Timothy J. Seppala

Associate Editor

I had three favorite games coming out of this E3: Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Metronomicon: Slay the Dance Floor and Agents of Mayhem. While a big-budget first-person shooter, an RPG/rhythm game hybrid and a cel-shaded super-anti-hero simulator may be very disparate games, the common thread is that they defy expectations.

Wolfenstein explores the concept of fragile masculinity in what's typically a genre driven by an overdose of testosterone. Not only that, it toys with the idea of a video game protagonist's service record catching up with him -- something Halo developer 343 Industries could learn from.

Rhythm games were a fleeting obsession of mine, and if Rock Band 4's sales are any indication, they were for a lot of people. Metronomicon's fundamentals are impeccable, but it's the way the title marries role-playing elements like character classes and spell-casting to the beat-matching that really sold me. Oh, and that music.

I've waited 10 years for a proper sequel to Crackdown (let's not talk about 2010's Crackdown 2). What I played of Crackdown 3 left me feeling flat Monday, but getting 30 minutes with Agents of Mayhem made me ridiculously excited. Mayhem takes Crackdown's cartoony superhero skeleton and grafts an actual game on to it, with a metric ton of personality to spare. I have a lot more to say about it but know this: Buying Agents of Mayhem on August 15th will save you $60 when Crackdown 3 is released November 7th.