Left 4 Dead 2
I share similar feelings with Bill and Brandon, so I'll sum up my love of Left 4 Dead 2 with three totally sweet things:
Zombie genocide via frying pan. Why would I fight with anything else?
Bullets that light zombies on fire. Can I get a flaming frying pan, please?
The Witch
walk around. Kill her with a frying pan!
Batman: Arkham Asylum
I don't care for Splinter Cell games, but Batman's mix of Sam Fisher-esque stealth and gadgets makes for a pretty stellar game in my books. I dug that the entire game wasn't smashing thugs' faces, too -- Bats is a detective, and he's got enough awesome gear to make investigating Arkham as cool as slow-motion arm breaking. In the first ten minutes the game sets an eerie, dark tone, and it gets to the good stuff right away. I don't see any reason why drop kicking clown-faced baddies could be bad, especially when a game captures the essence of The Dark Knight so perfectly.
Danielle Riendeau, Staff Writer, E3 Newbie. Terrified of freeway hobos.
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Nintendo is going after the nostalgia factor here, sure, but the new 4-player co-op/competitive twist really changes things enough to keep Mario fresh and fun. I was grinning from ear to ear every time I snuck off to the booth to play a few more levels - it's absolutely everything I love about Mario and Nintendo in general. Now, if only I could get the damned music out of my head!
Robacalypse: Beaver Defense
My biggest surprise of the show - this game looks absolutely awesome. It's a more robust take on the Tower Defense strategy genre - it adds a sort of "super soldier" you can directly control and level up in each stage, beefed up AI and more freedom on the maps. Plus, it actually looks funny - at least, I was laughing like an 8-year-old at the cartoony dialogue.
Section 8
I know I'm not the multiplayer shooter expert on the team (by a long shot), but the guys at SouthPeak practically had to wrestle the 360 controller out of my hands as E3 was closing all around us on Thursday evening. I'm a big fan of customization and cliche or not, "emergent gameplay" and this has both in spades. Plus, the spawning mechanic is the coolest implementation of strategy-lite I've seen in awhile, and it pretty much eliminates the chances of spawn-camping.
Wii Sports Resort
Aside from the slightly dense basketball game (multiplayer would've been way more fun, Nintendo), I had a blast playing the Archery and sword fighting titles, especially with my spastic sword technique. It really is a beefier Wii Sports - and this will get serious playtime at all my little summer shindigs.
