E3 2012: Top Five Games From the Expo

6:27 PM PDT 6/11/2012 by John Gaudiosi

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Game industry has fewer titles but bigger potential hits lined up.

LOS ANGELES – By now the Los Angeles Convention Center is cleaned up. The booth babes have gone home. The halls are quiet. But the memories of the 45,700 attendees of E3 2012 are still fresh. There are fewer big game titles being made these days, thanks in part to the influx of online social, free-to-play and mobile games, but big blockbusters still have their place in driving console sales and more mainstream audiences to interactive entertainment. The below are five games that impressed at the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

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Beyond: Two Souls – Developer Quantic Dream is creating a truly innovative interactive adventure story for Sony Computer Entertainment with Beyond: Two Souls. The PlayStation 3 game stars a virtual Ellen Page as Jodie Holmes and will span 15 years in her life. Gamers will take control of both Jodie and the entity, or ghost, called Aiden that is literally tethered to her at all times. Writer/director David Cage has crafted an epic story that Page brought to life doing extensive, cutting-edge full performance capture at the Paris game studio over several months. This early 2013 release is sure to further push interactive entertainment.

Aliens: Colonial Marines – While Ridley Scott focuses on the origin of Alien with Prometheus, developer Gearbox Software is continuing the saga with this virtual sequel to Alien 3. Actor Lance Henriksen returns to the franchise as a new synthetic, Rook, in the campaign story. In multiplayer, gamers can take control of original Aliens characters Private Hudson (Bill Paxton), Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn), Private Drake (Mark Rolston) and Sergeant Apone (Al Matthews) and fight the xenomorphs. The early 2013 release from Sega for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC is shaping up to buck the trend of shoddy Hollywood licenses.

Gears of War: Judgment – Developers Epic Games and People Can Fly are crafting the first prequel in the Gears of War franchise. This third-person perspective shot focuses the action on Kilo Squad, which includes Damon Baird, Augustus Cole, Sophia Hendrix and Garron Paduk. The game promises a streamlined action experience that cuts out the cinematics in favor of killing a variety of Locust creatures. At E3 the developer showcased a new five versus five class-based multiplayer mode called OverRun that’s sure to please Gears fans. Look for this Xbox 360-exclusive, due out in early 2013, to help Microsoft improve on its console lead.

Assassin’s Creed III – Ubisoft is bringing the American Revolution to life in the latest Assassin’s Creed adventure. Players take control of Connor, whose half Mohawk Indian and half English, in an original story that spans from 1753 (the French and Indian War) to 1783 (the signing of the Paris Treaty that ended the American Revolution). Gamers will live through famous historical events such as The Great Fire of New York, The Battle of Bunker Hill and the harsh winter at Valley Forge. Further blending fiction with history, the game has over 70 real people featured in the story, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Marquis de Lafayette, Charles Lee and Paul Revere. The revolution comes to PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on October 30, 2012.

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The Last of Us -- Naughty Dog has captivated audiences with its Uncharted trilogy in recent years. Now the studio is focusing on survival horror with The Last of Us. Set 20 years after a global pandemic that has wiped out civilization, the game focuses on an unlikely duo -- Joel, a lethal killer, and the teenage girl Ellie. They’re on a journey from a quarantine area on the East Coast out to the non-quarantine West Coast. With a Mature rating, the developer is exploring new, much darker territory with this game. The survivors who exist, even those who are human, are dangerous. With no electricity and scant resources, players must scrounge for bullets and weapons as they explore an open world filled with death and destruction. The Last of Us will be published by Sony Computer Entertainment exclusively for PlayStation 3 in 2013.