In Keith Stuart's story about the importance of Mass Effect: Andromeda for us this week, he posits that "we’re seeing an exodus in the 'triple A' blockbuster sector, away from scripted experiences toward sprawling open-world adventures, where the plot is secondary to world-exploration, sub-quests, item collection and player-generated narratives." We explore this in light of the games we've played so far this year, and question whether more and more games will follow the likes of Ubisoft's For Honor where the relationships formed with other players are ultimately more important than those provided by a story. We also tackle Resident Evil 7's scary moments, Hitman's enduring appeal, and our excitement for Guerrilla Games' upcoming Horizon Zero Dawn.

For Honor, Mass Effect and the Future of Blockbuster Games

Join John Davison, Simon Cox, Rachel Weber and Miguel Lopez from Glixel – the new games site from the makers of Rolling Stone – as they talk about the biggest video games stories of the week.

Video Games

Games & Hobbies

Leisure

We've seen SO many games this week – so in the space of just one hour, we each try and narrow things down to a small handful of games that really stayed with us. Everything from big blockbusters like God of War to indies like Donut County and The Artful Escape or Miguel's favorite – Sea of Thieves. We're joined by our writers Luke Winkie and Steven T. Wright for this episode, so there are six of us to listen to.

E3 2017: Our favorite games of E3

John enthuses about Call of Duty: WWII, Miguel recounts his experiences as a pirate in Skull & Bones, Simon realizes he actually really likes Shadow of War – in part thanks to the accents – and Luke describes his time with the new Monster Hunter. Also some updates on Assassin's Creed Origins, That's You, Ashen, Destiny 2, The Artful Escape and a bunch of other stuff.

E3 2017: Call of Duty WWII, Skull & Bones, Monster Hunter and Shadow of War

Luke enthuses about Mario + Rabbids, John and Miguel give their impressions of Super Mario Odyssey and Rachel fills us in on Doom VFR, Fallout 4 VR and her playthrough of the Wolfenstein 2 demo.

E3 2017: Super Mario Odyssey, Doom VFR, Spider-Man and more

There's a lot to go over since last night's podcast, and tonight the usual crew is joined by our writer Luke Winkie. In a little over an hour we tackle Bethesda's quick 40 minute showcase that included VR versions of Doom and Fallout 4 as well as a glimpse of Link in Skyrim and a brand new Wolfenstein game. Then we hit Ubisoft's phenomenal lineup, with everything from the surprising Mario + Rabbids game, the beautiful Assassin's Creed Origins, climaxing with the (new) reveal of Beyond Good & Evil 2. Then we work our way through Sony's lineup, which included DLC for Horizon Zero Dawn, a new look at God of War, and a lengthy look at Insomniac's stunning Spider-Man game.

E3 2017: Wolfenstein, Spider-Man, Beyond Good & Evil 2 and More

42 Xbox games at E3 – 22 of them are some flavor of "exclusive" for Xbox One (although Microsoft's interpretation of that word might be different than yours) – we go through the whole list on the second of our daily podcasts from E3 2017.

For Honor, Mass Effect and the Future of Blockbuster Games

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