Highlights from E3 - Part 2

One of the great things about being console agnostic is I get excited about a wide range of games and do not believe in fanboyism.  Do I come to appreciate the offerings of one system more than another, or one game series more than another?  Sure, but it is personal preference and not some blind devotion or loyalty to a company because I plunked money down on their system and feel an irrational need to defend that decision by ripping on another console.

As a result?  I watch events like E3 and simply try to take it all in and figure out what games and hardware over the next year or two is going to appeal to my family and myself and not get riled up over console exclusives.  So, here is the second part of my highlights from E3, starting with...

Halo 4

Love the series or hate it, Halo has had an undeniable impact not only on the FPS genre, but gaming as a whole as it made huge strides in making console multiplayer popular.  Now me personally?  I am still relatively new to the series.  I played and really enjoyed Halo: Reach, giving it a strong review score when it came out.  That was my introduction to the series and while I have picked up Halo Wars, Halo 3 and Halo Anniversary - I have not had much more than brief stints with each so far, though my son has played them and enjoys them.  I plan to get to those over the summer in preparation of Halo 4, which I thought looked excellent in the trailer below.

Gears of War: Judgment

And while I am talking about Xbox exclusives, I would be remiss if I did not at least mention Gears of War: Judgment.  I was a fan of Gears of War, Gears of War 2 and Gears of War 3 if you want to see the reviews, click on the links in that sentence.  I would not mind knowing a bit more about what to expect with this game, but I will be keeping an eye on it as more information is released.

Forza Horizon

I am not a huge racing fan.  The closest I come is Mario Kart most of the time.  My wife enjoys racing games though, and she does not play a lot of games.  So when a series like Forza comes out with a new release, she likes to take a look at the pretty cars.  I suspect her fascination with racing games is twofold as a) my wife likes to drive fast and b) she's generally way better at these games than I am, and I think she derives more than a little pleasure from being able to whip me at a game.  So in viewing this Forza footage, I could not help but feel like I had just glimpsed a small part of my future.  A future no doubt ending in defeat.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

I generally like the Call of Duty games.  I do not play them nearly as much as some of my friends and co-workers, but they provide me with a good distraction.  I scored the original Black Ops pretty highly in my review of it here.  The game is still a staple in my house.  My son is a huge CoD fan, and while Modern Warfare 3 (another game I need to get a review posted of) is his go-to title for player vs player fun, he still spends a lot of time playing the zombie mode in Black Ops.  He is looking forward to this game, and even starting to save up now so he can buy it when it releases (where as I would probably wind up waiting a couple of months).  I can appreciate the fact that the game is being taken in some new directions, but will it be different enough for my tastes?  Too soon to tell.  For others like my son - would they even want it to be markedly different?  Also too soon to tell.

South Park: The Stick of Truth

I am not a huge South Park fan, but this game's entire premise and style cracks me up. The game oozes with style and humor that will no doubt appeal to true fans who have been wanting a better South Park title than a tower defense game on XBL.  I love the fact that the game is an RPG.  If it was an action title I probably would not be nearly so interested in it, but since they are drawing from my favorite genre, I would say I am much more inclined to give it a shot upon release.

So, that was round two of my game-specific E3 follow-up.  Any of the above particularly appealing to you?  I still have a few more rounds of this to go - I just don't want to load up one post with too many embedded videos for fear of performance issues with browsers on slower machines.