E3 2012 DAY 3: THE GAMES YOU WANT BUT CAN’T HAVE YET

E3 is now officially more than half way over. The major press conferences have all wrapped up, most of the games have been announced and introduced, and we won’t see any “secret” surprises until tomorrow.

Does Valve have something they finally want to share? Who knows. Probably not, knowing their enjoyment for cockteases.

Today is reflection day at E3. Journalists get to go over all of the new information they took in from the past two days, and spectators can try out the nearly infinite amount of demos available on the show floor. Then everybody gets to wait until tomorrow for final releases, and then next year. I’ll worry about the post-E3 blues tomorrow.

For now though, we can take a look at some of those demos.

STAR WARS: 1313
Probably the most talked about game this year at E3 is the new title in the famous science fiction franchise. While Star Wars games can seem a bit overplayed these days, 1313 takes on a completely different tone than other properties. The game is supposed to be from the point of view of a bounty hunter, and takes places in the seedy underbelly of the universe, making the game more violent, dark, and lethal. It’s definitely an original take on the franchise, usually seen as family-friendly and a bit hokey. I’ve never been a huge Star Wars fan myself, so I’m a bit biased, but at the very least it looks cool.

NI NO KUNI
I always get really excited when a new Studio Ghibli film comes out, as in my humble opinion, the Japanese animation studio can do no wrong (What? You didn’t like Laputa? I can’t hear you. Lalalala). When I learned then that the studio was releasing a video game, I was hesitant, but eager to find out more. Luckily, E3 this year showed us some new footage from the game, an RPG set to be released in the states next year.

WATCH DOGS
Who watches the Watch Dogs?

Apparently everybody, as the title by Ubisoft has become the surprise hit at E3. The game has no release date as of yet, but is already highly-anticipated due to its interesting premise and combination of multiplayer, online and single-player elements in a way that has never been done before. You can view a demo of the hacker thriller below.

FAR CRY 3
Another shooter? Well maybe. Far Cry 3 hopes to be more interactive and engaging than your typical generic shooter, creating choices for the players to take and leading the protagonist Jason Brody into the very depths of insanity.

So I get to shoot crazy people in the face, and potentially learn a lesson about morality in the process? Maybe.

BORDERLANDS 2
The sequel to the incredibly violent and crazy shooter from Gearbox was one of the big titles at PAX East in April, and it’s still holding on to the hype at E3. The company has been slowly revealing new characters, features, and plot points for a while now, and revealed their final character--an assassin called Zero--at E3 this year.

There isn’t much to say that has already been said about Borderlands 2. It’s full of guns, violence, vast environments, and absurd creatures, and it will be amazing.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
Okay, at this point I’m kind of sick of seeing movie licensed games. If you make it as a response to a film, like Ghostbusters that’s one thing. If you make it for a simultaneous release with a film like Battleship then you deserve nothing but shame.

The Amazing Spider-man is not for consoles, but for mobile devices, and seems to not just rehash the plot of the new movie. The web-swinging doesn’t look too bad, and apparently they’re making up their own story. It’s a game of its own, so I don’t think it can be thrown away just yet.

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