E3 2009 Games of Show

Daily Monotony's Picks for Top 3 Games of Show

After much scrutiny, careful deliberation, hard-hitting investigation, and consumption of German Riesling, I'm pleased to present to you the top three games of E3 2009.  When sifting through this year's ample number of hopefuls, I was careful to look for that special "Dude!" factor in each, games that make you stop and exclaim because of their spectacular gameplay, originality, graphics, innovation, or anything that breaks the trend of gaming monotony (hence the prestigious anti-monotony trophy). However, since E3 is about first impressions, it's entirely possible that anyone of these top three games will end up a worthless waste of disk space by the time they've released, but nonetheless, these games stood out above their peers and deserve regard for that alone.

So without further ado, the Third Best Game of E3 2009 is...

E3 2009 2nd Runner-up: Alan Wake 

So you might be saying to yourself "But Dustin, this wasn't even on your favorites of E3 list!!!" Yeah I know, unfortunately this one that I saw early on and forgot mention, but on further inspection has made more and more excited. Alan Wake is a game that has been in development since the 360 was announced, but fortunately, it looks like those years of waiting have paid off, as now what we have a stunning, Stephen King-esque 3rd person survival horror shooter. The way this game utilizes light as the primary way to combat your foes in a dark, Twin Peaks sort of mountain forest simply looks breathtaking (especially when red flares come into play). Additionally, the fact that the game tells the story in a unique, TV-thriller-show sort of way, including a "previously on Alan Wake" furthers my belief that this will be a fun game to play with great story to complement it.  To top it off, I think Alan Wake is going to be this E3's Deadspace, a game everyone thought was going to mediocre, but ended up being one of the best games of last year.  Sorry Heavy Rain, I find your lack of Zomberjacks (Zombie Lumberjacks) disturbing.

E3 2009 1st Runner-up: Splinter Cell Conviction 

If you didn't catch my 10 minute rant about how awesome I think this game is on last week's Weekly Monotony, allow me to reiterate: THIS GAME IS GOING TO ROCK! With new gameplay features like "mark and execute," and the ability to see a ghosted version of yourself to know where your enemies are looking, this game looks like it's driving the 3rd person shooter genre forward in way like Gears of Wars did with cover and active reload.  Furthermore, the way they display flashbacks as projected movies into the game environment and Fringe-like marquee text on the walls to show your objectives is unbelievably cool, and going to be copied in many games to come as a seamless, immersive way to integrate UI and story telling.  This game is going to set trends in way that I just don't see Mass Effect 2 or Uncharted 2 doing, despite being great looking iterations on their own previous titles.  If you gave up on Sam Fischer a few sequels back, this game will be the reason to break out the night vision goggles again and start practicing your best Michael Ironside impressions.  

Great, now all I can think about is how terrible he was in Terminator Salvation...

E3 2009 Game of Show: Scribblenauts

Every year there is game that just makes you stop and stare in stunned wonder.  This year that game wasn't some fancy, high budget shooter, it was a small, cartoony game for the DS called Scribblenauts.  But what this game lacked in stature and effects budget it made up for in raw, unfettered magic.  This is a game that promises to let you do anything you can think of.  A game where the challenge is not how quick your reflexes are, but how wild your imagination is.  You want to see a Vamper Hunter fight a Robot Dinosaur while riding a bike and carrying a Zero Point Engergy Gun?  Done.  Simple think it up, type it out, and it appears.  This game is probably the first truly "emergent gameplay" game ever made, as the permutations of what you can do are literally too big to calculate, and even the game's designers don't full know what you can do in this game.  Nothing else even comes close to how original or exciting this little game looks.  Hands down, no contest, Best Game of E3 2009.

Well...there it is.

Well that does it for Daily Monotony's coverage of E3 2009.  I hope you agree with my picks (and if you don't your are both stupid and wrong) and are as eagerly looking forward to all the amazing games in store as I am.  And if you just can't wait for these games to release in retail, think about making a pilgrimage up to the Rainy City and get your own non-press-badge hands on these titles at PAX 2009 where I will be covering things live from the showroom floor, and giving you my own non-press-badge hands on impressions of all these amazing titles.

What were your favorite games of E3 2009.  Leave a comment below!