Dr. Worm’s Top 5 E3 2012 Games

by Dr_Worm on Jun 8th, 2012

Let’s be honest – this year’s E3? Pretty lackluster, there just weren’t many big announcements nor were there announcements people wanted to hear. Regardless, I have managed to scrap up a list of my top 5 favorite games shown at this year’s expo.

#5 – Paper Mario: Sticker Star

Generally I’m not a huge fan of the Paper Mario series, but what really got me interested in this one is the use of stickers in the environment. I like the idea of powering up your RPG character purely by solving puzzles and exploration outside of battle. It builds a stronger connection between in-battle and out-of-battle gameplay, which isn’t seen often in RPGs with the two separate fields of play (those most commonly being JRPGs).

 

#4 – Castlevania: Mirror of Fate

Castlevania has had many forms of gameplay in the past, from straight-up action platforming, to Metriod-style exploration with RPG elements, to 3D action games. It’s been a while since the last straight-up action platformer Castlevania, and although Mirror of Fate’s gameplay isn’t entirely traditional, I think its unique combat-driven attributes help it to stand out. To put it in a way some might understand, this is a Castlevania James Rolfe would like.

 

#3 – Pikmin 3

I really liked the first Pikmin game, even though I’ve yet to experience the second (which thankfully I’ll be able to soon with the Wii edition finally coming to the states).  This game is on my list mainly because of Miyamoto’s ingenuity when it comes to gameplay mechanics, most interesting to me being the multiple captains. They expressed interest in making Pikmin 3 a game that “helps people understand the kind of fun deeper games can offer”, and that’s a philosophy I can get behind.

 

#2 – ZombiU

At first glance, ZombiU might seem like a generic zombie shooter, and in some regards, it is. But what drew me in was the functionality the GamePad seemed to add to the game’s standard FPS gameplay. Switching back and forth between first-person action and performing tasks on the GamePad looks like it could add a lot to the immersion factor of the game, contributed by adding tension and enforcing non-shooter actions to be done via touch screen. It makes me wonder why developers don’t do this kind of thing more often with the 3DS, let alone at all.

 

#1 – Watch Dogs

See? Not all of my picks were Nintendo games.

Watch Dogs is a GTA-style game about using information to your advantage, as well as the power to control elements of the city at your will; examples being intercepting cell phone calls to learn about a man you’re looking for, as well as changing traffic signals, timed just right so your target is a victim in the impending accident. That alone was enough to draw me in, but when Ubisoft pulled out of the game to show that another person was playing, watching the player that we had been watching thinking it was a single player only experience, that was the real surprise, and the only one to make me say “wow” out of every game shown at E3. It was enough that I said to one of my friends, “Welp, that’s GOTY.”

E3, to me, has always been about two things – gaming announcements, and surprises – and in more recent years, a lot of the surprises leak out onto the internet before conferences even start, sometimes even by the publishers themselves. That greatly ruins the spirit of E3 for me, so when a game like Watch Dogs shows up out of nowhere, and not only surprises me with its gameplay but also an ending shocker, that gives me just a bit more hope that next year will be better. And hell, we even got to see a glimpse at some next-gen graphics to boot. For all these reasons, Watch Dogs is hands down my pick for best of show.

Categories: Features, Top 5 Lists