E3 2013: Facts, Opinions, and Fapinions.

This year's E3 wasn't the standard fare by any means. For one, it didn't suck! For another thing, we have two consoles launching later this year to find out more about. Particularly when generations change, the gaming landscape tends to become a warzone of sorts, and E3 is the biggest battleground. Let's take a look at each of the five major press events from this year's E3, and find out how many casualties we've made along the way.

FAIR WARNING: This post is nearly six thousand words long and will not contain any pictures. It is not intended for mere mortals, but instead for masochists and people who have nothing better to do.

Microsoft

As per usual, Microsoft kicked off the event with their press conference. In the month leading up to the event, Microsoft seemed to make a point out of making itself the most hated entity in the gaming world. A required internet connection, blocking used games, and a general lack of gaming focus turned gamers away from the Xbone after its April reveal. Microsoft promised that E3 would be all about the games, but was it enough to overcome the negative stigma?

Microsoft’s show began with a gameplay trailer for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. This is my most anticipated game at the moment, so it was nice to see. Then without going into any details about the game, Microsoft continued the show by introducing a redesigned X360 model that looks more like the Xbone. I don’t necessarily understand the purpose of doing such a thing, but it’s not terrible I guess. They followed up by announcing that between July 1st and the release of the Xbone, all XBL Gold users will get 2 free games per month. Now, I support gamers getting free stuff for sure, but it sounds like this will end as soon as the Xbone releases, so it’s just for X360 players. If you figure the Xbone launches in November, it’s 8-10 free games before the program expires. Which isn’t terrible by any means, but it’s an awfully small offering compared to the PSN Plus that it was clearly competing with.

Following that, Microsoft told us that World Of Tanks was going to be FTP on X360, Max: The Curse Of Brotherhood was coming to the dying console, and Dark Souls 2 would also be current gen only. It’s good that the X360 still has some life left, but we didn’t show up for X360 games. Now, in the interest of organization, I’m going to jump around a little bit and discuss a few points that didn’t have anything to do with games themselves, and then follow up with some brief impressions of each Xbone game that Microsoft showed.

First off, XBL Gold will be shared among up to 10 profiles on your console, and can be taken to other consoles as well. This was revealed before, and it’s really a minor point for today. Another interesting side point was Smart Match. This is a feature where you tell the console you want to play a particular online game, and then you go play another game until it’s found a good match for you. This implies that it is going to take so damn long for you to find a suitable opponent that you may as well go play another game. Not exactly a great message. On top of that, the match they showed us that the system set up was (by design) completely lopsided. So I have no faith in its ability to actually perform matchmaking.

The console was announced to cost $500, which is about what we expected, and it’s slated for a November release. IGN has made a good point about it probably going on the same date or as close as possible to CoD: Ghosts. Outside of that, Battlefield 4 is getting some timed exclusive DLC. I’ve never understood why this is important to people, but it is there. And with all that out of the way, here’s a more straightforward presentation for the games MS showed:

Ryse: Son Of Rome: It’s Microsoft’s new God Of War clone, seemingly designed to specifically compete with God Of War. I like it when the Big 3 make their own spin on competitor’s exclusives, because it makes you feel like you aren’t missing as much by sticking with that console, but this might be a generation too late.
Killer Instinct: Finally, Rare has brought back the cult favorite fighting franchise. A good exclusive for fighting fans.
Sunset Overdrive: I like Insomniac, and having them do an exclusive for the Xbone is a big deal. But with the last few games they’ve done, there seems to be some disparity between co-op play and single player, and I tend to prefer single player. So while it looks like fun, I’m keeping a little cautious about its single player potential.
Forza Motorsport 5: Racing sims have their market, and I’m not it.
Minecraft: It’s a monumental PC game, but it’s also been out for a little while now. How many people are really going to buy it again on Xbone?
Quantum Break: This one looked interesting, and the integration with a TV series seems to be the next minor trend in gaming. I’ll need to see more gameplay before I get too excited, but there’s some interesting potential here.
D4: From the makers of Deadly Premonition, it looks to be to the Xbone what Condemned: Criminal Origins was to the X360. Which is a good thing.
Project Spark: It wasn’t enough to tackle a God Of War knockoff, but why not have an LBP knock off, with some level editing ripped almost directly out of ModNation Racers? I love this kind of move, and the game looks like it will make the whole LBP experience a bit more fluid with voice activated menu navigation.
Crimson Dragon: Apparently for any Panzer Dragoon fans, it’s a nifty little arcade Kinect title. And according to IGN, it’s currently cancelled. That was fast.
Dead Rising 3: Back when I had an X360, Dead Rising was a beloved, yet be-hated exclusive title. When the sequel came out exclusivity was gone, but it was basically the same game with the same problems and successes. The third game has gone back to being an exclusive, and it looks to change things up a little bit by giving you a little more room to explore in a city. I expect it’ll still have the same time and save based issues as before, and the silliness doesn’t seem to have been altered at all. Air strikes? Feels like you got your Saints Row in my Dead Rising. We’ll see if that’s a good or bad thing as we find out more about it.
The Witcher 3: It’s a highly acclaimed RPG franchise for casually-hardcore RPG fanatics, but I’ve never played the first two. I don’t know if I should be excited about it or scrambling to catch up with the other games, but in general this is a welcome addition to the console landscape.
Below: It’s a loot based adventure that apparently changes its level designs based on your living room designs. I don’t know if that means it’ll change once and then be stuck on that level until you redecorate or what. It doesn’t seem like my kind of game.
Black Tusk Project: What the hell is it? I have no idea. But it’s stylish, and it exists. And that’s something.
Halo: It exists. And it’s not necessarily Halo 5, which is also strange considering 343 promised a trilogy that they're only a third of the way through. Either way, the trailer itself was entertaining on its own, if for no other reason than managing to surprise me with its Journey-esque scenery.
Titanfall: I get the feeling that this is supposed to be the big focus of the console, being Respawn's first game away from the evil Activision and exclusive to Microsoft platforms. Looks solid enough, and if I were getting an Xbone this would easily be a priority for me, but it’s not a system seller for me on its own.

In summary, Microsoft did exactly as it said it would: it showed us some games we would want to buy an Xbone for. However, none of this software is even close to enough to overcoming the hardware restrictions Microsoft is forcing on Xbone owners. In that respect, today’s presentation was both a rousing success and a dramatic failure.

I typically score each press conference, and I want to try and bring back last year’s model of taking the percentage of the total positive moments and put it out of 1,000, with some points altered for X factors. Microsoft had approximately 25 talking points today, and I can honestly give a full positive to about 17 of them. Which makes a score of 680, however I have to deduct 50 points for not being able to counter the negativity from last month’s reveal, bringing the final score to a very respectable 630.

Electronic Arts

EA, winner of the “worst company in America” title for two years running, began their showcase showdown by shaking up a family favorite. It’s called Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare. The title sounds like something that gamers would have jokingly come up with to mock the notorious Call Of Duty franchise, but this action based installment of the PvZ franchise is all too real. I dig it actually; it’s nice to see a “shooter” that isn’t really about guns or anything. I think it’s a great way to experience one of gaming’s most popular competitive gameplay structures without worrying if it’s too graphic for the young ones. This segment ended with a brief yet epic reveal of Peggle 2 and its awesome jump move.

Moving on, we got to see more of Titanfall, which I won’t go into again. After that came the most exciting announcement of this presser: Star Wars: Battlefront. EA just recently got the Star Wars license, so it’s most likely that the short teaser we saw is literally all they’ve done so far for the game at all, but the fact that it exists at all is a great win for gamers. Following that came the announcement of Burnout: Paradise 2, or as EA is calling it “Need For Speed: Rivals”. Hopefully the fact that it’s under the NFS moniker won’t stop them from delivering tons of quality free DLC content afterwards like they did for BP. Next up was Bioware’s Dragon Age: Inquisition. I’m not a fan of the Dragon Age franchise, so this is a bit of a meh moment for me.

Next up was the EA Sports suite. To be quick about it, we learned that dribbling is important in basketball, talking about fighting is more exciting than seeing the gameplay footage of fighting, and that everyone at EA Sports has a foot fetish. Moving on, we saw some of Battlefield 4’s multiplayer, which lost a bit of its luster having seen the game already. Finally, the presentation ended by announcing a new Mirror’s Edge game. It’s unclear if the new game is a prequel, sequel, or reboot; all I know is it exists and it’s the most exciting thing coming from EA right now except for SW: Battlefront.

EA had 12 games to talk about, and I’m calling about 12 of them positives. To be fair, I’m basically saying that Titanfall and Battlefield 4 are each getting half credit for being shown earlier, which evens it out at 6. In terms of score, they’re sitting at a solid 500.

Ubisoft

Oh, Ubisoft. Last year’s E3 champion, Ubisoft brought back Aisha Tyler to host and ditched the annoying co-host to deliver a much more straightforward presentation. In other words, they finally figured out that it’s not a good thing to make an ass out of yourself on stage.

The show began with a brief demonstration from Alice In Chains’s Jerry Cantrell, who played a solo from “Man In the Box” before jamming in the new session mode of Rocksmith. I know music games are a little past their prime now, but Rocksmith is a seriously interesting option for anyone interested in learning the instrument, and I can only imagine what will come to life when next gen sharing is used in unison with that session mode.

Ubisoft transitioned to more traditional games by showcasing some Splinter Cell: Blacklist. SC: B was revealed last year, and it kind of feels like its lost some steam behind its company rival in the stealth genre, Watch Dogs. Still, I look forward to seeing the return of Spies vs. Mercs and hopefully a competent single player campaign, albeit still without Michael Ironside. After that came Rayman Legends. Rayman had a bit of a lull for a few years, but he’s made a strong comeback recently, and Legends looks to give him an even more prominent place in the Ubisoft lineup as the 8th generation begins.

Then, Ubisoft revealed The Might Quest For Epic Loot. With lame jokes and a weird behind the scenes blooper reel, this title looks like it just isn’t quirky enough to pull off its intentions. In gameplay however, there’s an interesting sort of idea in that players are essentially creating the levels themselves by building their defenses. I just hope there’s more depth to it than that, or else it feels like the kind of game that will get old very quickly. After that, South Park: The Stick of Truth was proudly displayed by its new publisher via a funny trailer. I don’t know why Randy Marsh would be teaching some random 4th grader how to perform a particular fart, or why he was doing in the men’s room. All I know is I want this game like Cartman wants to start a holocaust for hippies.

Next, Ubisoft showed off The Crew, which seems like it’s trying to out-Burnout Paradise the new Need For Speed game. I’m not very into racing games, but I think I’ll enjoy following this little rivalry as they release. Ubisoft next showed off some Watch Dogs, which was nice. It didn’t quite have the same pop as last year, but that’s probably because it’s still the same game, and we just want it to release already. Speaking of still being the same game, next up was Just Dance 4. At least this year nobody went out and hired dancers and terrible musicians to torture us with. After that they announced Rabbids Invasion, which is the latest game to get the TV treatment. Seems like a good one for the kids, with Nickelodeon doing the TV show.

Moving forward, Ubisoft showed off Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. Having played AC3, I can’t see the appeal of making ship combat the center of the game. It was a decent change of pace, but it wasn’t nearly as fun to play as the traditional parts on foot for me. And of course there’s the ever present conflict about the present timeline interfering with my ability to enjoy these games, and a few other reasons to be a little hostile towards this installment. However, I have always wanted there to be at least one big, mainstream pirate story out there without mythical beasts or ridiculous Disney plots; just once I’d like to see 16th to 18th century pirates shown historically accurately, and this is probably as close as its going to get at least for those parts.

After that came Trials Fusion and Trials Frontier, which aren’t exactly my cup of tea but certainly have their fans. And finally, Ubisoft revealed The Division, a new Tom Clancy franchise. I have mixed feelings about this one. It’s a persistent online shooter RPG. I’m not a big fan of the persistent online part, but I like the setting concept and I would love to have a decent single player version of the game. I don’t think it’ll have that, so for me this is the most exciting disappointment of the entire show.

Much like EA, Ubisoft showed off 12 games in their show. And just like EA, I can give about 6 of them a solid positive. Which means that Ubisoft also gets a 500, but for the sake of making sure they can’t tie for last place I’m going to give Ubisoft one extra point simply because I liked Ubisoft’s games just a little more. That means Ubisoft’s final score is 501.

Sony

Covering Sony’s presentation is a little bit different than the other three so far, because Sony chose to group certain reveals. If I counted each game mentioned plus each non-game talking point, I’d have a total of 49 talking points. In reality, Sony’s choice of presentation narrows the number of talking points a bit, so I’ve had to adjust as well.

Sony began with their PS Vita support. Being the little guy of the PlayStation family, there were 11 total Vita games announced, but none had any trailers or gameplay shown. They were basically just listed off. And they were: Batman: Arkham Origins, CounterSpy, Destiny Of Spirits, Doki Doki Universe, Killzone Mercenary, Tearaway, God of War 1 & 2 HD, Final Fantasy X & X-2 HD, Flower, Dead Nation, and The Walking Dead: 400 Days. Whether or not each game was good or bad for Vita owners, I don’t ever plan on having a Vita, and I appreciated Sony getting this out of the way quickly.

Next, they gave the PS3 a similar treatment. They announced a few games still coming this year to PS3, but because the PS3 is more important than the Vita they did show trailers for each game shown. This includes The Last Of Us, Puppeteer, Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, Gran Turismo 6, and Batman Arkham Origins. That last one in particular is even getting some exclusive content, like the Adam West batman costume from the ‘60s. Finally I can roam the streets of Gotham, proclaiming that nobody messes with Adam We! Sony also made a point to announce a PS3 bundle for GTA5, but didn’t show a trailer for it like the other games.

Following that, we all got to see the PS4 in all its physical glory. People have wanted to see the box since February, so that made those people happy. Sony then confirmed that the PS4 would have several entertainment apps like the PS3 has now, so it won’t be just a gaming machine. Apparently, all the non-gaming stuff will still be tailored around gamers though, so that’ll be interesting to see the difference that’s supposed to make.

Following that slight lull in the hype meter came a new IP in the form of The Order: 1886. It looks to be a hodgepodge of modern-ish sci/fi technology and classic Victorian culture. It looks to be filling a sort of Resistance like spot for the PS4’s lineup, and I look forward to seeing some gameplay in the future. Next came Killzone: Shadow Fall, which I tried not to pay too much attention to. I like the Killzone franchise, and I saw some new guns to play with. That’s enough to get me pretty damn hyped. Following that was another game first revealed back in February: DriveClub. Once again, I’m not really huge on racing game, and this one’s not terribly exciting to me. However, Sony announced later that PS+ users will be able to get the game for free at or around the console’s launch, and a free game is a free game. More on that later.

The next game shown was Infamous: Second Son. I don’t want to call it a reboot for the franchise, but it does seem like enough of a new direction to warrant the notion. I have high hopes and high expectations for it. After that, Sony rounded out its presentation of previously known titles with Knack. Knack’s another title I want to get my hands on, but I’m not terribly excited for just yet. After that came a new title from Quantic Dream called The Dark Sorcerer, which makes use of a certain head model that was shown off some time ago. It’s a bit odd to show off this new title before Beyond Two Souls releases, but I guess it’s close enough to count when they’re on different consoles.

After that, Sony started talking about Indies. It all began with Transistor, a tale of a woman and her weapon from the makers of Bastion. It looked cool for a small, indie title, but it was completely blown away in my mind by what came next. Not one, not two, but EIGHT more indie titles all shared the stage showing their gameplay on a designated screen. Of these eight games, I have to say I got pretty excited about all but one or two of them. They just look like classic, retro-minded fun. In all, we saw demos for Don’t Starve, Mercenary Kings, Octodad: Dadliest Catch, Secret Ponchos, Rays, Outlast, Oddworld: New & Tasty, and Galak-Z.

Next up Sony announced some exclusive items in Diablo III, which wasn’t terribly exciting. Following that came the announcements from Square Enix: Final Fantasy Versus XIII exists, and may have become Final Fantasy XV at this point, or maybe that was also announced. I kind of got confused there. But from the bits and pieces of what seemed like possible gameplay snippets in their trailer, it looks like the combat system might not be so irritating this time, so I might actually play it. SE wasn’t done with that though, as there was still the matter of Kingdom Hearts III to be announced. I haven’t ever played the series, being that I haven’t exactly enjoyed Final Fantasy and I’m not very big on Disney. But I know this is a fan favorite, and there were definitely nerdgasms abound for it.

Next up, Ubisoft showed off more Watch Dogs and AC4: BF. We definitely got into some overexposure territory with both games this E3. After that, Sony announced NBA 2K14 for some reason. My theory is that Sony is secretly a little upset with EA about Titanfall, and decided to have the dominant 2K basketball series on its stage as a subtle message to EA. Whatever the reason, was, it didn’t last terribly long before Sony moved on to the Elder Scrolls Online. As noted earlier, I’m not a fan of a lot of online content or MMOs, but Skyrim got me hooked on the Elder Scrolls lore, and I might be giving it a shot anyways. Next came the surprising Mad Max, which should be really interesting to see some to life. The movies are cult classics for a reason, and gaming has already taken a lot of influence from the franchise. It’ll be interesting to see what it can do now.

Sony then took a break from all the game reveals to show that it’s not about to pull any punches with the PS4. Sony came out and directly attacked Microsoft’s strategies for the Xbox One, saying that Sony will not be requiring any online connection for anything but online games and services, will not put any restrictions on used games or game lending/renting/sharing, and furthermore called such policies anti-consumer. Sony made a point that they believe in protecting consumer ownership, and with that line plunged a dagger into Microsoft’s jugular. Sony also mentioned that PSN+ profiles would be shared on all platforms, so trophies, perks and all that will go with you from PS3 to PS4 to Vita and back again. As much as I love it when companies rip off their competitor’s exclusive games, I never expected to see any of the Big 3 go so directly in the other’s face like that. It’s easily the highlight moment of the entire event.

It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows here though. Sony dropped a big bombshell of its own: online play is no longer free on the PS4. You will have to have a PSN+ subscription to play online. It makes things a little less weary that they will still have all the free games and discounts that PSN+ is known for now, so that value can easily be gotten back in something more tangible than online play. But as a gamer who has argued that online play wasn’t worth a $50 a year price tag on any console, this is a seriously annoying move.

Moving on, Sony showed off more of Destiny. Sony is very pleased with themselves to have Bungie’s next franchise on their platform, even if not exclusively, and I think they made a point of getting Bungie on stage as an answer of sorts to Titanfall being all over the Microsoft stage. Destiny itself is looking very cool, as you might expect from the house that built Halo, and I don’t mean to undercut its awesomeness with my earlier comments.

Sony ended the show with two final points. First, Sony’s cloud based platform will launch in 2014 and will have a bunch of PS3 games available to stream, at least partly solving some of the backwards compatibility issue. Finally, Sony concluded that the PS3 will cost only $400. That’s a full $100 less than the Xbone, which is a slightly weaker system overall. If Microsoft didn’t stay down for the count before, the ref would have to stop the fight at this point.

Sony had about 28 talking points after grouping several game titles by presentation method. Out of these 28, a solid 19 ring as positive from me, which puts the score naturally at about a 679. I was going to award a bonus 50 points for sticking it to Microsoft so forcefully, but I had to deduct them right back for the cost of online play. So the natural score stays.

Nintendo

Nintendo entered E3 with the only 8th gen console on the market, but the year head start has not done much for Nintendo. With so much attention going to the new console hype, Nintendo needed something really special to stand out and amp up some WiiU support at this E3. The task seemed insurmountable to some, perhaps even to Nintendo itself judging by their choice of presentation.

Rather than a press conference, Nintendo had a Nintendo Direct video prepared to show off its E3-worthy announcements. The presentation was very much like watching a checklist be read off one-by-one. So to present my reactions to it, I’m going to adopt that style again here as I did for some of the game at Microsoft’s presser earlier.

Pokémon X/Y: The highly anticipated handheld franchise will be including new Fairy type pokémon, which will change some battle dynamics. The game will also support a feature that basically lets you play Pokémon like Nintendogs if you so choose. Spicing up the types and balances is a good way to keep the Pokémon experience fresh without changing too much. The “pet” stuff really isn’t for me, but I could easily see how this would benefit the franchise as well.
Super Mario 3D World: Those of you who know me will acknowledge that I haven’t ever enjoyed any of the 3D era Mario games despite loving the side-scrollers. So while adding co-op to the 3D franchise is a big deal for Mario’s millions of fans, I’m not particularly excited about it. I will grant that Cat Mario was interesting though.
Mario Kart 8: It’s Mario Kart. Iwata confirmed that the big draw to the eighth installment is that you’ll be able to do the things you enjoyed in the previous two Mario Kart games in this one as well. So… yeah.
Wii Party U & Wii Fit U are both delayed: Neither of these were a huge deal to me, but I’m sure that Nintendo is hoping for the new Wii Fit to be as big as the past Wii Fit games were.
Art Academy: It’s basically just a bunch of art tools for people who like to draw using the tablet controller. I think it’s a great idea, because drawing is one of the few positive uses I can think of for having a tablet controller.
A trailer of third party games including AC4: Black Flag, Batman Arkham Origins, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Disney Infinity, Just Dance 2014, Rayman Legends, Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure, Disney’s Planes, Shin Megami Tensei IV, Skylanders Swap Force, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Sonic lost World, and Watch Dogs: Rather than focus on any of the game individually, Ninty showed off third party support in a montage without any of the 80s movie flair that usually goes into a montage. But that’s fine. A total of 13 third party games were shown to be coming to WiiU, with at least four or five of them exclusives, while also showing that next gen games like Watch Dogs are not lost on the system either.
A trailer of eShop games including Ballpoint Universe, Cloudberry Kingdom, Coaster Crazy Deluxe, DuckTales Remastered, Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara, Mutant Mudds Deluxe, Oddworld: New & Tasty, Scram Kitty & His Buddy On Rails, Shovel Knight, Spin The Bottle: Bumpie’s Party, and A World Of Keflings: To this point, this was probably the most exciting games talked about for me. With both Microsoft and Sony putting emphasis on Indie games and arcade titles, it’s good to show that Nintendo has some ground held on this front too.
The Legend Of Zelda: Wind Waker HD: I know people love them some HD remakes, but come on already. The HD remake of a GameCube game is not a AAA title for your WiiU, but Nintendo seems to think it is. It’s a remake of a game we’ve played and seen before. Don’t put too much focus on the past; show us what you’ve got in the present!
The Wonderful 101: Speaking of the present, this looks like it’ll be a wonderful exclusive to strengthen a WiiU lineup that desperately needs strengthening. Granted we already have seen a bit from it, it’s still looking to be a must have for WiiU owners.
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze: This was the most exciting moment of the show for me. DKC is back and still a side scroller but will use some 3D camera work for some of those transitional moments in a level where DK is jumping between barrels. And on top of that, Dixie’s back! DKC 2 is my favorite of the franchise mainly because of Dixie’s hair-based gliding, so it’s great to have her in the lineup again with Donkey and Diddy.
Bayonetta 2: I didn’t get into the first Bayonetta so much, but it clearly was a popular title when it came out. Platinum Games has made quite the reputation for themselves and used this franchise to do it. As such, this is a very good addition to the show, and another top priority for WiiU owners.
X: The practically title-less game is actually one of the better games of Nintendo’s show. The world looks beautiful, interesting, and deeply engrossing. If feels part Final Fantasy, part Zone Of The Enders, and even maybe one part Monster Hunter. A great new reveal for Nintendo.
Super Smash Bros: If Nintendo needed a monster to close the show, they couldn’t have asked for a bigger one than Super Smash Bros. Though it comes as no surprise to any gamer that the game exists, Nintendo also impressed by announcing that MegaMan will be a playable character. They also raised more than a few eyebrows by announcing two more new challengers: The Villager and the Wii Fit trainer.

Nintendo’s presentation had only 13 talking points then, which is the half of what the other Big 3 companies were showing off. I would say about nine of these were solid positives, but I have to deduct 50 points for having such a slim offering, or at least choosing to present itself so compactly. Which means the original score of 692 is reduced to 642.

And The Winner Is…

For your convenience, here’s our comparison side by side for each presser:

Microsoft: 630 (deducted from 680)
Electronic Arts: 500
Ubisoft: 501 (adjusted from 500 to avoid a tie)
Sony: 679
Nintendo: 642 (deducted from 692)

What this means is that in a shocking twist, Nintendo naturally had the best show, but were too small to really capitalize. Similarly, Microsoft’s show was impressive without context, but still failed one of its most important objectives. Sony managed to neutralize its big bad with some big good, and still had a very good presentation at its heart which was enough to take a win at the end of the day. EA and Ubisoft played out extremely similarly, with only a simple personal preference giving Ubisoft a nod into safety and naming EA’s to be the worst conference of show. However, the very fact that the worst we got this year still managed to have a .500 batting average says a lot about the state of the industry moving forward into the new generation of consoles. For the first time in a long time, E3 delivered on all fronts.

Other Thoughts

The game I’m most hyped for is easily still MGS5, but when in the hell are we going to learn for certain what its packaging situation is going to be?
I think it’s an interesting side plot to the entire event coverage that the ESA and Ouya are having a tiff that peaked with the ESA calling the cops. It sucks that they fight like that, but you know the makeup sex will be the best ever.
Microsoft is getting increasingly arrogant. I think they’re getting Andy Kaufman syndrome, where just as people really start liking them they have this uncontrollable desire to become a bad guy wrestler. It’s become more and more evident with quote from Don Mattrick saying that people who prefer offline games should just stick to their Xbox 360s and Phil Spencer saying that ultimately consumers need to make their voice heard with their wallets before Microsoft will even consider this consumer outcry to be valid.
Sony, on the other hand, reminded me of their Kevin Butler days with that instructional video on their YouTube account showing gamers how used games work on PS4. I miss KB.
I still find the second screen trend to be a big turnoff for some of these upcoming games. Microsoft in particular, using SmartGlass, showed off lots and lots of ways to take you out of your gameplay experience and onto another screen. I honestly do not understand the appeal of this, and I also don’t understand why anyone would want to be in a multiplayer match strictly on a second screen device giving random commands for people to follow or disregard as they will.

How about you guys? If anyone is still reading this, what did you think of the five press conferences? What did you think of my impressions here? Sound off in the comments below.

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