by Jayce Ham
E3 is the most exciting time of year in the gaming world. Unfortunately, this year’s E3 was overall lackluster and disappointing. Because of this, I will only be talking about two of the conferences, the best conferences: the Xbox & Bethesda conference and the Nintendo conference.
The Xbox & Bethesda conference was an hour and a half of exciting announcements and news. First, was a trailer for the highly anticipated game Starfield, the first new IP from Bethesda in twenty-five years. Starfield was announced a long time ago but finally the fans got to have a look at the game and received a release date of November 11, 2022. The game will be available on Xbox Games Pass on day one. Stalker 2, a horror game, was given an extended trailer and a release date of April 28, 2022. Back 4 Blood, a spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead, will release on October 12, 2021 and will be available on Xbox Games Pass on day one. Sea of Thieves’ fans were excited to hear about a new game update called A Pirate’s Life, a collaboration with Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean, which releases on June 22, 2021. Battlefield 2042, was announced earlier in the week, but during E3, a gameplay trailer was finally revealed, with the game releasing October 22, 2021. Psychonauts 2 will release on August 25, 2021 and will be available on Xbox Games Pass on day one. The most hyped and highly anticipated announcement was a new trailer for Halo Infinite set to release during the holidays this year, with the online multiplayer being free to play. The announcement I screamed in excitement for was an August 19, 2021 release date for the interactive thriller game 12 Minutes. I have been waiting years for this game, and I am excited it finally has a release date. 
The Nintendo conference was the highlight of E3 for many, including myself. Nintendo followed the trend of announcing a new Super Smash Bros character, this time being Kazuya from Tekken. Fans were hoping for an announcement of Sora from Kingdom Hearts finally being added to the game, but alas that is still not the case. The standout for many at the conference was the reveal of a new Metroid game called Metroid Dread, set to release on October 8, 2021. The game is a side-scrolling platformer, reminiscent of the Metroid games from the 80s and 90s. Much to everyone’s surprise and amazement, Nintendo announced Mario Party Superstars, which will feature boards and mini-games from previous Mario Party games and is set to release on October 29, 2021. The announcement that made me scream with joy was the reveal of a Wario Ware game coming to the Switch on September 10, 2021. As a child, I played Wario Ware on the GameCube so much, and I am so excited to play a new one on the Switch. First announced at the Ubisoft conference, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, is coming 2022. The Advance Wars series, a beloved game series from the GameBoy Advance from years ago, is coming to the Nintendo Switch in a collection and is set to release on December 3, 2021. The announcement that everyone was waiting and hoping for, however, was the trailer for Breath of the Wild 2, now set to release in 2022. The trailer was brief and did not reveal much, but it has fans excited and discussing endless amounts of theories. 
While E3 was not as exciting as previous years, the pandemic being to blame, there will still some fun conferences to watch and enough announcement to keep my list of games to play endlessly long.
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