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E3 2011 is over! It was a glorious show (as always) and my head is still overflowing with awesome games I saw last week. Tomorrow we’ll talk about the top games of the show. Today I wanted to talk about general trends, random observations, and closing thoughts on E3 2011. Naturally, I want to hear about your thoughts on this year’s show as well. Let’s get to it!
– A lot of games at E3 2011 featured quick time events. I was surprised by how many games — spanning all sorts of genres — implemented QTEs. I’ve never heard gamers crying out for more QTEs. I suppose this helps games reach more people since QTEs add a cinematic feel and simple controls.
– Microsoft and Nintendo are trading places. Microsoft emphasized the casual market with Kinect. Disneyland Adventures and Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster are not for enthusiast gamers, but I expect both to do monster numbers. Nintendo is going in a different direction with the Wii U. The company’s success with the original Wii was all about simplicity and accessibility. The Wii U controller is far more complex and geared towards a different type of customer.
– Developers have longer memories than PR people. I was able to sneak into several demos and cut quite a few lines thanks to people I’ve met before. A middling amount of PR people assisted me with this. The majority of help came from developers. It’s curious that a higher percentage of developers were more interested in me seeing their new game than PR reps. I realize that I’m one guy from a very small site and that my name isn’t as valuable as it used to be, but I still found it all…amusing. I do appreciate everyone that helped me check out games I wasn’t scheduled to see at E3 2011.
– Surprises are a thing of the past. Thanks to the aggressive nature of blogging and a tightly controlled PR cycle, there weren’t any huge game surprises at E3 2011. There were certainly a lot of great and good games, but all of them have been reported on before. For me, the only major surprise was the price of the PlayStation Vita. I only found out about that the day before it was announced, thanks to a developer friend from Japan. I expect this trend to continue in future shows. I expect that there will only be a handful of big surprises at the next few E3 events.
– Indie developers are getting more stroke. It was cool seeing Queasy Games get so much attention with Sound Shapes for Vita. The same goes for Supergiant Games with Bastion for Xbox Live Arcade. It’s brilliant that new platforms and delivery methods are making it easier for independent game developers to get some attention.
What trends did you notice from the outside looking in? I’m sure you have a cool and unique perspective on what happened at E3 2011. Please share your thoughts!
I can't say any of the big three really impressed me much this year. Microsoft showed me the most stuff I actually want to play, Sony had some good stuff as well but really glossed over a lot of stuff far too quickly to get a good handle on any of it, and Nintendo made the biggest announcement with the Wii U.
But both Microsoft and Sony spent a lot of time on stuff I didn't personally care about, Nintendo games generally aren't for me, and the Wii U was nothing but a very long and ambiguous tech demo, with no games announced that won't be year old ports by the time it comes out.
That being said, nothing is worse than a Ubisoft press briefing.
The more I find out about Wii U the less I want it lol. Nintendo should have left me confused hahaha.
It was a very interesting tech demo, I'll give it that.
Oh the demo had my bottom lip under MYYYYY ADIDAS!
I'm beginning to think the serotonin for my gaming habits is wearing off. It seems like something to do to pass time anymore… which is time I could be playing guitar.
Nothing really excited me at all. I thought BF3 was the best looking game I saw… but my total interest level toward it was about at 5.
Maybe Slicky and I should just be real cops or give ourselves electrical induced super powers or even train real animals and take this thing to the next level.
Farmville can't be THAT hard in real life… right?
@N8
If you and Slicky do this, please stream it online. I'd love to see you guys as cops.
That image is so full of win. They'd be better than those two cops in Superbad.
-M
HAHA. That cracks me up. I'm game. But you'll need to try out the Electrical powers first. A guy my sized with my luck I'd end up shooting out pretty lights like Jubilee instead.
I just tried… and dropping a toaster in the bathtub with you while smeared in radioactive chemicals will NOT give you super powers.
I do however have a funny green rash now.
I wasn't impressed by much this year. I think the release of inFAMOUS 2 had my attention more than E3. But that didn't keep it very long. I got to the second island and now I am bored with it.
I was surprised that Sony didn't show off more Move titles. or if they did I missed them. I still want to play the one they showed of were you get to play as a wizard.
@Slicky
Yeah that game kinda dropped off the map huh? It looked interesting last year. I'm not a fan of games shown one year in advance at a large show and still not going gold or even shown the following year.
inFAMOUS was like that in the first one if you ask me. I got about 3 hours in and then never picked it up again. I partly blame that on Prototype since I thought the main character in Prototype was much more fun to use in a big free roaming city landscape. Maybe suckerpunch is just bad?
I liked Prototype for the first part of the game, but then it got old very rapidly. But in the beginning the massive killing was just fun. inFAMOUS to me was repetitive also but it had a very good story (at least the ending was great)
I HATED that game.
what i took away from E3?
i cannot wait for Skyrim and the sequel to dark souls
oblivion and demon's souls are my two favorite games of this console generation.
Sadly, i feel somewhat the same way n8 does, im kind of falling out of love with games. I got LA noir, and havent touched it yet.
sequel to *DEMON's souls, which is called dark souls…typo bloopers
Well damn… if 3 of us are growing tired of gaming… then instead of buddy cops, we should be Ghostbusters.
It's about time someone stepped up and put a stop to the wrath of Zul.
You are obliged to take BigBlak as your 4th.
I'm in there!
I was impressed at the Vita info that Sony released, and the footage from Battlefield, Assassin's Creed, and Uncharted were also welcome. I loved that Nintendo spoiled another Smash Bros game, but I also feel they only did that to get people's minds off their weak Wii U presentation. Besides the controller and some possible titles, not much was mentioned.
I found the whole Wii U underwhelming. The keynote was not put together very well and the whole premise of the console is to blend casual and enthusiast gamers together. I guess that is the point seeing as how they have a machine that can only use one Wii U controller per console so any other local multiplayer will be done with 5 year old Wii Motes. Once I found this out my hopes for their system being viable sunk. I believe this machine will flop.
I’m psyched about 3DS and VITA.
Wii U – the name is awful.
I'm pretty sure that's a code-name and not the actual name of the console when it comes out. Nintendo will probably unveil that the "Wii U" is really going to be named "Wii-Peat" or some crap like that.
-M
Their ex soap exec thought Wii U was so clever though.
I must be the only person who dislikes that Reggie guy. He's more of a poser than Mattrick. It's pretty bad when Jack Tretton seems to be more genuine than Reggie or Mattrick.
Then again, I like Tretton. He seems like a drinker.
I don't know what it is about Jack Tretton but I like him too. The last 2 E3s I have enjoyed hearing him speak even though I clearly know it is boring for the most part.
@Slicky
He seems to be the type where he'll talk about something new in the market (motion for example) but still wants to deliver traditional over the top experiences. The guys at MS and Nintendo do not have that same "it". Lack of a better term I apologize.
Maybe Tretton is just old school and knows what made PS great. He wants to make sure they never abandon that. Kind of like Steven Seagal or Stallone making a movie. They know what you want. Nudity, violence, cussing, drug use, more nudity. Of course they stray time to time..but they come back to the core.
Wii U just plain dumb. I like that the controller is being called the "Wii Pad" I used to have to buy Wee Pads to train my dog.
Comment is awaiting moderation? Time to feel the Iron Fist of Rpad lol.
Eh. Major hosting problems today. I should have switched hosts earlier in the year. I'm stuck with these hacks for another 7 months or so.