Okay, so again I lied about the regular blogging thing. Let's all just leave that behind us shall we, and concentrate on the important stuff, namely, the recent showings at E3. Or rather the lack of them. As an outsider looking in on what's now an industry focused event, I have to say that it was the safest, most predictable and most boring for many years, only just bettering last year's snooze-fest. New game announcements were few and far between, and there were few truly shattering revelations about currently existing titles. As for how the Big Three did...
Nintendo
Promised repeatedly that there would be massive announcements but honestly showed very little of substance. Biggest announcement was the Wii Motion Plus peripheral, which looks interesting but runs the risk of splitting the userbase badly. Will still probably sell gazillions. Animal Crossing Wii was seen on the horizon months ago, and it's actually quite dispiriting how little it seems to add both graphically and gameplay wise. Wii Speak shouldn't even really be an announcement, given the robust online chat of XBL and PSN. Which leaves the hugely controversial Wii Music as the only real point of interest. The demonstration was foolish and embarrassing, and early reports have indicated a game without much depth, more a toy or gimmick, but that worked well for Wii Sports and the idea remains intriguing, so this one gets a stay of execution from me. However, this was by far and away the worst showing. Nintendo seemed to forget that at E3 it's preaching to the hardest of the hardcore, namely gaming journos, and instead delivered an immensely smug lecture-cum-lifestyle course which came off as amateurish and childish. Miyamoto gets away with prancing about on stage, but take note execs, he's the only one for whom it's acceptable. D-
Sony
In typical Sony fashion, promised great things but delivered not much. Clearly seeing this as an opportunity to consolidate rather than forge ahead, most of the focus was on already announced blockbusters like Resistance 2, Killzone 2 etc. There was lots of talk of figures and lifecycles, but the main pillars of the presentation were once again LittleBigPlanet and Home. LittleBigPlanet was charmingly and cleverly used to demonstrate some facts and figures in the form of levels built into graphs, and the abundant possibilities and firm release date of October mean that the possibilities are still bubbling under nicely on this one. Home on the other hand is getting old alarmingly fast, and Sony's inability to release what's essentially a glorified Second Life is concerning, especially considering it isn't really a game in and of itself. Sony are leaning rather heavily on it, and that's not a good move in my opinion. In Sony's defence, a strong lineup of PSN titles was also shown, including new announcements Ratchet and Clank:Quest For Booty and Fat Princess alongside highlights of standouts such as Pixeljunk Eden and Flower, both of which demonstrate the kind of clever alternative software that could never end up on XBLA. The announcement of the video store was also a vital bit of news, and should only enhance the PS3's reputation as an excellent media box. Speaking of boxes, the new hardware SKU was thoroughly unremarkable and also raises fears that the final of the back-compat units is going to die.
Games demoed were rather short on the ground, with Sucker Punch stealing all the credit for an excellent showing of inFamous. DC Universe Online was shown to interest, but the lack of game footage meant that the buzz was only moderate. Arguably the show stealer, even though it was inevitable, was the official announcement of God Of War III, complete with ultra-corny trailer, which pleased all and sundry. And finally, the unveiling of MAG was an interesting move towards a genre that's lain dormant for a while now, but the spectre of PlanetSide still hangs heavy over all massive online shooters. We'll have to see more of this one before judgment is passed. Overall, a solid performance from Sony, but no surprises, few real points of interest, and a creeping sense of deja vu means they'll have to try harder next time. C+
Microsoft
Made by far the biggest splash this year, but it was a highly schizophrenic press conference. Had games in spades, with demos of 360 exclusives Gears of War 2 and Fable 2 and exclusive demos of Resident Evil 5 and Fallout 3. All demoed well and added much needed buzz, and the announcement of exclusive DLC for Fallout 3 shouldn't be underestimated. Gears 2 especially looked far far better than it's initial showing and with both it and Fable 2 locked for winter releases Microsoft is ensuring it has a solid Christmas lineup. Rock Band 2 also appeared, and it's time limited exclusivity is a big coup for Microsoft. All went a bit wrong when they veered into casual territory. To be fair, the dashboard update would have caused a much bigger stir if it hadn't been leaked months ago, and the NetFlix announcement is great for US customers, but overall it felt staged and very much a combined rip-off of Nintendo and Sony. Lips too seemed overhyped, being what looked like a perfectly good Singstar clone, but hardly a massive genre-redefining title as it seemed to be bigged up as. Of course, Microsoft still had their massive bitch-slap to Sony to end on, and it think it's fair to say the Final Fantasy XIII announcement was the most sensational turnaround in many a year. The actual effect on the game has yet to be seen, but as a crucial one-up over Sony and a demonstration on the Xbox's position in world gaming it could hardly have been a stronger statement. It was a solid and interesting showing by Microsoft, and though they didn't show just exclusives, the stuff on show made it the best bet of the three B+
Mirroring the Big Three, very little happened outside as well, with most publishers opting to show off what had already been seen or announced. Probably the biggest news was not even given in a press conference, with John Riccitello confirming that Knights of the Old Republic III was in development, by BioWare, and was an MMO. I'm not going to go over all the other announcements made, but suffice to say E3 was a slightly damp squib this year. My personal theory is that developers are keeping their powder dry for the autumn events, namely Leipzig for the western publishers, while the Japanese always have bombshells to drop in Tokyo. We'll have to wait and see how that pans out.
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