Top Ten New Video Games for E3 2012

Now granted they never got around to doing that, but what did happen was a serious attempt was made by the developers of the game to round-out the buddy-aspects of the relationship as this mystery and its related infection were on their way to being solved, a cooperative effort that started with scanning some sick Vulcans and getting them beamed up to Sick Bay, and was followed by further exploration and a rather hasty battle with more than just a few Gorn before both Kirk and Spock pulled out and headed back to the ship.

If it sounds like there was not much accomplished during this away mission at least with respect to the emergency, OK that is true, but on the other side of the coin a lot of buddy things did get handled, with Kirk saving Spock and then Spock saving Kirk, as well as some Tricorder scanning and a some mutual exploration -- but as odd as that sounds, the important thing is that it works.

The audience for the demo completely accepted the give-and-take nature of being a buddy, which leaves us with one inescapable conclusion: Star Trek the Video Game turns out to be one of those games where gamers are going to need a good buddy in real-life so that they have a good buddy in the game to play with! Of course once you find your designated buddy and you are ready to play, the next obvious question is, who gets the pointy ears?

02 -- Dishonored

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

Developer: Arkane Studios

Platform: PC

Release Date: 9 October 2012

Picture a Steampunk-Centric Vicky Assassin's dream in which magic as well as a plethora of weapon types that fit narrowly into the style of the game, mix in a little bodily possession, and then factor in the basic plot description: After the Empress is killed, her most loyal bodyguard, Corvo, becomes the prime suspect, and must track down those who murdered his charge and betrayed him in order to enact his bloody revenge.

This AI-heavy game is set in the industrial / whaling city of Dunwall, which appears to be dominated by a very strange steampunk-inspired technology base but is clearly also situated on one of the dark mana wells that exist in some places, since dark magical powers appear to exist in the shadows there...

Playing as the once-trusted bodyguard of the beloved Empress, as mentioned above you have been framed for her murder, and so you become an infamous assassin who is known only by the disturbing mask that has become your calling card. Anony... Just kidding.

With the city besieged by plague and a corrupt government, dark forces and an almost mythical force that bestows upon you certain supernatural abilities whose magical and mana-based force can be used to injure and to possess, you find yourself set apart from the common man but unable to know for certain if the powers you now wield are at your control, or you at theirs? Revenge never smelled so confusing.

As the trailer clearly shows, Dishonored is a strange and twisted world with a Victorian Steampunk tone to it that is at once fascinating and repulsive all at the same time. While most casual steam advocates do not necessarily embrace the sort of dark magic that is also part-and-parcel jammed into this mixed bag, Dishonored represents perhaps the most original title at the show, and the word is that by the time it gets close to its release date, the assassin's side of the game will be even more focused and insane!

01 -- Watch Dogs

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal

Platform: Xbox 360 / PC / PS3

Release Date: TBA

While there were other games at E3 this year that were surprises, Watch Dogs ended up being the top of the heap when it came to jaw-dropping surprises, and particularly because it describes a world that could one day become our reality!

Back in the early 00's every six months or so there would be a rumor of a game in the works based on Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash or one of William Gibson's books, and computer and network enthusiasts would get very enthusiastic, speculating all over the net about how the game would project your hacker-presence when it is jacked into the 'net, or what the transitional phase would be. Invariably there would be discussions about how the truly elite hackers would be wealthy online but poor in real-life, save for their cyberdeck which would represent nearly their entire net worth...

Now we have a game announcement that both shocked and surprised the games journos attending E3, and when Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot took the stage at the Ubisoft press briefing and introduced the demo video for Watch Dogs the theater was full of wide-eyes and open mouths because it was very hard to tell just what parts of the statistics that was being described was made up, and what was based on fact? More than a few of the people around me looked nervously around when the video ended, uncertainty clearly reflected in their eyes.

Guillemot went on to describe a city that was itself a weapon that you control, and then the live gameplay portion of the demo progressed, and you watch the as the protagonist shuts off the local cellular connectivity before proceeding into the gallery, where he uses himself as bait to lure in the person he has been hired to kill, Joesph DeMarco.

Your mainline hack into the telecoms network confirms that the target is coming, but his assistant on site tries to set security on to you, making it necessary to take one or two out as you leave to wait for the target to arrive, at which point you use the master traffic light control system to cause an accident following which there is a low-tech gun battle between you and DeMarco's bodyguards before the target is taken down, and the story moves forward, but at this point the question is not what will happen next, but rather, how did this game get so deep in to the development process without us having heard more about it before now?!

All that it will take to appreciate the stunning audacity and the way that the brilliant team of developers at Ubisoft somehow managed to capture exactly the essence of a fusion of Gibson, Stephenson, and Gaimon without even appearing to try and... Breathless.

Explaining why Watch Dogs is Numero Uno on the list of new titles coming out at E3 2012 should not require any further effort than to say -- watch the trailer.

And there you have it -- the very considered Gaming Update basic assessment of the relative standings and rankings for the Old and the New. Stay tuned to this Bat Channel because at some point next week, when we have carefully debated the issues of strength of story, immersive qualities, and the many other aspects that go into deciding just where good parts ways with great, and where amazing looks down upon both, at which point we will have the Top Ten Games of E3 2012...

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