There was nothing that knocked my socks off atE3

Tag : casual socks


E3 2008 is history. (Some would say that about the future of E3,too, but that's another story.) We've witnessed the Big Three infull form at their annual press conferences. We've witnessed variedshowings by third parties -- at least, from those who showed up. Wenow put our Dojo staff to the task of evaluating this year's show:the winners, the losers, the hopes that were realized, and thehopes that were cruelly dashed.

Rich Booth

It's been said a million times that E3 is a dying conference. Ithink that these last two years have proven the critics wrong.There were surprise announcements (GTA for DS, anyone?), and not sosurprise announcements (Hey everybody! "Home" will be coming outand it will be awesome!). Overall I'm satisfied with the results,although there were some announcements I was really excited forthat didn't come to fruition.

I was really excited for the Bungie announcement that never came.It seems that Bungie was excited about it too if the statement onits site is any indication. I was also excited about what Nintendowould say about its solution to its Wii storage issue, however thatwasn't mentioned either. What was mentioned by all three companieswas a whole lot of great games. Final Fantasy XIII for 360 was a huge surprise as was GTA: Chinatown Wars for DS. While some games weren't playable, the trailers for Resistance 2 as well as Fallout 3 were fantastic teasers for two games that are sure to be topnotch.

With a slew of great new titles to look forward to for allplatforms, E3 definitely showed that It's got some life left in it.Now lets hope that these great titles release on time so that wecan be enjoying them this year, instead of talking about them againat E3 next year.

Joshua Johnston

You have to hand it to Microsoft and Sony -- they showed up liketwo prizefighters at a heavyweight bout. Microsoft unloaded with aspate of first and third party M-rated Xbox 360 exclusives,followed it up with a Netflix-backed movie service, unveiled aVista-style menu interface, dove into the casual sphere, and evenfound ways to top it off with the coup of the E3, the coveted Final Fantasy XIII . Sony countered with several solid PS3 titles, a digital movie andTV service to complement Blu-ray, several solid PSP offerings, anda finale featuring MAG , a 256-player warfest that could reshape online combat gameplay. Istill think Microsoft has Sony on the ropes, but it was a spectacleto watch nonetheless.

And then there was Nintendo. Prior to E3, Nintendo had promisedthat the "expanded audience will be happy, and the core will behappy." Well, the expanded audience most likely wasn't watchingG4TV, and the core audience that was found Nintendo spending thevast majority of its time on Wii Sports Resort and Wii Music . A few third party core titles got passing treatment, but that wasit. (I like Animal Crossing: City Folk , but it is NOT a core title.) You could practically hear thegroans of millions of Nintendophiles as Reggie and Co. proceeded tooffer one of the most imbalanced, unfortunate E3 press conferencesin recent memory. It was so sad that potentially groundbreakingannouncements like Wii MotionPlus and WiiSpeak were lost in thegrumbling of dissatisfied customers.

Consider this a warning shot, Nintendo. Ignore the hardcore gamerat your own peril.

Aaron Roberts

I must have been following a different set of press conferencesthan everyone else. There were practically no big announcements atthis year's E3 that everyone hadn't already heard about before.Sure, technically , Nintendo announced the Wii Motion Plus during Microsoft's pressconference, and that was theoretically during E3, but by the timeNintendo's own press conference came around, we all already knewabout it. Microsoft's stuff had all been leaked months ago, andwhile Sony's biggest announcements ( God of War III, MAG ) hadn't been spoiled for us, one was completely expected and bothwere "gameplay target" videos.

Sure, Grand Theft Auto seems like a surprise, but games in that series tend to come outfor the best-selling systems, and the DS is the best selling systemthere is. Microsoft's "new" interface, which is a totally new andinnovative mix stolen from inspired by both Miis and Apple TV, is old news, although itprobably is going to be better than the old Xbox interface. Even Animal Crossing ranked pretty high on the odds list going into this year's E3.

Still, other than the major coup that Microsoft scored with Final Fantasy XIII -- and the fact that the Xbox guys totally took their own biggestreveal off the table for some strange reason -- Nintendo had someof the biggest surprises of the show. Namely, that Nintendobasically decided not to show much of anything. This isn't justabout the fact that nearly every game announced was intended forpeople who weren't actually watching the press conference, or aboutthe near-complete lack of focus on the DS. Nintendo, who, if youhadn't heard, is the best-selling publisher on most of its ownsystems, showed less than ten of its own games at this years"event." This can only lead one to believe that Mr. Iwata isplanning on resurrecting Space World for the real announcements.

Evan Campbell

I agree with Aaron, there was nothing that knocked my socks off atE3. Final Fantasy XIII coming to 360 is a blow to Sony, not really a major revelationconsidering Microsoft's dominance stateside. The Grand Theft Autofranchise had an iteration on GBA, so what's the hoopla over a DSversion? It's nice, but nothing mind-blowing, especially with nofootage, demo or even a single screenshot.

As for Nintendo, I am completely flabbergasted by their E3 message:

Nintendo: "We want to put smiles on everyone's faces."

I wasn't smiling. I was too annoyed that I did't get a singleglimpse of Fatal Frame IV , Disaster: Day of Crisis , the much rumored Kid Icarus , or even Pikmin . Were any hardcore gamers smiling?

Nintendo: "We have a great balance of titles between hardcore andcasual."

This statement is pretty true. The kicker, however, is that thismessage is completely lost within the conference. If there is sucha perfect balance, why did I get hit over the head with casual farelike Raving Rabbids , Wii Sports Resort (which does look sweet, I must admit), and the "show stealing" Wii Music . We, the core gamer, do not even get a teaser of somethinghardcore. Guess balance doesn't matter here.

Nintendo, next time let us know your plans. Don't have Reggie statethat there will be a hardcore game coming out this Holiday and willbe announced at E3. Don't have Reggie stating that the entireline-up will be unveiled at E3. This is a lie. Nintendo built upthe hype for the hardcore and did not deliver. Now, I have tobelieve there will be another event for people like you and me. Assuch, Aaron, I hope you're right about Space World.

Well, at least Miyamoto felt bad enough to throw us a bone . Even when Nintendo lets you down, Miyamoto puts a smile on yourface.

Shawn Warren

I don't really like to trumpet my own horn, but man oh man was Iright on the money about this year's E3. The casual gamer was kingas Microsoft unveiled their surprising to no one "Mii too!" systemand focused a large portion of their presentation on casual partygames like Lips and You're In The Movies . I will admit the ability to use the 360 as a streaming Netflixbox is an interesting concept, but I'm more interested in gamesthan multimedia features.

The sole surprise of E3 was the announcement that Microsoft hadsomehow pried Sony's last big exclusive title out of their tightlyclenched hands. I don't really care about Final Fantasy XIII , but I am interested in the implications this has for Sony. Youknow they're in a bit of trouble when a company they own somethingto the tune of 8 percent of like Square-Enix decides to releasetheir most high-profile game on a competing system. The future islooking dim for Sony and I don't think Home and Little Big Planet are going to cut it.

Nintendo also played to expectations and announced absolutelynothing in the way of a core gaming title. There's no doubt that Wii Sports Resort and Wii Music will sell obscene amounts and further cement Nintendo's lead overthe market, but it's hard not to feel a little left out as a longtime supporter. Animal Crossing: City Folk will be a lot of fun, I suppose, but it's nothing we haven't seenbefore. Things aren't totally hopeless, though. WiiSpeak and WiiMotionPlus have a lot of potential for future core titles to use,and Miyamoto dropped a lot of hints about core titles like Zelda,Mario, and Pikmin. It almost seemed like he really wanted toannounce those titles but his hands were tied by demands frominvestors to show the next Wii Fit .

That really sums up the current state of E3: it's a show forinvestors. They don't want to see cool games, they want to seewhat's going to line their pocketbooks in the coming year. Theywant sales figures and promises of gigantic profits. From a gamer'sperspective, E3 is dead. It's time to start looking elsewhere toget excited about what we'll be playing in the future.

Abhinay Sawant

In my opinion, Microsoft was the clear winner of E3. While theirpress conference wasn't perfectly executed (and at times, downrightembarrassing) the way they laid out their presentation allowedMicrosoft to show its vision for the Xbox 360. In the beginning,they went right towards the hardcore crowd by letting developersshowcase demos of the most highly anticipated titles. Followingthis segment, Microsoft spent a considerable amount of timediscussing titles directed towards the casual consumer like You're in the Movies and announcing non-gaming additions such as the Netflix agreementand avatars. Finally, they finished off the conference with themegaton announcement that Final Fantasy XIII would be heading to their system, removing one of Sony's mostvaluable Northern American exclusivities. To me, the perfect pressconference for the hardcore gamer consists of a good mixture ofvideo game demonstrations/trailers, discussion of corporatestrategy, a couple of surprises here and there and then of course,the megaton. Microsoft for the most part, did exactly that. Theywere able to show enough gaming for the hardcore gamers while alsoshowing their vision to move into the casual markets that Nintendohad capitalized on. Overall, they were able to show that the Xbox360 caters to a variety of tastes and they would support it withthe same service we know them for in terms of online service andpartnerships. While previous acclaimed titles such as BioShock and Mass Effect never interested me, titles such as Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts , Final Fantasy XIII and Fable 2 have piqued my interest suggesting that the Xbox community is opento even me.

Nintendo, on the other hand, was clearly not the company I saw twoyears ago. Back then, Nintendo was showing off demonstrations of Red Steel and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess . This year we could barely get a montage of three trailers ofgames with little interest and a decent discussion of Animal Crossing: City Folk , which while is important is still only secondary to the titlesthat fans really appreciate. Since its launch, Nintendo has clearlyseen the effects of bringing in the expanded market through the Wiiand dedicated their conference essentially to cater to this market.In response, many hardcore gamers feel that Nintendo is no longer acompany that works for them. Some have noted that Nintendo needs tocater to this market to generate the business to create thehardcore titles that gamers want. However, what is becomingdisturbing to gamers is if Nintendo themselves are truly changingtheir mentality. Immediately following the press conference in aninterview with G4 TV, Nintendo of America President ReggieFils-Aime was asked a question as to whether hardcore gamers werefeeling left out to which a stunned Reggie exclaimed "How could youfeel left out?" Furthermore, there have been rumors in whichdeveloper Shigeru Miyamoto suggested that that next Zelda would be developed more favorably for casual audiences. As a DSowner, I was relatively satisfied with the conference. A couple ofextra games announced would've been nice but Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and research into alternative uses for the DS were appealing tome. So at the moment, I would just look towards the Wii with asense of caution. For the hardcore gamer, our hope is that Nintendowill continue to satisfy both markets like they did with the DS butnot casualize all of their premiere titles.

And finally, Sony's press conference was largely unimpressive to mewith only a few saving graces. As the butt of jokes of Microsoftand Nintendo fanboys, Sony is seen as the console maker on lifesupport. In this conference, they really had to show that theycould be truly competitive and surge forward. They showed to methat despite the loss of Final Fantasy XIII exclusivity they could still compete with Microsoft in the form of God of War 3 , Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty , LittleBigPlanet and MAG . In the other words, Microsoft's title offerings are notexcessively better than Sony's but at the same time they're notexcessively worse either and Microsoft has sold many more units dueto its lower price. Therefore, Sony really had to show that withits superior technology it could really pump out titles that couldnot be produced on any other console. MAG's supposed 256-multiplayer gameplay could be a large step towardsthis goal but no actual gameplay has been shown on this title. Sonyhas hopes that its developers are just now beginning to harness theimmense power of the PlayStation 3, but at the moment, becausethere's very little concrete evidence on how it could leverage itscompetitive advantage, the near future for Sony is not very bright.