Rock Band 4
Rock Band 4: Coolness results may vary. Photo: Ashley Lippert

Dragon Quest Heroes

This whole Dynasty Warriors craze has taken over yet another beloved IP, the Dragon Quest series. I actually loved the gameplay in Hyrule Warriors, even if it got a little tedious sometimes and it’s the same with this game. The only real difference is the graphics level. DQH is only on the PS4 and that makes it goddamn gorgeous. It’s the same smashy-smashy concept as the other Dynasty Warrior games—you can switch between characters on the fly, making it easy to get the best angle. The specials, as always, are beautiful scenes of death for baddies, so it makes for some satisfying kills. It’s set for release in October on PS4.

Rock Band 4

Finally, there’s a new Rock Band, with new songs and new guitar solo mechanics to make playing with your friends even more fun. It’s still more or less the same Rock Band you already know, but the biggest addition is the solo mechanics. Instead of simply playing the notes on the screen, when you hit a solo, the notes disappear and it’s up to you to put a solo together—strumming at a certain rhythm, holding notes and free styling by hitting any notes you want adds quite a bit more flair than just playing the notes of the solo. The guitar got a bit of an update so you can wail on the higher frets during a solo to make it extra cool. This is also where you perform tapping—you’ll hold a high note, then tap the other high notes for a fantastic sound. All of these things have a symbol of sorts during the solo—free style is diamonds on the board, tapping is diagonal notes, etc. It’s a ton of fun and it’s worth picking up in October.

Until next year

With all the huge announcements in this E3, it’s tough to leave the floor when I won’t get a chance to see it again until next year. While I did get to play or see some fantastic presentations on many a game, I don’t get to play them again until they release. These have been an amazing three days that are over way too soon, but know that there are some amazing things headed our way this and next year. Until next year, this is goodbye to all those great games I can’t wait to see again.