After spending July 13-18 at the E3 Media & Business Summit in Los Angeles, getting a preview of the video games that will come out during the next year or two, I've got some good news and some bad news.

The good news: Tons of fantastic games with new levels of realism are coming our way. The bad news: Few people will have the time and money to play all of these great games.

Anyway, here are my picks of the best titles that I got to see:

Young at heart

LittleBigPlanet (PS3; October). When Willy Wonka sings about a land of pure imagination, he has to be talking about "LittleBigPlanet." Words can't do this game justice. It's a platformer, where you'll steer your Sackboy through endless challenges either alone or with up to three friends. And it's equipped with probably the most ambitious level creator ever seen, robust enough that Sony was able to use it in place of a dull PowerPoint presentation during the company press conference.

Honorable mention:

Da Blob (Wii; late September). The world of "Da Blob" is a coloring book awaiting the player's intervention; steering your blob around, you'll mix the primary colors together to paint buildings and defeat inky enemies.

LEGO Batman: The Videogame (all platforms; late September). Play as the Caped Crusader, his friends and his foes in a world of colorful toy bricks, featuring an original story and the drop-in, drop-out cooperative gameplay that has been a hallmark of the LEGO adventure series.

Oh, the horror

Left 4 Dead (PC, 360; November). You are still alive amid a zombie apocalypse and you'd like to keep it that way. This game, for one to four players cooperatively, will never play the same way twice. The levels are dynamically generated, with the difficulty changing depending on how well you and your team are doing. Fare poorly and you'll get fewer enemies to deal with but less pay off. Do well and the challenge ramps up considerably, but so does the reward.

Honorable mention:

Dead Space (360, PS3, PC; October). Something's gone horribly wrong in space, and it's up to you to investigate. This third-person, survival horror shooter immerses players in the nightmare with integrated interfaces, a "strategic dismemberment" combat system and realistic zero-gravity.

Resident Evil 5 (360, PS3; March 2009). Chris Redfield is back fighting off mutated hordes of people and animals. This sequel uses the same control style as the fantastic "Resident Evil 4" and adds online (and offline) co-op gameplay to the mix, with Chris' partner, Sheva.

An object in motion ...

Mirror's Edge (360, PS3, PC; holiday 2008). You are Faith, an extremely athletic and acrobatic "runner." Equipped with "runner's vision," which helps guide you on your path, you'll use the environment to leap from rooftop to rooftop and otherwise get around. Despite how complex Faith's movements seem, the controls are intuitive. And while technically set up to be a first-person shooter, you never have to fire a shot if you don't want to.

Honorable mention:

Dark Void (360, PS3; 2009). It's a horizontal third-person shooter with a cover system and jetpack flight; it's a vertical third-person shooter with cover and melee mechanics. And it's a spacecraft dogfighting game.

Prince of Persia (360, PS3, PC; holiday 2008). A new Prince isn't the only thing new in this title. The art style is now like a hand-painted watercolor in motion; time mechanics have been replaced with a magical female companion, Elika; and almost all the fights are now one-on-one against much tougher foes who learn to counter your strategy.

Spies like us

The Agency (PS3, PC; undated). In this massively multiplayer online action game, you play a spy in a world where almost everyone else is one too, and nobody blinks an eye at the people in stealth gear running in and out of a flower shop. Your role is determined by how you outfit yourself for each mission, and you can form teams of up to four people with other players. Plus, you can recruit NPC operatives to help you out.

Honorable mention:

Alpha Protocol (360, PS3, PC; 2009). You are a spy of the modern age, and the choices you make in this third-person cover shooter determine how the story progresses.

Apocalypse now

Fallout 3 (360, PS3, PC; Fall 2008). You emerge from an underground vault that has been your home in order to search for your father amid a nuclear wasteland. This game, by the people who did "Elder Scrolls: Oblivion," is massive. Do you want to be a hero? A villain? A mix of both? Everything is up to you. You can save towns or wipe them off the map. And even though there's a main story to follow, you don't have to have anything to do with it if you don't want to.

Honorable mention:

Gears of War 2 (360; Nov. 7). Marcus Fenix is back, but so are the Locust hordes – and now they are sinking cities into the ground. It is bigger in scale; has new enemies, weapons, such as flamethrowers, and human shields; and has online co-op and multiplayer.

Resistance 2 (PS3; November). Nathan Hale is back, at least in the single-player campaign of this first-person shooter. The scale is huge, with some monsters taller than skyscrapers. There's also a separate eight-player, class-based, online cooperative campaign that runs parallel to the main story, and online multiplayer for up to 60 players, with everyone separated into squads with goals to fulfill.

Wars of the worlds

Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising (360, PS3, PC; 2009). My jaw dropped when I saw the footage for this game, because everything just looked so real. It's a tactical FPS, where you can call in an airstrike on tanks positioned 800 yards away, then stand your ground against an enemy charge over a ridge top. The developer promises that everything is built to scale, set on an island that would take hours to cross on foot. Oh, and in the multiplayer, you can lead a squad of AI-controlled soldiers. Very cool.

Honorable mention:

Empire: Total War (PC; February 2009). The Total War series moves to the 18th century, with a new emphasis placed on naval combat, which is in full 3-D, with realistic weather and physics effects. All damage is modeled accurately, too.

Killzone 2 (PS3; undated). A first-person shooter with a working cover system? Destructible environments and character AI that supposedly learns as it goes? Count me in.

Of our own Volition

Red Faction: Guerrilla (360, PS3, PC; early 2009). I can't ignore the two great games Champaign's own Volition Inc. is working on. In this particular title, a third-person shooter, you are part of a rebellion on Mars. Every structure is destructible in realistic fashion, and useful – you can kill enemies by bringing a building down around them. Also, all the damage is persistent (with some mission-specific exceptions.) And it will feature 16-person multiplayer.

Saints Row 2 (360, PS3; holiday 2008). Picking up where the original "Saints Row" left off, you once again customize your character (although to a new level of depth) and hit the mean streets of Stilwater. This title promises to have more over-the-top shenanigans to engage in, you can use human shields, and your character can even learn martial arts and wrestling styles to use in combat.

The other stuff

NBA Live 09 (360, PS3; October). Sports simulation games keep getting more realistic, but this title takes the cake. Not only is EA adding new features, such as pick-and-roll control, but they are introducing what they call Dynamic DNA – a system that analyzes players' real-world tendencies and inserts them into the game. And NBA Live 09 will download daily updates so that the game marches in lockstep with the real deal.

Puzzle Quest: Galatrix (DS, 360, PC: Early 2009). The puzzle RPG is a space opera where the basic game mechanic involves matching three or more puzzle pieces on a game board. But now the pieces refresh from almost any direction on the board; combat is ship-based, with shields and health; trade and diplomacy systems have been added, and the game is infinitely bigger. Plus, they are making it possible to turn off the hint system.

Rock Band 2 (360, September; PS3, PS2, late 2008). I didn't think Harmonix could come up with a reason for me to buy this game complete with a new set of instruments, but they have. The drums are beefed up and wireless; and the guitar is more responsive and includes a built-in camera that will calibrate your system to reduce latency. Plus, the game will feature a ton of new songs – all off master tracks – and it's fully compatible with all the music from the original "Rock Band." Navigating through song lists has been improved, by mimicking the download store; drum-trainer and battle-of-the-bands modes have been added; and they've improved the single-player campaign, too.

Joel Leizer is The News-Gazette's assistant news editor and video game columnist. Contact him at jleizer@news-gazette.com.