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Backbreaker Vengeance (XBLA)
• Publisher: 505 Games
• Developer: NaturalMotion
• Release Date: Q3 2011
• Trailer
• What We Saw:
We were given a demonstration of the game as well as a chance to play for ourselves. Backbreaker Vengeance is basically a puzzle/obstacle course game set on the football field. It's your job to either make it to the end zone with the ball, dodging tacklers and leaping over obstacles in the process, or it's your job to paste the ball carrier and keep them from scoring. Each course, takes about a minute to get through and the game gives you a ton of incentive to try again, between your score, your friends' score for the same challenge and the game even assigns you a rival to one up your efforts. The game will have enough online and offline challenges to offer 350 waves of play in total, which amounts to a lot of jukeing and dodging.
• What We Think:
Brandon: Once you get a feel for the timing of the controls, this is one very enjoyable, pick up and play puzzle game. Finding the right pattern is very satisfying, especially when you showboat into the end zone, as is walloping the ball carrier when they approach you. The small size of each wave makes it easier to immediately try again and get a better score, or simply score in the first place and the increasing difficulty of the waves gives you plenty of new challenges as you progress through the game. The lack of a NFL license doesn't hurt the game a bit, as honestly, I never even noticed it.

Bastion (360)
• Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
• Developer: Supergiant Games
• Release Date: Summer 2011
• Trailer
• What We Saw:
Bastion is a hack-and-slash adventure set in a world of mysterious world that constructs itself before your eyes. Multiple weapons and bottles of spirits purchased from the distillery (the little drunkard) allow for moderate customization. Distinctive visuals aside, Bastion has garnered much attention due to a dynamic voice that narrates the events on the screen. We played through the prologue, which included the aforementioned features and a boss-battle.
• What We Think:
  Brian: Bastion has firmly secured a spot as my most wanted game of the summer. I was amazed by how fluid and perfect the combat felt, requiring decisive action and narrow escapes while being ridiculously easy to pick up. While other developers have been busy jamming their games with options and searching for the next big hook, Supergiant Games took solid, old-school mechanics, and honed them to perfection. During the action, I couldn’t help but smile as I tucked and rolled to avoid barrages of enemies and the narrator said, “The kid started somersaulting like crazy.” Such moments created personal connections between me and the protagonist. I wanted to perform better, not only to survive, but because I wanted to hear what praise the narrator might bestow upon my heroics next.
  Danielle : This game is gorgeous and totally offbeat. The world is beautiful – it looks like a 16-bit action RPG with funky, psychedelic backgrounds and odd, colorful art. The music and voiceover – everything your hero does is relayed by a sort of storyteller in deep baritone VO add a lot to the atmosphere, and it controls fast and tight. I’ll definitely be looking forward to playing this one once it’s out on XBLA.

Batman: Arkham City (360, PS3)
• Publisher: Warner Bros.
• Developer: Rocksteady
• Release Date: 10-18-2011
• Trailer
• What We Saw:

After being given a brief intro by a developer – that Arkham asylum was too overrun, so a portion of Gotham city was walled off and used as a prison, with Hugo Strange taking warden duties – we were loosed into the grimy world. Choosing to go the main route meant playing a story mission, in which Batman must use a gizmo to interpret radio signals, find Catwoman and attempt to rescue her from Two Face, busting thugs all the way. Gameplay was the same mix as in the previous game – silky smooth combat, gadget wrangling, and wide-open rooms in which to dispense justice.

• What We Think:
  Danielle: Batman is back – and the game feels largely the same as Asylum (a very good thing), aside from a few welcome tweaks. The combat feels completely untouched, but the detective mode feels faster and more intuitive, and reading signals off of a gizmo felt more natural than the fiddly radio device from the last game.
  Seeing Catwoman and Two Face was fun, even though our feline friend was so breathlessly flirting with everyone in the cutscenes that it kind of sounded like she was in heat. For real.
  As with any really good demo, it left me wanting much, much more. I’m expecting good things from this title when it launches this year.
  Brian: I never played Arkham Asylum. I know, I’m a heretical and disgusting excuse for a game critic, so allow me to tarnish my reputation further by being the devil’s advocate. I didn’t especially enjoy playing Arkham City, and not because my noobish skills couldn’t make it through the demo. As a fan of hardcore brawlers that require very precise orchestrations of attacks, including Bayonetta and God Hand, Arkham City’s ‘press a button and do cool stuff’ style of combat holds limited appeal for me. But, I love the idea of an entire city given over to Gotham’s criminals, so I guess it’s time to stop procrastinating and see what this series is all about.

Battlefield 3 (PC, 360, PS3)
• Publisher: EA
• Developer: DICE
• Release Date: October 25, 2011
• Trailer
• What We Saw:
After a gentleman from DICE ran us through the basics of what Battlefield 3 is—and it sounds a lot like, surprise, Bad Company 2—we got to play a full Rush match set across a huge space in Paris. We played on the attacking side, toyed with the new class loadouts (mix-and-matched from Bad Company 2’s –the assault guy has the medpack, for example), and stumbled into some smaller, newer additions.
• What We Think:
Mitch Battlefield 3 has a handful of awesome little additions that, while not new to the genre by any stretch, go a long way to make it a much faster shooter. Good thing, too, because these maps are massive. The entirety of the Parisian metro map I played had woven paths going underground and above it. It’s a city, and as such it’s built around our understanding of how cities work. Where there should be doors, back pathways, and accessible nooks, there probably is. Lying prone in a sniper’s perch kicks the enemy in the junk with tension, and vaulting over a ledge into a sprint keeps you on the move. Er, sorry. Oscar Mike. The coolest new thing for Battlefield, though, is the Suppression system, another light addition that plays a big role. When I’m under fire from your M60s seemingly unlimited fire, my vision and hearing goes in the toilet. Bullets are punching through my cover, I can’t see well, and I need to move. It’s as if my character’s panicking, and it forces me to keep on the move and in the open, or suffer a handicap. It was Battlefield, all right, but bigger and faster. Count me way in.

Ben 10: Galactic Racing.
• Publisher: D3
• Developer: Straight Right
• Release Date: Fall 2011
• Trailer
• What We Saw:
I was shown the game by a developer as well as given the opportunity to race on a couple of tracks myself. The game draws a number of aliens from the various Ben 10 shows, all with two or more karts for them to race on over 25 tracks taken from various show locations. Drifting builds up defensive power while performing stunts off of jumps builds up your offensive meter allowing to use the alien's special powers to take out opposing drivers. Additionally, Omnitrix poweups are scattered across the tracks to provide even more powers as needed. In an attempt to help out younger players, racers that find themselves at the back of the pack can pick up an Ultimate Omninode that will help them rocket back into competition. The game sports four player split screen co-op, with no online component to the multiplayer.
• What We Think:
Brandon: the game is a pretty cute Kart racer with plenty of track and kart variety. The drifting and stunts are easy enough for younger players to pull off, but the tracks to build in difficulty and provide quite the challenge at the later levels. The lack of online play may hurt the game, but at the same time, I can understand wanting to keep the multiplayer local, what with the family focused subject matter.

Binary Domain (360, PS3)
• Publisher: SEGA
• Developer: SEGA
• Release Date: February 2012
• Trailer
• What We Saw:
We sat in on a Binary Domain demo in a private meeting room at SEGA. It’s an over-the-shoulder, squad-based shooter with voice commands for your teammates. A rep played through a mission that wrapped with a…spider boss.
• What We Think:
Mitch The sole thing differentiating Binary Domain from any other third-person shooter in the past five years is the voice command stuff, and it seems like more of a chore than pressing buttons. Saying a squad member’s name into a headset, waiting for their response, and issuing a set few commands (stay, move, etc.) is the pinnacle of inefficiency during a robot uprising. The other thing SEGA’s touting for Binary Domain is the limb-removal—blasting bots in their arms and legs tears ‘em apart. Nothing new, and its gameplay implications are minimal. BD is another pale imitator of the Gears of War formula (and I don’t mean it’s similar—this is forgery) and something I’m not into at all.
Brandon: There's a lot about this game that intrigues me. The robot uprising premise, the ability to buy health packs for your squadmates and earn their trust in the process, the dynamic damage model used with the robots and the way they alter their tactics to compensate for losing a limb or an arm. There's also a lot about this game that worries me. The robot design is cool, but the environments and futuristic setting seem kind of generic as does your squad. There's the cool Asian woman, the big black, heavy gunner guy, and so on. Similarly, the trust system could end up just being a gimmick, especially when one of the trust options I saw was whether or not to comment on a squadmates butt. There's enough here that interests me to keep my eye on this game, but I still have sufficient concerns to be wary.

BioShock Infinite (360, PS3, PC)
• Publisher: 2K
• Developer: Irrational Games
• Release Date: 2012
• Trailer
• What We Saw:
After being ushered into the coolest demo room at E3 (by far, there were faux-nationalist Colombia posters on the walls and old-timey upholstered couches), Irrational Lead Artist Shawn Robertson introduced the scenario, and another Irrational designer took the reigns.
The playable portion began with the protagonist and Elizabeth – the central female character, who has uncontrollable powers and is running away from her protector/jailer, Songbird – are perusing a semi-ransacked shop for goodies. Songbird comes by, prompting some emotional dialogue between Booker and Elizabeth.
Later, we get a taste of the combat. Civil war is raging all around, with “nationalists” and the “vox populi” shooting it out on the streets as you explore – and you’ll be taking part in a big way. We saw a number of weapons and powers at play – including Elizabeth’s ability to conjure up objects with which to dispense your enemies, and a sort of floating stasis power that looks a lot like Mass Effect’s … The skyline – a sort of crazy roller coaster in the sky – plays a huge part in the combat as well, both as a means to escape attacks and pick off enemies riding high.
• What We Think:
Danielle: The demo was equal parts adrenaline soaked action and surprisingly poignant exposition – before the heavy guns were busted out, we were able to get a feel for Elizabeth as a character – both as a woman trying to escape her fate and as someone who struggles with her own unexplainable powers. There’s even a short scene where she creates a rift in time while trying to heal an injured horse, which speaks volumes about the character and her unique predicament.
I was actually pretty surprised at how dialogue heavy the demo was – and worried, to some degree, that the narrative and dialogue could get tedious for multiple play throughs (though that’s hardly a concern at this point), but I appreciated how well paced and intelligently written the sequence is.
The action was edge-of-your-seat exciting, with copious use of plasmid powers (maybe they aren’t called “plasmids” in Columbia, but they serve a similar function), Elizabeth’s powers, and big, overpowered guns. Making it all much more exciting is the fact that its taking place in such wide open spaces with what amounts to a giant, manic roller coaster running through it – gone are the claustrophobic corridors of Rapture.
Bill: So, yeah, that was something. I have no idea how hard it will be to play the game as well as the guy driving the demo but it looked really hard, zipping around on these rollercoaster tracks with a hand clamp. The demo induced a trace of motion sickness.
I think Ken Levine has something going on with these “giant guardian” creatures in his games – first Big Daddy and now Songbird, this huge mechanical bird who plays the role of King Kong in Infinite.
I do question how people will take to the setting, well, not so much the physical stuff but the timeline of alternate history 1912 America. I think it’s brilliant, but it’s not as easy to sell as “underwater city” like in BioShock.
When I see games like this demoed at E3 I always ask myself, “If this wasn’t a sequel or if this didn’t have a popular franchise tag associated with it, would it still be fawned over by the press?”
The answer here is yes. Great demo.
Mitch I’ll ignore the stuff everyone’s already talking about re: Infinite, and touch on a single story moment that stuck out to me. The moment the Songbird appears, Elizabeth starts freaking out, convulsing, and can barely keep herself in check. When it leaves, and she’s about to brave walking to where the Songbird just was, she looks at you and holds your hand. Booker, the hero, brushes her cheek, and she asks him to promise not to let her get taken away. It’s when she throws his hand around her throat and asks him to do what’s necessary to stop that from happening that I got serious chills. It just struck that emotional nerve in a way only a (Ken Levine-fronted) BioShock game can. I loved this character immediately, and I’m already prepared to do what it takes to keep her safe.
Todd: It's easy to take a game like Bioshock: Infinite for granted. It's Irrational. It's Ken Levine. Of course it's going to look good, right? Let's not forget, though, just how hard it is match the astronomical expectations this legacy brings. This demo carried a high bar with it and the crew at Irrational cleared it with room to spare. Nothing's a given until the game is done, of course, but if there's a sure thing category in this business, Infinite belongs there. The world looks like a glorious ying to Rapture's yang and having a companion in Elizabeth who works and banters with you ought to provide a nice change of pace from the inherent loneliness of Rapture. Hopefully she actually stays with you for a sizable chunk of the game.
Speaking of Elizabeth I'm eager to see more of this bizarre relationship she has with her Songbird "protector." What a great complement to the Big Daddy. It's another immensely powerful creature, but where Mr. Bubbles had a genuine sense of pitiable sadness about it, the Songbird feels much more sinister and godlike. It's doesn't look like a thing to be pitied. It's to be feared.
My only real concern about the game is the degree of difficulty. The zip lines that run throughout the city provide ample opportunity for new gameplay, but man did this game look hard. Leaping from line to line, a full dozen enemies flinging and shooting their way around you; it did not look like a game for the feint of heart and definitely not one for anyone with Acrophobia. This mechanic needs to work as flawlessly as it looked in the demo and it's not a given that it will.

Blacklight: Retribution (PC)
• Publisher: Perfect World Entertainment
• Developer: Zombie Studios
• Release Date: 2012
• Trailer
• What We Saw:
Blacklight: Retribution is a free-to-play, online, multiplayer shooter with a sci-fi bent. We jumped in for a round of four-on-four team deathmatch with a pre-made character and a pool of credits to purchase additional gear on the battlefield. We saw very little of the character and weapon customizations, but had the opportunity to pilot the new hardsuit (mech).
• What We Think:
  Brian: The original game, Blacklight: Tango Down, was a decent multiplayer FPS that lacked a distinguishable identity apart from the glut of competitors. Retribution is off to a great start with upgraded visuals (DirectX 11 support), which make Battlefield Play4Free look like a murky joke. I wish I had time to customize my own character, as this could make or break the game, but I hugely enjoyed the addition of a weapon depot that allows you to purchase heavy weaponry with credits. Having the opportunity to stomp around the streets in a hardsuit and splatter the landscape with a minigun is worth every penny.

Blackwater (Kinect)
• Publisher: 505
• Developer: Zombie
• Release Date: 2011
• Trailer
• What We Saw:

Blackwater is a Kinect game that demands more than even the usual amount of movement from its players, requiring you to duck, lean into cover and aim your gun sight with your arm. After watching the lead designer blow through the demo, I got into the action, crouching, jumping and blowing terrorists away.

• What We Think:
Danielle :

For a Kinect game, the controls are reasonably responsive, and the decision to have you aim (but not actually trigger) your shots was a wise one – it’s easy to run and gun and pull off precise sniper shots. However, the fact remains that this is a rail shooter – the same dudes will pop up in the same places every time, and once you know all of the surprises, the jog is up. Rail shooters are fundamentally shallow, unless there’s a very deep scoring system, and I didn’t see any evidence of that in the demo.

Brandon: Blackwater and Kinect Shooters aren't high on my list of favorite things, so this game doesn't have a lot that appeals to me. The character models didn't show a lot of variety, nor did the animations of your squad. The game seemed pretty responsive, and the ability to fire buy simply holding the reticule over your target reduces the amount of extraneous movement to undertake. Still, I'd rather sit down on the couch and shoot dudes than have to dodge, jump and kick my way through war torn Africa.

Bodycount (PS3, Xbox 360)
• Publisher: Codemasters
• Developer: Guildford Studios
• Release Date: 8/11
• Trailer
• What We Saw:
We started the demo off discussing how Bodycount was dedicated to low-level, hi-fidelity destruction via gun and bullet modeling. That the scale of the destruction should make sense in the environment and not just be about flash and explosions. The game has a futuristic feel and the team discussed how they wanted it to be more colorful than gritty. The first level we saw was sneaking into a mainframe to plant some malicious code in the network of one of your enemies and then to escape. We had to shoot down the medics first because they could revive their comrades. War is hell. As we fought our way through, we were shown how the cover system works and the upgrade system. The second level we saw was a shanty where two of the three factions were fighting it out. In this instance, you could wait it out, but we didn’t and saw firsthand what happens when you make someone with a chaingun very angry. The guy bursts through the wall firing and luckily hit one of the trip mines left on the floor. It wasn’t pretty, what happened to old baldy.
• What We Think:
  Jason: Bodycount is made by the same development team responsible for Black, a gun porn game that takes its weapon and bullet modeling very seriously. A constant talking point throughout the demo was how the destructible environment had to be meaningful instead of just flashy. You can destroy just about anything in the game, from what we saw. The walls can be weakened by gunfire, sending enemies flailing backwards, make their own new doors. Certain enemies blast through walls to get at you. The game has 3 factions, allowing for, in the larger fights, you to wait until they’ve weakened each other before jumping in. The game is very colorful and lacks the overall “brown” feel of many other current day outings.