Here's some of my reviews on each of the major conferences.
Microsoft:
Oh dear, what the hell happened? We get a good look at Kinect, but most of the demos were craptastic, and it took up most of the stage time that Microsoft had. The tech is great, but c'mon... I'd like to see some good games and applications for this. I only really liked the Forza demo with Kinect, but as some of you may know, I'm a big Forza fan anyways. But I'm wondering how you'll use the gas/brakes and shift gears... at the beginning, there was COD Black Ops, MGS Rising, Gears 3, and Halo Reach. Sadly, I missed the live footage of Black Ops and MGS Rising (which I watched after, and I have to say it looks AWESOME), and I was impressed with Halo Reach, I must say. The new Xbox 360 model was revealed, and as a pleasant surprise, is on sale now. They even gave free new model Xbox 360s to the audience, which was pretty cool. Such a shame that this conference was a huge letdown overall.
My LOL Moment for this conference:
SKITTLES! Ok, that's was more cute, than lol-worthy, but still. :3c
Microsoft earns a 2/5.
EA:
EA helped to get that bad MS taste out of my mouth, so to speak. Started off freaking awesome with the new Need for Speed game from Criterion. After seeing some gameplay, this game will have little touches of Burnout in it, which isn't too bad. Dead Space 2 and Medal of Honor both look excellent, and I'll be eagerly anticipating their release. They had a segment with EA Sports, which was pretty much the boring segment of their conference. They are being ambitious with the EA Sports Live broadcasts, which will be used with their MMA game. I have a feeling this may flop, but we'll have to see. Bulletstorm gameplay was featured, and enough one-liners to fill up a whole Duke Nukem game. Crisis 2 looks hectic and great in motion. Finally, they ended with new information for Star Wars: The Old Republic, and a new trailer. One word description: WOW. Great presentation overall.
My LOL Moment for this conference:
YOU SCARED THE D*** OFF ME! Warning! Contains language and violence.
EA gets a 4/5.
Ubisoft:
Going back to a more meh conference, Ubisoft had some good, some bad, mostly boring, and one thing that should not be at E3 at all. However, it started off with Child of Eden, which is a psychedelic shooter from the creator of Rez. The game plays like Rez, too, and for those that don't know, I loved Rez, so I'm definitely interested. Then they showed off Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, which looks very good. Shawn White's Skateboarding was next. Looked like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and Okami had a strange love child of some sort. Wasn't terribly interested in this one. The conference hit an all time low with revolutionary... laser tag. Yep. Not necessary for E3, but I can imagine a toy convention of some sort welcoming this with open arms. Lame fitness games came afterwards, but things picked up again with Ghost Recon Future Soldier, which I'm looking forward to. Driver and Rayman are going to make a comeback, which is great. They revealed some other projects including Project Dust, and ended with the debut of a Michael Jackson game... with no game footage. Just some people dancing to Beat It. Overall, Ubisoft didn't do that well, but they didn't do worse than Microsoft, I think.
My LOL Moment for this conference:
EXTRAVAGANT LASER TAG MATCH. WOOOOOOOOW. DON'T KILL ME.
Ubisoft gets 3/5.
Nintendo:
As people in Japan would say, "HOREY SHET." The Big N and Microsoft must have traded places this year, because Nintendo made an awesome comeback after some years of lackluster conferences. Though there were moments of Nintendo flaunting sales and studies, Nintendo brought the goods for most of their stage time. They kicked things off with a climax with the new Zelda game, Skyward Sword and a surprise visit from Shigeru Miyamoto. He showed off gameplay of Skyward Sword, which looked really good, but he had some control hiccups. However, it seems that according to people that have played this demo, the game plays perfectly fine, so I'll definitely be looking forward to getting this. Mario Sports Mix looks fine, not my cup of tea, and Just Dance has no appeal to me at all, as does Wii Party. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn had a gameplay video shown, and keeping with the golden theme was a remake of GoldenEye exclusively for the Wii. Feeling kinda mixed about the new coat of paint, but we'll have to see if it's actually any good. Seeing Epic Mickey actually made me change my initial impressions of the game; it doesn't look half-bad. Kirby returns with an all new style and gameplay with Kirby's Epic Yarn. Loving the art style, and sort of reminds me of Yoshi's Story in a way. Dragon Quest 9 info was shared, and Metroid Other M was shown, still looking great, and coming out quite soon. Retro Studios revealed the return of Donkey Kong with Donkey Kong Country Returns. Definitely loving this, as I loved the original DKC games during my youth. The big announcement was the new Nintendo 3DS handheld. I'm not one for 3D, but the tech they use for this little machine is quite interesting, and wearing retarded glasses is not required. Kid Icarus makes a glorious return after almost 20 years with Kid Icarus: Uprising, which looks badass. If you like Sin and Punishment, this is right up your alley. They ended with the amount of 3rd party companies supporting the 3DS (and there's a lot of good ones!), a lot of women with 3DS demonstrations, ready after the show, and Zelda: Skyward Sword demo booths at the front of the stage, as well as a hilarious trailer for the 3DS featuring Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto, and Reggie Fils-Aime. An excellent show that minimized the casual stuff and gave gamers what they want: more awesome games.
My LOL Moment for this conference:
The aforementioned 3DS trailer. See for yourself! :~)
Nintendo gets a 5/5.
Sony:
Sony had a real solid conference, but lacked a lot of the surprises they were well known to make. For a good portion of the conference, there was a massive push for 3D content and the new Move controllers. There was a great speech from Kevin Butler, the character from Sony's latest ad campaign. Speaking of which, they launched a similar ad campaign for the PSP, starring a kid named Marcus Rivers. I didn't really think this was necessary. Sony showed off... mostly stuff we already know that's coming out, or stuff already seen in other conferences. They started with Killzone 3... IN 3D. They also showed off Infamous 2. Cole now has ice powers, which is interesting. Two Move demos were played, one is a new game called Sorcery, which looks ok, and EA Sport's Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, which offers nothing really new if you played the Wii version of last year's game with Motion Plus. At least PS3 owners can now have a realistic golfing experience as well? Moving on, new videos of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Dead Space 2, and Medal of Honor were shown. As an added incentive, limited editions of DS2 and MoH exclusive to the PS3 will have remastered versions of Dead Space: Extraction (with Move compatibility, naturally) and Medal of Honor: Frontline respectfully, which is pretty nice. There were many videos that skimmed through new games for PS3 and PSP, including Motorstorm Apocolypse, SOCOM 4, The Sly Cooper Collection, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, and The 3rd Birthday. I would have liked to see more of these games during the conference. There was a teaser for God of War: Ghost of Sparda for PSP, a trailer for Final Fantasy 14, and a new trailer for Gran Turismo 5, which reveals Top Gear's test track with the Stig and the release date of November 2nd. Definitely marking my calender for this. Little Big Planet 2 had a gameplay demo, and it looks as good as ever. Finally, there were two nice surprises. Gabe Newell of Valve announced Portal 2 for PS3, as well as the Steamworks compatibility with the PS3. The second HUGE surprise is the grand return of Twisted Metal. Looks like the ante has been upped for the franchise, judging from gameplay, and I can't wait to get my hands on this one. Overall, though, this conference was slightly disappointing. Games I wanted to see more of were just skimmed through, 3D and Move was a constant point being made, and some games didn't even get mentioned, like The Last Guardian. Still, there were some good games shown, and it didn't have as much suck as Microsoft.
My LOL Moment for this conference:
Kevin Butler's Epic Speech. This man's words can't be any more true. A true man of gaming.
Sony receives a 4/5.
Overall, this year was pretty good. Microsoft made a complete idiot of themselves, Nintendo amazed with new games and excellent hardware instead of casual junk we don't care about, and Sony did a fairly solid job, though we already get the point they're making with 3D and Move. EA has some great titles coming, and Ubisoft at least has some interesting stuff. Many old faces return gloriously after long hiatuses, and familiar characters and titles get a new twist.
And to cap things off here...
