Best E3 trailers of 2013

Watch Dogs

Trenchoat man whose name I keep forgetting (Aiden Pearce - Ed) returns for another decent in-game slice of Watch Dogs action. More Chicago. More magic phone hackery. More baton-whacking. What's still unclear is why what's-his-face (um, no, forgotten already - Ed) is running around in the dark looking through other peoples' security feeds and thwonking people with a retractable hitting stick. Not that it especially matters when there's such a slick city to explore. A good showing for Ubisoft, who also brought The Crew, The Division and Assassin's Creed 4 to E3 this year.

Star Wars Battlefront

Star Wars Battlefront is back! And it's being made by the Battlefield developers in the engine they made, Frostbite 3. EA are really tapping DICE at the moment, and from the looks of Mirror's Edge 2 and Battlefield 4, that's no bad thing. Who better to recreate the windswept tundra of Hoth? With a teaser this short, and Mirror's Edge and Battlefield to look after, it's unlikely we'll see much of this for the next year, but just knowing it's out there will be enough for Battlefront fans.

Dark Souls 2

A strange music choice for the E3 trailer, but it's forgiven for otherwise looking a lot like Dark Souls. From Software are adamant that Dark Souls 2 will be as punishing as the first game, acknowledging that those feelings of loneliness and fear are a big part of what made Dark Souls, and Demon's Souls before it, feel so unique. The new bosses look great. The locations look suitably worn and ancient. A little less motion blur would be nice, though.

The Crew

A bit of Fuel and a bit of Burnout Paradise hauled online and connected with a big drop-in, drop-out layer of social networking. It'll be an impressive feat if they pull it off, and there seems to be a promising amount of land to explore, both off-road and on. The video does a good job of explaining what the Crew actually is, rather than trying to befuddle us with tricksy CGI movies, and it's hard to fault their ambition, but is a big interconnected open world what players want from a racing game?

Thief

A CGI trailer - boooo - but one that encapsulates the spirit that Eidos Montreal are going for. It's not dissimilar to the original classics. Garret's got new toys, like that big noisy spring blow, but still rocks a quiver of water arrows when a sneakier approach is called for. Can the team do another Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and successfully modernise a legendary PC series?