E3 in review

[abigsmurf]

It's over now so we may as well do a central "your thoughts" thread.


Game of the show

Tomb Raider.
It may not end up being the game I enjoy most out of all on display but it was definately the nicest suprise of the show.

Runner up:
Super Mario 3DS.
Like the way it looks like they've tried to implement 'proper' mario controls in a 3D platformer. It's not NSMB or Mario Galaxy but a fresh Mario in it's own right.

Best Conference
Nintendo
They botched the Wii U unveiling but ultimately, the 3DS games helped push their conference in front of Sony's

Worst Conference

Microsoft
Second year in a row they've filled their show with Kinect and had few interesting exclusives. A 30 second Halo 4 teaser wasn't enough to salvage it.

Console of the show
PS Vita
They didn't want us to know about the Wii U so can't put that here. Instead the Vita is showing incredible amounts of promise and ?230 is a great pricetag that'll give Nintendo some real competition.

Worst Absences
JRPGs. There were... 3 at E3? FFXIII-2, A Wii Harvest Moon and Paper Mario.
Most notable absenses though were FF Type-0, FF Versus and Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance. No announcements for localisations of any of the Wii RPGs

[Darwock]

No interest in the other two as I don't own any of their hardware, so I only watched the Sony stuff.

Game of the show:

Starhawk. First footage I've seen and I simply can't wait for it.

Best/Worst conference:

Well I only watched one, and there weren't any lol-fests from konami or anywhere either, so yeah... N/A.

Console of the show:

PS Vita

Worst absences

The Polyphony Digital interpreter-notebook guy

[Jebus]

Game of Show: BioShock Infinite

Runner Up: Uncharted 3

Best Conference: Nintendo

Worst Conference: Ubisoft

Console of the show: PlayStation Vita

Worst Absentee: The Last Guardian

[Golgo]

Game of the Show: Minecraft 360 (Haven't got 360 so PSN next please as I don't really enjoy gaming on PC [of course Microsoft deal will ensure that never happens])
Runner Up: Luigi's Mansion 3DS (makes 3DS very tempting and awesomely pretty little haunted rooms in 3D gives it a real purpose at last!)
Best Conference: Sony (nothing mindblowing, just solid and impressive tech, easy to understand what was on offer, unlike...)
Worst conference: Nintendo (inspiring confusion for those who didn't understand, despair and disbelief for those who did...even Microsoft was better, at least people knew what was on offer!)
Console of the Show: Vita.
Worst absentee: Good call by Jebus, but at least we know TLG is incoming. For me (unless I missed it?): Dragon Quest 10. Ostensibly for Wii. But now I suspect being re-tooled for Wii U. Just like Pikmin 3.

[Neon Ignition]

Game of the Show:
I suppose I'd go with Tomb Raider as well. As much as I drooled over every Uncharted and Luigi's Mansion related morsel I saw, it was TR that surprised the most. I had high expectations of the others so meeting them was fine, but TR blind sided me a bit. Shame it's so far off.

Runner Up:
For the surprise element alone, Luigi's Mansion 2 pips it to this post. My hoover bag nearly exploded at the news!

Best Conference:
Though scrappy, Nintendo. The presentation was unrivalled with the audience and it was reasonably delivered. Despite the somewhat rambled and vague roll out of Wiiu info it none the less was the only conference with anything really new to show and proved interesting because of it. I liked Sony's which had plenty content but it was understandably low key and straight forward (if a little long)

Worst Conference:
Microsoft. To give them their due it was a marked improvement over last years crash course and went reasonably fine enough, however they showed their final hand to be empty with the system clearly entering its final run. Kinect support, whilst featuring heavy, is still light on numbers of games, the exclusives have dried up and the multiformat titles offer no incentive to prioritise them. It's been an impressively long run for the 360 but I feel this was the year MS quietly whispered to it 'Goodbye'. Next year, I'm expecting a 720 reveal to see MS back at the top of this summary.

Console of the Show:
Playstation 3. The Wii, the PSP and the 360 practically shuffled off their mortal coils and the Wiiu was almost prematurely born live on stage which left the PS3 and the PSV vying for this. Despite how impressive the new handheld still looks it wasn't really showing anything we weren't already aware of either and there was simply no competing against the strength of the overall lineup the PS3 offers for the next 12 months.

Worst Absentee:
Shenmue 3! Metal Gear Rising. I know TLG is a major ommission but I've more faith in that to hit whenever and it be amazing so I don't mind too much. MGR on the other hand seems to be turning into the new Duke Nukem Forever, it was a ropey looking game that's now arriving far too late... if at all it seems.

[Flabio]

Game of the show
I'm going to go with Tomb Raider as well. A brave reboot that looks pretty impressive, and far better than I think most people were expecting it was going to be.

Runner Up
Dragon's Crown. Because I love their whole hidef 2d style, and this has some of the most ludicrous female character designs ever.

Best Conference
Sony's for me. Lot of games there I'll definitely want to play, which wasn't something I could say about any of the others I watched.

Worse Conference
Konami. I mean seriously, they pre-recorded it, and didn't actually announce anything new. And after their highly memorable one from last year as well.

Console of the Show
The Vita for me. I suspect it'll end up going to same way as the PSP, but if it gets a Valkyria game I'll be sorted.

Worst Absentee
The Japanese Games Industry. Seriously, they barely showed up at all... (Just read that someone from Square tweeted that the state of the Japanese industry post E3 is an 'embarrasment', and that without their Eidos titles they wouldn't have even showed at all...)

[Golgo]

Agree with Flabio 100% re. worst absentee. It hadn't even registered with me until pointed out!

[ETC]

Game of the Show:
another Tomb Raider think it was because unlike most of E3 it was actually unexpected

Runner Up:
Uncharted 3, same solid uncharted but a demo in a boat ffs

Best Conference:
Sony although all 3 were nothing special

Worst Conference:
Nintendo, what is a Wii-u I am still wondering and I am personally sick of them rehashing the same stuff every with every hardware release I played everything they have done at least twice over by now and although I admit they are excellent timeless classics I resent paying for the same game every 3-5 years

Console of the Show:
Vita (as i still dont know what a wii-u is) but it wont be a commercial success

Worst Absentee:
Anything new from anywhere, Originality maybe