E3 Kings

Okay, so I think it's time for a little discussion of the major E3 press conferences. Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony have all promised us wonderful things, but can they truly deliver? Let's go over some of the announcements, shall we?

First of all, Microsoft had a pretty clear focus for their show: Third party games. This was apparent right form the start, with the first ten minutes of the presentation being footage from, and a demonstration of, Beatles Rock Band. However, as great as that title looks, the best part of E3 conferences are exclusive games and surprise announcements, so neither this, the video for Tony Hawk Ride, or the demo of Final Fantasy XIII, we all that impressive, as far as I'm concerned.

In fact, a lot of Microsoft's conference involved demonstrating games we already knew about, although there were a few unknowns in there, such as Epic's XBLA title, Shadow Complex. There were also some surprise sequels thrown in, thanks to Crackdown 2 (yay!) and Left 4 Dead 2 (double-yay!). While neither of these games were entirely unexpected, it's always nice to get a little confirmation.

Anyway, game announcements are game announcements; they can happen anytime. Let's focus a little on the other stuff revealed by Microsoft. First of all, Xbox Live is adding additional functionality to help people stay in touch. Facebook and Twitter are both being Incorporated into the dashboard, meaning that you could potentially have your computer, phone, and Xbox all buzzing you every time someone leaves you a quick comment. I guess that's true connectivity, right?

All this stuff is relatively boring when stacked up against Microsoft's final announcement, though. Yes, the 360, like the Wii and PS3, is getting a motion controller. The demonstration was, well, rather impressive, but since Sony and Nintendo also had motion control demos, lets discuss those all at the same time, okay?

Nintendo's main focus during their conference was on sequels. This comes as no surprise really; heaven forbid the company try to think up something new. We found about follow-ups to Wii Fit, New Super Mario Brothers (but not on DS - dammit!), and Mario Galaxy. While this is cool, and I'll probably end up playing all of them, it would have been nice to hear about a brand new IP as well.

Probably the closest think we got to new was the third-person Metroid game, a collaboration between Nintendo and Team Ninja. I must admit that it looked pretty sweet, but also seemed like something that could have been made anytime in the last ten years, i.e. unimpressive graphics and no obvious use of motion control. I suppose this could change as more is revealed, though.

There was very little on the DS either, save for a few more sequels. This is kind of worrying, as the recent release of the DSi should have given them plenty to talk about, from the DSiWare Shop to camera-controlled games, but sadly we heard about nothing like this. Well, we did find out about a few upcoming downloadable games, but I would hardly call this revelation overly exciting. Honestly, we should be getting announcements like that on a weekly basis, not once a year.

The Wii Motion Plus also got some time on stage, but we didn't really see anything much more impressive than last year's demonstration. However, with Microsoft and Sony both revealing their own, much more advanced motion controls, Nintendo had to remind us all that they weren't being left behind.

Sony's conference was rather like Microsoft's, with the focus mainly being on exclusive titles. We got more info on MAG, as well as a demonstration of Uncharted 2. We found out about a brand new Rockstar title, Agent, as well as the third project from Team Ico - The Last Guardian. This last one would have been a little more impressive if the video hadn't leaked a couple of weeks ago, but I suppose we at least found out the final name for the project.

Another announcement that was sort of ruined beforehand, was the PSP Go! It turned out to be pretty much as expected, except for the addition of Bluetooth - something I've been waiting for in a handheld for a while. One thing that did come as a bit of a surprise was the price - $249.99. Do you understand what I'm saying? Sony's five-year-old system costs the same as when it first launched in 2004, despite the loss of the UMD drive. I'm sure I'll have more to say about this later on.

In fact, the PSP had quite a lot of the focus, from the announcement of a new Metal Gear Solid game, to the promise of 50 PS1 classics coming to the Playstation Store this year (the first of which is already out!). I suppose this is a good thing, as Nintendo spent very little time talking about their portable system, so the PSP came actually came out on top (for once). Oh yeah, and we're getting LittleBigPlanet on the handheld as well - sweet!

Okay, so just like the other companies, Sony had a long demonstration of their new motion controller. All three technologies are rather impressive (in fact, Microsoft's was a little too impressive - one wonders if the final product can really perform that well), and it's fairly clear which direction the video game industry is going, at least for now. I think I'm going to save my full opinions for a separate write-up, though, so I won't go into detail now.

So which company had the best showing this year? Well, it wasn't Nintendo. Sorry, but I just don't consider a list of sequels to be very exciting. Add this to the Wii Motion Plus demo (didn't we have one of those last year?), and you end up with a fairly boring show. Then again, Nintendo already rule the world, so I guess they don't have to impress anyone. Of the other two companies, it's really hard to pick a winner. Both Microsoft and Sony showcased a bunch of exclusive games, and both had impressive motion control demos. If a number of Sony's announcements hadn't leaked ahead of time, then I think they would be the clear winner, but as it stands, fans of both systems could argue that their presentation was better.

So overall, I think it was quite a good start to E3 2009. We have a lot to look forward to in the future, and plenty of discussion topics for the next few weeks. I just hope I can find the time to get to them all!