So I have been busy the last 3 days watching the E3 coverage, ALL OF IT. I watched the 5 hour show yesterday, and the 8 hour one today, plus all of the conferences. Yeah, I have a life, but it revolves around videogames, and when E3 comes, I make sure there are no distractions. I know that its wierd, but its me. So after everything is said and done, heres what I thought.

Microsoft

Showtime: 90 mins. 59 secs.

Well, They started off really strong, they showed games like Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, Resident Evil 5, Fable 2, and so on. The Fallout 3 showing with the Vault-Tec commercial was my favorite showing of the Microsoft Conference. Now the beginning of the conference was missed on Gamespot at first due to many technical difficulties, but I watched it later and loved it. The problem with this whole conference is that it showed off so many games right off the bat, then tapered off with numbers (which is where I came in I think) and then went to the Avatar system and the new Dashboard layout.

I was impressed with the games, and the fact that most of them are due out this year (fall) if not plagued by delays. The fact that they were all playable, and had gameplay footage was great. But after these games were all said and done, they went into numbers, which is normal. Then after that we were all expecting more great games, but no. they began with some XBLA games that were mediocre at best, with the exception of Bionic Commando re-armed. Then they went into the Avatar system. Now maybe some people were happy with this, but I was not. This was not a good move by MS and I think everyone in the chat room agreed. Of course there were lots of "Mii RIPOFF!!!" and stuff, but whatever. Maybe it is, maybe its not, but it doesn't matter cause its stupid. They could have used half of the effort of making the avatars to make the XBLA games better, in my opinion. Then they went into the video system that they are making for the 360. Its cool with the movies and T.V., but I do not watch T.V. or movies on my 360, so it doesn't matter. They showed a new dashboard layout, and stated that it would be out this fallwhich is why there was not a Spring Update. I am gonna be super happy!!! It is like the Vista window system, but a little better. I thought it was cool as hell!!! By this time people are wanting more, and Microsoft dod not deliver, other than the announcement of Final Fantacy 13 coming to the 360. This announcement completely blew up not even the chat room, but the forums of both the PS3 and Xbox 360. Kellymae covered this in her blog, so I won't go into details, but it was fanboy fuel for sure! In the end, the last hour of the show was mediocre at best, and when we all expected more big titles, like we should have been given, they just didn't deliver, which made lots of us feel kind of jipped in the end. Especially the 90% of us that missed the good stuff in the beginning!

MS Conference: B

Nintendo

Showtime: 64 mins. 43 secs.

First off, this will be short because the show was short, almost 30 mins. shorter than the other two. I guess that this was a good thing considering that this show turned out. Read more to understand. To be honest, I have been less than satisfied to say the least with the titles that have been thrown at us by Nintendo. The games released since E3 07 have been mediocre with the exception of a couple of games, such as Mario Kart Wii and SSBB. I was hoping for some big announcements this year, key word being hoping. We were introduced to this woman that was by far the most annoying woman this year by far! She was loud, uninspiring to gamers, and like 50. I mean they would have upped the hype big time with at least a real gamer! Or at least someone that plays games! Well, they first gave a show of Shawn White Snowboarding, which was cool, and made use of the WiiFit pad. They then introduced Reggie, and he showed us another Wii Sports, yay...... Reggie and that annoying woman played more sports stuff and that was it. Then they showed this guy with crazy hair trying to drum on a virtual drum set. Then people came out and tried to play other instruments, this was called Wii Music, but should have been called Wii Noise cause thats all it could make. We were all wondering how you played notes and stuff, but there was no explanation. Lets see, they showed a new Amimal Crossing, which comes with an online mic, but not one that you wear on your head. It sits on your T.V. and people hear everything in the room with this mic, which is not what I want at all, mainly because of the curse words and stuff that comes out of peoples mouths, I don't want it echoing throughout my house. But whatever, at least I can "hopefully" talk to people in every game with this, but all that was shown was it being used in Animal Crossing. I hate to say it, but to me the Animal Crossing game was the biggest part of the show, and I was not really interested in it to begin with. They showed some mediocre DS games, nothing big, and that was it. Bah! By the end, when they were done, I wasn't sure if I was disapointed in the show, or just glad that it was over. Then I realized that I was feeling both. Boo Nintendo, BOO!

Nintendo Conference: F+++

Sony (duh.)

Showtime - 89 mins. 27 secs.

Sony's show started off super strong, with no problems on Gamespots side! It was very well put together. They started off by a William Shatner look alike (well, he did to me at least) giving props to the stage that they were on. My biggest problem into the Conference first off was the 15 mins in the beginning that there was just this guy talking, and talking, and talking. We were all getting pretty restless when at like 14 mins. they finally started showing Resistance 2, which featured a 300 foot baddie! It was very cool, and ugly as hell! They then went into Little Big Planet, which is my most antisipated game of the PS3 this year! They even integrated the "Numbers" talk into LBP which made the numbers very interesting, which was a first for me, cause the numbers section is usually where I get a drink and go pee. They then did games like EA sports games, including a special Madden PSP, and Buzz for the PS3 and even PSP. They announced Singstar for the PS3, as well as a special Batman PS2. Now here is where I started windering "okay, they have shown stuff for the PS2 and PSP, but wheres the PS3 stuff! Why are they still releasing PS2 systems, what the hell!!!"

They then went into the Playstation Network, and introduced a movie section that resembles the XBL's movie section, except they introduced that they are now combined with Netflix, which means that you can use your Netflix account to rent movies on the PS3 without a fee. Very cool, but I don't have Netflix. They then showed games like Ratchet & Clank: Search for Booty, and other games, that are all downloadable via the PS store, so with the games that were announced and the fact that they were ALL available on the PSN, this showed us that the game selection on the PSN is starting to look better than the choices on the XBLA. My dissapointments were that there were virtually no big shown titles other than LBP. Of course they showed us more home, but no release date, of course. I mean they did show a trailer for God of War III, which was very cool. They hardly touched Killzone 2, which really disapointed me because I was looking forward to that game so much, and seemed to be focused on the PSP and PS2. It was almost like they are ashamed of the PS3 and that they kind of wanted to keep it hidden. All in all, I was hyped up for some great games, but was delivered very little. The funniest part was that at about 49 mins. into the show, a guy came out to present the new layout of the movie selector, but had to sign in first. And what was his email address, xxxxx@HOTMAIL.COM! Hotmail, a Microsoft account! All of us in the chat room were having fun with it. I mean, I know that sony doesnt have there own email, but you would think that it would be a gmail account or a yahoo account or something else rather than the enemies!

Sony Conference: B-

I know that alot of people will think that I thought the MS show was the best because I am a fanboy, but whatever. I watched the show to see what the new games were, and was not impressed with what I was given with the Sony and Nintendo shows. I wanted to be excited with all of them, but with the crappy show that Nintendo gave, and the lack of not only PS3 announcements given, but the complete absence of any release dates, with the exception of the movie add-on, which I think si out now, I was just not satisfied. I was mostly satisfied with Microsofts show because they at least delivered games that everybody is looking forward to, and at least 90% of them had expected release dates, which is good for me. But to be honest, this years E3 felt a little bland, even like there was something completely missing. I just was not satisfied, maybe I am being too picky, or my expectations are to high, but I was not happy with the results. I guess that one okay conference is just not good enough for me. I was expecting alot, and delivered a little.