E3 is almost upon us!

The yearly highlight of any self-respecting nerd this glorious expo lets us bathe in a sea of risky new game concepts, long awaited reveals and overly elaborate Final Fantasy cosplay.

If you can’t cram yourself into a scorching Los Angeles convention centre with a zillion other eager gamers fear not! Load up a quality stream, park yourself in front of the telly and take the week off work – one does not simply let E3 pass them by.

But where do I start? There is a week’s worth of expos, keynotes and development interviews to sift through and I really don’t care about Rock Band 4!

We wouldn’t let you go in blind; here are the top games to watch at this years E3 Expo.

Star Wars: Battlefront

Ah Star Wars. Bread and butter to any pop culture fan and the inspiration for a generation of fanatic obsesses. The original Battlefront games were like mana from heaven to the chosen few, letting true believers play as their favourite characters in grand battles over the fate of the galaxy.

In recent months Dice has released several in-engine trailers for their long planned reboots and the results are totally breathtaking. While too early to be hopeful they seem to have completely captured the aesthetic magic of the original trilogy.

No Man’s Sky

This game is an enigma, wrapped in a mystery, wrapped in a high-rez procedurally generated infinite space playground.

Developers Hello Games have been hard at work for several years creating the complex algorithms that run this highly ambitious universe simulator. I mean seriously, this game is so big that the developers had to design space probes to explore it for them.

Pegged for release in the third quarter, initially a PS4 exclusive, literally any news on this title would be good news.

Battle Born

A new title from Gearbox, the developers that brought us the near perfect Borderlands series, Battle Born is their attempt at combining the increasingly popular MOBA format (from games like DOTA, League of Legends and Heroes of the Storm) with the time honoured first person shooter.

Combining the FPS with RPG elements isn’t a first for Gearbox and early trailers make the gameplay look very promising. They have even managed to insert their trademark stylised aesthetic and tongue-in-cheek characters. They may have a hard time competing with the many long standing MOBAs but with their refreshing take on the genre they are definitely in with a chance.

Mirror’s Edge 2

The original Mirror’s Edge slipped under a lot of radars when it was released in 2008 alongside GTA 4, Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead and Fable II but it was by far one of my favourite games that year. The plot was gripping, its characters were rich tapestries and the parkour oriented game play came as a breath of fresh air in an increasingly stagnant marketplace.

Mirror’s Edge 2 has been in the works for some time and while we haven’t really seen much yet at this year’s E3 the developers are expected to really put on a show

Fallout 4

We’ve waited long, struggled through devastating hoaxes and almost given up hoping but it’s finally here! In just a few short weeks we have been promised gameplay footage and I for one would pay any number of bottle caps for the chance to see it early.

But I don’t need to hype you up for this game. The trailer speaks for itself.

As usual IGN are doing blanket coverage of the event throughout the week, so check out the video below for the best access possible and block out June 16-18 in your calendar – you won’t be getting anything else done.

Words: Guy Aldous