E3 is a wonderfully magical time of year where pretty much all the big publishers on the face of the planet come together and announce their latest products in a cacophony of white noise. Yes, it can be a tad overwhelming, but boy do we love it! Yes, yes we do. As we do every year, we turn our attention to a handful of titles that we want to see grace our consoles in the next 12-18 months.

Obviously, this is all speculation and the fact remains that we’re more likely to see none of these announced than we are to see one of them announced, but hey, at least we can hope though, right?

In alphabetical order – it was hard enough to whittle it down to 10, yet alone bloody rank them! – our top 10 most wanted game announcements of E3 2010 are as follows:

Beyond Good & Evil 2

Despite the French publisher pulling at our heartstrings by teasing us of the title’s return at Ubidays 2008, everything that has come of the title to date has been hearsay. In fact, they’ve not even “officially” announced the title yet and they can’t even make their minds up that it exists, and with rumours hitting the ‘net recently that stated that series creator Michael Ancel had left the project, it doesn’t exactly breed confidence. That being said, Ubisoft did state that it was still in development. Is 2010 the year that we see the game’s official announcement? A trailer? A batch of screens? Something!? We hope so, but you’d be right in saying that we’re clutching at straws with this one. A man can dream though, right?

Devil May Cry 5

It’s been a few years since Capcom’s poster boy franchise, Devil May Cry, graced our consoles and it feels about that time that the franchise should make a triumphant return. With Bayonetta lighting up the billboards and impressing the critics at the turn of this year, is 2010 the year where Capcom and Dante announces their return? Is it also true that Ninja Theory is at the helm? Well, the game isn’t mentioned under the company’s E3 line-up, but the press release did tell us to expect surprises. Yes, this would be a surprise, kind of.

Elder Scrolls V

Whilst we don’t actually expect Bethesda to announce Elder Scrolls V at E3 this year – despite rumours, we’re not buying it – this is more of a “come on Bethesda, where is our ES fix!?” It’s been over 4 years since the release of Oblivion and with Fallout 3 now out from under their wing and on the market, we can only assume that ESV is currently under development. Why won’t we see it you ask? Well, Bethesda aren’t really that partial to big E3 announcements and with Brink, Rage, Fallout: New Vegas and Hunted: The Demon’s Forge taking the centre stage, you’d have thought that announcing a major franchise would only detract somewhat from those titles. After all, with Brink facing some stiff competition in Halo: Reach, Medal of Honor, Call of Duty: Black Ops and Crysis 2 in the shooter market this year, the last thing it needs is a less than stellar showing at this year’s show. That being said, we’re calling it now, Elder Scrolls V for a 2011 release. Call it a speculative guess.

GTA V

Rockstar have already gone on the record to state that they’re not attending this year’s show, but it wouldn’t be totally unlikely for them to make a cameo at one of the platform holder’s press conferences to announce their next outing from Rockstar North & co. With Rockstar San Diego’s Red Dead out on the waves already and achieving critical acclaim and healthy sales, there really couldn’t be a better time to tease the announcement of their next GTA instalment. It’s been over two years since we got down and dirty with one of the world’s biggest franchises and announcing its existence at the world’s loudest gaming trade show with a 2011 release in mind seems like it makes perfect sense. They did it at E3 2006 with GTA IV, so would they follow suit at this year’s E3? Well, a recent rumour stated that their supposed announcement for this year’s show has been delayed, but of course that could be an elaborate smoke and mirrors ploy. Fingers crossed on this one, although it’s a long shot because we all know Rockstar make announcements when and wherever the hell they like. They’re cool like that.

Half Life: Whatever

No, Half Life: Whatever isn’t the codename for Valve’s latest Half Life project, but it’s been so long now since Episode 2 came out that we have to wonder whether Valve will even release Episode 3 or just go straight onto Half Life 3. Either way, Valve have promised surprises at this year’s E3 after they cancelled their Monday night Portal 2 unveiling – shame on you Valve – and we somehow think that if they decide to announce Left 4 Dead 3, the world might actually swallow itself up in a fit of “gamer rage” – I think even the world leaders would be signing the boycott this time around! Although a blatantly obvious hoax last week was enough to raise the hopes of a small subsection of the masses, the rest of us knew better. Gabe Newell has already followed up and said that Episode 3 isn’t their big E3 surprise, but I told my mom I never stole the last of the Dairy Milk from the fridge all those years ago when I had unashamedly done so. Not very likely, but hey, funnier things have happened – like Carmen Electra marrying Dennis Rodman, what was that about?

Hitman 5

Okay, we get that IO Interactive are having fun with their Kane & Lynch franchise and that Square obviously see it as a viable product, but seriously, there has to come a point when they stop kidding themselves that it’s IO’s biggest franchise. IO Interactive will always be known for their Hitman franchise, it’s that simple. A franchise that is frankly neglected and somewhat forgotten. A franchise that we’ve all come to know and love over the years for its concept, its original gameplay and for its pretty amazing set-pieces. Rumours hit the web last year that the 5th Hitman game would ship in the fall alongside the upcoming film, but if they don’t officially announce it at E3 this year, the chances in that happening are slim to none. Dear Square, please announce Hitman 5, all our love, X360A.

Mirror's Edge 2

Mirror’s Edge and Dead Space were EA’s spearhead for their original games initiative that kicked off in the fall of 2008. Dead Space fared the better of the two both in terms of sales and the all important MetaCritic score, but Mirror’s Edge captured the imagination of gamers the world over. It wasn’t a title for everyone, but as it generally is with new IPs, some can take a bit of trial and error before they get it right – Mass Effect wasn’t perfect in its first instalment for instance. With talk behind the scenes at the end of last year stating that the design process was at a crossroads with the sequel; here we are six months later and we hope that DICE have put that crossroads behind them and moved forward –just like Bone Thugs n’ Harmony had to when the Blazin’ Squad butchered it in 2002. With a few design innovations and a few bright ideas, Mirror’s Edge 2 could be the sequel we all want to see – more Mass Effect 2 than Condemned 2 – and where better to announce it as this year’s trade show. With a ton of shooters in their arsenal, EA needs a bit of diversity and what could be more diverse than this? Actually, don’t answer that.

Need For Speed Criterion

I’ve had a certain level of disdain for recent incarnations of the popular Need For Speed series. You can’t help but think that the decision makers at EA really have no clue as to why the franchise sold so well to start with. There is no possible way that the Need For Speed franchise would make this list if they continued their current run of form, but with rumours circulating that Need For Speed will be headed up by famed Burnout developers, Criterion, and they’re heading back to the game’s roots – yes, the roots that made the franchise so successful to start with – then this clearly deserves a little bit of our eternal hope. A recent leak suggests that the title will be tagged with the Hot Pursuit tagline, which if it turns out to be true, could be the greatest reboot of the year. How likely are we to see Criterion’s next title at E3? I’d be surprised if we didn’t, let’s put it that way.

Project Gotham Racer 5

PGR ranks up there as one of industry’s great racing franchises, and many moons ago when the Xbox was in its infancy, Project Gotham racing was a unique racer that rewarded style over substance which was almost unheard of at that time. With Bizarre now a wholly owned Activision studio – working on recent titles like Blur – it stands a chance that Microsoft’s very own Turn 10 Studios are hard at work on a new Project Gotham title as we write this. In fact, if the blogging of a certain Microsoft legal rep from last November is anything to go by, the title is already in production. I hate to quote myself – in fact, I love it, but acting nonchalantly is something I love more – but I actually predicted this might happen last December: “Who's willing to bet that we'll see an E3 unveiling next year with a fall release... you know, like a certain Forza game this year.” It would help fill a gap between Halo and Fable and it also wouldn’t surprise me if they showed it off with Natal. Uh oh! Did I just have an epiphany!? Oh wait, sorry, it was a mild stroke.

Tomb Raider 100

Okay, so we know it’s not Tomb Raider 100, but to be honest, we’ve pretty much lost count. Regardless, from a marketing perspective, it would make a lot of sense if Crystal Dynamics built the anticipation of another Tomb Raider retail title with a digital release of a smaller, bite-size experience. They could even call it Lara Croft and The Guardian of Light and use it as the franchise’s new breakout formula – one retail franchise under the Tomb Raider heading and a downloadable franchise using the Lara Croft name. Wait, what’s that? That’s what they’re doing.... oh... Well, by no means is it definitive confirmation or even indicative of Square Enix’s plans for the franchise, but it has been 18 months since the last Tomb Raider and as sequels are in this day and age, a two year development cycle wouldn’t be too far out of the realms of possibility. Either way, we’re missing our explorative Tomb Raiding fix. Yes please Square. Yes please.

Check back towards the end of the week for our top 10 most anticipated titles of the show.