E3 raises its game to unveil bold, new products

LOS ANGELES -- E3 was packed the Los Angeles Convention Center Wednesday as attendees from all over the world saw the hottest video games on display, most of which haven't hit store shelves.

All of the video game companies, large and the small, were in attendance, showing off all they have to offer the gaming public. Publishing giant Electronic Arts had a particularly impressive booth with stage lighting and fog machines to get the audience excited for their upcoming war-based shooter, "Battlefield 3."

Warner Bros, the company behind "Batman: Arkham Asylum" and the upcoming sequel "Arkham City" also had an attractive booth with actors in costume from the beloved franchise. There was more than one person could see in a day or even all week, but a select few games were sure candidates for best in show, including the new Batman title. Gotham City's caped crusader has never looked better in a video game as he glides around a new vision of Gotham run rampant with villainy. The game has big shoes to fill -- the previous installment was nominated for Game of the Year in 2009.

Maneuvering around the showroom floor is a challenge at E3, with thousands in attendance and lines of gamers who were eager to see their most anticipated game that wrapped around the convention center. The wait time to see "Battlefield 3" was three hours for the average attendee.

The Electronics Entertainment Expo was improved since last year in both setup and the quality of demonstrations. Last year there was a focus on casual games like Xbox Kinect and Wii titles, while this year the theme was to unveil new "hardcore" games to win back the core gaming population.

Nintendo made the biggest splash, using the E3 platform to launch its new vision of a home console in the WiiU, a gaming system that looks to revolutionize the industry once again. The WiiU will have a motion controller that acts as a tablet with buttons. Nintendo has been mum on specifics for the WiiU, which could mean that we won't see it until holiday of 2012.

Another possibly game-changing announcement at E3 was that Bing Voice Search will be available to Xbox Live users across many platforms, so all you have to do is ask, no controllers needed. Xbox Live, which already includes Netflix and Hulu, also will expand to YouTube and a UFC channel.

E3 2011 showed that there's still plenty to look forward to this year and that 2012 is going to be a huge year for the industry.

Watch for more on the best-in-show games next week in the Post-Gazette's Magazine section.