I was looking forward to E3 very much this year because I was more interested as to how the "revamped" E3 would play out....sadly it did not go as expected. The conferences from all three companies lacked the "POW" they always delivered during previous E3's, MS lacked shock and awe, Sony's "humor" was useless, and Nintendo once again failed to acknowledge their actual fanbase....casuals. One thing all the companies had in common was NOT delivering anything to what there true fanbase wanted. After all, we're the ones that determine whether a gaming company survives or not, for the big 3 to simply push us aside and cater to what they think the money will come from the most is simply not acceptable and I for one will not tolerate any longer.
Microsoft was first to open up the conferences and boy did they under deliver. I was disappointed at the fact that all games mentioned were only for this year and they didn't even give us announcements for upcoming games such as Ninja Gaiden 2 that are exclusive to the 360. Too Human was nowhere to be found in the conference as well, Fable 2 was missing as well. Yes they may have been around the E3 company booths and what not, but the fact that MS failed to mention them in their press briefing was pretty bad. Halo 3's trailer at the end was pretty much rushed as it showed off spastic gameplay from all sorts of different areas, it didn't mesh well and was poorly done. I'm looking forward to the game very much, but when your trailer fails to live up to the amazing trailer of your previous game....thats actually pretty bad as you would hope to get even more hype for the game.
Sony was the next conference I viewed and again I was not too pleased with it but I preferred it over the MS conference. Sony tried to put humor in their conference and pretty much made them look like fools, yes it was cool for them to admit their faults and ridiculous statements (i.e. RIIIIIIIIDGE RACER!) but the comedy was not needed. Sony showed off games we were expecting as well, just like MS, and didn't shock or surprise anyone. They showed of a new trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4, which was great as its running off the in game engine but it wasn't surprising to see it. The one trailer(or gameplay footage for that matter) that Sony needed to show off was Killzone 2 and thankfully they did to a press core ready to rip it in two had it not blown them away. The trailer was real time (for real this time) and even shifted into gameplay very nicely without having to wait. From an early perspective its obvious this game is going to be one of the best looking games ever, maybe not the quality everyone was expecting from the 05' trailer but very close.
I didn't bother watching Nintendo's conference as I had a good idea as to what they would so off or announce and to my "shock" (not really) they totally failed to acknowledge what the Nintendo fanboys have been waiting for.....onling gaming. Super Mario Galaxy looked amazing however and is the game to own for the console. Super Smash Bros' Brawl looks amazing as well and will sell Wii units even more I'm sure. I would like Nintendo to start a completely new IP (intellectual property) instead of rehasing the same damn characters over and over and over again, they're not needed (i.e. Walugi)
Aside from some pretty good demos and trailers, this years E3 was a huge let down. I'm hoping for something WAY more better next year and by that time we will already see what each console can bring to the table independently as oppose to sharing (multi platform games)
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