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Ah summer… For once we have a bit of sunshine and, if you shut out the topless scummers drinking on the street and the pasty Irish flesh spilling out over waistbands everywhere, you might even think we were in continental Europe. It is also a piss-poor time for game releases. Perhaps it’s because they expect people to actually be out DOING things as opposed to levelling up their wasteland warrior or winning another virtual game of football.

The Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3 as it’s known, is happening this month. This is probably the biggest hootenanny in the games industry as developers and publishers showcase their new releases to journalists and the public. E3 saw a bit of a revival last year after turning about as exciting and memorable as a crap Eurovision semi-final back in 2008. Seeing as the entire industry is about to gaze doe-eyed into the future, I thought we may do the same here at boob.ie with some of the more interesting releases coming out in the next year or so.

Limbo

Release Date: TBA 2010 – Xbox 360 Live Arcade only

This game looks absolutely beautiful… And it’s an indie game which is even more surprising. Most good looking indie games are built on arcade-style classics, but this seems to be a puzzle/platformer more in the style of Ico. Various trailers foreshadow some grim scenes, including using the bodies of dead children to cross over a lake and crossing paths with a creepy giant spider. Dark stuff!

Incredible visual design aside, it’s great to see a game where the objective isn’t “put bullet in face”.

Halo: Reach

Release Date: September 15th – Xbox 360 only

The perplexingly popular Halo series continues in its war on all things interesting with you again taking on the role of a helmeted space marine on a mission to free earth from the Ewoks. This series has spawned several spin-off novels, a movie, and a line of toys despite being about as dry and boring as a komodo dragon’s balls. This game is apparently going for a grittier style, something which just wont wash if the weapons all still look like they were made by Fisherprice and fire pink spikes as in previous instalments.

It looks like Halo: Reach is apparently a prequel and it’ll be slightly darker in tone, which’d be great because if the series is in need of anything it’s a healthy dose of balls. Halo: ODST was a step in the right direction by replacing Master Chief, the world’s most boring protagonist, with some actual characters. Hopefully this game will have the story and tone to match the admittedly excellent gameplay of the series as a whole.

The Last Guardian

Release Date: TBA 2010 – PS3 Only

Shadow of The Collossus is one of those titles that gamer-nerds cream themselves over – and with good reason. It’s probably the most beautiful game I’ve ever played. Not just in terms of looks, but in terms of atmosphere, design and gameplay. It was also genuinely sad despite being entirely in a gibberish language with little exposition. You went riding on horseback for long, quiet periods in order to seek out Collossi in far flung corners of the land – then capped these magnificent beasts in order to save the life of your missus.

From the same creators comes this game, which looks to be the heartwarming tale of a boy and his giant cat-bird-dog thing. The trailer that was released still doesn’t tell us an awful lot about what sort of gameplay we can expect, but the animation and physics on display in the trailer are incredible and all created within the game engine.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Release Date: Q1 2011 – PC, PS3 and Xbox360

Deus Ex was released in 2000 by Eidos and subsequently went on to win a vulgar amount of awards. The game also still regularly crops up on Greatest Games Of All Time lists. The original was a combination or first-person gaming and RPG styles that has proving to be massively successful in games like Fallout 3 and the Elder Scrolls Series.

A lacklustre sequel was released in 2003, but now a next-gen chapter is being made and is set for release in 2011. Considering the pedigree this could be one incredible game – and hopefully E3 will reveal more. The trailer has no in-game footage, but enough sci-fi cyperpunk action to dampen the thighs of any geek.

Metal Gear Solid: Rising

Release Date: TBA 2010/2011 – PC, PS3 and Xbox360(!)

Hideo Kojima, director of the Metal Gear Solid series, is a cruel f*cking mistress. As anyone who has played the previous games knows – finishing a Metal Gear Solid game can be a labour of love, if your idea of love is being interrupted during sex every ten minutes to hear a lengthy yarn about your partner’s extended family of knife-throwing circus clowns. Via text message.

Kojima is not in the directors chair for this effort which follows the tale of Raiden, the whelp from Metal Gear Solid 2 who took the fan criticism that he was a pussy a bit harshly and came back as a mad cross between a ninja and a stanley knife in MGS4. With Kojima stepping down, we may actually see some taste applied to the game design. The old games had multiple sweet ideas but the pacing was like treacle. It’d be nice to see the typical Metal Gear controls swapped for something that actually functions more in the line of what we’ve come to expect from gaming these days. It’d be even nicer to have some cutscenes that are shorter than the time needed to contract rickets.