Timothy J. Seppala

Dead Island came out of nowhere earlier this year; its announcement trailer - the scariest set of reverse-chronology vacation snapshots you've seen in a while - went viral and now has more than 4.7 million hits on YouTube. And then for months we heard nothing. What was it, exactly?

Well, I played it the other week at E3 and can tell you exactly what it is: A first-person action-RPG with a focus on melee combat and weapon crafting. Oh, and you can play it online with three buddies, with drop-in/drop-out co-op.

Dirt 3 (Codemasters Racing Studio)
Xbox 360 (also for PC, PS3)

It took a while for Dirt 3 to click for me. At first, I loved bombing around the beautifully rendered tracks with all of the driving assists turned on, racking up easy gold medals. Then I got bored because everything felt so automatic, and progressing didn't require any skill. So, I turned the aids off. That was a wake-up call; I'd never I worked so hard for a last-place finish before.

While movie pundits squabble over whether or not 3D does anything besides eke out a few extra bucks per ticket at the box office, gamers have been reaping stereoscopic rewards for the past couple of months. Sony 3D games started making their way to market this past fall, and there have already been enough high-profile releases to keep those expensive glasses stuck on your face for the rest of the year.