If you’ve been following JOE’s coverage of the video games industry’s essential event, you’ll have seen our verdict on the Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo E3 2010 press conferences, not to mention Ray Foley’s personal take from visiting the expo in person (lucky sod). After much deliberation, however, it was time to get down to brass tacks – developers, publishers aside, which games really stole the show at the industry’s biggest event of the year?
5. Kirby’s Epic Yarn – Nintendo Wii
Despite resembling a shaven testicle, Nintendo’s little-known pink mascot is in our opinion one of the most underrated video game characters around – ask one of the 5 people that bought Kirby’s Magic Paintbrush on the DS and we’re sure they’ll agree. As one of the numerous surprise announcements at the Nintendo E3 show, Epic Yarn delighted audiences with it’s unique art style and gameplay, drawing comparisons to the similar “hand-made” 2D backgrounds of the Nintendo 64 title Yoshi’s Story.
Player impressions from the show floor have also been overwhelmingly positive and with a Christmas 2010 release set in stone, we can’t wait to try out the latest in Kirby goodness. Manly as we may be, that trailer is just downright adorable. We’re already won over, so here’s hoping the pink puffballs’s latest adventure will have rival 2D adventures kicked to the kirb in disgust.
4. Gears of War 3 – Xbox 360
Due to Microsoft’s obligations to the Halo franchise and impending Halo Reach release, Gears of War 3 will be the first in the trilogy to miss out on a November release date, having been set back to an Easter 2011 release window – a real shame, considering Gears 3 is arguably the more promising shooter. With limited time during Microsoft’s press conference, series creator Cliff Bleszinski cut right to the chase, showcasing live co-op gameplay, with much more dynamic surroundings and greater in-game banter between your Cog members.
“Cliffy B” saved the best announcement for the actual show-floor, however, unveiling the all-new “Beast Mode”, where players can control members of the Lambent or Locust alien races, with each class’ controls wildly different (see above). And yes, 3-way online battles between Cogs, Lambent and Locust teams are on their way. Now all we have to do is wait nearly a year – sigh.
Â
Space Mining, Mickey and Motion controls done right
3. Epic Mickey – Nintendo Wii
First things first – Epic Mickey is an awful name for a Mickey Mouse video game. JOE is actually thinking of taking a part-time role in the run-up to the game’s Christmas release so we can hear confused mother’s ask “I’m looking for your Epic Mickey? My daughter’s friends have been talking about it”. Jokes aside, Mickey is being spearheaded by Deux Ex designer Warren Spector, and much like Kingdom Hearts before it, looks to tamper with Disney convention to supremely creative ends.
Set in a world of abandoned Disney characters (Cartoon Wasteland), Mickey uses a magic paintbrush (get the lawyers, Kirby) and thinner to paint or destroy objects within the forsaken world. Aside from that, what we’re most interested are the promised 2D levels that revisit classic Disney ‘toons, such as the level based on Mickey’s first appearence, Steamboat Willy – you can find it from 4.00 onwards in the above clip.
2. Dead Space 2 – Xbox 360 & Playstation 3
As anyone who played the original Dead Space title, at night, with surround sound, can attest, urine is surprisingly difficult to remove from jeans. Whether Dead Space 2 can provide similar thrills and spills will largely decide the effectiveness of the series’ signature scares, but either way, developers Visceral Games have ramped up the survival-horror, as evidenced by the above footage. With new enemies including the Puker, which hurls projectile vomit at you (lovely), Visceral aren’t pussy-footing around, including a “kinetic impairment” feature, whereby players can pin enemies to the wall with their severed limbs. Your nan will love it.
Similar to Gears 3, don’t expect Dead Space 2 until early 2011, unfortunately. In the meantime have a glance at the above E3 demo showcase and you’ll agree that just like in space, if you play Dead Space 2 in a sound-proof room, no-one, thankfully, can hear you scream.
1. Child of Eden – Xbox 360 Kinect
What the hell was that? Amazing, if you ask us. Lumines and Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi stunned E3-goers when he closed out the Ubisoft E3 presentation with the above footage. For anyone that has never played the sublime Rez on PS2, imagine an on-rails guided third-person shooter. Now imagine you’re incredibly high. Essentially a first-person, controller-less Rez, Child of Eden was the resounding answer to whether any Microsoft Kinect titles could appeal to hardcore gamers.
Mizuguchi demonstrated the title himself, on-screen, at the Ubisoft event, with his back to the audience as if conducting an orchestra. Child of Eden may not have the blood, guts or sweary bits from the majority of big-budget titles around these days, but for us it was the clear game of E3, as it looks to provide a potentially groundbreaking experience, coupled with eye-popping visuals and calming trance beats. Whilst we’re not entirely sold on the merits of Microsoft Kinect’s controller-less future yet, Mizuguchi is proof that if implemented correctly, we might be looking towards a bright, exceedlingly trippy future.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ podcast – listen to the latest episode now!
