Five Games From E3

Age of the Geek Column: Another E3 has come and gone, hyping up the video game community with the promise of new ways to spend our gaming time.
Dozens of games were showcased this year but these are the five that I'm most looking forward to playing over the next year.
Maneater
Winning the award for "Game I Never Knew I Needed," this is an open-world shark simulator.
In other words, it's a game about being in a shark movie, as the shark.
A game that puts you in the fins on a killer shark, complete with a shark skill tree to improve your sharky abilities like jumping out of the water or sneaking around in the shallows.
There are plenty of games out there that have sharks as enemies, but this is the first I can think of that lets you unleash your own reign of terror on the gulf coast.
Octopath Traveler
This one is kind of cheating. "Octopath Traveler" didn't really have much of a showing at E3. With the game out next month, there isn't much left to show.
That said, Square-Enix did release a new demo last week, so I'm counting it.
"Octopath Traveler," is a traditional JRPG that puts you in the shoes of eight seemingly unrelated characters, each with a different story and game mechanics.
I haven't had a chance to dive too far into the demo yet, but I've been very impressed by what I've played so far.
The game is beautiful, the mechanics are solid, and I can't wait for the full release.
Resident Evil 2
The most pleasant surprise of E3 came during the Sony showcase when, out of nowhere, Capcom dropped the reveal trailer for the long sought remake of "Resident Evil 2."
This is a game that few people thought was even happening. Capcom made a low key announcement that the game had been greenlit in 2015, but nary a word has been said about it since.
Game development takes time, so generally game developers build interest by keeping their audience looped in through the process, releasing demos and trailers long before the game is ready for release.
After nearly three years of radio silence, one wouldn't be out of line to assume that this particular game had been quietly canceled.
Instead, it shows up at E3 in a virtually finished state declaring it will be out in a scant eight months.
Even better, the game looks amazing.
The Resident Evil franchise has gone through a lot of changes over the years, straying far from its survival horror roots into the action shooter genre. There was valid concern that a remake of "Resident Evil 2" would do little more than sully its good reputation.
Fortunately, Capcom seems to be doing their best to make a faithful adaptation of the original classic. Instead of the adrenaline fueled monster blasting of contemporary games, we're going back to scavenging for ammo and resources to navigate puzzles and mazes.
From the demo, it even seems that a couple plot holes in the original story have even been fixed.
I don't know that I could ask for more from the game outside of Allyson Court returning as a voice actor.
Spider-Man
Returning again for its last appearance before release, Insomniac's "Spider-Man" keeps looking better and better.
Taking more than a little bit of inspiration from Rocksteady's Arkham series, this may be the best video game featuring the web-crawler that has ever been released.
That in itself is no small feat as Spider-Man actually has a pretty solid history of decent video game adaptations.
I can't say that the latest E3 footage has me any more excited for the game, but that’s only because last year's footage was equally as impressive.
I can't wait to finally get my hands on the finished product.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
To be honest, I was actually kind of dreading this game.
The disconnect between how Nintendo wants people to play Smash Bros. and players want to play the game has been a longstanding issue. Building the game as something to be played casually with friends on the couch, Nintendo has been notoriously resistant to facilitating the competitive scene that generates the bulk of the Smash community.
The Wii-U version of the game made half-hearted measures to bridge that gap, but ultimately didn't go far enough.
With the Switch library already rife with Wii-U ports, there was a fair chance that the newest Smash Bros. game would be more of the same.
Fortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case. Instead, "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" is just… more. Of everything.
Every character that has ever graced the Smash Bros. roster is back. Presumably every stage is returning as well.
More importantly though, Nintendo is really making strides to facilitate a stronger competitive scene by introducing a toggle for stage hazards.
Most Smash Bros. stages are, by design, chalk full of gimmicks that, while entertaining in casual play, get them removed from the competitive pool. This has the unfortunate side effect of drastically limiting the stage options for competitive play.
A toggle for stage hazards opens up so many more options for stages that can be seriously played on without worrying about lava exploding from the bottom of the screen or the platforms vanishing out from under you.
In other words, this looks like the game I wanted the previous game to be.
Travis Fischer is a news writer for Mid-America Publishing and wonders how many times he can play through "Resident Evil 2" before "Smash Bros. Ultimate" comes out.