February was a weird month for the Aliens and Predator franchises. Both have always played off each other since the aliens skull appeared in the trophy room in Predator 2, transitioning to books, comics, and two crossover movies. It came to a head last month in games, though. Dead Space 3 released to fairly warm reception, though not as the best in the series. The Dead Space series clearly took inspiration from the tension, dread, and horror of the Aliens franchise, creating its own world and fiction. Then, an actual Aliens game released.
Poised as the official sequel to the Aliens movie, Aliens: Colonial Marines, released to an almost industry wide panning that even made several outlets question the role of previews. It was fascinating to see a game that only took inspiration receive better than the series it took inspiration from. At the end of February came Crysis 3, the last in a series that takes elements of the Predator movies and flips it in reverse, casting the player as a super-powered solider taking out aliens.
Maybe it’s because I haven’t been doing this as long as others, but I’ve yet to become jaded or cynical about E3. I still look forward to it each year, whether it’s the multitude announcements that come beforehand, or the surprises we still haven’t heard about. Going over the current list of confirmed games going to be at the show, it's clear the rest of 2012 and the beginning of 2013 looks to be amazing.