We just made it through the holiday rush, wallets scraped bare from last year’s heaviest hitters, and there are no fewer than eleven quality games about to rush us. The first quarter (January through March) is usually a time of “catch-up,” where you play all the stuff that keeps piling up on your teetering backlog of games. Not happening this time.

No matter your platform there’s something killer on the way ...

Like most of the gaming press, we’ve been taking some time lately to trudge through a pre-release copy of Killzone 2, and – in a shocking twist for a game that’s under tremendous pressure to be good – it’s pretty good. However, in our early attempts to play the game berserker he-man style (usually tantamount to suicide in any shooter that features a “cover” button), we found an interesting flaw that pops up mainly in Killzone 2's early levels. ...

The first Killzone 2 review was leaked online a few days ago and, with the US Official Playstation Magazine rewarding it with a perfect 5/5, interest is obviously at a peak for the much hyped PS3 shooter.  Until the review goes public we’re guessing at what they’ve based that score on. But, from our time playing five levels of advanced preview code, we’ve listed the good things that we think have earned the game those ...

E3 2005 gave us the infamous MotorStorm and Killzone 2 trailers. They looked amazing - too good to be true. And of course, they were too good to be true, generated as 'target footage' for the developers. MotorStorm came close (sort of) but failed. And now we've got playable code of Killzone 2 sitting in our PS3, we can tell you that it doesn't look as good as that early footage.

It looks better.

Don't believe us? Then take a look ...

Game advertising is a wacky business. We can picture tireless, cocaine-fueled pitch meetings where PR people strive to find a way to advertise a particular title. It seems as though every commercial boils down to either: gameplay, pre-rendered footage posing as gameplay, a bat-shit insane live action concept, or a amalgam of all those concepts. ...

You know the problem with E3? You have to wait months before you find out if a game that looked great in July is going to kick ass or blow goats when it finally arrives in November. And it it sucks, you feel deflated. If only you could read, right here and right now, which games are really worth eagerly anticipating and which you should just start fitting for cement shoes right now. Wouldn't that make the world a better place?

Here, for the very first time, are the exclusive first reviews for all of the games you're most excited about this very E3. ...

In choosing games for this list, we kept an eye on games most likely to succeed at the market. We also tried to keep in mind potential critical reception based on developer track record, previous franchise performance, and how the titles have been presented in the media thus far. Naturally we also picked the titles we are most excited to play at the show, but in short, these are the games to keep an eye on, because these are the games that ...