E3 2011: The Best of the New

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Exhaustion’s the only appropriate response after the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo. Even if you’re only watching at home, it’s dizzying trying to keep up with all the news, hype and announcements that emanate from the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Hundreds of games jockey for attention, and inevitably, some garner more buzz than others. While this year’s conversations were dominated by Nintendo’s announcement of the Wii U and Sony’s official naming of the PlayStation Vita (the portable device formerly known as the NGP), other developments of import popped up as well.

In no particular order, here’s the best of the new from this year’s E3:

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Rayman: Origins
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The character who was Ubisoft’s mascot before Ezio and Altair returns in a retro platformer that emphasizes co-operative play. Players will need to work together to complete levels and, if someone messes things up for everyone else, then you can slap them and vent some frustration. Among the clever twists to the genre that Origins delivers is the ability for players to create their own platform by holding hands. The zany art style help make the limbless hero and Origins‘ cast of characters feel more inviting than ever, too.

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Overstrike
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A few months back, Insomniac let fans know that they’d be leaving the safe waters of PlayStation exclusivity to develop new projects for other consoles. Overstrike, the one they revealed at EA’s E3 press conference, showed off an over-the-top spy squad that broke the rules of their stuffy superiors. Only a trailer was shown, but it looks like the action’s going to unfold in four-player co-operative style with the inventive weapon design that Insomniac’s put into both the Ratchet & Clank and Resistance franchises. In an industry that never says no to sequels, it’s good that something like Overstrike will find its way to players.

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Brothers in Arms: Furious Four
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This new World War II first-person shooter wound up being one of the show’s surprise announcements at the UbiSoft press conference. It’s warfare seen through a satirical lens, as in The Dirty Dozen or Inglorious Basterds. The motley crew of commandos fought off Nazis with jetpacks in an amusement park during Oktoberfest with bear traps and chainsaws being wielded against the bad guys. Due out from dev studio Gearbox in 2012, Furious 4 could give the too-serious war games like Call of Duty a kick in the family jewels.

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Sound Shapes
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Indie developer Jonathan Mak has been very quiet since his brilliant, experimental PS3 game Everyday Shooter. But he showed again at E3 with what looks to be the best PlayStation Vita game yet. Sound Shapes fuses game creation and music creation into one irresistible package that lets players design levels where each geometric entity creates a specific sound. You’ll get pre-built content, too, but it’s the chance to shape Mak’s genius into something of your own that makes Sound Shapes one to watch when the Vita launches later this year.

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Killer Freaks from Outer Space
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With the launch of the new system at least a year out, hardly anyone was showing any actual games for the Wii U. But UbiSoft proved the exception with this in-development first-person shooter. Players control Darren Boyle, a conspiracy-minded gun freak who’s trying to single-handedly repel an alien invasion of London. The single-player portion of Killer Freaks looked like typical FPS combat controlled through the touchscreen controller. But a demo of multiplayer showed off an ambitious feature called the Real-time Enemy Director (RED), which lets players see opponent action on the touchscreen. You can then launch enemies at an opponent’s position, making it like Gears of War‘s Horde Mode with another person in charge. It’s a safe bet that Killer Freaks will be a Wii U launch game, so it might be a while yet before we hear anything more about it.

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