While all of us at Suvudu (and many of you, we suspect) have our eyes turned resolutely and eagerly toward San Diego and the prodigiously attended Comic-Con West (over 100,000 of us, apparently), it’s worth noting that comics’ kissing cousin, the gaming industry, held its annual E3 Conference last weekend in LA.
Alas, Suvudu wasn’t in attendance but Seth Schiesel of the New York Times provides excellent coverage of the “10 coming games that most impressed at E3”.
Apparently, the game publishers put much innovation on display as they seek the next Halo or World of Warcraft (only BETTER!) but Schiesel describes a few experiences that will undoubtedly find my gaming friends reaching for the proverbial Mountain Dew. A particular stand-out seemes to have been EA's forthcoming Dead Space. In Schiesel's words:
Without question the sleeper hit of E3. And by sleeper, I mean a game that had not been hugely hyped beforehand and seemed to deeply affect just about everyone who saw it. Electronic Arts is investing in new intellectual properties, and Dead Space looks as if it should be a fabulous addition to the company's library. Seriously gory, Dead Space is like a science fiction survival-horror homage to the classic "Alien" films. The action seemed wild (in a good way), and the design, which focuses on strategic dismemberment of alien foes, at least sufficiently innovative. To be released in October for PCs, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Make that a six-pack of Dew, please.
nb: In an effort to flesh out (sorry) the game's backstory, Image Comics and EA released a series of comics written and illustrated by Ben Templesmith and written by Antony Johnston (There is a free 5-page preview of #4 available now on Image's free preview page.). There is also likely to be an animated film based on the Dead Space characters and storyline.
For more:
- New York Times article on E3
- Dead Space Trailer, Walk-Throughs, and Interviews (For Mature Audience's Only, natch)
- Wikipedia for the crowd-sourced latest...
Wish I could've been at E3! I'm more interested in the Wii games coming out... looks like Guitar Hero will have a serious competitor soon enough. But I'm sure I'll get around to playing Dead Space as well, if it's anything like Halo.
Did you also see that Microsoft finally let go some dirt on Too Human at E3? Their demo went up on XBox and they released a trailer and some other assorted news. And Prima Games, with their insider's view, did a nice post with some advance strategy: Prima Author Blog
Just watched the trailer. You have to kill the bad guys by pulling off their limbs--that's the strategic dismemberment. Very realistic bloody bodies too. Icky . . .