If there’s a common gripe among Nintendo commentators–fans and detractors alike–it’s that Nintendo relies too heavily on its heavy hitters (Mario and Link have been more or less carrying Nintendo through the past five or six years). Bringing back Fox McCloud and his crew would not only please existing fans but introduce a new generation of gamers to Star Fox (the last original entry in the series was the excellent Star Fox Command in 2006).
The last we heard of it:
Not much, actually. There’s been no confirmed development of the game from Nintendo, though many at the company have expressed interest (including Shigeru Miyamoto himself). Each Super Smash Bros. game introduces another Star Fox character into its roster, so I guess they haven’t completely abandoned the franchise or its fans. Nintendo’s Masahiro Sakurai said in 2010 that when he was developing Kid Icarus: Uprising, he originally wanted to use the concept to develop a new Star Fox game. At least the hope is alive at Nintendo, even if they’re probably not working toward turning it into a reality.
[promo title=”A true Banjo-Kazooie 3 – 20%”][/promo]
Even without the powerful influence of nostalgia, Banjo-Kazooie is considered among the greatest of the myriad Nintendo 64-era platformers. Its colorful characters, ridiculous power-ups and storyline and general charm are still a winning combination from the creators of Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Donkey Kong Country, and a lot of the games that made Nintendo’s 16- and 64-bit heydays great. Then came Nuts & Bolts.
The much-anticipated entry into the Banjo-Kazooie wasn’t a horrible game–it just missed every mark that fans were hoping for, throwing away much of what made the originals great in favor of a pointless, complicated vehicle building sim as its primary mechanic. For that reason alone, it’s considered by many to not be a true Banjo game–and we’re still waiting for the true heir to the throne to make an appearance.
The last we heard of it:
An image appeared around last year’s E3 that sported a logo for a game that came to be known as Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty Land. It was later proven to be a hoax, but it got people excited for the game again. Shortly thereafter, Rare wielded its ultimate wet blanket–Kinect–saying that the developer had ideas for how to incorporate the motion-sensing device into the next Banjo-Kazooie game. If more Banjo necessitates more Kinect, I’m not sure if I want to see it come to fruition.