The beauty of having four monitors at work, is I can put streaming E3 coverage on one of them. I will admin that I got more distracted than I thought I would, but I still did use my other monitors to do work. I tuned in for all the major briefings; this included Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft, Sony, & Nintendo.
Microsoft
Kinect Kinect Kinect!!! I love the idea of Kinect, but I'm not sure if I'll ever buy one. Microsoft showed off Modern Warfare 3 right away, which was a cool showcase, but I'm personally tired of Call of Duty games. Then it was tons and tons of Kinect stuff. Which showcased some really cool stuff, especially with voice control. On that note, why do I need to buy $150 Kinect when all I want to use is the voice control?
Although the Kinect demonstations were cool, there was too much of it. Microsoft has a very large core gamer customer base, and I thought that they hardly showcased anything for them. Ending the briefing with the unvieling of Halo 4 was pretty awesome. I was skeptical at first because it's not being made by Bungie. It is being made by a studio called 343 Industries, which apparently has a lot of ex Bungie employees, so I guess Halo might turn out well.
My overall grade for Microsoft's E3 briefing: C, too much Kinect, not many 'new' things.
Sony
3D 3D 3D!!! I dislike 3D. Avatar was cool, and maybe a couple of pixar films, but that's about as much as I like. If they can bring glasses-free 3D to the home, I'll consider it. And I'm not talking about that 3DS crap, cool but it has a long way to go.
Sony showed off Uncharted 3, which looked great, but I haven't even played the second, so I find no excitement. Then some other crap I can't remember. Thinking now, I cannot think of any other games they showed that were exclusives. If I can't remember it I probably wasn't that impressed.
Sony's new baby was unveiled at the briefing, the PSVita, which is a horrible name. Is 'PSP 2' that unbrandable? 'Wii 2'? The PSVita is a very impressive piece of hardware. It has next-generation graphics on a handheld, among many other impressive features. This is all fine and dandy, but I still don't understand the market for handhelds. Does anyone over the age of 18 play them? Maybe some college students? The only people that travel so much are little kids, because their parents are dragging them everywhere. Does the general public travel so much that there is this large demand for handhelds? Do people NOT have fucking smartphones that they can have get them through their game-needing times of the day? That's all I'm going to say about that.
My overall grade for Sony's E3 briefing: B-, too much 3D.
Nintendo
Nintendo tried really really hard to promote their failing 3DS. I shouldn't say failing, but the sales are not good. Same as I said above, it's a handheld...for kids. IF I were to choose between the PSVita or the 3DS with price not a factor, I would choose the 3DS. That choice is purely because of one thing: the Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake. I can always play that shit on my computer though.
A new console? Can it be? Oh...it's just...the console that Nintendo should've released the same time as the PS3 & 360. Oh...it's called the Wii U? Really? Ok. I like the concept, a touch-screen controller and a more powerful console. It works with the Wiimote still, quite a lot actually. So if they would've released this 4 years ago, it would still be able to have the motion-gaming-affect on people. When I say motion-gaming-affect I really mean everyone-come-buy-this-awesome-motion-shit-now-and-then-stop-using-it-after-a-year. I will buy a Wii U, probably not on day one, but I'll get one. I like it, it's impressive, but Nintendo is still marketing the Wii like it's going to be relevant until the Wii U comes out in 2012. The Wii isn't relevant now, so good luck with that Nintendo. I'm sure it'll sell like hot cakes, but I think a lot of the motion-gaming-affect has worn off for most people.
My overall grade for Nintendo's E3 briefing: B+, Wii U looks good, but it'll need better games.
EA & Ubisoft
EA is a huge publisher. Huge. Meaning they should have a lot of resources to make great games. Every year for E3 I see if that statement is true. This year, it definitely is. Battlefield 3 looks like an amazing Call of Duty killer. I am confident when I say that it will be better than Modern Warfare 3, however it will not outsell it. Madden is the same damn thing every year, but this year they say it'll be better. We'll see. My favorite part of the EA briefing was for sure when they started by saying that they don't need flashy celebs to showcase their briefing, and then 15 minutes later the have 3 all-star NFL players come out, in person, to promote Madden. Um...what?
Ubisoft makes great games. Most Tom clancy games are Ubisoft, for example. They started their briefing with a demo for the return of Rayman. Which sound nice, then they demoed it and it was a fucking 2D side-scroller. The most impressive thing they showed was Assasins Creed: Revelations, which I couldn't be more excited for. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier looked very impressive as well. I was hoping for a Splinter Cell announcement, but sadly that didn't happen.
My overall grade for EA's E3 briefing: B+, some great games. It'd be an A if they didn't flat-out lie at the beginning.
My overall grade for Ubisofts E3 briefing: B+, a 2D Rayman shouldn't have even been demoed.
Final Thoughts
This year felt like all of the major players put all of their eggs into one basket (excluding handhelds). Xbox 360 was too Kinect-y; PS3 was too 3D; Wii U was too "it's so innovative!" when really it's just late. I was hardly surprised at E3 this year. Halo 4 was the biggest surprise. I'm actually surprised it didn't leak a long time ago. After seeing what each major player had to offer, I'm curious to see what E3 2013 will be like after the Wii U comes out. I can already say that Nintendo will be the star of E3 2012, showcasing all the things/games they'll have planned for the Wii U. My favorite of the major players is Microsoft, that said, it was hard giving them a C.