E3 2012

Microsoft started off strong. Halo 4 looks interesting for now. Some of the innovative integrations of Kinect are pretty cool and unique. In particular, the FIFA and Madden Kinect integrations seem to be done really well. Meanwhile, Kinect is not forced on the game but will make the experience better as a whole. They beefed up Xbox's features as they should have when you're paying for the online. The SmartGlass seems pretty cool. This will undoubtedly make the Xbox's internet browsing the best among the 3 big consoles. The exclusive DLC for Xbox is a plus on their side for third party games.

There were a few main problems with their performance that killed them. The first is their demographic. Your main demographic was FPS and Sports. While this generally makes up the majority of their fan base, it still lessened the scope of versatility in their conference. They dragged out a lot of the sports parts way longer than needed to be. Another main problem was the exclusives compared to multi-platform. There were just as many if not more multi-platform games shown. To top it off, most of the exclusives shown near the end were uninteresting, even the Ascend game. Although there was some good Kinect stuff, there was way too much Kinect like last year. Microsoft has to realize that the major craze for the gimmick has been over for a while now. Instead of dragging out the sports features, they should have shown more of Halo 4.

Although there were some redeeming parts of the Microsft conference, overall it was poorly executed. The cons outweigh the pros, even if not by a significant margin. Microsoft gets a D to D+ rating.

Nintendo showed some decent to good exclusive games. New Super Mario Bros U is visually fantastic and the 3DS game is also pretty good looking. Both games look to have good potential. The Paper Mario game will undoubtedly add to the 3DS. The 3DS as a whole is starting to broaden up, which is good. The fact that the Wii U is going back to the Gamecube route of utilizing Third Party games is good, although we already knew about this last year so it doesn't count. Even though we knew of Arkham City's port to Wii U, it was interesting to see a bit of the integration of the Wii U Pad. The system itself has some potential. Unlike last year, we got to see a lot more functionality of the system. Pikmin 3 was a big announcement for Wii U. They definitely started strong like Microsoft did. Luigi's Mansion 2 is big as well. Nintendoland will serve a good purpose of teaching the Wii U pad and its features. Reggie was ace though. The callback to "My body is ready" was by far the best part of the conference.

After a full year, while we got to see more functionality, it's still not enough. Do you mean to tell me that this is all they got for Wii U? No mention of how the classic controller will play a part in future games? So how the hell am I supposed to play a game on the Wii U normally without the motion controls? As I said for Microsoft, the gimmick craze is over and it's time to stop making consoles based solely on Motion. Nintendo showed poor management of their time with multi-platform games and the likes. We saw more of Arkham City, a game that people have 100% completed LAST YEAR, than the New Super Mario Bros. U or any Mario game for that matter. Hey guys, this was your shot to reveal that game. You know, THE SUPER SMASH BROS THAT WAS ANNOUNCED LAST YEAR. Not even a teaser...smh. The big focus on Nintendoland was a bad move. Nintendoland will be good for about a week or so and then it will lose a lot of interest. If that was their intent, it would be okay, but a huge focus on it is a mistake.

It wasn't terrible, but it was by no means a good conference. I give it a C- to a C. Mediocre at best. Nintendo fanboys can come at me again this year. This review comes from a fan of Nintendo. I have always been a fan of Nintendo since the NES days so don't mindlessly call me a Nintendo hater. You won't get anywhere.

Sony did a good job of showing off their shit. They kept most of their stuff on the mainstream PS3 stuff without Move which was exactly what they were supposed to do. Not a whole lot of Move and not too much Vita either, while not leaving either in the dust. The cross platforming push is a good idea for people who are constantly on the run in story based games. The Sony Smash Bros game looks fun and uses elements of Smash Bros and even MvC with Supers similar to it. Ending with Ascension and The Last of Us was a good way to end it. God of War is looking as good as ever. The Last of Us is like Uncharted on crack. Similar platforming and art design, but the combat is slightly more brutalized. I like the idea. Overall the delivery was pretty good. Also the announcement of the amount of PSN downloadable titles coming over the course of the next year was good.

Sony had poor time management. My main issue was showing off too much Far Cry 3 and Assassin's Creed 3 when we had already extensively seen both in Ubisoft's conference. There was absolutely no need to have that in the conference and drag it out so long between the two of them. They should have used that time to show Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time. Neither of the aforementioned games are exclusive and Sly is. And yet the multi-platform games got the screen time? Oh yeah, ironically enough the part they did show of AC3 happened to be a near carbon copy of the Sly 3 ship battles. Although the concept with the wand magic for Move was pretty cool, they dragged it out too long.

Overall it was good, but not great. They really could have done better with their time IMO. I give them a B-.