E3 Top 5

E3 is over and you most likely have your Christmas list all written up, but here are some of my favourites this year.

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LEGO Lord of the Rings, we’ve known it was coming ever since they announced the toy line earlier this year, but seeing the trailer isn’t any less impressive. The LOTR stories have a strong group of interchangeable characters perfect for the LEGO game treatment, as you battle Orcs, and the occasional Troll, in your epic quest to destroy the ring with the usual humours approach.

A surprising announcement, Batman Arkham City is coming to the Wii U. The new tablet console/controller has enough to it to match the PS3 and Xbox, but if it’s adding more mainstream games I might have to get myself one. What’s more is that this isn’t just the usual stand alone story you might expect (as far as I can tell), but the full game now with exclusive Wii U tablet features, from the obvious (mini map and inventory display), to the cool (motion control the batarang and touch screen hacking game). I just hope the PS Vita gets support next.

Another LEGO game, this time not based on a licensed property. Once again the Wii U uses motion control for vehicles, and other various features, as you go undercover to solve LEGO Cities biggest crime. The game play looks slightly different to other LEGO games, as the character free runs in pursuit of a crook then tackles him to the ground. It will be interesting to see if we get more games based on LEGO creations, maybe Firemen next, or underwater adventures.

Apparently games based on movies are out this year, but fighting games are in with the latest Marvel game, Avengers: Battle for Earth. There’s no game play footage in the trailer and it looks nothing special, and really this is only an honourable mention because of the cancelled THQ game based on the Avengers movie, which unfortunately looked to be game that could have made the Kinect worth owning.

Ok, maybe movie games haven’t gone away completely. Amazing Spider-Man is getting a game, we knew that, but here is the first trailer. The demo at E3 showed off the web swinging, the core feature of any Spider-Man game, and the open world New York City looks huge, with great detail added to ground level action as well. I say movie game but the story isn’t limited the films plot, so hopefully this can recreate the winning formula that was Spider-Man 2 as you take on multiple villains, including the Lizard, Scorpion, Black Cat, Rhino, and giant robot tentacles.

And finally, how could I not mention this game, Star Wars 1313. Taking place deep beneath the planet Coruscant the player assumes the role of a bounty hunter unravelling a criminal conspiracy, and the trailer tells us even less. What it does show off though is the combat, obviously heavy on blasters but also a bit of melee, which is what you’d expect from a bounty hunter game. What’s more interesting, and looks amazing with these graphics, is the sequence that ends the clip as the character jumps across the wreckage of his ship as it is still plummeting to the ground, whilst on fire. Possibly influenced by Uncharted it will be a while before we get a release date, but I’m speculating it will somehow tie into the planned Star Wars TV series in 2014.

I’ll continue to look for more interesting movie and gaming delights, in the mean time keep up to date with the facebook page https://www.facebook.com/roughcutonline