By Jeremy Azevedo

Want to know which games from E3 transcend the hype and actually play as well as their PR claims?

Okay then... Why not read our list of the top games from E3 and let us tell you what to buy instead!

Dead Space



Jesus H Christ this game is scary. It’s like that movie, “Event Horizon”, where hell and madness enter a ship through a gravitational drive and drag everybody onboard kicking and screaming into a dark dimension of pain and horror. It’s like Silent Hill in space, which somehow seems even scarier because at least you know what to expect ins Silent Hill by now (faceless nurses: check, inside-out dogs: check, ghost children: check…) Dead Space is an action game at heart, which means you are equipped properly to combat the terror that awaits you, not that this will stop you from jumping out the window every time some new surprise leaps out at you from absolutely goddamn nowhere. Special points are awarded for making very good use of the character model in order to show health and ammo information without an onscreen dedicated HUD.

Prince of Persia



This game is a huge re-invention of the Prince of Persia license, totally in the opposite direction of the darker-toned, stealth killing, butt-rock metal Warrior Within and Two Thrones titles, which were seen as a slight misstep in the series. The new Prince of Persia puts the emphasis back on exploration, adding a second character, Elka, who assists the new Prince without ever slowing him down. The combat plays out like a duel, with every enemy encounter bordering on epic. The way the Prince and Elka move together has to be seen to be believed, it sets a new standard for animation in a video game. This would probably be the best looking game of the show if it weren’t for Mirror’s Edge.

Fable 2



I don’t care what anyone has to say about the original Fable, it was one of my favorite games of the last generation by a landslide. The combat and RPG elements were both equally satisfying, and the sequel looks like a further extension of that. I can’t wait to see how my choices affect my destiny in Fable 2, as well as how many bastard children I can father and then abandon, how high I can build up my liquor tolerance, and how many villages I can enslave. Seriously, I loved the first Fable game so much that would buy this one even if it was called Fable 2: Card Battler Paris Hilton Puzzle Challenge Party. Definitely biased here.

Madworld



Madworld is a little bit Like No More Heroes, Sin City, Manhunt and Smash TV rolled up into a bloody ball of carnage. In Madworl, you play as a contestant in a game of death, in a world in which the only color in the visible spectrum is red. Your enemies can be dispatched in probably hundreds of nasty ways, using virtually any object in the environment. Slam them into a flaming trash can, drive a stop sign through their neck like a toothpick into a cocktail weenie, grate them like cheese on a passing subway car, or perhaps even go for the ol’ traditional chainsaw dismemberment. Points are awarded for brutality, and commentators comically report your every move to the violence-obsessed animals watching at home. Madworld is so excessively violent that you’ll think you are in some kind of alternate-earth bizarro universe when you are playing this on your Wii next year.

Dark Void



Gears of War is great and everything, and I know some of you will take offense at this, but at the heart of it really isn’t anything all that special or different. But what if you took the firing-from-cover FPS style of GOW, added a jet pack, and made it truly 3-D? And when I say true 3-D, I mean as much vertical as horizontal. Your character is able to move, cover, and battle his way up and down the stages as easily as if he were moving left-to-right. Later in the game, you’ll get a jetpack that allows you to fly around the stages, take on enemy aircraft, rip the pilots out of the cockpit and take the vehicles over. Dark Void gives you a lot to do, and also has a great story regarding the Bermuda Triangle. Make sure you don’t sleep on this one just because the name is so similar to Dead Space!

Keep checking back here for more of the best from E3!

Read Part 1 HERE!