E3 2016: Rumor Roundup and Predictions (UPDATED)

I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am for this year’s E3.

Last year’s Electronics Entertainment Expo showcased a lot, and I mean a lot of amazing new titles for current generation systems. From new IPs like the incredible looking Horizon: Zero Dawn to remastered favorites like Final Fantasy VII Remake, there was something for everyone. Well, except horror fans, really. Sure, there were a few great announcements, Dark Souls 3, and a few hands-on experiences with then-upcoming titles like Resident Evil 0 HD and Until Dawn, but no really shocking or exciting new announcements for some of our favorite classic horror franchises. This year, however, might prove different.

We’ve got a lot rumored to be getting big announcements this year, and I figured we’d jot them all down for you here, keep the hype train rolling. We can even use this to get some sort of horror announcement bingo going. ALL ABOARD!

Dead Rising 4 CONFIRMED

Update: It is now for sure happening, and we got a lovely little trailer for it during the Microsoft Press show. It remains to be seen if it’s a remake or a true sequel, but for the moment, it looks awesome regardless. You can read more here.

After months of Capcom Vancouver (formerly Blue Castle games, and the studio behind the Dead Rising franchise since Dead Rising 2) calling for new hires over Twitter, and some sneaky teasing on their Facebook page, it looks like Dead Rising 4 may actually be a thing. With a poster and a few blurry screenshots leaked this week, we may be getting our first look at the newest installment this Monday, and I’m beyond excited.

The most intriguing thing about these leaks is that they seem to show Frank West, star of Dead Rising, Dead Rising 2: Off The Record, and all-around face of the series coming back. There’s even some information that seems to have the game set in Willamette, Colorado, the locale of the original Dead Rising. This has lead to some speculation that Dead Rising 4 might actually be a remake of the first title. I’m not so sure about this, seeing as well, it’s called Dead Rising 4. The explanation is that this may be an honorary title as the game is rumored to be the first in the series to support 4 player co-op for its main campaign, but I’m not buying it. Willamette, unlike places like Resident Evil‘s Raccoon City, is presumably still standing. It was firebombed at the end of the story, but that’s a very different story from a nuclear strike.

There’s also the fact that a massive amount of time has passed since the original Willamette outbreak, as Dead Rising 3 was set a little over 20 years after Frank’s daring escape. Considering the Dead Rising universe’s dark social commentary, there’s even the chance that Willamette has been turned into some sort of gauche zombie theme park or something. This could mean it’s the perfect location for Frank to get back in the blood, with whoever his other three buddies are. We’ll know for sure soon enough, most likely at Microsoft’s E3 conference on Monday.

Devil May Cry 5 NOPE

Update: Yeah, it came out that the listing by the actor was actually years old, and probably referring to DmC. Oh well. I doubt Capcom has forgotten about the future of DMC, but just not this year.

This is interesting, not to mention hot off the presses. Based on information that was leaked only yesterday, it looks like Devil May Cry 5 may be in the cards. While DmC: Devil May Cry, a reboot of the series that disentangled itself from the convoluted web of the original four games’ storyline, was met with high praise from critics (including us), it was pretty universally hated by the hard-core fanbase. Well, if you were in the latter group with your souls filled with darkness for the reboot, you just might be in luck. While there’s talk of Capcom focusing on Resident Evil‘s roots for the future of that series, there’s a chance that they may be doing the same with the future of what could be called RE‘s sister franchise, Devil May Cry (which began its life as an early concept for Resident Evil 4).

According to actor Nils Hogenstad’s (Supernatural, Once Upon a Time) resume, he’s playing the lead role in Devil May Cry 5. While the role was previously voiced by Reuben Langdon (Devil May Cry 3 and 4, as well as Marvel vs Capcom 3), he himself was a replacement of Matthew Kaminsky (Devil May Cry 2), who was a replacement of Drew Coombs (Devil May Cry), so this is nothing new or shocking. Capcom replaces their actors every few games or so, with even the exceptions to this rule having been replaced like Allison Courte (Claire from Resident Evil in every one of her appearances before being replaced by Danielle Nicolette in Revelations 2). It’s just a thing that happens. Not every voice actor can command the kind of power that Nolan North or David Hay- oh.

As far as what Devil May Cry 5 might be about, it’s hard to say. At the moment, bizarrely enough, the furthest point in the series’ continuity is Devil May Cry 2. DMC 3 was a prequel to the first game, and DMC 4 was a prequel to DMC2. It’s like the continuity of the SAW movies, only with style and pizza. Devil May Cry 2 ended on a fairly bitter cliffhanger despite all of this, with series hero Dante driving headfirst on a motorcycle straight into the pits of the demon realm, leaving Lucia and her mother, Matier, back on the human side. While there was a post-credits scene that had Lucia rushing out of the Devil May Cry shop that Dante owns to the sound of a motorcycle approaching, there has never been any kind of resolution at all to this. So… hopefully, Devil May Cry 5 will pick up from this? Talk about starting a game with a bang, traveling down the gullet of hell itself from the word go, and the fight that could take you to potentially seeing Lucia again. I guess we’ll see, there’s really no way of knowing at this point.

The Evil Within 2 NOPE

Update: Looks like it’s a no-go, for this year at least. Oh well, it’s a shame, but I’m sure we haven’t heard the last of The Evil Within, just nothing for this year.

Unlike the others on this list, we really don’t have much of anything to go by on a potential sequel to Shinji Mikami’s Resident Evil meets The Matrix game from 2014. While most of the original title’s incredibly convoluted story was cleared up by its DLC chapters, The Assignment and The Consequence, the main game did still end on a bit of a cliff-hanger, with (spoilers) Ruvik’s consciousness potentially transferred into the head of poor Leslie (a shell-shocked patient at Beacon Mental Hospital) and a bounty of information on Ruvik’s experiment in the hands of the shadowy organization behind it all, perhaps even enough to replicate it.

While I can’t say that I was 100% in love with The Evil Within (due in large part to my own misunderstanding of what the game was about, I expected one thing from its story and got something almost totally opposite, and I’m very aware that’s my problem, not the games) I’d love to see this series continue. Presumably, Shinji Mikami will not be involved as he made declarations that The Evil Within would be his final game, but who knows.

Prey 2 CONFIRMED

Update: Confirmed at Bethesda’s E3 press conference, Prey 2 is now PREY, and appears to be a reboot of the series. Read more here.

Boy, this one has been a long time coming. The original Prey, a first-person sci-fi horror game that was one part Doom 3 and one part Native American journey into mysticism and beyond, was a welcome surprise for me off of the $2.99 rack, fitting in wonderfully with the early 7th gen era that brought us so many great horror shooters like F.E.A.R. and Condemned. and the sequel has been in development for what feels like forever. It was first announced in 2008, and has seen so many iterations, trailers and even cancellation it seemed like we would probably never see this story continue. The rumor goes that Arkane, the developer behind the Dishonored series is working on it, and I’m hopeful this means it will be moving away from the action shooter thing that trailers for Prey 2 had been showing and back to the dark and grisly horror that the first game showcased.

Resident Evil 7 CONFIRMED

Update: So my heart won’t stop racing. After an excellent reveal at Sony’s keynote, Resident Evil 7 is real, and is bringing the horror back in a huge way. Clear inspiration from Outlast and PT, it looks like we are for sure heading back to RE‘s roots of spooky claustrophobic houses and disgusting horrors we don’t truly understand. Watch the trailer here.

Probably the most anticipated of the bunch, RE7 is rumored to not only show up, but to be bringing the series back to its horror roots. Now, this is something RE has been trying to do for years, with middling success. Fans seem to swear by Leon/Helena’s campaign in Resident Evil 6, and Revelations 2 put all its chips in with being scary. Whether or not this worked is up to the individual, but you can’t say that Capcom certainly isn’t trying everything.

We know next to nothing about RE7 beyond this hopeful claim. The rumor has it pegged as being a “clean slate”, which lots of people seem to be interpreting as a reboot. Personally, I’m not so sure. What I’m imagining is something more along the soft reboot lines of Resident Evil 4, which didn’t throw out previously built-up continuity but instead leaped ahead in time enough that both fans of the original trilogy would be able to throw in, but there wouldn’t be any homework if it was your first game in the series. Resident Evil 7 can potentially do something similar, what with the Umbrella Corporation and its follow-ups like TriCell gone for good, and the Bio-terror conflict is mostly resolved; Albert Wesker is dead, WilPharma has been shut down after being unveiled as a peddler of T-Virus and attempting to do the same with the G-Virus, Derick Simmons and Carla Radames both KIA, and terrorist organization Veltro sunk to the bottom of the dead blue sea.

Resident Evil has a chance to rebirth itself once again, starting a whole new era of terrifying tales. Again, this is speculation, and there’s plenty of stories from the previous installments still left unresolved, so we really won’t know until we have a trailer, which hopefully will be coming this Monday at either Xbox or PlayStation’s press conferences, although the title will more than likely be on both (the last exclusive Resident Evil title that wasn’t just a port or re-engineering of pre-existing assets or wasn’t eventually brought to another platform a few months later was Outbreak File #2 on PS2 all the way back in 2004, and even though the upcoming Umbrella Corps is only on PS4 as far as consoles go, it’s still releasing on PC as well). Speaking of the Outbreak games….

Resident Evil: Outbreak HD NOPE

Update: I’m not especially surprised. Sucks, but I’m not surprised. Capcom probably didn’t want to take away too much from RE7‘s amazing reveal, and honestly this might not be happening at all. Oh well.

Rumors of an as-of-yet unnamed Canadian indie studio working with Capcom to bring a remaster of fan favorite Resident Evil: Outbreak to current-gen platforms started earlier this year, and fans have been waiting with bated breath in the hopes that it might turn out to be true. Outbreak, the very first online co-op RE game, is a classic in its own right, with hundreds of hours worth of story, secrets and new insight into the devastating T-Virus outbreak in Raccoon City from the eyes of the men and women who lived and worked in the doomed city. It had so many unique features and ideas, not to mention a great story, that it’s a real shame its been trapped on PlayStation 2 for over a decade.

The rumor seemed to get a little more steam as an image of what might be its Achievements list for Xbox One surfaced on Reddit. Considering Capcom’s “full assualt” with remasters this year (RE0, 4, 5, and 6 all out for current-gen this year) the idea that Outbreak could be in that list as well isn’t that far-fetched. I for one am really hoping this turns out to be true, Outbreak was an incredible game and it suffers greatly from its online component being removed around 2008. The AI is just bunk, and some features like turning into a zombie are just gone as well, and honestly the game would also be wonderful to experience in HD, especially if it’s anything like the work put into RE0 HD.

Wolfenstien: The New Order 2 NOPE

Update: Oh well, it looks like despite the rumors pointing to this being a sure thing, we’ll have to wait a little longer for news of the next Wolfenstien game. I still wouldn’t be surprised if we heard something about this a little later on this year, but for now, we must wait.

This one is pretty much a no-brainer, Machine Games 2014 Wolfenstien: The New Order was one of the best games of that year, not to mention one of the best classic-style shooters in decades, so it comes as no surprise that a third entry (with Wolfenstien: The Old Blood being the second) would be on the horizon. We already have some confirmation due to a slip-up by voice actress Alicja Bachleda-Curuś, who played Anya Oliwa in the first New Order, during an interview. So now all we have to do is wait!

Predictions

There’s a lot of potential for more to be announced, or at least hinted at when E3 kicks off. Perhaps not everything will get some sort of huge reveal trailer on a show stage, but there’s every chance there might be a few things we’ll hear about before E3 is over. Personally, I think we might end up hearing about…

Resident Evil 2 (REmake) NOPE

Update: Yeah, a little too early. RE7 was the big reveal, so we probably won’t see anything from REmake 2 for a while yet. We’ll keep you updated. It is obviously happening, we just have to wait for more information.

Resident Evil 2 REmake, or REmake 2 as I’ve been calling it probably isn’t anywhere near a completed state at this point. Considering that Producer H (the fun name that long-time series producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi calls himself) actually kept us with him at each stage of trying to get REmake 2 the green light, the game has probably only been in official development for a little under a year. That isn’t enough time to get anything playable, or even enough to really show off probably, but I would be very surprised if we didn’t get some mention of it during E3. Perhaps a short, pre-rendered trailer (similar to the first minute or so of the REmember, REality, REbirth trailer for the original REmake) or just a passing mention of it along with Resident Evil 7‘s announcement; possibly a demo exclusive to a console (“REmake 2 demo available first on PS4″, or something like that) or as a pre-order bonus.

Silent Hill SORTA

Update: Silent Hill is dead, dead, dead. That said, Hideo Kojima does seem to have a special place in his heart for the work he did on Silent Hills, and the trailer for his new game, Death Stranding, looks creepy as all get out. We really don’t know anything more about it, but might as well keep an eye on it if you morn for Silent Hill. Read more here.

No, I don’t mean Silent Hills, the famously canceled game developed by Kojima Productions with the talents of Guillermo Deltoro and Norman Reedus involved. I don’t mean a remake of Silent Hill, the PS1 classic that started it all back in 1999. I don’t mean anything, really. But I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest to see some sort of Silent Hill something show up at E3. Despite all evidence to the contrary, parent company Konami has to be aware of the negative fallout surrounding the cancellation of Silent Hills and the yanking of P.T. from the PSN. Perhaps only in the dullest sense, as the company seems to have no holds barred with soiling its own legacies. But they’re also a business, and they have to continue to move product in order to remain a business. At the moment, the entirety of the Western market has gone without a new Silent Hill product since Silent Hill: Book of Memories in 2012.

I’m not saying I would expect some new, fully blown classic horror entry in the series, coming to Xbox One and PS4 next summer, but perhaps something smaller- a mobile game, or perhaps just an arcade styled game coming to console for cheap. Visions of ObsCure‘s last gasp with Final Exam come to mind (not a bad game, but its bright and colorful side-scrolling action couldn’t be farther from the dark, gory and messed up world of the other two games). I’m sure you can see that as well, some sort of co-op Silent Hill title designed to appeal to everyone, similar to Book of Memories actually. Not saying any of us want that, but considering everything that’s happened with Silent Hill, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Dead Rising Remake NOPE

Update: Eh, it was just a guess.

I know I said that I didn’t believe Dead Rising 4 is a remake of the original Dead Rising the way other people do- but that doesn’t mean that I don’t think there’s still a possibility that there may be a separate title that is an actual remake, or remaster of that game. It strikes me as odd that there would be information being spoken with such authority on the idea that Dead Rising 4 is a remake, one tweet in particular just flat out says it. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out that the wires were crossed. Dead Rising Remastered could very well be a thing, and it could even be the game we’ve seen the screenshots of, but I wouldn’t bet on it being the same as the Dead Rising 4 poster we’ve also seen.

There’s some precedent for this, just last year Microsoft unveiled Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, a 1080p remaster of the original Gears of War from 2006, and then followed it up with announcing Gears of War 4. Considering this August is Dead Rising‘s 10th anniversary, wouldn’t it make sense to celebrate that in some way? Announce an all new remake of the original Dead Rising to release on the 10th anniversary, with early access to next year’s Dead Rising 4. We’ll have to wait and see, but I think it’s a very real possibility.

Well, that about wraps it up! We’ll just have to wait and see how many of these turn out to be the real deal when the E3 press shows kick off this Sunday! We’ll keep you updated with up to the minute news here at Rely, so don’t you worry! While we wait, what are you most excited about? Any games you’re keeping your fingers crossed for? Anything you hope gets announced? Let us know in the comments below!

[Featured image by JSparkysteel]