Games that I'm excited about

So E3 came and went. This year it was much, much easier to get your hands on the juicy trailers and information, and keynote speeches and whatnot. Nice, that. Some games stood out, but before I go into those, I really must wonder at the lack of enthusiasm towards the Playstation 3.

I mean, nobody seems to care. Sure, it's coming, but nobody's gawking at the trailers, nobody's asking when they can get their hands on one, everybody's saying that $600 is way too much. I for one will not pay $600 for a console. (Well, according to Sony it's not actually a gaming machine.) Nothing we've seen is better than what's on offer on the 360 and the developers are all saying that the machines are so near identical that the games will be exactly the same on both platforms. We'll see how it plays out, but for now it seems that Microsoft has really played their cards so much better than Sony, who's bound to lose some market space to their competitor.

I'll give Sony this much: the Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer was cool, especially with the final scene of old Snake. We haven't seen ageing heroes in too many games. Also, points for bringing back Raiden despite the ridiculous fanboy backlash to MGS2's protagonist.

Speaking of things you just don't see in videogames: Assassin's Creed. I've played Hitman quite a bit, so I wasn't that interested in another assassination franchise. But at the time of Crusades? In Jerusalem? As an Arab, killing Christian knights? In broad daylight, amidst real crowds? The trailer was really something, breaking a bunch of boundaries I wouldn't expect to be approached with a launch game for a mainstream platform.

Chrome Hounds: I've proclaimed my love for the mecha genre before. The Armored Core series is one of its cornerstones, so I am thrilled to see it coming to the 360, even if the trailer doesn't show anything spectacular.

Gears Of War: So call me gullible. I've been unenthusiastic about this 360 heavy hitter, but Penny Arcade's slack-jawed reaction to it has me excited. I've been waiting for games to reach a sense of solidity, of real physical mass, and early reports indicate that GOW may have achieved just that.