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E3 has rolled around again and with it, a plethora of information for gamers. Who were the big winners? Which press conference fell the shortest? Which games are poised to be blockbusters? And what was the unexpected game that stood out from the crowd of exceptional games? Similar to last year, I’ve decided to convey my thoughts on the press conferences by the “Big Three” (and due to not having enough time to finish a game and do a review this month, this will have to suffice..).

Microsoft
Last year, most people would agree that Microsoft had the most disappointing press conference. With little focus on hardcore gamers and far too much time spent demonstrating various uses of the Kinect (fist bump!), the press conference fell flat. Given the dismal reviews, many gamers wondered what Microsoft would do this year, especially faced with the challenge to incorporate a second screen into the Xbox experience like their competitors were doing. Arguably, the biggest name for the Xbox is Halo, and that’s where their press conference began. The first trailer that was demoed showcased a solid five minutes of gameplay of this exciting sequel. A number of cool new features where shown, and while the game looks gorgeous, during repeated viewings I have been unable to shake the feeling that Halo 4 appears very similar to the Metroid Prime franchise. Whether this holds up in the final game, well, I guess we’ll just have to wait five months to see. The next game that was demoed was the next entry into the Splinter Cell franchise. Admittedly, I’ve never played a game in this franchise, but while the game looked fairly cool at points, I was not all that impressed. This demo was followed by EA Sports’ presentation which incorporated Kinect into both Fifa and Madden. Now, I thought all the voice features had been incorporated in previous versions and the demo with Joe Montana was clearly not synced up to his voice (probably a sign that it wasn’t live), so I was not impressed by that. What was cool was the features where refs would respond to angry outbursts. This was followed by a clip of the next Fable game (which reminded me of the one that was criticized for looking like a rail-shooter last year), the next Forza game, and Gears of War 4. This game will be a prequel to the original trilogy where players will take on the role of Baird. While I do like the Gears franchise, I’m honestly not that excited to return to a world that I assumed I had put a period on. At this point, I was really impressed that they had focused almost entirely on gaming (I even have a comment in my notes about it) and had presented a lot of things which, while not all that enticing for me, looked fairly impressive. Naturally, this was soon followed by the introduction of the “non-gamer hour.” Microsoft introduced a number of entertainment features they were incorporating into Xbox Live, including the ability to watch any NBA or NFL game (great if it eliminates the need to pay for NBA TV or the NFL Network, but I doubt it’ll be that awesome) and an iTunes-esque music clone. They also touched on a partnership with Nike to provide “the same training experience athletes receive” through Kinect. While I have some large doubts about this service, the prospect of competing against friends offers some potentially cool motivations. From here, Microsoft presented Smart Glass – Microsoft’s take on the WiiU controller. Instead of forcing people to purchase a new controller, they are offering a piece of the experience through the tablets and smartphones they assume people already have. I know a lot of people were not too keen on this, and it appeared that most of the features presented were fairly superfluous, but if they can incorporate the same use as the WiiU controller (showing inventories and real-time maps as opposed to just Wikipedia or IMDB pages), this feature could be pretty cool. Microsoft finally returned to presenting information on games, showing a new demo for Tomb Raider which a lot of people complained continues to look too similar to Uncharted, three Xbox Arcade games, A demo of Resident Evil 6 which had an abundance of real time events, and a Kinect clone of Angry Birds (without the birds). At this point, the press conference was quickly sliding down hill, but thankfully South Park’s Trey Parker and Matt Stone took to the stage to present the trailer for their upcoming South Park Game, The Stick of Truth. They were both hilarious and made a few jokes at the expense of the earlier components of the press conference. After that, Microsoft closed with another Dance game and a fairly dull demo of Black Ops 2. Unfortunately, the final verdict on Microsoft’s Press Conference was that it was fairly disappointing. It started out great with the demo of Halo 4, but from there, it just went downhill. It felt like their big focus was showing off Smart Glass, and while some of the features sound cool, they actually don’t sound that practical. I mean, who wants to look at a map of Westeros while watching an episode of Game of Thrones? Very little of what Microsoft spoke to me as a gamer and so I’ve gotta grade them low.

Pros:
Halo 4
The start had some games that look pretty solid
South Park game looks hilarious and Trey Parker and Matt Stone were phenomenal

Cons:
Smart Glass could be cool, but what they showed didn’t speak to gamers and looked too inconsequential
Entertainment features don’t seem very useful
Few of the games they showed were especially exciting

Final Grade: D+

Sony
Similar to last year, Sony’s press conference followed Microsoft’s on Monday night. They started their press conference by presenting Beyond: Two Souls, a new IP by Quantic Dream which follows fifteen years in the life of a girl named Jodie Holmes, played by Ellen Page. Very little was revealed about this game, but many gamers are excited by how gorgeous the game looked and based on Quantic Dream’s record with Heavy Rain. Sony followed this with a demo of PlayStation All Stars, a game that is best described as a clone of Super Smash Brothers. I’m fairly torn about this game. On one hand I love Super Smash Brothers, but on the other, it’s almost painful how much of a clone this game appears to be. In any case, whether it is worth picking up will depend on how many characters they include and how good the online functionality is. Sony also touched on the ability to play this game on both a controller and the Vita, essentially offering a piece of the experience Nintendo is promising with the WiiU. Now, from what I gather, people have been fairly disappointed by the number of games available for the Vita. Unfortunately, Sony only briefly touched on the Vita this year. They announced a number of PS1 classics would be coming to the Vita, as would a version of Black Ops and Assassin’s Creed 3. The later game actually had me fairly excited. In this game, players play as a female Assassin, in what appears to be the same era as ACIII. They also announced a gorgeous white Vita bundle to coincide with this game. This was naturally followed by a demo of Assassin’s Creed 3. Ubisoft had shown this game earlier in the day during their own press conference, but during Sony’s, they showed off a new feature -- Sea Battles. While I’m sure the gameplay will be fairly unrealistic and over the top, it looked fun, and depending how free-roaming they manage to make this, I can imagine a lot of fun from this feature. Sony also showed a demo for Farcry 3 which included four player co-op. I’ve barely touched the franchise, but from what they discussed, this game sounds incredibly large and exciting. Sony unfortunately had to touch on Move, and while it doesn’t feel like they talked about a lot, this part of the press conference went on for a solid thirty minutes. The biggest feature they discussed was Wonder Book, a game clearly aimed at kids and families. Kids will be able to play interactive games in worlds such as Harry Potter. While most of us watching were irked at how long this demo continued, I can imagine this being fun for kids, so I’m willing to let it slide. Sony briefly touched on how PlayStation Suite (now PlayStation Mobile) will be coming to additional Android phones, but without more concrete details, there’s not much to really write home about. The last two demos Sony showed were about God of War Ascension and Last of Us. God of War Ascension looked similar to the previous entries into this franchise. I haven’t played past the second game, but honestly, there was nothing shown that looked especially new. Still, if you’re a fan of this franchise, I imagine it’ll offer the same experience as the others. Now, those who have been following Last of Us know how gorgeous the game looks. The game tells the story of two characters, Joel and Ellie, in a post-apocalyptic world. Not much is known beyond that, but the game looks amazing. Sony showed off the realistic gameplay and it looked phenomenal, especially Ellie’s AI. I don’t know much about this game, but I can tell you the trailer has me excited. Similar to last year, Sony definitely had the best press conference. The number of awesome games, both old IPs and new concepts, was terrific. Was it perfect? Of course not. Wonder Book took too much time and seemed to have problems in the demo, there wasn’t enough information on games for Vita, and there were a number of games (Last Guardian and FFXIII Versus come to mind) that were missing. Still, compared to the competition, there were very few things Sony could have done better.

Pros:
Beyond looked amazing and gorgeous
Assassin’s Creed 3 is on a boat!
Lots of other amazing looking demos
Last of Us is stunning
Less 3D presence

Cons:
PlayStation All Stars looks to be a Smash Bros clone
Not enough info on Vita or games to make me want it
Wonder Book demo was not flawless and took too much time
Where were Last Guardian and FFXIII Versus?????

Final Grade: B+

Nintendo
Nintendo unveiled the successor to the Wii, the WiiU, last year. Going into E3 this year, personally, I felt Nintendo had to convince people that they needed a WiiU and show some intriguing and phenomenal features offered by the new controller. This year, Nintendo opted for three press conferences to cover all the material they felt they needed to cover. In the first, they showed off a redesigned controller, a pro controller that bore an uncanny resemblance to the 360 controller, and a shiny black skin. With all this out of the way, the road was paved for a press conference full of exciting games to captivate gamers. The show certainly started out promising. Miyamoto started by unveiling the long awaited Pikmin 3. While the game doesn’t have a release date, it certainly sounds like it’ll be a great experience, especially on the WiiU with the easier ability to micromanage given the new controller. Reggie then came on, claiming that Nintendo would be covering twenty-three titles in their press conference. He touched on a number of additional features of the WiiU, such as the ability to use two gamepads, asymmetric gameplay, and Mii-verse which sounded like it might be Nintendo’s (late) answer to Xbox Live. This was soon followed by New Super Mario Bros.U. This game looked very similar to the previous iterations of this series, offering SNES style gameplay for multiple people. To illustrate the asymmetric gameplay, Nintendo discussed how a fifth player could use the new controller to help the other players along by creating blocks. Personally, I don’t think that sounds too appealing, but I guess it’s a nice feature. This was followed by a revamped version of Arkham City for the WiiU. Honestly, this game epitomized one of my big problems with Nintendo’s Press Conference and the WiiU. They are offering a number of games that will have been out on the PS3 and 360 for a long time (in the case of Arkham City, a year). Why would I want to play a game that’s been out for a year -- especially given it will probably sell for full price? Nintendo then showed off a demo of a new ScribbleNauts game for WiiU. I’ve personally never played any of these games, but from what I gather, those who have sound fairly excited by the upgraded features. Nintendo then condensed a number of the third party games of their twenty-three games into a montage. Games featured included Darksiders 2, Mass Effect 3, Tekken Tag Tournament, Trine 2, Ninja Gaiden 3, and a number of other games. Given the impact of casual games, Nintendo then touched on their fitness and music options with WiiFitU and Sing. Now, I will say it’s nice that the WiiU will use the same accessories used by the Wii. However, Microsoft has undoubtedly blown away the competition for dance and party games with the Kinect, so I wasn’t impressed by these offerings. While Nintendo announced that there would be an additional press conference on Wednesday to cover their 3DS games (more on this later), they briefly showed off three entries into the Mario franchise: New Super Mario Bros 2, Paper Mario Sticker Star, and Luigi’s Mansion 2. Nintendo also showed off a brief montage of upcoming 3DS games. Ubisoft made an appearance at the Nintendo conference to touch on two games they had shown at their own: ZombiU, a game that many are claiming is the best use of the WiiU at E3 this year, and Rayman Legend. They also showed off another dance game, but as I mentioned earlier, the Kinect blows other party games out of the water. Nintendo finally closed by revealing Nintendo Land -- the WiiU’s version of Wii Sports. This game, which will be packaged with the WiiU, will come with a number of minigames that draw inspiration from Nintendo’s many franchises. Now, while they spent too much time talking about a single game during the press conference, and overall this game didn’t look too exciting, reports from E3 suggest that Nintendo Land is actually really fun and offers a number of innovative uses of the WiiU controller. Now, I also mentioned that Nintendo did a separate 3DS show. While they did a good job of cramming games into this hour long show, I personally think it was a waste of time. There were rumors that they would unveil a new 3DS that included a second joystick, which they didn’t, and the majority of the games they focused on where also shown during the main presentation. Honestly, apart from Luigi’s Mansion 2 and the new Paper Mario, there was nothing that excited me from this later presentation. As I said at the start, Nintendo had to do a good job of showcasing the WiiU controller to convince people of its possibilities at this year’s E3. They needed to show off games that really did a good job of incorporating the WiiU’s features in new ways. Unfortunately, I don’t think they did a good job of this. I’m willing to concede that it’ll take time for these games to show up, but as far as this E3 went, I think this was a failure. Combined with the failure the 3DS segment appeared to be, I hope Nintendo reevaluates their press conferences by next year.

Pros:
Pikmin 3
New Paper Mario
Luigi’s Mansion 2 still on the way
WiiU still has potential..
Nintendo Land has received fairly good reviews from those at E3

Cons:
Didn’t do a good job of convincing people of the WiiU
A number of the games show cased will have been out (some for a long time) by the time the WiiU is released
No new Zelda, not even for 3DS
No new 3DS that incorporates a second joystick
No release date or price for the WiiU

Final Grade: D-

Game of E3: Watch Dogs
Many people will agree that Ubisoft had the best press conference this year. Not only was it entertaining, but they showed off a number of phenomenal games. Personally, the most impressive of these was Watch Dogs. This new IP has players using technology in Chicago (phone towers, stop lights, etc) to achieve your goals. Now, there isn’t a lot of information available on this game (for instance, what said goals are), but it looks a lot like Person of Interest to me. Person of Interest is, in my opinion, the best show currently on television, so I gladly welcome a game that appears to offer a similar experience -- even more so given my love of Chicago. Honestly, if Sony or Microsoft had included Watch Dogs in their press conference, I probably would have bumped it up a full letter grade. Also, given that the WiiU offers the same graphics as the PS3 and 360 and Ubisoft's seeming love for the new controller, I can imagine this game on WiiU being fairly awesome. Similar to Skyrim last year, this game went from completely off my radar to a must have, day one purchase.

So there you have it, E3 2012 in a nutshell. What did you guys think? Do you agree that Nintendo and Microsoft had the weakest press conferences? What would you have done differently or would you have liked to see? What games became day one buys for you? Are you excited for this upcoming year of gaming? There’s definitely a lot to look forward to in this year, but whether it all lives up to our expectations, well, we’ll see~