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(Contributors: Gus Mastrapa, Billy Berghammer, Steve Steinberg, Evan Narcisse, James Fudge and John Keefer)
[In case you missed yesterday, take a quick look at
Part One.]
We went all the way to L.A. last week to sleep in crappy hotel rooms, eat crappy meals, and sit in tiny little demo rooms next to sweaty fat guys to get a closer look -- and in many cases actual hands-on time -- with all the games due to arrive in your local game emporium in the coming months. But deciding which games were the best? Separating the crap from the cream? Some choices were easy. Others? Not so much. While no actual blood was shed in the CG offices while trying to whittle down our best-in-show list to a mere 15, quite a few egos were damaged beyond repair. (Oh, and one toilet in the men's john was plugged. Sabotage?) Join us as we count our way down to our pick for the No. 1 game of the show.
10. Dead Space (EA Games)
(Out: October 2008)
PRO: Think
Resident Evil 4 meets "Alien."
CON: In space, no one can hear you scream. And no one can hear your game sucking.
Want more?
Read the preview.
9. Mirror's Edge (EA Games)
(Out: November 2008)
PRO: A first-person shooter that emphasizes platforming instead of running and gunning? And it stars a hot-looking lady in hot pants? Two words: We like.
CON: The first-person shooter/platformer experiment hasn't worked well in the past (the most recent failure: 2004's
Breakdown).
Want more?
Read the preview.
8. Infamous (Sucker Punch/Sony)
(Out: Spring 2009)
PRO: A sharper, wittier and more cohesive
Crackdown. Dear Santa: You got our letter!
CON: Everyone reveres Sucker Punch for their admittedly terrific Sly Cooper games, but they'll go the way of Rare unless they start diversifying their portfolio.
Infamous could be their big breakthrough ... or it could be a giant bomb.
Want more?
Read the preview.
7. Resident Evil 5 (Capcom)
(Out: March 2009)
PRO: Not only does the formula that Capcom perfected in
RE 4 get ported to the next-gen consoles, it also gets ported from "Vague European Village" to "Vague African Village."
CON: The demo we saw in the Capcom booth featured more clipping problems than a barber school.
Want more?
Read the preview.
6. Left 4 Dead (Valve/Microsoft)
(Out: November 2008)
PRO: A fresh take on the increasingly stale shoot-the-shuffling-corpses genre.
CON: Having enemies respawn randomly (and in varied numbers) is supposed to keep gameplay fresh through multiple replays. Nice idea, but whether this actually works remains to be seen.
Want more?
Read the preview.
[
Click here for CG's top five picks of E3 2008. And if you don't, we're totally coming to your house and drinking all your beer. Even if it's cheap beer. Because we're cheap beer-drinking bastards.]