The world's biggest video games tradeshow is over for another year, but there is plenty to look forward to for gamers in 2012, writes Adam Gartrell 

They came, they played, they posed for photos with booth babes, an alien queen and Halo’s Master Chief.

But now the gamers are gone for another year. So which games from this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known to most as E3, will they be itching to play again and raving to their friends about?

Overwhelmingly, E3 2012 was a year full of slick and bombastic new iterations of established franchises and very few surprises.

Microsoft kicked off the show with a press conference packed to the brim with guaranteed crowd-pleasers: Halo 4, Forza: Horizon, Gears of War: Judgment, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and the reboot of Tomb Raider.

Yes, they’re all sequels and prequels but Microsoft is certain that gamers still want more from these ageing but much-beloved series.

“If you look at the Halo line right now, it’s probably 200 people deep, there’s a two-hour waiting list,” Microsoft Australia’s Adam Pollington said during the conference.

Sony’s PlayStation 3 is getting a lot of big new sequels too, but the Japanese company used the show to emphasise a more eclectic mix of games.

The big two were undoubtedly The Last of Us and Beyond: Two Souls.

The former is a new post-apocalyptic adventure game from Naughty Dog, the creators of Uncharted; the latter a new drama from Heavy Rain creator David Cage, starring Ellen Page of Juno fame.

Sony’s PlayStation Vita got a few new games – including an Assassin’s Creed – but probably not enough to build momentum for the ailing system.

Nintendo had a big show, launching its brand new piece of hardware, the Wii U, which features an innovative new tablet-style controller, enhanced online offering and full HD processing power.

In addition to a host of exclusive first party titles, including New Super Mario U, Pikmin 3 and all-new title NintendoLand, which mashes up classic Nintendo games into a theme park-style mini-game bonanza, the Wii U also is boasting a host of more hardcore third party titles, including Assassins Creed 3, Batman: Arkham Asylum – Armoured Edition and Ubisoft’s exclusive new title undead hackfest ZombieU.

Speaking of Ubisoft, the French developer arguably the biggest showing at E3.

While gamers already knew about big games like Assassin’s Creed 3 and Far Cry 3, Ubisoft also revealed a promising new title called Watch Dogs.

Set in an incredibly faithful Chicago, Watch Dogs is an original – and by that I mean not a sequel – open-world action game that lets you hack into and manipulate the world around you.

Other promising games at the show included Hitman: Absolution, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Aliens: Colonial Marines, LEGO City Undercover, Darksiders 2 and Dishonored.

>> Adam Gartrell was a guest of Microsoft at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo. Additional reporting by Jesse Kuch. For more from E3 2012, see ign.com

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