For awhile, it looked like E3, the annual video game industry event held in Los Angeles, was going to be a complete bust. The first two days of press briefings by the major players — Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony — were a bit underwhelming, but some very interesting video games brought the event back from the brink.

The best was Fallout 3. The game was demoed by designer Todd Howard last year, but this year, we media types each got 30 minutes with the game. Forthcoming from Bethesda Softworks, which brought us Elder Scrolls: Oblivion two years ago, Fallout 3 takes the open world from Oblivion and ratchets up the experience with a role-playing-inspired adventure set in a post-nuclear future. Look for it to be on many year-end best-of lists.

Granted, Fallout 3 is among the list of titles that are known to gaming fans and are already highly anticipated. Here are some less well-known titles that are also worthy of anticipation.

• Borderlands (2K Games) will have gamers taking on the persona of a fortune hunter on the edge of civilized space, with more than 650,000 weapons to find and fire.

• Dark Void (Capcom) is set in a place on the other side of the Bermuda Triangle, where humans struggle against alien overlords, and the hero learns to use a jet pack, Rocketeer style, allowing him to comandeer flying saucers.

• Dragon Age: Origins (EA) from Edmonton’s BioWare, is an epic high-fantasy tale, which the developers are saying is the spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate.

• Elebits: The Adventures of Kai and Zero (Konami), in which Kai is transported to another world also plagued by the electric Elebits, and has to capture the creatures to save the day and return home.

• Tom Clancy’s End War (Ubisoft) is a real-time strategy game that has players delivering commands and orders vocally, using robust voice recognition software built into the game.

• Mirror’s Edge (EA) is about Faith, a futuristic courier who uses free-running — or parkour — to get from place to place and is presented in a disorienting but satisfying first-person perspective.

• Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars (Gamecock) is set after a meteorite has hit Earth and caused plants to become animals. It stars Pax, a mushroom hero who can use his cap as a hydrofoil to float through the air.

A few titles really stood out because of the bold choices made in terms of their art direction.

• Afro Samurai (Namco Bandai) is based on the animé series (itself based on the manga), and uses the crazy, hyperextended look of the character design from the television series that stars Samuel Jackson (the actor voices the character of Afro in the game, too).

• Ubisoft’s new Prince of Persia game presents what the developers are calling an “illustrative” art style; you can almost see the brush strokes in the beautifully-rendered backgrounds.

• The ultra-violent MadWorld (Sega) was clearly inspired by Frank Miller’s Sin City. Presented in black and white, the torrents of blood that are the result of brutal melee attacks appear as dramatic blooms of red.

Lego Batman (Warner Bros. Interactive), based on the DC comics and not the movies, features a Gotham City that is dark and industrial. Juxtaposed against this background are the brightly costumed characters of Batman, Robin and the rogues’ gallery of escapees from Arkham Asylum.

E3 2008 is over, and despite the lack of big announcements or surprises, there was lots to see, and even more to get excited about. Get your engines running, because the first of the fall releases will be on store shelves in August.