June 18, 2012 by Paul Curtin
Although we saw a lot of great games at E3 this year, there were many missing from the show that either made their debuts at various E3 events over the past few years or that many believed would finally be revealed at this year’s show. Now that the craziness of E3 has died down and all the debuts have for sure been made, we’re filing our report and listing the top 11 games that we sadly didn’t get a chance to see this year, but will hopefully show up sometime in the near future or at next year’s E3.
The Last Guardian
Not to be confused with the PlayStation 3’s other exclusive, The Last of Us, Team Ico’s (Shadow of the Colossus) latest involving everyone’s favorite story about a boy and his giant half-turkey half-dog companion debuted at E3 2009 with a trailer and even a release date of late 2011. Since then, we still haven’t seen anything else about the game with Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide President Shuhei Yoshida explaining that the game’s development is still experiencing “technical difficulties” that they’re working to resolve and insisting that the game will still ship sometime this console generation.
Contra
At the end of Konami’s Pre-E3 event last year, we got a brief teaser of the iconic flaming “C”. Konami didn’t have anything else involving new Contra information at the actual expo in 2011 and didn’t mention anything at their Pre-E3 event this year or at this year’s show, leaving us to wonder what’s going on behind the scenes with everyone’s favorite duo, Bill and Lance.
Brothers in Arms: Furious 4
Many were upset by the change in the direction of the popular series, but what we saw last year behind closed doors was an amazing game that played like a vivid Left 4 Dead mashed up with Inglourious Basterds. We were also treated to an amazing trailer and a release date scheduled for the third quarter of 2012. Recently, there were some issues with Ubisoft and Gearbox letting their trademark for the name expire, leading many to believe the game had been canceled. Proof that the game has been canceled or that they’ll be going with another name after how upset fans were with the game under the Brothers in Arms franchise is still unclear, but it’s not a good sign when the game wasn’t shown or spoken of at this year’s E3.
XCOM
The FPS overhaul of a classic that has been in development for years impressed us at last year’s show, looking like BioShock meets Mass Effect meets Ghostbusters. While we looked forward to what we saw, fans of the original were up in arms at how different the new FPS game was from the original RTS. Now back in development hell, we got no word from the developers this year with 2K instead showing off a new turn-based RTS called XCOM: Enemy Unknown that will please hardcore fans of the series, but will upset those looking forward to the other new game they’ve been waiting on for years.
Prey 2
Bethesda gave a first look behind closed doors to the media at last year’s E3 and debuted one of the most awesome CGI trailers ever. Everything seemed good until there were rumors of the game being canceled, which oddly took Bethesda weeks to officially comment on and finally deny. Although the game was said to not be canceled, we’ve learned that contractual disputes did in fact lead to the game going about six months without anyone working on its development and could have possibly been on its way to cancellation if not for the public outcry after such a strong showing at E3 2011. With no sign of the game at Bethesda’s booth this year, our Most Anticipated Game of E3 2011 looks like it might be in bad shape, but at least for now it’s still not canceled.
Overstrike
Insomniac’s first venture outside of the world of PlayStation and onto other consoles after finishing up with the Resistance series had everyone hyped after we got a first look at the debut Overstrike trailer teased at last year’s E3. We haven’t seen or heard anything regarding the game for an entire year, and with E3 2012 being the perfect time for an update, we got nothing besides a confirmation that the game is still being worked on.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Patriots
A potential next-gen game, the Rainbow Six series is looking to regain its massive popularity after this generation’s Call of Duty takeover. We expected some sort of teaser after Ubisoft leaked concept footage of the game themselves late last year, but Ubisoft remained silent on Patriots this year at their media briefing and instead chose to debut their new IP Watch Dogs that they were able to keep under wraps, unlike Patriots, and steal the show with.
BioShock: Infinite
E3 2011’s Game of the Show no-showing at this year’s event came as no surprise after Ken Levine dropped the bombshell that it would be delayed into 2013 and not going to E3. Although we believe in Levine, it’s just as easy to question if Levine and his team truly did uncover something that needs more development and will allow them to make the game even greater or if they just blew their load too early by showing off the game’s most epic scene at last year’s show. Either way, we’re still sold on Infinite from what we saw last year and just want to play the game already. We don’t need to see any more!
Grand Theft Auto V
Many were hoping for some sort of GTAV news to come out of E3 2012 to steal the show even without them actually attending the show. But it’s no surprise with Rockstar being too cool for E3 that no reveals were made this year. But could a GTAV reveal have been planned and had the plug pulled by Rockstar after Ubisoft’s show-stealer Watch Dogs blew everyone away by showing off what could potentially be an even better game?
Agent
Another one of Rockstar’s top secret projects that was announced at E3 2009 by Sony and since gone MIA. Rockstar’s Agent is said to be set in the Cold War and will take players into “the world of counter-intelligence, espionage and political assassinations.” When asked about the status of the game at E3 this year, Sony Computer Entertainment of America President Jack Trentton said to “ask Rockstar,” as if the main reason for the delay and lack of new information is their fault, not Sony’s.
Destiny
The upcoming super secret game codenamed “Destiny” is the first game in development by Bungie after leaving behind their Halo legacy to work on new projects. We were never promised anything regarding an E3 tease for the potential next-gen game, but it would have been amazing and definitely a show-stealer. With the announcement of the Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4 most likely next year, there’s a good chance we’ll hear more about it then as one or both of the systems’ launch titles.
Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4
With both Microsoft and Sony’s systems now reaching the end of their life cycle, we had hoped to at least see some sort of teaser for the systems at this year’s show. Instead, all we got was another disappointing look at Nintendo’s next system and no word from the other big two. However, some of the games and tech we saw, like Star Wars 1313 and Watch Dogs, have been rumored to also be coming to next-gen systems, and technology such as the Unreal Engine 4 by Epic Games and the Final Fantasy “Angi’s Philosphy” on Square Enix’s Luminous Studio engine will for sure be used on next-gen systems and gave us a real look at what to expect in the future.
