Who Won E3 For Me

E3: an exciting week for all gamers and people who work in the game industry alike. Every year we tune in/go to watch the keynote conferences from the three biggest names in the business; Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.  We expect to be filled with wonder and amazement as they display their new products for the world to see.

So now that E3 is over here at GameOn we can actually take a breather from manically taking notes and typing news posts like it's going out of fashion. Here we take a better look at what has been announced detailing our own opinions of what we have seen.

So I find myself asking, who's products did I prefer, which conference was the best presented and which company appeals to me personally? In short, who 'won' E3 for me?

To answer that question, I need to take a look at who did what.

Microsoft:

Microsoft's presentation had a pretty prominent theme from the word go, Kinect. It seemed like every game they previewed on stage had some link to the motion capturing system.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing as there were some amazing innovations displayed. The voice integration in Mass Effect 3 and the Gunsmith and the ability to physically build your own weapon feature from Ghost Recon: Future Soldier were definitely my favorite examples shown. These proved that motion controllers aren't just for the casual gamers around, they can be integrated into 'core' titles too and be used to enhance the immersion of a game. Whether or not these features actually turn out to be something of a gimmick remains to be seen however, only time will tell.

Kinect Fun Labs was another personal highlight of mine and all kinds of really great features were shown here, scanning objects into games to customise your experience that bit further. Scanning yourself into it to create your own, better fitting avatar, and drawing in 3D using your finger are just a few examples. The best part of the whole thing however is that all of these features are 100% free and were available to download that very day.

And that was where my love for Microsoft ended this year, the rest of the conference was filled with games that I personally have no interest in,. A new Halo: no thank you, remade Halo: *yawn*, and the obvious yearly installments of Fifa and Call of Duty. I'm not particularly a fan of the first or third-person shooter genres either, so the majority of the conference bored me. Sorry Microsoft!

Sony:

I think after the recent PlayStation Network downtime, Sony really had to pull something special to win back the hearts of unforgiving gamers who have left the PlayStation brand.
Sony's conference did that in my opinion. I was never mad with them to begin with but to see Jack Tretton, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment US take to the stage and apologise humbly to us all was a nice gesture. Sony's show was all about entertainment in all shapes and forms. 3D was the main theme of the first half with several demonstrations taking place, they even went on to announce a new PlayStation branded 3D TV and 3D glasses so you could enjoy these games and features at a competitive price.

The real star of the show however was the official unveiling of the PlayStation Vita, the successor to the moderately successful PlayStation portable. This new handheld has some pretty impressive features which I wont go into depth about here but you can read all about it here. the games that were demonstrated on it looked absolutely fantastic, both in terms of graphics and gameplay.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss was the first one to be shown and it actually stunned me. I didn't expect to see the level of detail in the location and characters that was shown. I really liked the control scheme too giving you a choice between using the touchscreen controls, traditional buttons or a mix of the both. You can change these on the fly, with no need to change using menus; you just use whichever you want. Another feature that impressed me was the evolved connectivity between PSVita and PS3. Don't get me wrong, we've seen this premise before with PSP and PS3 but not at the same level. Playing a game on your PSVita, saving and then being able to pick right up where you left off on the PS3 was just one of the features displayed. With an impressive line up of games, it was definitely my favorite piece of hardware show at all three conferences.

Like Microsoft the motion controller, Move was a big theme. With support from many big titles such as LittleBigPlanet 2, Star Trek, NBA 2K11 and most surprisingly Bioshock Infinite, Move seems set to have a very prosperous year.

The games displayed looked gorgeous too, Uncharted 3, Resistance 3 and InFamous 2 to name but a few, as well as HD remastered collections of some classic games. In this regard, Sony was much more interesting to me than Microsoft.

Nintendo:

I'm just going to get this out of my system now and say, I am not a 'modern' Nintendo fan. I pine for the days where gimmick free gaming made Nintendo possibly my favorite of the three. In recent years, in my opinion anyway, Nintendo's E3 Conference can be summed up nicely in one word: rehash. This year was no exception.

The opening to Nintendo's conference was by far, the best of the three however. A live orchestra playing old school Zelda songs was just awesome as were the announcements of Zelda titles for all Nintendo's systems to celebrate the series' 25th anniversary. After that things took their usual turn into 'been-there-and-done-that-ville'. Not a single new IP was announced, instead bringing us the exciting new Super Mario 45, or whatever version we are on now.

I like some of their franchises but I honestly believe that they really need to give Mario a break, they shoehorn him into any game possible. I was personally really disappointed with their line up, whilst StarFox and Mario Kart on the 3DS are all well and good, StarFox is a remade version of the Nintendo 64 hit and Mario Kart is a remake of all of the previous ones with a few new added features. Is it really that hard for them to come up with a new character (and no I don't mean some wacky character from the Mario storyline like Bowsers' second cousin, twice removed on his aunty's ex husbands side of the family). Someone totally new and fresh.

Things picked back up however when they unveiled their new console/controller Wii U. No matter if it is your 'cup of tea' or not, you have to admit that it is pretty innovative. To be able to play games on your normal TV and be able to continue it on the controllers' screen like a portable is a pretty damn good concept. I also liked the fact you can use the controller as a completely separate entity and play multi-player games with it. Some of the games that have been announced for it too are pretty impressive. These include Darksiders 2 at launch and some actual grown-up games like Assassins Creed, Arkham City and Metro: Last Light may counter balance the gimmicky-ness (that's a word, honest...) that the recent Nintendo consoles have been all about. You can read our Wii U hands on preview here.

Reading through this, you may have already guessed who 'won' E3 in my opinion. It is unusual for me but this year I have sided with Sony. Microsoft is usually preference for gaming but as a gamer, I identified more with the products and services that Sony had on offer - especially the new handheld, PSVita. Don't get me wrong, I loved what Microsoft showed in regards to Kinect integration in core games but I didn't like most of their announced line up. Not everyone cares about Call of Duty and Halo. Nintendo piqued my interest with the Wii U, but the constant rehashing of their best selling franchise's is wearing a little thin.

So there we are for another year, now if you want me, I'll be in the living room dusting down my PlayStation 3.