There’s 24 – a third person shooter using the same split-screen action you get on the TV show. I don’t really watch the show, but I was digging the game. The split screen really helped keep things moving.

Then there is Ghost Rider. That’s based off the upcoming Nick Cage movie, and is a third person action game featuring lots of flaming whips and motorcycle riding. The visuals were fairly engaging.

Then Norin came over and got me to see the really cool stuff: Bioshock, Stronghold Legends, Civ City: Rome, and The Darkness.

Bioshock

I cannot emphasis highly enough how amazing Bioshock looked. I was in awe. I was in shock. I was shocked and awed. The game is still pre-alpha and it screamed “BUY ME PLAY ME LET ME SUCK AWAY YOUR LIFE.”

And when you’re on day 3 of E3 that’s saying something.

Let’s give you some background on it. It’s set in an underwater utopia in the 1950s. It’s got a real art deco feel to it. It’s a horror role-playing game-slash-first person shooter. People used something called “Adam” to remake themselves – better, faster, stronger, smarter, all that stuff. Then something happened, and it’s horrible. You’re a survivor, of sorts, with your cobbled-together gun.

You have spell effects from your plasmids and Adam works like money. Your enemies need Adam, too, and the only place left to get it is off dead bodies.

Who are your enemies? The former residents of the utopia, of course. The demo showed us a “Big Brother” – a huge man in a diving suit, with an old fashioned diving bell for a head – helping a little sister – a small girl – out of a pipe so she could suck the Adam (and blood) out of a dead body and chug it down. A ceiling crawler is a woman in a dress with hooks, jumping down from the ceiling to attack. Not to mention the remnants of the security system…

As one of the developers said: “Monsters aren’t scary. People are.”

And you feel immersed in the game. The bathrooms are labeled “Dames” and “Gents”. Cigarette ads adorn the walls. The music reminds you of the time. Shadows cross the walls from fish swimming above you. They have a programmer and an artist devoted SOLELY to the water.

I don’t care much for survival horror games but gosh, I am SO excited about this game that I can’t help but gush.

Stronghold Legends

A sister game to Stronghold, this game is more RTS-based, though it does have some sim-like qualities.

You play one of three races, each with its own styles and campaigns, such as Arthur or Vlad the Impaler. Each race also has its own dragon and specialized units – for example, Vlad has arrow-impervious units that can swap an enemy unit’s loyalty, and Arthur has his Knights of the Round Table.

You not only have tunnels, but various ways to enter a castle. For instance, a giant can knock down the walls – or you can shoot a werewolf on a catapult over the walls.

Civ City: Rome

Firefly Studios, the group doing this game, used to do the Caesar series of games, and it shows in the attention to detail and education in this sim. You can follow an on-going campaign, or just do single “missions” to build up your city.

As I said, one of the amazing things about this game is the attention to detail. If you want, you can zoom down so far you can look inside the buildings. If you want, you can follow around an individual or family – see how they’re living, what they’re doing, what they need.

For your city you can build everything from the standard houses to arenas, gardens and temples, even hold chariot races! You can research new technologies as you go, helping speed up how things get done (by, say, improving roads).

The game is also designed to be educational. There’s a Civilopedia included, with over 1000 facts about Roman life (did you know, for instance, that Roman houses had the toilet in their kitchen?).

Look for Civ City: Rome in July.

The Darkness

The Darkness is a first person shooter action/adventure style game based on the comic of the same name, created by the same studio that did “The Chronicles of Riddick” game.

Written by the comic’s writer Paul Jenkins, you play Jackie Estacado, a Mafia hit man who on his 21st birthday was possessed by The Darkness, a demon. It draws its power from the dark (appropriately enough) so as you battle the mafia and a corrupt police force you’ll be looking for dark spots to manifest your tentacles and summon Darklings, malevolent demons drawn from dead bodies to harass your enemies.

The powers of the Darkness are intended to complement the gunfire, not replace it. The demonstration showed him using the tentacles to pick up large objects like cars and dumpsters to shield himself or attack enemies. Darklings provided support against the SWAT van that rammed into the building he was in, and he even sent one of his tentacle through an air vent to kill the corrupt cop guarding the gate to the alley he was in, then unlock the gate to escape. At one point, Jackie cleared a room using a miniature black hole! As the game goes on your powers will grow and change.

That’s not it for the game. You’ll also have the ability to watch even full length movies on TVs in the game (though it wasn’t clear if they’d be included or not) and there will be multiplayer action (whether or not you can play as Darklings in multiplayer has yet to be confirmed – I could’ve sworn they said you could, but can’t find confirmation on it). The graphics looked good (and creepy). They used facial motion capture on the voice actors so the faces look better than might be expected.