The Pre-Electronic Entertainment Expo Preview

E3, the annual video game industry meet up, kicks off next week in Los Angeles. With major announcements expected from Sony (new portable handheld) and Nintendo (a new console), some third-party software companies have already begun to leak their announcements so as not to have them usurped by the big news from the big three.

Michel Ancel, the creator of Ubisoft's "Rayman" platformer, is back with "Rayman Origins."  The game brings the title hero and his zany crew back to their original 2-D world with gorgeous results.

The game runs on the open-source engine UBIart Framework (also created by Ancel), which Ubisoft plans to use to create games with high-quality graphics quickly.

Based on screens I've seen of "Rayman Origins," Ancel and crew have succeeded. The game features more than 60 levels of various gameplay and like the popular "Lego" series, drop in/drop out cooperative play.

"Rayman Origins" will be out this holiday for the 360, PS3 and Wii.