Thatgamecompany (great name) have blessed us twice so far and look like making it three for three with their next digital oddity Journey. First they gave us Flow, half-jokingly referred to as the PS3’s first ‘killer app’, then came Flower which continues to defy definition, a wind simulator puzzle game maybe? And next, well, are you ready for a Journey?

This definitely looks like an ambitious title for the developers, this time you actually have an anthropomorphic character you control on screen. But don’t worry, things aren’t getting all normal now. You can move and jump, making this game almost a platformer, and your goal is to get to the top of a mountain in an empty desert. But as the title suggests, the mountain isn’t what the games about, the journey there is the important thing.

There's probably a way up there, and its probably really simple, but it doesn't look it

The games lonely, dream like visuals immediately draw comparisons to Team ICO’s Shadow of the Colossus. The only physical moving elements in the world seem to be sand and cloth. Your character can use wind and waves of sand to ride to hard to reach places and move about and as you come in contact with certain regions, much like in the Flower, the environment changes opening up new pathways. While nothings explicitly stated as far as objectives go your actual goal should become clear as you experiment and explore. It’s worth wandering from the path to discover hidden secrets and surprises around the place. The game encourages and rewards exploration.

Just such a beautiful looking game

These are the types of developers the Move and Kinect teams should be enthusiastically courting to create a game for their technology. If they want bitter gamers to get excited about movement based games they need to think outside the box instead of shoe horning existing franchises into a shape they don’t fit.

Most games fill you with excitement by cramming heaps of features in, Journey thrills you by providing nothing, at first any way

Good to see in the onslaught of sequels and remakes, E3 can deliver some exciting surprises when you get away from the bluster of the press events. The bad news is Journey isn’t scheduled to debut till 2011.

Yes that's the mountain you need to climb, not quite looking like a simple afternoon to finish casual game now is it