E3 2010 – The Top 10 Announcements

You like video games, right? That’s why you’re here, after all. That’s what makes E3 so special for all of us — it’s gamer Christmas. Who’s going to give you the present you didn’t even know you wanted? Conversely, who plays the weird aunt that gives you irregular underwear?

Well, as the one and only Kevin Butler so eloquently put it during Sony’s conference, in the end we’re all gamers and that’s all that matters. So while the URL above is pretty specific, it’s hard not to be excited by a few things that aren’t necessarily Sony’s wares. So without further adieu, here are the ten biggest announcements to come out of E3 2010.

10 – Rayman! Remember him?

There weren’t a lot of positives to take out of Ubisoft’s conference. While Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier both looked amazing (and Driver: San Francisco wasn’t shabby), it’s hard to make up for the coma/confusion-inducing part of the show taken up by what barely qualify as games. I’m not talking about artsy stuff like Flower or Linger in Shadows, but rather stuff you can already do right now (lazer tag and, uh, breathing) without having to give Ubi your money.

Thank the heavens that Ubisoft remembered that behind those stupid, stupid Rabbids that you see every year was a character that hadn’t been seen in a 2D platformer since the Game Boy Advance launch title Rayman: Advance. While the 3D sequels to the original weren’t bad games in the least, it’s the original that has endured. Having the benefit of featuring beautifully animated sprites and gorgeous art, it’s simply aged better.

So when Ubi pulled back the curtains on Rayman Origins, it’s not hard to imagine the excitement in the room (and in front of my computer monitor). The game will come in episodic form and is being worked on by just (apparently supremely talented) people. If you haven’t seen it yet, take a look here. If you’d asked me as a kid in 1994 what games would look like today, I’d probably describe something close to Rayman Origins.

9 – Call of Duty DLC comes to Xbox 360 first

Depending on the type of gamer you are, this bit of news is either a footnote or more interesting than Rayman above (how could you?!). So in the interest of fairness here are the details.

Fans of Modern Warfare 2 are already aware that DLC is already making its rounds to Xbox 360 players first. Well, Activision and Microsoft recently inked a deal that will extend that timed exclusivity for three more years, starting with the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops. I would make a snarky comment about the right to over-pay for new content, but it would be immediately be squashed by the reality that the Stimulus Package that enraged so many set first-week records on both Xbox 360 and PS3.

Like it or not, this definitely swings sales momentum for the franchise in Microsoft’s favor and definitely warrants a mention. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what comes of this.

Click to the next page for the Top 8

Readers Comments (11)

  1. Gabe at Sony’s Conference and Twisted Metal. The only announcements ever that gave me goosebumps and I was in awe.

  2. VofEscaflowne June 16, 2010 @ 21:24

    The Nintendo 3DS along with Kid Icarus: Uprising is probably the best surprise of the show for me. While I expected the 3DS to be there (I was surprised by the software lineup though, WOW), I never expected Kid Icarus to make an appearance. What a nice surprise to see Pit making a return! 😀

    I agree with most of the list here… well a few I simply don’t care about such as CoD. Curious about Kirby and the LittleBigPlanet influence. I not once got that impression from the trailer and both are games I enjoy. Is it because of the yarn? 😛

  3. @Vof — Yup, pretty much the yarn, lol. It’s definitely not a rip-off by any means, but I get the feeling that the Epic Yarn devs like them some LBP. 😉

  4. VofEscaflowne June 16, 2010 @ 21:41

    @Joe Garcia

    Haha, well this’ll surprise you.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GChec3ogDE

  5. @Vof — Well, then. o_O

    Though I’ll just stick to my guns and say LBP’s success showed Nintendo that people would dig a Kirby game like that, lol.

  6. Gabe Newell announcing Portal 2 on the PS3 was a pretty pleasant surprise.

  7. Doominator99 June 17, 2010 @ 11:27

    what is so good about portal 2? i thought its just a puzzle game . everybody is hyping it up more than anyother game at e3 so why is it so special!

  8. @Doominator — Sounds like you never played the original. It was simple and superbly written.

    More importantly, the major aspects of Steam making their way to Sony’s console is a huge deal, as detailed in the article.

  9. I do believe that de ds was the best announcement. Not in the showing of the but the games that could potentially come:

    Juts that tech demo for Zelda ocarina of time and Starfox 64 deserve a FTW. That honestly made me want to buy one, just for all those 64 games (assuming those are ever released).

  10. Where is the new redesigned xbox360…. that was a pretty big annoucement

  11. no one expected the portal 2 thing
    especialy after 2 years of valves bulshit about the ps3

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