Above: The most exciting screenshot you’ll seetoday
The gameplay did evolve when the series hit Sin City, though, and it’s that evolution we want to see continued at E3. What had always been an extremely methodical experience – one in which your pre-mission planning was just as important as your in-mission reflexes – gave way to increasingly bombastic and spontaneous combat scenarios in Rainbow Six Vegas. Tightly controlled environments gave way to sprawling casinos, wide boulevards and an entire glittering city full of terrorists.
Purists may protest, but we loved this new approach. It was accessible, yet still deep. Intuitive, yet still hard as hell. We want more… and the only thing that need change this time is the setting. Surely, terrorists are interested in places other than Nevada?
4) Sly Cooper PS3
The early-to-mid 2000s were bustling with platformers. Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank and
Sly Cooper all helped push the PS2 even further ahead of Nintendo and Microsoft, and while Jak’s concept has cooled and Ratchet is still putting along, poor ol’ Sly Cooper and his ragtag group of cartoonish animal pals have been MIA since 2005.
However, now that developer Sucker Punch is done with PS3-exclusive InFamous, E3 2009 is the perfect time to announce Sly’s triumphant, gorgeously animated return.
Above: More or less to scale
The Sly series already looked fantastic on last-gen hardware, so the prospect of a PS3-fueled sequel makes our cel-shaded hearts flutter with girlish glee. The capers could be bigger, the visuals crisper and the environments, which were already stylish as all hell, could shine even brighter with all the extra processing power.
As long as we’re calling the shots here, we’d like to beg Sucker Punch for more Sly gameplay and less Bentley (turtle) and Murray (hippo), mainly because the last game in the series felt too scatterbrained. Focus on what works – Sly sneaking around, clinging to pipes, swinging through laser traps and pilfering valuables from bumbling gangsters.
Above: Want to play as a thief, or a socially inept, wheelchair-bound, nerdy scientist turtle?
The series definitely needed a break after three nearly back-to-back releases. Now, with four years passed and all-new hardware in the equation, it’s time to bring our favorite bandit back.
