E3 2010: Overall Impressions

Well, E3 ended last week and it took me awhile to get to this point as I've been pretty busy over the last week. After thinking about it for a while I decided that E3 2010, like last year, was decent, but nothing mind blowing. The big difference is that most of what was really good about this years showing only came from Nintendo while Microsoft and Sony were weaker than they usually were which I guess I should elaborate on.

Out of the big 3, I think everyone agrees that Microsoft had the worst showing without a doubt. They didn't have have much to present that wasn't already known or guessed at in some shape or form and half of that had to with the fact Microsoft unveiled half of their stuff in the weeks leading up to E3, Gears of War 3 being the biggest spoiler. Last year Microsoft had 90% of their game shown before the conference and this year that total is somewhere around 99%. Microsoft needs to learn that part of the fun in E3 is the surprise and wonder in what new game could possible be shown off. Even worse was Microsoft's Kinect. Their answer to the Wii turned out to be nothing more than a straight up rip-off as every game looked and played a like poor man's Wii game and considering that the 360 is more powerful than the Wii, this is just pathetic. The gadget's use for interacting with the console itself is less impressive than it was last year as it looks like it would be easier to just use the controller, which defeats the purpose of Kinect entirely...I don't know what the hell Microsoft is thinking...

It seems like Microsoft and Nintendo switched places. While Microsoft was trying to damn hard to grab some casual gamer attention, Nintendo actually showed off a surprising amount of new games. Even more shocking is that most of these games are from franchises that the company has ignored on the Wii. The fact that Kirby, Donkey Kong, and Kid Icarus are getting high profile games alongside Metroid and Zelda is nothing short of mind blowing. The only thing they could have done to make this any better would have been holding off on revealing Mario Galaxy 2 last year and showing it now. Nintendo seemed to finally realize that they can target hardcore and casual gamers with their classic series and it paid off wonderfully. Even though I can't comment on the system, the way they handled the 3DS unveiling was just the icing on the cake. It truly was Nintendo's E3...

Sony managed to convince to buy a PS3 last year with they're comparatively stronger showings and its a purchase I haven't regretted yet. I've play my PS3 more in the past 6 months than I played the 360 in the two years I've had the thing. Sadly, Sony fell in the same trap Microsoft did, only they aren't in as deep. Only Twisted Metal was a true surprise announcement and everything else was shown beforehand. It doesn't speak well that the game I'm most excited for is The Sly Collection...a group of games released roughly 5 years ago. Sony's games are at least more interesting than Microsoft and I say that I'll actual try to play most of them. Their attempt at a Wii counterpart, The Move is somewhat more respectable as it appears to work much better than the Wii does and the games seem kinda interesting, but like Kinect it seems to be 4 years too late. Unless casual gamers with a Wii happen to also have a PS3 or 360, I don't really see the market for either motion control device. They still haven't given me a reason to get a PSP, although I think the thing has enough games that I could justify getting a used PSP...still better than anything Microsoft has come up with.

So in summation, E3 2010 was okay. Microsoft was the worst, no question asked. Some of Sony's games mentioned should be pretty good. And Nintendo did the reverse of the other two and give everyone what they want.

Score below is as follows.

CONFERENCE PLACING:
1st: Nintendo
2nd: Sony
3rd: Microsoft