E3 2011: Official PlayStation Magazine's game of E3: Uncharted 3

E3 2011 is over, all of the biggest gaming news of the year is in the bag, and our Los Angeles soldiers are returning to the UK shattered, slightly chubbier - and thrilled by the prospect of what they've witnessed.

Here, the editors of the UK's biggest games magazines give CVG their opinion of this year's standouts - and the one title that will live longest in their memory.

Ben Wilson, Official PlayStation Magazine: Uncharted 3

"You saw the trailer at the E3 conference. You've probably read more about it than any other game at the show not running off the all-powerful godmother of PCs. And you'll almost certainly call it a predictable choice. But even so, our pick of E3 has to be Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, a game which looks so good every time we see it that it's become supremely difficult to write about without simply resorting to lists of superlatives.

"No game on PS3 has done visuals like those we saw in the conference demo, as Drake is thrown from side to side on a boat battered by violent storms on a wild sea. No game does set pieces like the one I saw behind closed doors of Elena and Drake chasing a massive twin-engine jet down a runway that culminated in a spectacular back-and-forth mid-air fistfight in an open cargo hold. And no game is as regularly cited by fellow developers as far afield as the likes of FIFA 12 and SingStar as the one everyone else strives to be. Naughty Dog wins again, and though that statement's becoming a familiar one, that's a great thing for gamers.

"Elsewhere, PES 2012 was Borderline astounding for me - not in terms of overall quality, but in the sense that last year's game was so far behind FIFA 11 in terms of on-field gameplay, and that most definitely isn't the case any more. This is a much slicker, more immediate experience, which harks back to the halcyon days of PES's last PS2 years: zipping balls around in tight spaces, admiring the almost human AI of players off the ball (diagonal runs across and around defenders, something FIFA still hasn't quite nailed, are a particular joy), and introducing an intriguing set piece concept where you can control a specific player on a corner, free kick or throw in, rather than the actual kicker himself. It doesn't play perfectly - keepers still need a bit of work (and we've been saying that about PES for many years) - but no game at the show surprised me more in terms of how far it has turned around since a previous iteration.

"Finally, I'm also duty bound to mention Xcom. I'm about as good at strategy-based shooters as Ryan Giggs is at keeping his night-time dalliances out of the red-tops, so I had no expectations whatsoever as I trudged in to see it. Now I do. And they're bigger than Imogen Thomas's injunction-spawning whammers.

"The tactical element - managing and utilising your own team of agents in specific missions as you seek to eliminate an alien race - appears deep and detailed without being overwhelming, and areas of it look just enough like 2K stablemate Bioshock to have at least earned my curiosity. Course, it's hard to tell whether the shooting is actually any good till we actually go hands-on with it, but my gut reaction is that us worshippers at the Sony altar are going to benefit massively from this series making its PS3 bow at last. Meanwhile, Payday: The Heist was unquestionably the PSN game of the show - and a brilliant surprise."

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