Another E3 is in the bag and it’s time to judge how the “big three” did at this year’s show. Usually I just rate the companies’ respective press conferences immediately after the last one, but since I was working for the excellent people at Shacknews, I didn’t get a chance to. Using the pressers and what was shown on the show floor, I’m going assign letter grades to Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony. I’d love for you to do the same thing in the comments section!
Microsoft: Kicking off the major pressers was Microsoft. The format was very strange. It kicked things off with a third-party game and close the show with a hardware refresh. Sure, it’s a pretty big deal that the Xbox 360 will have first dibs for all Call of Duty map packs and add-ons, but I was surprised that Halo and Gears didn’t get the money spots — they certainly looked fantastic and deserved the rub. Closing out the show with a new product is fine, but updated hardware doesn’t quite fit the bill. It’s cool that Microsoft went all Oprah and gave everyone free consoles, but I thought the company would have been better off plugging a first-party game in that slot. (On a side note, I found it hilarious that Epic’s Mark “Chocolate” Rein was standing up and clapping when he found out about his free console. The dude loses more money having a brain fart than I make in a year. Ha!)
On the non-gaming front, the ESPN announcement is potentially huge. Unfortunately, it’s not for everyone. Your ISP has to be on the ESPN 3 partner list, from what I understand. In something that I’ll have file as “sucks for me!”, my ISP, Time Warner, is not on the list.
Obviously Microsoft had to talk up Kinect at its press conference. Unfortunately, it didn’t play well at the presser. The good news is that the product was much more interesting on the show floor, particular with games like Child of Eden (expectedly awesome) and Dance Central (surprisingly fun).
Grade B-: If I was just going off the presser, it would have been a C+, but Microsoft had a lot of great stuff at its booth. While most of the Kinect stuff I saw wasn’t fun, the cool gamers for Kinect were better than the cool games for Move.
Nintendo: I thought Nintendo absolutely killed it at E3 2010. It had the best games and the most interesting new hardware. I was actually scared that Nintendo’s presser would have put me to sleep with a 20-minute presentation on the Wii Heart Rate Monitor Vitality Sensor. Instead I was bombarded with classic franchise after classic franchise returning to the Wii — Zelda, Donkey Kong Country, Metroid, and Kid Icarus dazzled millions of longtime Nintendo fans.
As a show, Nintendo had the best conference. Shigeru Miyamoto, Satoru Iwata, and Reggie Fils-Aime are the best “personality” executives from any of the big three. The presser also had the best pacing and flow.
I’m not sure how it played for everyone at home, but Nintendo was the talk of the show at E3 2010. It had the tech everyone wanted to see with the 3DS (at times the line took more than two hours) and it had the journalists’ darling game in Kirby Epic Yarn. Disney’s Epic Mickey also played well — yes, a third-party game for a Nintendo system was one of E3’s highlights.
Grade A: Nintendo owned the show. I want to hear some of you that are in the “Nintendo forgot about me” camp complain about the company’s E3 2010.
Sony: Sony’s performance was mixed. In terms of content, I thought it had a better presser than Microsoft, but it was about 30 minutes too long and cut into everyone’s E3 show floor time (which nobody was happy about). Sony did get the loudest pop of any of the E3 pressers with Kevin Butler’s performance. The company also had the biggest shock with Valve’s Gabe Newell on stage hocking Portal 2 for PS3 with Steamworks.
Sony had two pieces of new tech to push — 3D gaming and PlayStation Move. 3D gaming is interesting, but it’s probably not something that will take off this generation. It’s just too expensive for most people. Killzone 3 is okay in 3D, but I thought MLB: The Show was better. As for Move, the tech is cool, but Sony is having a hard time showing that it’s more than just Wii in HD.
In terms of games, there’s a lot for PS3 and PSP owners to get excited about. The two biggest were Gran Turismo 5 and Twisted Metal. I’m not really into the former, but the latter was way fun. The third-party games like Assassin’s Creed 3 (with the beta being PS3 exclusive), Medal of Honor (also with exclusive content), Dead Space 2, The 3rd Birthday, and Kingdom Hearts looked great.
Grade B-: Sony gets points for a wide variety of great games, solid tech, and Kevin Butler. It loses points for taking way too long, keeping everyone from the show, and failing to make the tech seem like fun. Steamworks on PS3 is huge and I’m not sure why people aren’t making a bigger deal out of this.
[poll id=”54″]
Now it’s your turn! Take the poll and let me know which company had the best show in your opinion.
I have to agree that Nintendo brought it the best this year. The sheer fact that they have a 3D system (that will be cheaper) than the other company who was hocking 3D was just amazing.
Sony had too much hubris in their presentation. I really felt the thing wasn't for me when Kaz Hirai kept saying that I need 3D and PS Move in order to get the full experience on my already $500 console. Perhaps if they were giving away 2k rebates on 3D tvs I'd have felt like he was pitching at me.
MS = dud. Gears 3 and Reach will sell w/o any publicity. Kinect looked like the Wii demo a few years back. Nothing new here. Typical MS reacting to the market.
@smartguy "It's not for you" was the term writers jokingly referred to as the unofficial theme of E3 2010.
@Ray
do you think that is a bad thing if the journalism sector that covers you thinks the show wasn't for the primary market?
i think smartguy just got banned over at microsoft.com
LOL. that is gold.
I get the feeling that big N has been reading all these sites and have been stewing on it. They read all the hardcore, lifelong gamers comments about how they felt Nintendo abandoned them and said "… oh yeah, well what about this?".
Lets face it, only people in their 30's (or close to it, or beyond) remember Kid Icarus for what Kid Icarus really was. If that isn't for us, I don't know what is.
I've always been in Nintendo's camp and saw what they've been doing to attract new gamers, and I was and am for it. I'm still of the opinion that motion controls have yet to reach their true potential, but now that all 3 are in that market, I feel it's gonna heat up.
I never beat Kid Icarus. That damn game was hard.
I never beat it either, it was crazy hard.
@smartguy That was the sentiment after the press conferences, but before everyone spent time on the show floor. It changed after everyone saw the games. There were a ton of great games at the show. Unlike last year's show, it was extremely difficult for any one person to see all the "cool" games. Oddly enough, I'm putting together lists of what I thought was cool and cool things I wish I got to play.
I just loaded up Kid Icarus to try it with my adult skills. After 5 to 10 minutes…
I'm finished.
I can't do it.
@Ray
I just don't get why Sony is making a big deal out of 3D when it is so expensive! I know they make the tvs and all, but come on! They couldn't sell the console when it was $600.
@N8R
Damn. I need to give it a shot.
Worst NES game in memory. I want to know what all of you think.
For me… it's Ice Climbers. But not only is it a bad game, I have sour memory of it for other reasons.
This kid who was a few years older than me and lived around the corner was all "Man, I got this awesome game called Ice Climbers, it has to be the best NES game ever." "Really?" I asked. "Yeah man, I can play that game all day." he replied. "Would you let me borrow it?" I asked him. "I don't know, it's a great game and I don't know what I would play if I let you borrow it." he said. "Okay, nevermind." I said. "I'll tell you what, I'll let you borrow my favorite game Ice Climbers, if you let me borrow Mike Tyson's Punch Out." he suggested. "I don't know, I play Mike Tyson's Punch Out alot". I said. "Trust me, you'll like Ice Climbers better." he insisted. "Okay" I agreed, and then we swapped games…
The next day he moved out of the state.
This was my first experience in learning the art of the hustle.
Without a doubt, Rambo. I loved the movies, still do. The game on the other hand was a complete waste of my damn time. I actually hustled a kid for his Double Dragon watch game in exchange for my "super awesome rambo game that looks real"
lol@that story n8r
i never beat kid icarus either, there are certain games that im convinced are impossible
the tmnt game, i could get all the way to the technodrome, like 5 seconds away from shredder, but i could never actually get to him…
top gun…yeah that wasnt happening for me either
rush n attack…
those games were all ridiculously difficult for me, but i have gone back and beat all of them…via nintendo emulator…( i just save every 5 seconds)..
while on the topic, the best emulation site on the internet… .http://www.emuasylum.com/
^^ haha
I actually just saw the last Rambo movie recently… it was EPIC! Great movie with possibly the highest body count I've ever seen in a movie.
I thought the original Ninja Gaiden was impossible.
i have no idea why that typed like that
anyways, i totally forgot one
FRIDAY THE 13TH…could that game be beaten?????
smartguy
i actually did beat the first 2 ninja gaidens…god damn those were great games
I beat Friday the 13th… with a Game Genie.
Game Genie FTW!
@Thundercracker
Your childhood skills were definitely greater than mine. But….NOW I AM THE MASTER! lol. Sorry.
seriously, that's fuggin awesome. that game whipped my ass every time.
Operation Wolf is the damn NES title my parents would rent for me. I guess they never understood why it was always available??
lol i used to play operation wolf with my "NES ADVANTAGE"
you remember? the arcade stick for the NES? anyways, it had a slow mo button on it…made operation wolf very easy
and as far as my skills now, i was better at video games when i was a child then i am now
One more game that i could never touch was the adventures of bayou billy, i loved that game though
I had to wait til the advent of emulators before I could beat Fester's Quest. I did beat Master Blaster on the NES though. VICTORY!
i remember renting master blaster, but i dont recall if i beat it or not
spoiler…the frog jumps out of the hole
you stayin up all night smartguy?
i suggest you take some kind of nap or youll be totally dragging ass tomorrow
I only watched Microsoft's, but from what I have read about all three Nintendo definitely had the most to bring to the table. Sony and Microsoft didn't really bring any games out that really got me interested in them. Gears 3, Reach, and CoD: Black Ops are what MS is pushing the most and I really only have mild interest in any of them. Probably will play all three someday but they are not really that pressing on my play list. Sony still doesn't have much that interests me, and Move and their 3D tech seem like a waste to me. Not that Kinect is that great either. It sounded cool when it was first announced, but has gone down hill ever since.
Nintendo makes me a lot more excited to get one of their systems right now (after the 360 S that is) and they are making me feel like there are more new games that I would want to play. My roommate and I have been feeling that lately now that he has this membership pass to Blockbuster that lets him get any game or movie, and then they got rid of all their older games so they only have the most recent ones…and the selection is pretty slim.
I am looking for older games on the 360 to play instead of trying to focus on newer games right now, but Nintendo has more new games that I wouldn't mind playing now.
@thundercracker
I'm about to wrap it up for the evening. checking the net to see what happened today and then gonna stretch out.
careful bsu…you will get banned from microsoft.com and playstation.com
you and me both, have a good time tomorrow
will do. same to you
@Smartguy
At least Nintendo will welcome me with open arms…if my gamertag gets banned in the next couple days at least I will know why! haha.
@smartguy It's all about selling those TVs. Most analyst think that 3D gaming will be big next generation, so getting a head start has some advantages too.
@Ray
I've always given Sony crap for pushing their other products on gamers and just when I was starting to think they had changed….. They started right up again….
/time to treat them like Peter Molyneux
@E3
Nintendo wins hands down. Microsoft flubbed their Kinect launch by not having any good games to show for it during their presser. Sony did a better performance, but still ranted on about things that aren't actually games. Nintendo on the other hand, pulled a family of rabbits out of their hat. Some of them they admitted they were working on at previous E3s and they even managed to introduce an Activision game in a way that almost made people think they were getting what they wanted. (I remember the last time Activision tried rebooting this series and it didn't turn out to well.)
@Ray
Did you get to play Child of Eden with Kinect? I'm very curious how that will turn out.
@Sandrock323 Child of Eden and Dance Central were really fun on Kinect, easily the two best Kinect games I played at the show.
Is it just me, or is everyone else picturing Ray in their mind's eye on the showroom floor at E3 standing in front of a tv at the MS booth playing Dance Central and having hours of fun doing the bird dance?
Na, na, na-na, na-na, na
Na, na, na-na, na-na, na
Na, na, na-na, na-na, na
Quack, quack, quack, quack
as long as it doesn't resemble Cartman singing and dancing to Britney Spears lol.
@N8R I was actually at MTV Games' booth and it was all about "Poison". Bell, Biv, DeVoe…now you know.
Ah… so Ray was doing the running man at MTV games booth… my mistake.
I've gotta say, the Nintendo Press Conference was the best of the bunch by far. This was the first time in 3 or 4 years they actually catered to the hardcore Nintendo gamer, even if it was w/ a ton of nostalgia titles.
Sony was second and MS was 3rd. I feel like Sony spent too much time trying to get waaaay too much money out of me for a 3D TV that I don't want, but thier move games seemed to be more geared to a wider variety of gamers than Microsoft's very casual market Kinect games. That being said, showing a bit more of that Kinect Star Wars game may have flopped those two.
@ray
did you get to play that wizard game on move? i forget what its called
@thundercracker I think you're talking about Sorcery, yeah? I didn't get to try it and wasn't very interested in it.
yes sir
Ha ha, well did you try move at all? Does it feel a lot more precise than the wii?
@thundercracker I did try out move. In the tech demos, you can definitely feel the precision. In the actual games I played — which wasn't many — the difference was negligible. I expect the difference to be more pronounced as the software matures.
thank you ray, hope you had fun sir
@thundercracker Absolutely had a blast. Now it's time to recover and finish previews. My legs are still sore and my feet are still tired, but that'll pass in a few days. Getting to see all these cool games, old friends, and great developers was totally worth it.
speaking of cool games, mlb.tv is free on psn this weekend!! im watching like 6 games right now….i love this sh*t, i may move to england!!
RIP Manute Bol.
Custom coffin on stand by.
@ Smartguy;
Cartman singing and dancing as Brittney Spears with the Justin Timberlake cardboard cutout was hilarious. Him doing Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" on Rock Band was just awesome:
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/254168/
@ N8;
Manute Bol died? What happened? He couldn't have died of old age. I thought he was in his 40's or 50's. I would think that it would make more sense to have him cremated instead of buried, unless his religion believe that if you burn the body after death, you will be lost and damned.
-M