Missing in Action: The Games That Weren't At E3

46 Comments

Posted June 24, 2010 - By Kevin Kelly

The Games That Weren't At E3

E3 is one of the biggest landmarks for the gaming industry. It looms like Mount Everest in the middle of every year, and sounds a beckoning horn about not only what's going to come out that holiday season, but what you'll be anticipating for the next year. Or longer! We'll never forget Alan Wake being announced at E3 2005.

For the people who write about video games, a lot of E3 means playing the guessing game. Will company X be showing off game Y that they talked about two years ago? Are any of those rumors about game Z true? Will there be a high-profile game flameout during the show? Which one of the Big 3 will win with a seismic announcement?

Most of the time, we like to think we get things right, but our internal sensors pinged over what was missed. You've read our list of the Best of E3 2010. now heck out the list of games we thought we'd hear about ... but didn't.

The Last Guardian E3 2009 Trailer »

The Last Guardian

Heavily teased to much acclaim at last year's E3, The Last Guardian was a complete no-show this year, and Team Ico was nowhere to be found. Apparently the game isn't ready to show publicly yet, despite the "official" appearance of a trailer at last year's E3 (it had leaked online weeks earlier), and we hope this doesn't mean that it now looks terrible. Last year, people were ready to cry when they saw the above trailer (and yes this includes me, dammit), but we got zip this year. I can only pray that this means that they are hard at work on the game right now and working up something impressive for the Tokyo Game Show.

Uncharted 2 screenshot

Uncharted 3

This hasn't even been announced yet, but with all the awards and accolades the game raked in, you know they're working on a sequel. You don't win game of the year several times over and then just drop off the radar ... unless you're working on a huge sequel. I fully expected a title or just a screen to get floated for this at Sony's press conference, but sadly nothing happened. Not that an announcement for this would have surprised us, but it would have gotten us more excited than ... a new PSP advertising campaign. And who are we kidding, it totally would have surprised (and delighted) us.

Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 Teaser »

Batman: Arkham Asylum 2

This game isn't even a secret, but it was nowhere to be found at E3 this year. After a big introductory splash last year, we haven't heard anything more except a few leaks from voice actors. Would it have killed Warner Interactive to throw us bata-bone? After all, the Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year edition came out last month, and we know the game is coming. Why not a new teaser trailer? An appearance by Mark Hamill? The Bat-signal shining from the roof of the convention center? Barring anything featuring gameplay, they could have just handed out Batman logo stickers to keep us happy. Or maybe free comic books. With any luck, we'll hear more about this game at Comic-Con next month.

The Games That Weren't At E3

Resistance 3

This series feels far from finished, and Insomniac recently announced they were working on several new games ... but they didn't tell us what they were. Also, there was a Resistance 3 billboard spotted as a prop in a Columbia Pictures (owned by Sony) movie that is filming for an early 2011 launch, so it's safe to say this game is on the way. So why not tell us about it, Sony? You had the perfect opportunity at your E3 press conference, even if it was just a logo for the game. Just saying, "Yes, it's coming" would have sent spasms of joy through the legion of fanboys.

Project Natal Milo E3 2009 Trailer »

Milo

Seriously, did Milo drown in that creek he's so fond of? After a ginormous appearance at E3 2009, he was nowhere to be found this year. Absolutely not a word. Apparently they were showing Milo off to "celebrities" behind closed doors, so he could learn who they are. I really wonder if Justin Bieber was a part of that crowd. "Hello, Justin! I just loooove your music! Draw me a picture! Dance for me! DEAR GOD GET ME OUT OF HERE!" As much hype as Milo got last year, I'm totally surprised he wasn't back. Surely he's learned something in the intervening weeks and months. Or maybe what he learned was how to escape.

The Games That Weren't At E3 Half-Life

Half-Life

Half-Life 2, Episode 3? Half-Life 3? Half-Life anything? While the announcement of Portal 2 coming to the PS3 was indeed a surprise, it's the only thing Valve gave us. We know something is going on with Half-Life, so where's the news? Why must you toy with us like this? Don't you know we have emotions, even though we've murdered thousands of Companion Cubes? We love Portal and we love Left 4 Dead, but we really want to know that we'll be visiting Gordon Freeman again sometime soon. That crowbar ain't gonna swing itself.

Beyond Good & Evil 2 Leaked Footage »

Beyond Good & Evil 2

It's been seven long years since the original game came out, and Ubisoft has confirmed that this game has been in development for awhile ... so why have we only seen the "leaked" footage above? Which looks amazing, by the way. If this game really is still in development, why not just trot this leaked footage out, and tell us it's officially official? Give us something, Ubisoft, rather than trotting out Battle Tag and Innergy, both of which are better suited for the Consumer Electronics Show, and not the rabid fanbase of E3 video gamers.

I Am Alive

Is this game still alive? While the first trailer was shown at E3 2008, we heard nothing about it this year. But then a mysterious video surfaced online. Did Ubisoft decide to pull it from their press conference for some reason? After all, the FTP site for Ubisoft E3 press conference assets included the entirely awesome Scott Pilgrim vs. The World video game trailer, but that was an E3 no-show as well. Did I Am Alive suffer the same fate? Perhaps our own Stephen Johnson's E3 earthquake prediction scared them off. But it would have been one heck of a promotion.

Pikmin 3 Development Reportedly

Pikmin 3

Pikmin 3 was confirmed to be in development by Miyamoto himself at E3 2008, but was still a no-show this year. Maybe Nintendo was afraid the game would get buried in the onslaught of Nintendo 3DS announcements, since it's being developed for the Wii. But here's my pitch: a silhouette of Pikmin appears onscreen, and then a herd of the little guys carry a giant 3 past. The crowd goes wild, right? All Reggie would have had to say is: "And we're not forgetting about Pikmin. They'll be back soon on the Nintendo Wii, and we're also bringing them to the 3DS." Just because it's hard to believe they won't be pushing it onto their brand-new baby as well.

The Games That Weren't At E3

Resident Evil Portable

Sony announced Resident Evil Portable for the PSP last year, so where is it now? It was being designed with the PSP Go in mind, and that handheld device hasn't exactly been tearing up the sales charts ... has it been dumped? Are they reworking it? Did it succumb to one of the strains of the T-Virus? Inquiring minds want to know. There's wasn't as much love thrown at the PSP as we would have liked during Sony's E3 presser ... and this is a title that would have helped tip the scales back in their favor. And speaking of the PSP ...

The Games That Weren't At E3

PSP 2

Rumors abounded earlier this year that a PSP 2 (or a redesigned PSP Go) would be shown off at E3 2010, but that obviously didn't happen. It would have felt a bit premature, since it feels like only yesterday that the PSP Go came out, but the thing does need a redesign. Especially one that incorporates an analog nub on the right side. Sony obviously loves their hardware, and they love their 3D. Maybe they've gone back to the drawing board with 3D in mind, and with the success of the Nintendo 3DS at the show, I wouldn't be surprised if that were now the official case.

Missing in Action: The Games That Weren't At E3

Rockstar

Yes, we knew in advance that they wouldn't be at E3 this year, but they missed a huge opportunity to tout L.A. Noire, Max Payne 3, and even the new DLC Multiplayer for Red Dead Redemption that just came out this week. Heck, they could have had multiplayer kiosks set up with that while trailers for Max Payne and L.A. Noire ran on a giant screen, with a Grand Theft Auto V logo wedged inbetween them and had long lines. With L.A. Noire still due this year and Max Payne pushed to 2011, it wouldn't have been a bad idea to have some sort of a booth presence.

Bethesda Assures Fan Elder Scrolls V Is Coming…Eventually

Elder Scrolls V

Bethesda has hinted and teased about this game in the past, but last year Todd Howard told people not to look for a new Elder Scrolls game "in the near future". I would have expected to see something this year, but Bethesda is bringing us Brink, Fallout: New Vegas, Rage, and Hunted: The Demon's Forge, so I don't really know if I have room to complain. But I will anyway. Where's Elder Scrolls V, already?! Once the dust from these four titles has relatively settled, we hope they get to work on it. In fact, if you work for Bethesda and you're reading this ... get back to work.

A Sleeper Hit

Usually at every E3 there's one "talk of the show" title that is the buzz on everyone's lips. "Did you guys check out Scribblenauts? It's amazing!" was what made the rounds last year, but this year the only thing that sparked conversation was the Nintendo 3DS. There wasn't a game that blew everyone's collective socks off ... although Star Wars: The Old Republic came close. But one thing that virtually everyone I talked to said was "There hasn't been a really impressive game this year." Are we too jaded? Are we not easily impressed anymore? Or was there nothing worth going gaga over?

What do you think? Was there anything that you missed (that we missed missing) from E3?

Tags: E3 2010, Features, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Videogames, Wii, Xbox 360

Comments are Closed

Comments

Newest First

Displaying 1–20 of 46

12 3 2

Quickster203

I hope they didn't forget resident evil 4 the psp because I think it would be awsome to finally have a good zombie/horror game for it.

Posted: July 8, 2010 12:35 PM
Quickster203

I hope they didn't forget about resident evil for the psp. I think it would be the best zombie/horror game for it so far. Also what about a new timespliters?

Posted: July 8, 2010 12:34 PM
JayHy17

ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES!!!! C'MON SEGA, SHOW THE GAME ALREADY!

Posted: June 27, 2010 3:57 PM
kooz

i was hoping for an announcement for a Dragon Age: Origins sequel from EA and Bioware...

Posted: June 27, 2010 3:44 PM
Rockstartobe1

To be honest, (and I could be talking out of bias here) but I missed what you all did last year a world record attempt live in front of the world. Like Steve Weibe's attempt at DK Arcade. Other than that, I think that you are correct that there were so many good things coming out, that it appeared that some games got a lot of spotlight where some fell by the wayside, like Scribblenauts 2, and a more "Hands on look" at the 3DS, but as we understand Nintendo kept those on a very tight leash. Regardless it was a good year overall I wanted to see a better showing from Sony this year to keep up with NIntendo and Microsoft, but sadly they didn't impress me as the other two did... aside from seeing Twisted Metal return to the system. I mean I'm not a Playstation fan by any means, but I would have like to see Sony get more cheers from the crowd aside from the TM series returning and the PS Commercial guy.

Posted: June 25, 2010 10:59 PM
robulastage

For me, outside of the 3DS, there was nothing that made my jaw drop. Seriously though, the 3DS has a lot of good things going for it.

Posted: June 25, 2010 7:25 PM
RickAstin

Indeed I was surprised to not see any of those......

And was especially wondering why Jade Raymond was playing laser tag while the host was calling her a hot model......instead of talking about "I am Alive"....

then that interview where it goes back to Assassins Creed...

All very shifty eye worthy.....

Posted: June 25, 2010 3:18 PM
dirtdude33

i think nintendo should have done more remakes of the n64 games i dont know maybe thats just me .......or am I?

Posted: June 25, 2010 1:38 PM
vferg

I was saying the same exact thing to my friends this year... I was not impressed by most of what I saw released and didnt have my jaw dropped once which happens at least once for E3. My friends said I was crazy and tried naming a few things I should have been excited about and thought they were stretching. Then I thought maybe im just getting to old, but after hearing you say the same thing im glad to know I wasnt the only one.

Anyway, I have been waiting for any announcement for Half-Life episode 3 forever now! I want to finish this story thats pretty much spanned 8 years of my life now which pretty much has consisted of more waiting than anything else ive done in my life. Please give me something that will show me they are at least close to finishing this before I die! To me this was one of the top 5 games ive ever played in my life so waiting is getting a bit old...

Posted: June 25, 2010 8:52 AM
carlos0981

I think that Gabe making an apperance at Sony's E3 was big surprise, yet I was really hoping for some Half-Life 3. I guess I'll just keep waiting. As far as the PS3 not being a viable console for Valve, I think that's the wrong way of looking at things, I own both a 360 and a PS3, and the PS3 is more powerfull, also Sony opening up the console to developers allow for things like steamworks to happen, this, on the other hand, is not possible on the 360, why I don't know but thats the impression that I get. I think that what we should take away from that, is the fact that Valve is bringing their cataloge over to the PS3, as a whole, and therefore increasing their install base or better said, their possible install base. Also I think that the 360 has held back the PS3 for too long, I think that developers, even if they are multi plat developers, should maximise ech version of their IP to the full power of the console on which it will be. So Valve should make the best Portal 2 on the 360 that it can make, and They should the same for the PS3. I think this could only help the install base of a company like Valve, they didn't say that the 360 version of Portal 2 would completely suck, they said that the PS3 version would be the best on consoles, because technically it should, I mean isn't the PS3 the most powerfull console on the market right now? At least as far as raw power? Then it should do more and have better games because it could be said that it is the better console.

Posted: June 25, 2010 5:56 AM
Rubacava

It would've been nice to hear something about Thief 4 and Hitman 5 from Square Enix. I wasn't really expecting anything to do with H5 but I was under the impression that Eidos were working on T4 and Deus Ex 3 concurrently so there must be something to show for it even if it's at a much earlier stage of development. :(

Still; Deus Ex 3, New Vegas and Epic Mickey did me just fine :)

Posted: June 25, 2010 5:42 AM
STCook

New IPs were MIA for me. Aside from Move, Natal and the 3DS, I felt that almost all of what I saw were sequels to games or new games within an existing franchise. Yeah it was great to see Nintendo bring back Kid Icarus, Kirby and DK. I was also excited to see Sony bring back Twisted Metal and watching Valve and Sony kiss and make up was very heart felt. But I was really disappointed when I didn't really see anything new in terms of software. It feels as if this might become the norm at E3 where the Big 3 are going to be showing off games that they know will make money instead of showing off their creativity by taking chances with new franchises. But that doesn't mean that we won't be seeing creativity elsewhere such as at GDC. I'm strictly referring to E3.

Posted: June 25, 2010 3:28 AM
Papa_bear

yeah i am alive looked pretty interesting... if somehow there was a big "godzilla/cloverfield" monster behind the cause of all the destruction that COULD be pretty sweet... lets hope its in development and they do things right

Posted: June 25, 2010 12:20 AM
stamatt45

Too much focus on 3D and Motion controllers this year. I let my Wii gather dust for the whole reason that motion controllers blow, and until i can get 3D without glasses (Thanks Nintendo) it's just gonna piss me off. I already wear 1 pair of glasses i don't need another.
Regarding Kinect, if they focus on the tech side and let games take a backseat i believe it could be a success.
P.S. Other than Zelda, Smash Bros., and the abused mario franchise Nintendo has nothing worth seeing. Sony's Move is just a glorified Wii.

Posted: June 24, 2010 10:44 PM
teac77

I was *really* hoping for some love from Team Ico.

Posted: June 24, 2010 9:24 PM
Tmidiman

Where was Ride To Hell and This Is Vegas? bTW, nice list Kevin K.

Posted: June 24, 2010 7:58 PM
alantango

3 W Interracial //Searching.com C -O- M}) Interracial dateing or relationship is not a problem there, but a great merit to cherish!
You are guaranteed to be your r the one of them.

Posted: June 24, 2010 6:24 PM
alantango

3 W Interracial //Searching.com C -O- M}) Interracial is not a problem there, but a great merit to cherish!
You are guaranteed to be your r the one of them.

Posted: June 24, 2010 6:14 PM
mittens1231

I AM ALIVE got Chicago all wrong! Where were the stupid gan members killing people for no reason? That was to pretty to be Chicago. And I live here!

Posted: June 24, 2010 6:02 PM
cwhas2godhands

ninja gaiden 3

Posted: June 24, 2010 6:00 PM