Obviously E3 always comes with an avalanche of news and information about games, some new and some merely updates to games that were already announced. For right now, I’m going to focus on games for which the announcement was just made in the last few days, and disregard the likes of Batman: Arkham City and Aliens: Colonial Marines (much as I might ravenously anticipate them). Catch a quick list of all-new titles that have caught my eye so far after the jump, complete with trailers because I know what you ladies like.

Luigi’s Mansion 2

Mario’s second fiddle got his first chance in the solo spotlight with the unique and quirky Luigi’s Mansion for the GameCube, with rich and lavishly conceived environments that were genuinely spooky. The game was a celebration of the dual-stick functionality (although the GameCube’s C-stick was puzzlingly small and weak), and with a fixed-camera 3rd person perspective, it’s tone and action sometimes felt like a cartoony homage to the original Resident Evil.

I loved the hell out of that game and I’m glad to see it’s getting a sequel on the 3DS. It will be interesting to see what that technology does for the visuals of a game that depends very much on environments. The gameplay video in the sequel seems to indicate little change from the original in terms of mechanics, but considering the wait this franchise had to get another installment, I’m alright with it.

Halo 4

The unexpected announcement of Halo 4 is leaving this unabashed Halo fanboy unsure how to feel. The transition of a beloved and wildly popular series from one developer to another can be tumultuous, and Bungie had a culture and rapport with fans that 343 Industries will have a tough time duplicating, even though Microsoft created them as an in-house manager of the Halo franchise.

The trailer is also a brief, dramatic lead up to an uninformative WTF “reveal”. We last left Cortana and the Chief floating lost in space, headed toward what now appears to be a…gateway? Cosmic garbage disposal? Death Star? Giant 343 Guilty Spark/Wheatley from Portal 2? Despite Chief’s one-man-army abilities, I always enjoyed how the games would put him into the context of a larger war, one part of an army of human soldiers. I hope he finds his way back to some of them in Halo 4, I don’t think isolation would suit him as well as it does Metroid’s Samus Aran.

Overstrike

A brand new IP, Overstrike will mark the first foray made by Insomniac (of Ratchet and Clank and Resistance fame) out from under Sony’s umbrella into the multiplatform market. It’s a four-player squad tactics shooter with an emphasis on gimmickry and gadgetry, and the game’s cinematic trailer looks sleek and shiny. There are techno-swashbuckling and quick wit, reminiscent of Insomniac’s gunslinging cat-bunny and midget robot duo. If this thing is a hit, it could mark the start of new life for Insomniac.

Brothers in Arms: Furious 4

Apparently Quentin Tarantino wasn’t okay with licensing Inglorious Basterds for a videogame, so Gearbox just went ahead and made one anyway, calling it something else. It stars Sean Devlin from The Saboteur, Colonel Kilgore from Full Metal Jacket, a guy from the Filthy Thirteen, and Team Fortress 2′s Heavy Weapons Guy going through a Paul Bunyan phase, all ripping through an entire brauhaus of Colonel Hans Landas with the movie’s attitude that ghoulish acts of cruelty are heroic if they’re done to Nazis.

This would seem to mark a new direction for this underrated series. Previous installments focused heavily on combat realism with a squad-based cover-and-move mechanic that felt more true-to-life than any Medal of Duty: Honor Call shooter to date. “Covering fire” actually meant laying down a suppressing hail of bullets that had little chance of doing damage themselves, but would scare and pin the targets in place while your squadmates could reposition for flanking angles. I hope to see that concept integrated into this new title, and not left behind in favor of larger-than-life action hero bullshit.