Published today in the Georgia Straight is my pick of the things at E3 2010 that really caught my attention.

It’s a tough job, actually, because there is so much to see, and only so many hours in the days. There was one game I saw only briefly while in another appointment that almost made my list because it was something quite unique: Lost in Shadow from Hudson Games. Coming for the Wii this fall, it’s a platformer that requires players to manipulate shadows. Beautiful and mystic.

My honourable mentions for games that I would have liked to include in my Straight column – were I not limited by print space – are: Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft; PC, PS3, Xbox 360; Nov. 16), Dead Space 2 (EA; PC, PS3, Xbox 360; 2011), Halo: Reach (Microsoft Game Studios; Xbox 360; Sept. 14), NHL Slapshot (EA Sports; Wii; fall 2010), Okamiden (Capcom; DS; 2011), Portal 2 (Valve; Mac, PC, PS3, Xbox 360; 2011), Rage (Bethesda Softworks; PC, PS3, Xbox 360; 2011), Sid Meier’s Civilization V (2K Games; PC; Sept. 21), Spider-Man: Shattered Dimension (Beenox/Activision; PS3, Xbox 360, Wii; September), Super Scribblenauts (WB Interactive; DS; 2010), and TRON: Evolution: The Game (Disney Interactive; PC, PS3, Xbox 360; fall 2010).

Those seven things that I figured were cream of the crop, though, are: Dead Rising 2, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Disney Epic Mickey, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, Kinectimals, Nintendo 3DS, and True Crime: Hong Kong.

With each passing year, it becomes more difficult to reduce the best of the Electronic Entertainment Expo to a handful of games and devices. Technological advances keep changing the game, and talented developers are becoming more and more skilled at using that technology.