The first full week of June every year is always highly anticipated as it indicates that it is time for E3. For those that don’t know E3 is the Electronic Entertainment Expo and is held every year in California. It is essentially the biggest event for video games held every year. The show starts with a press conference from the larger companies, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, EA and Ubisoft. Then the actual floor opens for the press to try out the games that will be released in the future. The event isn’t open to the public, but they do air the press conferences on television and internet along with reports from the show floor.
Every year I look forward to this week so that I know what I can expect to play over the next year. Unfortunately with the conference getting larger many of the companies are releasing information ahead of time, which ruins some of the surprises that happened at past E3’s. Here is what went down this year.
It started with Microsoft. Their big game was Halo 4, which does look pretty cool and it will be nice to not fight the covenant or the reach for once. They were also able to show off Splinter Cell and Call of Duty, but to be honest I’m over the first person shooter genre. It just doesn’t offer enough interesting game play for me to keep coming back. A good chunk of their show was dedicated to the introduction of SmartGlass. This new piece of software will allow your smart phone and tablet devices to add additional functionality to the video games you are playing on the Xbox. While this seems interesting and is an obvious shot at Nintendo, it will be interesting to see if they can get it to work right with all of the different tablets and smart phones available. They also had Usher.
Then came EA who I barely watched. I thought they showed some generic stuff and nothing that really interested me except for SimCity 5. I loved the old SimCity games and this one looks to recapture some of the magic of old. If my computer can run it I might want to check it out. Then came Ubisoft which showed some great WiiU demos in Rayman and ZombiU, but I was much more interested in Assassin’s Creed III, which will switch things up and focus on the American Revolution. I also am very interested in their new IP, Watchdogs. It was a breath of fresh air to see something new up there.
The first day ended with Sony. I don’t own a Playstation but this conference brought me closer to wanting to buy one. They were able to show off three big exclusives, all of which looked like great and fun games with Beyond: Two Souls, Playstation All Stars: Battle Royale and The Last of Us. They all looked great but I have no idea how I am going to convince my wife that we need a Playstation. Suggestions are welcome.
The second day started with Nintendo, who had a lot of pressure on them as they are trying to launch a new system, the WiiU, this year. They needed to come out with something big and I just don’t think they were able to do it. Pikmin 3 looks great, but it’s not enough. I’ve played Batman, I don’t need to play it again even if the controls are different and NintendoLand is at best a tech demo and looks to be nothing more than a collection of mini games. They needed something big and they didn’t bring it. In fact the only really new game they showed was NintendoLand. That just isn’t enough. In fact the most interesting game, Project P-100, wasn’t even part of the conference. Swing and a miss.
I typically use E3 to make my Christmas list and right now Assassin’s Creed III is looking pretty lonely. Maybe Tomb Raider will get added, but I’m not really excited this year. I want to play guys, bring it.
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