Show Stoppers: The 10 Biggest Surprises of E3 2011

Image via Complex Original

Ubisoft snuck this one in during the press conference. FC3’s trailer took us back to an island setting, where the captive protagonist was being lectured in a Tarantino-style monologue before getting murdered. Kinda. Well, it was more like something Tarantino would have written in his first year at film school. But as far as games go, it was some good motherfucking writing. See? Tarantino!

When it was leaked that Prey 2’s protagonist would no longer be Tommy, but instead some meathead named Killian Samuels, the Internet defecated ceramic building materials.  Everything that made the original Prey so memorable was being whitewashed with a stale Call of Duty veneer. Or so we were led to believe, judging by the first image of a stereotypical white guy dressed like a Ghost wanna-be.

Then we saw the gameplay.   

Turns out we’re getting a free-running/Blade Runner/Mass Effect beastmonster. Human Head has set high expectations; those check boxes are almost too ambitious to fit on one page.  We’ll see if they can pull it off.

We knew the gameplay trailers were going to reel gamers in.  But we weren’t expecting the BF3 demo line to mutate into a six-hour-long millipede. We couldn’t understand how attendees could fester that long in one place. Maybe there’s a fantasy element to it—after all, the visual fidelity on display in the maxed-out PC version probably won’t be achievable on most commoners’ rigs, let alone consoles, so why not flirt with the unattainable, even if there’s an epic wait?  More importantly, a large contingent of shooter fans want to see COD get dethroned.  Maybe BF3 is the beginning of the end for Activision's cash cow.  

Yes, this Vanillaware game seemingly came out of nowhere. And yes, we’d love to have a multiplayer beat-em-up version of Odin’s Sphere.  But really, we were floored by the abs and proportions on that Amazon warrior. Someone actually DREW her like that. We’re all for strong representations of women, but only if the drawing itself isn’t literally stronger than us.  And while we’re at it, we support equal pay for women, as long as the wage isn’t higher than ours—we don’t need to be further emasculated by our own insecurities.

Wait, what?  Aren’t those guys still undergoing a congressional hearing or something?  Where the hell did this game deploy from?  They’re not even called “Blackwater” anymore. The game itself is a rails shooter with an automated firing mechanic.  Even more surprisingly: it’s not a bad game. But why bother with the Blackwater label?  Now we want Wii Play Elliot Spitzer. Or possibly PlayStation Move Anthony Weiner TwitPic Heroes.

Of all the graphically stunning Vita titles, this is the one that knocked us out.  Where there’s new hardware, there’s a new original IP that takes the show’s collective pizza breath away. The ability to control gravity isn’t a new one conceptually, but the visual implementation—in conjunction with the gyroscopic controls—makes for a potential must-buy.

The rumors about the next Wii controller’s screen had been bubbling for awhile. Still, we weren’t expecting it to look like a tablet. We’re not sure how we feel about the NES Max-style analog pads, since they don’t have the same tensile feel as a typical analog stick. The controller can’t be used as a portable handheld, which is understandable—Nintendo wouldn’t want to cannibalize 3DS sales, and cross platform synergy between the controller and the 3DS would be problematic. Either way, there are plenty of questions left unanswered until we see some games instead of just tech demos. Which, to be fair, are pretty cool.

The game’s title sounds like the name of an offensively generic comic book hero from the ’90s. The main protagonist looks like another chisel-jawed Sam Fisher type crammed into Gordon Freeman’s HEV suit. And none of that matters because we should had more faith in this surprise title—it’s made by Insomniac. Their trademark humor and irreverence makes this game look way more like The Incredibles than Army of Call of Honor Gears 7 Future Sniperfield.  

When we saw the new art for Tomb Raider a few months ago, we were intrigued. When we saw the CG trailer, we were excited. And when we witnessed the gameplay, we fell in love with Lara all over again, awkward moans and all. This might have been the most pleasantly surprising reveal at E3, except for…

You could hear the murmur among the attendees at Sony’s press conference.  “The NGP is going to be $400.”  “Nah, it’s gonna be $450.” “Ken Kutaragi is going to give birth to another bad Sony meme.” And then we got slammed in the face with a bottom-tier $250 price tag. Maybe Sony actually learned something with their $600 PS3 fumble. Despite the unfortunate “Vita” nomenclature, the relatively low $250 cover charge is going to ensure strong initial sales. Good work, Sony. 

For a change.

Oh, except for the partnering-with-AT&T-for-the-3G-version thing. That's pure Sony.