Every year I eagerly wait for E3, the hype machine that starts up on the internet weeks prior just can't be ignored. This year the hype was overwhelming. With Nintendo's next big thing finally being discussed in depth, and who knows what surprises to expect from Sony and Microsoft, it looked to be a landmark year for the gaming community. It wasn't.
Nintendo decided instead to ignore just about every franchise that has made them the face of gaming and stick mostly to generic casual gamer crap that no one really cared about. Someone needs to tell Nintendo that a karaoke game will not get me to buy a console.
They did announce two new Mario games. That's right, two. One for the Wii-U and one for the 3DS. They look like exactly the same game. A couple of years ago, in the Mario 64/Mario Sunshine/Mario Galaxy era we begged for an old-school side scrolling Mario game; and now we're drowning in them, seriously. We've gotten almost as many side scrolling Mario games as we have Call of Duty games... And that's never a good thing.
I'm not saying that these Mario games are going to be bad, who knows, I might just play one. The fact of the matter is that there is no diversity in presenting the same game over and over, much less twice in the same press conference.
The other bright spot in Nintendo's press conference was Pikmin 3, a game everyone knew was coming. I've never really played a Pikmin game, but I guess it doesn't look bad, just not my mug of beer.
Nintendo didn't show me a single game that makes me think I need to buy a Wii-U. They're pandering to the casual gamer by lowering their standards.
I'm going to totally ignore the minigame extravaganza shitfest that is going to be Nintendo Land. Yeah, I said it, it's going to suck. This should be this console's Wii Sports. The fact that they plan on charging full retail price for something that looks like a tech demo baffles me. The fact that it was the centerpiece and the closer at their press conference feels like a slap in the face to their fans.
But this was only the beginning, Nintendo then announces that they're discarding the 3DS altogether and delegating it to a second informational live feed that would be held a day after their initial press conference. And they had a info package the day before as well that actually had more info on the Wii-U than the actual press conference. We had around five hours of Nintendo content that really didn't answer any of our huge questions.
I will say that I am very excited for Castelvania's return to the 2D-ish realm on the 3DS. It's the one thing they did right.
On to Microsoft.
Why do I even watch the Microsoft conference anymore? They never do anything different. They show off two "big games", one of which is always either the new Halo or the new Gears Of War, and they they show off Call Of Duty or the new shooter from EA. Every year, and this one was no different.
Sure, the new Halo looks almost decent, but it's still the same old shit. When was the last time the Xbox had a new IP that was actually relevant to the gaming world. All they do is Halo, Gears, Kinnect and third party games.
Then they started with the Kinnect. An accessory that hasn't produced a single memorable gameplay experience outside of dancing like an idiot in your living room. I know, I know, I'm a Sony fanboy, and I'll say the exact same thing (or worse) about the Move in a minute, I promise.
With the announcement that Dragon Ball Z would have a Kinnect game, you can add on another beloved franchise of mine that gets shit all over because of a half assed game, with half assed controls that could never deliver any depth.
The moment that Microsoft realizes that the Kinnect is a supplemental device and should never be your main means of control the gaming world will be a much better place.
And of course, just like every year, the brunt of Microsoft's focus went on expanding the media parameters and attempting to make the Xbox the center of your living room. I have no problem with this. I actually wish Sony would do more of this (UFC on my PS3 please!). The problem is that at in your time to shine and show off the games you have coming up these companies have decided that gamers don't need games. And it's ridiculous.
This is actually where the coolest part of Microsoft's thing came about; they brought out something they called Smart Glass. Without a doubt the biggest 'fuck you' to the Wii-U you'll ever see. The Xbox is integrating a tablet concept to your viewing experience, and the way they showed it off was actually both innovative and interesting. Expect Sony to do something similar, and Nintendo to implement some of these ideas.
Once again, the biggest announcement came almost two weeks after E3, when Microsoft announced their line of tablets that might as well be the iPad killer... Or at least the Kindle killer. Of course, this will be compatible with the Smart Glass concept.
To sum it all up, it's quite obvious that this press conference was their way of saying "we're revealing a new console next year, so this year is going to be duller than usual", and I think for what it's worth, they handled it as best as they could.
Last year at E3, Sony spent most of their time apologizing for the hacking and subsequent downtime of the Playstation Network, a debacle that still haunts their reputation. In a way, they're still apologizing for the PSN outage.
But they really tried to put their best foot forward. And fanboy-ism aside, they honestly had the best games of E3 at their show.
If you haven't seen it yet, stop reading this article and go watch every bit of footage from Naughty Dog's new game The Last Of Us. This is a game that I firmly believe will redefine what the way we look at violence in video games.
In one trailer, we got a spectrum of emotion and morality rarely seen in Oscar winning movies. Think about what I just said there.
Then we had Ubisoft's surprise game, WatchDogs. We were expecting The Last Of Us, but WatchDogs caught us way off guard. With impressive visuals, groundbreaking gameplay, a little bit of decent looking third person shooting, and the subtle yet rumored hint that all this was happening in a multiplayer world, WatchDogs has the world buzzing and clamoring for more info.
The third big game that sticks out in my mind has to be Beyond: Two Souls. Developer Quantic Dream turned a lot of heads with Heavy Rain, and now they seemed to have taken a giant step forward. Unfortunately we have more questions than answers about this one. Will it be as linear a story? Is this their approach to a more gameplay oriented experience, or are they still working under the 'interactive movie' umbrella? Whichever it is, the fact that Ellen Page is this involved in a video game is definitely a game changer.
The Sony press conference also had a strong showing from Assassin's Creed 3. The most anticipated entry thus far in the franchise added maritime battles to their ever growing repertoire of gameplay modes. Lets just hope it doesn't get old too fast. My critique for every AC game is always the same: interesting ideas that get way too old and overused by the end of the game. That said, this looks amazing and I can't wait to play it.
They also announced the Instant Game Collection for all PSPlus subscribers (which made me very, very happy). They gave away a good handful of full retail games for free to anyone who was a part of their premium gaming service, probably converting a shitload of people to the service and finally really making it worth it. And they've kept it up in the latest weeks with other games. While some are still unclear, Sony promised 12 full games before the end of the year.
Much like Nintendo ignoring the 3DS, the PSVita seems to have fallen by the wayside. While the announcement of Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation is a step in the right direction, it's barely what the Vita needs. It needs games, lots of them. Good games. It's an impressive piece of hardware, but no one wants a web browser that expensive.
While the Sony show wasn't without it's misses (JK Rowling's Spell Book, anyone?), it was definitely the least groan inducing. And I'm going to catch a lot of flack for saying it, but they did the best job out of the three big companies this year at E3.
I'm not saying that they won. I think all three failed miserably at what they needed to improve.So, who won E3 this year then?
That's easy, Ubisoft.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but Ubisoft did a spectacular job this year. Every game they showed off was a huge success.
While The Last Of Us is by far my Game Of Show, all my other top spots are mostly taken up by Ubisoft titles.
They had the only two Wii-U games that actually looked decent; Rayman Legends actually looks like a lot of fun and Zombi U (Is that really the title? *facepalm*) looks to be the best example so far on how to use that gamepad adequately. Add that to WatchDogs and Parkour-A-Hontas and you have the winning-est lineup we've seen at an E3 in a long time.
What was I disappointed by? I was sad we didn't get to see any more of Bioshock Infinite. Last year's game of show was inconspicuous in it's absence as was Grand Theft Auto V. Also, the Resident Evil 6 trailer was slightly underwhelming, considering that I've heard the game is good from people who have played it behind closed doors.
The most pleasant surprise has to be Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (now that's a title). I had little to no expectations, but what's in that gameplay footage is so over the top and ridiculous that I need to play it to believe it.
And of course, my beloved Borderlands 2 just keeps getting better and better every time I see something new. I really can't wait to get my hands on that game. I'll probably play it straight into 2014.
In summary, Nintendo has a lot to make up for. At this point I can't think of one person who is interested in purchasing a Wii-U, and I can't blame them. Microsoft is setting us up for big things next year, and I predict they kick all sorts of ass next year at E3. Meanwhile Sony continues to prove that they've had a bigger picture in mind all along, with a couple of missteps along the way nonetheless.
I was let down by the major companies this year, but E3 has reaffirmed my faith in games, because that's what it was all about this year. We should focus on the games, not the companies, no matter how aligned we feel. Picking a console has become almost as bad as picking a political party, and that needs to change (went kinda deep on that one, sorry)... But as far as I can see, it should still be a great year for games, and for gamers.
