E3 has to be one of the most well known gaming conventions around the world, only the Tokyo Game Show could be said to be on the same level. Come June every year, all gaming media turn their heads toward Los Angeles to see what is in store for the future.
Probably the biggest draw to E3 is to see if any of the big three have any new surprises in store, from new tech to new or revival of games. Since these are presentations put on by Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, it is always a good idea to grade them to see how well they did. While E3 struggled in the past due to a number of things, as of late things have been looking better for the big gaming convention. I will first take a look at Microsoft since they were the first with their keynote and essentially set the pace for the rest of E3.
Microsoft
Microsoft has always had a snazzy stage with its many large displays and the abundance of green. Held in Galen Center, it is a large enough of a space to hold the numerous media crew in attendance. Kind of setting the tone for the rest of the keynote, the first trailer has a big oopsies, when a big "Please reconnect the controller" appeared on screen. Continuing the love affair between Activision and Microsoft, another preview of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 airs for a near 10 minutes. The next trailer that airs is for the reboot of Tomb Raider and the young Laura Croft, a rather impressive trailer, building the hype for the reboot. Some looks at Mass Effect 3 and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier both with Kinect support. Every game mentioned had Kinect support in some fashion, they were really trying to push this hard. Some looks at some other forgettable things, then some gameplay from Cliffy B. and Ice-T with Gears of War 3. Forza 4, Halo Anniversary edition and Halo 4 were the only other real things of note from the rest of the presentation. Seriously the rest of the stuff was for Kinect stuff for young kids. Not only was it boring it was painful to watch since it suffered from some serious lag. The only Kinect game that looked mildly interesting was Tim Schafer's Seseame Street: Once Upon a Monster.
For the hour and half keynote, there was very little of note, the main bulk being spent to say how great the Kinect was. A pretty good snooze fest from Microsoft with only Halo Anniversary and Halo 4 being the real big shocks.
Microsoft gets a D+ due to making us sit through painful trailers yet surprising us with Halo 4.
Sony
Next up was Sony's press conference. Interestingly Sony started off their show 10 minutes late. As with everyone, Sony is also keen to support 3D with the show mainly shown in 3D. Jack Trenton comes out after a trailer outlining most of the show. Hitting the elephant on the head, Jack states how sorry Sony is for getting hacked and having to deal with the problems and making its users suffer from the PSN outage. Trailers from the beautiful Uncharted 3 and meh shooter Resistance 3 are shown afterwards. Announcements of more HD collections God of War and the Ico Collection. Afterwards was.....a TV. Really, Sony decided to show off a special 3D TV that would show split screen differently. Then like Microsoft, Sony flaunts off its peripheral with the Move. Kobe Bryant makes a special appearance to play with the Move. Some more forgettable things. Sly Cooper is making a return to Sony, and Bioshock Infinite makes an appearance. Lots of just concept art for upcoming games. The biggest thing of course was the PS Vita, formerly the NGP. Few games are shown on it but pricing is announced at $250, competing directly with Nintendo's 3DS.
Sony gets a C+ for bringing nothing really new but playing it safe and earning the trust of many with the pricing of the PS Vita.
Nintendo
Starting off with a choir, Nintendo makes its entrance with talking about its 25th anniversary for Zelda, a concert will be held around the world in honor. Afterwards many prerendered trailers appeared. The only interesting thing of note was that nearly of all things shown was first party stuff, all being main Nintendo franchises. The biggest thing that many people were interested in was of course Nintendo's newest console. Presenting the ............WiiU. Really that is the name, such a bad idea. As many rumors, the new console has a controller that has a 6 inch touch screen, a massive thing. To cause confusion, Nintendo stated that all your old Wii stuff would be able to work with this new console, causing some to think that this new console was only the controller. Throughout the keynote, not once did they show off the main console, only talking about the new controller. Not only was it confusing, it was beyond boring because they had very little to show since it is still in its alpha stage and developers have had no time to build anything on it.
Nintendo gets a C- for showing a new console and failing because it caused so much confusion without giving proper answers.
Overall
A poor showing from the big 3 at this E3. Everyone seemed intent on proving their peripherals were not busts but in fact still growing. A few gems shown off, but for the main part, a bust. Hopefully a better show will be in store next year.
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