Before I start I have thank G4 for their coverage of this year’s E3. Being one of the many that couldn’t make it to the show, they stepped up and brought the show to me. If they hadn’t done such a good job I wouldn’t be writing this post, I would still be reading and re-reading all the press releases.

Onto the real business at hand, I’m going to do my break down what the three big console makers had to say and then explain the winner as I see it. This is purely based on the videos shown online and on T.V.; so please refrain from complaining that I’m bias. It’s not needed for this post.

 

Microsoft

To start things off this year Microsoft came out swinging by opening the show with a long trailer for the upcoming Beatles Rock Band. From there the show became this instant Xbox Live Market place / Rock Band love fest. While the popularity of both products is impressive, I was getting a little inparesnt.

The real show starts with Microsoft explaining they are not going to get into the numbers but they’re going right into the games. This was a bold move and it paid off rather well. For most the show it was a blitz of new content. Tony Hawk showed off his new game Ride, Infinity Ward gave a demo of Modern Warfare 2 and Square Enix gave a demo of the new Final Fantasy XIII. Now that all the multi-platform games were out of the way it was time to show off the exclusive titles.

 

 

To open things up Microsoft brought out Epic to show off their exclusive title Shadow Complex. From there on Microsoft showed games like CrackDown2, Left 4 Dead 2, Halo:ODST, Halo: Reach and Forza 3. All the games looked great, but I’m still looking for that massive announcement. This could have been when Kojima showed up to announce the new Metal Gear Solid: Rising.

 

 

This is the point where Microsoft stopped showing games and start showing the new add-ons to the Xbox 360. First I want to talk about Project Natal. This new project from Microsoft is a new camera/sensor that will work as a camera and as a motion sensor to allow the play to play games with a controller. Plus Project Natal will also allow voice recognition to give the user the ability to command the system with their voice. It’s an impressive and ambitious project. Hopefully we’ll see it sooner than later.

Next Microsoft began demonstrating the integration of social networking into the system. By announcing Twitter and Facebook to the 360 so players can connect quickly and easily with friends. While the idea of sending tweets via the Xbox sounds like a step back to me, integrating my Xbox live friends with Facebook sounds pretty cool.

From this point on the show was filled with add-ons and integrations to the Xbox 360. Soon you’ll be able to browse Netflix from the Xbox along with listen to internet radio via last.fm and Xbox 360 owners in the UK and Ireland will soon be able to watch T.V. through their Xbox 360.

 

Overall Microsoft had a great showing. The Natal Project is the talk of the internet and with exclusives like Left 4 Dead 2 and Forza 3. No one with a 360 should have anything to worry about for the next year.



Nintendo

Over the years Nintendo has been a monster with their incredible E3 showings. With the top selling home and portable console can they stay on top with this year’s offerings?

Right out of the gate Nintendo had a slow start by taking the opposite road of Microsoft. Instead of showing off games and throwing out tons of game content. We were struck with a long dissertation on gaming and Nintendo’s place in the industry. I just wanted to scream out “You sell a ton of products. WE GET IT!”, but then I remembered I’m at home and no one would hear me.

 

 

The first game shown was Super Mario Bros. Wii. Not a bad looking game and it will be out this year. Next, we get a look at Wii Fit Plus. It has some new features the first game needed. In the video it shows that you can now add your dog to Wii Fit by picking up your dog to weight them. Only problem is that if you need to get your dog to work out you’re probably going to have a hard time picking the big guy up!

 

 

Now with two new games announced and an explanation of market dominance, it’s time to talk about the Wii Motion Plus. By showing off the new Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports Resort, Nintendo is continuing to wow players looking for an alternative to basic gaming. To show off the game Nintendo gave a fairly impressive demo of the product. More Wii Motion Plus games like a new Tiger Woods games, EA’s Grand Slam Tennis and Sega Virtua Tennis were announced. However this peripheral isn’t just for sports games. Nintendo also talked about Red Steel 2 which is a Wii Motion Plus only game.

More games like Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicle: Crystals Bearers for the Wii was announced along with Kingdom Hearts for the DS. Even more RPG titles are announced for the DS in Mario and Luigi Bowser’s Inside Story. Yet the biggest RPG title announcement came with Golden Sun DS.

Nintendo might be done talking about RPG titles, but the DS announcements have just started. Games like Women’s Murder Club, Cop the Recruit and Style Savvy were all announced and shown with quick trailers. The DSI is now up and being showcased as an all in one unit.

 

 

The rest of the show was a constant explanation of the sales year to come and how Nintendo is still going to do well in the market. Then Super Mario Galaxy 2 was announced. From this point on, a slew of new games were shown off. Games like Conduit, Resident Evil Dark Side Chronicles and Metroid Other M were all shown to the world for the first time.

While the games shown off at the conference were just great, the presentation was a bore fest. I only hope that in the future Nintendo pumps up the show a little with a little more flair.



Sony

In the days leading up to Sony’s conference there were a few big press leaks. So to open the event Sony joked about the leaks saying they’re industry leaders and even with press leaks they won’t be out done. It was light hearted way to start the show.

Right from the start Sony boasted about having three major systems on the market and software that can only be done on the PS3. It’s a bold statement, but for the most part it’s the truth. This is the point where Sony listed their upcoming games like Modern Warfare 2, Final Fantasy XIII, Batman Arkum Asylum and Heavy Rain. I do have to mention the crowd’s response to Heavy Rain. Some games got applause here and there during all three events, but Heavy Rain was the most notable. No trailer was shown, just the logo and mention, which nearly got the crowd on their feet. It was pretty shock that fans are backing a game this much before release.

 

 

The PlayStation 2 was shown and it was mentioned that the life cycle of the unit may go past the current 10 years Sony first predicted. It was said that the system will stay around as long as people buy the unit.

After some talk about market expansion and the overall growth of the systems and games it was said that 35 exclusive titles would hit the PlayStation in 2009. That’s an impressive number. So to show off the exclusive titles for the PS3 Uncharted 2 is demoed.

One of the biggest themes running throughout the conference was that some games can only work on the PS3. To demonstrate this, Sony gave a mind blowing demo of MAG, a first person shooter that puts 256 players against each other in fierce battle. It was one the games that you could only believe in after seeing.

Next up was the announcement everyone was awaiting to hear, the PSP go. While the unit was rumored for the last few months with images of the unit were leaked earlier in the week, the unit was still a joy to see in action. During the PSP go announcement and the PSP go demo it was mentioned that Sony is reducing the cost of their development kits by 80%. It was a quick mention with little attraction from anyone, but this is huge news. This massive price reduction will make the PSP an economical platform for larger developers and an even more attractive option to those looking to get their foot into game development the door. Also for the PSP go, it’s a smaller unit that’s without the UMD, but has 16 GB of internal flash memory, a built in Bluetooth and slide out controls. The unit will be available on October 1, 2009 for $249.

 

 

Now that the PSP go is announced it’s time to see some games. First up is the long awaited Grand Turismo for the PSP. Personally I haven’t been a huge fan of racing games on smaller units; GT for the PSP looks great. It was running on the PSP go and it was built for the system and runs at 60 frames per second. Next up was an exciting announcement for the PSP, Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker. A new title written and produced by Kojima and it will be a true sequel in the MGS franchise. The game takes place after the events of MGS 3 and is set in the 1970s.

To wrap up the PSP a new Resident Evil game was announced, along with a new Little big planet and Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. It’s an impressive showing for a system I thought was getting stale.

This is the point where Sony began to show off the special features of the PS3. First, Home was shown off, but not much else. No new announcement for Home just a quick video. Then Sony ran a montage of games for the PS3, because you’ve got to have a montage!

With focus now on the PlayStation 3, Sony was ready to show the full extent of the upcoming titles for the system. The first announcement during this part of the conference was Agent, a new title from Rockstar North exclusively for the PS3. Next Ubisoft went on stage to show off Assassin’s Creed 2. The in-game footage was amazing and the trailer doesn’t do it justice. While I wasn’t a huge fan of the first game, I can’t wait to see more of this new game. The Square Enix then showed off a video of Final fantasy XIII. The game had an English dub which probably angered hardcore fans, but I didn’t mind too much because I’m not a hard core fan of the series. Then a huge announcement was made with Final Fantasy XIV Online. In the past I was a big time fan (not a big time player) of Final Fantasy XI, so to see a new MMO from Square Enix has me jumping for joy.

 

 

Next Sony talked about its motive control units like, the Eye Toy for the PS2 and PS3. Now they’re stepping things up with a new motion control wand. The unit shown looks like it not only takes on the Wii, but it also looks cleaner and smoother then the Natal Project and it’s only in early development stage. While presentation looked force and hurried because of the Project Natal announcement, it still looked better then Natal. Also this new motion controller will allow for better control with RTS titles and it can be intergraded with other franchises. It looks like a solid system, but I think it’ll get more buzz when it gets closer to release.

Sony again changed focus. This time they moved over to the new franchise set called “play create share.” This is the same idea behind Little Big Planet. The new game using play create share is Mod Nation Racers. In this kart like racer, you can play the game or create your own tracks quickly. In fact the demonstration showed a track built in five minutes.

 

As the show slowed down Sony made the huge announcement of the Last Guardian, the final game in the ICO trilogy. Then Sony gave a quick look at Grand Turismo 5. It didn’t just look good, it looked near picture perfect. Yet to end the show Sony gave a much needed demo of God of War 3. This game was the perfect ending to a great show.

The Verdict

With everything shown during this round of E3 the race is now clearly between Microsoft and Sony. Nintendo’s showing was just boring. It lacked any sort of excitement outside of what the core fans want. This is itself a funny statement since last year most people made the same complaint. Yet over the last year the core Nintendo audience has become interested in games like Wii Fit and Wii Sports. The segment of gamers interested in games featuring Mario and other franchises has shrunk. However Nintendo spend too much of their time talking about how things will remain business as usual. This is by no means going to hurt the company in the next year, but it would have been a bad to wow the crowd with something. Instead Nintendo spent an hour to just say they're still on top.

Microsoft’s showing was at first impressive. In the past, MS has always presented itself with the player in mind. This year was no different. With a ton of new games and some important exclusive titles Microsoft is going to have a big year. Project Natal looked great and the integration of social networking site is a nice add, but I don’t think neither this or Project Natal will do much in the coming months. While Project Natal has an astounding amount of potential it’s going to need a huge launch to take off properly and in the past peripherals just haven’t had that kind of luck.

As for Sony, The games look good and the PSP go was a great center piece, I think the motion control demo tried too hard to get people’s minds off of Natal. While Sony has had limited success with the EyeToy it’s by no means a must have for a Ps2 or Ps3 owners. With that said I think the biggest announcement of Sony’s conference wasn’t the exclusive game or even the surprise announcements. It was the price drop in the PSP dev kits. This price drop was huge and it will make the PSP a more viable option not only for large developers, but the ever important Indy developers. It was the only true game changing announcement of the three conferences.

In closing the clear winner was Sony. They showed off better exclusives and the PSP go along with the new pricing for the dev kits just blow away everything from Nintendo and Microsoft. While Project Natal and Sony’s Motion Controller had nice demos, it’s still just an attempt to get people away from the Wii. While this might put them on the right track, it’s not something that’s going to happen overnight. Plus it’s going to take more than a video of a family playing a game together like with Project Natal to put away the fan base of the Big N. This seemed to be an underlining theme this year.