How would you rank the various E3 conferences?

The biggest and most prestigious video-gaming show of the year has just wrapped up and no doubt gamers all round are thinking about the slew of games they have to look forward to in the coming year if not sooner. While personally speaking I think this year’s event ranks among one of the more mediocre if not lower in the events history there were still a few nice surprises sprinkled throughout.

For all those out there who had the chance to watch all of the conferences (or at least pick up the highlights.) what were your thoughts? Which conference do you feel “won” (hate using that term, but…) E3?How would you rank the conferences in terms of the excitement they generated (Most to least.)? Hopefully we can keep these discussions civil.

For myself it went a little like this…

1: Sony:

While I don’t particularly think this years’ E3 was Sony’s strongest I stillfeel they “won” by default. The amount of games (particularly exclusive AAA titles.) they showed was probably the highest in attendance. Uncharted, Days Gone, God of War, Spiderman, Detroit, The Inpatient, Horizon Zero Dawn rounded out some of the more noteworthy exclusives while a host of 3^rd party titles like COD, Destiny 2, Marvel VS Capcom and others added to Sony’s focus on games. The unveiling of The Remake/remaster of the Shadow of the Colossus was probably one of the more “wow” moments of Sony’s time in the spotlight but details on whether it is a full blown remaster from the grounds up or just another HD port are still sketchy. While nothing really blew me away it was still nice to see titles we had only gotten a glimpse of in the past given more of a showcase.

With that said I would be lying if I said I was not a bit disappointed. Even though many developers had relayed that they would not be attending (or for that matter for fans not to expect anything from their respective studios.) a part of me was still hoping to see something in the ways of a The Last of Us 2, Death Stranding, Shenmue 3, FF7 Remake, Resident Evil 2 Remake, or something. While Sony’s conference was jam packed and barely had any “down time” compared to the others I think people were still expecting to see something more.

2: Nintendo:

Not sure whether some will not consider them part of the conference seeing as how they never formally took to the stage but I still consider “the big N” very much a part of the festivities. Due to having had time to prepare a presentation that could have been heavily edited and built to highlight everything perfectly I don’t think it’s completely fair to rate their conference against their peers; conferences that were live. In regards to what was shown I think Nintendo started off strong. Truth be told I think of all the conferences they were the one that kept the momentum going at a steady pace throughout. Fans of Nintendo no doubt will be pleased by the announcements of such favorites like Kirby, Poke’mon, Zelda DLC, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and more. Still, I think the 2 main highlights of their conference was the unveiling of Super Mario Odyssey and the announcement of development on Metroid 4. That later announcement may very well be the biggest news of E3 all things considered but all that was shown was a screen, so…

While if I’m being completely objective I would say Nintendo had the best conference I find myself gravitating more towards the titles at Sony’s showing thus why I placed them in second (Once again, that is subjective.). The other reason as to why they didn’t come out on top for me was that their conference was short… like really short. It felt like it was 20 minutes if that. As soon as it began it was over. At least that’s how it felt to me. With that being said I still do feel this is probably one of Nintendo’s stronger outings as of late but I feel that unless you’re a true Nintendo fan you may not have cared at all about any of the titles on display other than maybe 1 or 2. Still, great showing by Nintendo and it looks like those who invested in the Switch will have a lot to look forward to.

3: Bethesda:

Even though they seemed to be pretty focused on VR (Fallout VR, Doom, etc…) what got me excited about their conference was that they actually had games that were coming out relatively soon. Games that had actual release dates instead of just “coming 2017/2018.” I think the crowning jewel of their conference was Wolfenstein (once again, that’s subjective.) but other titles like The Evil Within 2 were a pleasant, if not somewhat expected, surprise. If I’d have to pinpoint it, I would say that those 2 titles right there were their heavy hitters but for others out there perhaps the new VR additions stole the show.

4: Microsoft:

What can I say? This was their show to lose. The unveiling of new hardware is always a huge thing and in truth usually propels all the hype, build up, and excitement to developer(s) who have the latest tech to the forefront of everyone’s mind. While the revealing of the Xbox One X was nice Microsoft fell victim once again to what has hindered them at more than a few of their previous E3 outings. Namely games, or lack thereof. I know a few of you out there are saying “What the hell, Ninja!? Microsoft had games. Lots of them. 40 something with half being exclusives!” and to be completely fair that is accurate. However, what is easy to gloss over is the type of games in question. Microsoft didn’t shy away from taking every chance they could get to announce what was exclusive (a great move on their part and one I feel shows they have been listening to fan feedback.) but the majority of the games they showed were not AAA titles by any means. While indie games are nice they aren’t going to compare to the efforts from AAA studios for the most part. THIS I feel was Microsoft’s biggest issue. Not quantity of games but rather quality of games (once again, that’s subjective so please calm down.). The true exclusives they showed (Forza and to a lesser extent Crackdown 3.) were nice but once again you could count them on one hand. If anything it was the new Metro game that stole their portion of the conferences. Visually the game was breath taking, but once again… multiplatform.

If we were even given glimpses of a new Halo, a new Gears of War, or even to a lesser extent something like an Alan Wake or something in the works from some of Microsoft’s AAA studios I think it’s fair to say that (paired with the unveiling of the new hardware.) they would have easily “won” the events of theweek.

5: Ubisoft:

Probably the most “cringe worthy” of all the conferences shown. The appearance of Jethro Tull (the announcer giving play by play.) raised more than a few eyebrows at the conference but I don’t think it had the intended effect Ubisoft was hoping for. The dance portion was also right up there (although I must say I did like the robotic ninjas. ;) ) but I understand it was in line with a game centered around that very concept. Those moments aside Ubisoft had a few notable moments. I think it goes without saying that some of the bigger draws were the Assassins creed and Farcry 5 games. Both games getting a lengthy in game demo was nice and for any out there excited about those titles it gave them more reason to get hyped. Probably the biggest standout of their conference (if not the whole show.) was the unveiling of Beyond Good and Evil 2, a game that while not quite at the same level in terms of hype as something like Shenmue 3, FF7 Remake, or Resident evil 2 Remake still demanded everyone in attendance take notice.

6: EA:

Honestly, I know I’m completely biased towards this one (or against.). I’m not a huge sports gamer so most of EA’s conference went through one ear and out the other. If you were however someone who thrives on sports game than EA may very well have had the best conference in attendance. While perhaps Star Wars was the center piece of their conference (a game they devoted half of their time in the spotlight to.) I think Anthem (Biowares new IP.) may have actually stole their portion of the show. Bioware gave notice to those that may have felt slighted by Andromeda that they could be on to something. Still, that’s a big “could”. I’m sure people will get more of a feel as more info is leaked in the coming months but I will admit, it did look pretty good.

So there you have it.

1: Sony

2: Nintendo

3: Bethesda

4: Microsoft

5: Ubisoft

6: EA

Once again I feel it is important to stress that these opinions are my own and are completely subjective.

So GiantBomb community, how would you rank the various E3 conferences? What stood out to you the most at the festivities this year?

-RANK ‘EM NINJA APPROVED-

The Jethro Tull shoutcasting was from Microsoft's press conference, not Ubisoft.

Totally messed that up, lol. Thanks. After a while a lot of the events of the weekend/week seem to meld together.

-SCREW UP NINJA APPROVED-

Nintendo showed a fish with a Mario mustache, that instantly won E3 for me.

LMAO!!!

-MUSTACHE NINJA APPROVED-

Ninjas, am I rite?

Mario-COM: The Rabbids Within won the show.

Then Monster Hunter: Grappling Hook edition ranked second.

Tied for third are Anthem, and Mario.

And last place is Super Skyrim Megatexture HD Game of the Century 12k edition

Microsoft, Nintendo, Bethesda, Sony, Ubisoft, EA

The 1X looks good I guess, but what I really care about are the games; and Microsoft showed the most of what I'm interested in. I'll be playing them on PC, but I'll be playing them. Overall, the standout winner for me.

Nintendo and Bethesda each showed one game that I badly want to play (new Mario and Wolfenstein) and other games that look good but I don't as badly need to play.

Sony's games I already knew about and mostly am not interested in. The new, smaller Uncharted is an exception, but it sounds like a not full game. Also, Destiny 2 I guess, but I was already in on buying that.

Ubisoft badly disappointed me with that Far Cry 5 trailer. I was much more hyped before, when I thought they were going the serious route.

EA, I just don't care about sports. And Anthem was covered by Microsoft.

They were all pretty forgettable/ran together, 6-way tie. Side note: I wish they could get back to three pressers on Monday afternoon/evening, 2 Sunday and nintendo tuesday. Just 2 on Monday felt too light and the Saturday one seemed unnecessarily early.

Felt the same they where all mediocre this year.

Oh, it's only begun.

MS>Ubi>Nintendo>Bethesda>EA>Sony

They all showed me something that made me go, "holy shit I really want to play that", except Sony.

I really hate that I have to buy a 1X and a Switch this year though. My poor, poor wallet.

Ubisoft had the best pace and the most interesting games. Easy winner.

Nintendo was pretty good as well, but mostly because Mario looked awesome.

The rest were mediocre to bad. Sony announced almost nothing that wasn't VR, Microsoft tried to sell a new $500 console with timed exclusive indie games (and Crackdown looked like shit), and both Bethesda and EA both had exactly 1 game to be exited about.

Overall the worst E3 in quite some time.

So who won e3 bro?

I'm gonna try to be objective here, especially since I don't really have a dog in this fight(fortunate enough to not be limited by platform)

Bethesda was a shitshow. They spent 80% of the conference on games that had already released. The remaining 20%? The Evil Within 2, the sequel to a game of questionable quality. Quake Champions a known quantity. Finally, Wolfenstein, the only announcement they had that knocked it out of the park. I would put Bethesda at the bottom of the list and from everything I'm seeing on the internet the majority of people feel the same way.

Let's talk Ubisoft. The amount of new IPs they announced surprised me. Plus, they started and ended with showstoppers. Shigeru Miyamoto coming out for a Mario+Rabbids that defied all expectations and looks awesome. Ending with Beyond Good and Evil 2. BEYOND GOOD & EVIL 2. That's THE surprise announcement of 2017 E3. What a make good, feel good moment. Michel Ancel tearing up was the cherry on top.

1. Ubisoft

I know. No one's more surprised than me.

Press Conferences are supposed to generate interest. Unlike Microsoft and Sony, who devoted big chunks of time to 3rd party non exclusive games, the Ubisoft conference was all Ubisoft and goddamn, was it a good look for them. Mario+Rabbids and Beyond Good and Evil 2 are contenders for surprise of the year. Knowing Ubisoft, I have no doubt some these games will be duds on release. But, to the less informed gamer? Ubisoft generated some fucking interest.

2. Nintendo

Low key thing that's gonna pay off huge for them. Mainline Pokemon on the Switch. This is indicative of another thing that flew under most people's radar. Nintendo has finally confirmed that they will be treating the Switch like a console/handheld hybrid. This is huge. I have little to no interest in Pokemon, but that doens't mean I don't understand how popular it is. Pokemon on the Switch is gonna sell tens of millions of consoles. Mario Odyssey looks awesome. Metroid Prime 4 is exciting. But, besides those two games Nintendo had a lack of heavy hitters, which puts them at number 2.

3. Microsoft

Sony/Microsoft both padded their conferences with 3rd party cross-platform games. Why do they do this? No idea. The One X reveal was on message and not a confused mess like the Pro reveal. It might not be essential, it might be overpriced, but at least we're clear on what it does and doesn't do. Microsoft had a lot of indie exclusives. State of Decay 2, Sea of Thieves, and Forza all look decent. Crackdown 3 looked horrible.

Let's talk about the word exclusive. I understand that Microsoft is in a hole. I understand Sony has a huge lead in the console race. But, the amount of fuckery Microsoft pulled with the word "exclusive" was ridiculous. The ways they managed to put that word in front of everything...You almost got to give them points for creativity.

No traditional Microsoft heavy hitters like Halo and Gears. Both a blessing and a curse. Microsoft desperately needs new IPs to bolster their aging franchises, especially since the Halo 5 didn't get universal praise(far from it) and Gears 4(a good game) wasn't the system seller they needed it to be.

4. Sony

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES.

The sound cutting out. Stream lag. Get your shit together Sony, its 2017, no excuses.

Lets move past the 3rd party cross-platform shit. COD, Marvel, Destiny, I don't need to see those games in a Playstation conference. As big as a console Monster Hunter is, we now know its coming to Xbox and PC too.

Where was Last of Us 2, Shenmue 3, FF7 remake. No reveals, all the first party games they showed had been revealed in 2016. So what did we get? Gameplay trailers for stuff we already knew existed? The exception being the Inpatient, not sure what it is. Everyone and their mother has played Shadow of Colossus already. A remaster is cool and I'll definitely play it, but did its announcement really need to be on stage? I dunno.

The gamplay they showed looked good. I'm excited for God of War, Days Gone, and Spiderman. But, there were no "WOW" moments. No surprises. No big reveals. PSVR sizzle reel? Nope. VR needs some more time in the oven. Maybe in 2-3 years.

5.EA

Guess they wanted a bigger audience for the Anthem reveal, cuz that game looks dope. 2 legit great looking games revealed. Battlefront 2. A Way Out. Also a bunch of sports games...

6.Bethesda

Got caught on an off cycle year. DLC for old games. Ads for MMO expansions that released recently. Possibly janky VR versions of games from the last 2 years. A sequel to a bad horror game. Quake Champions. Ending with, one amazing reveal for Wolfenstein. But, really that one reveal is THE thing Bethesda had. No need for an entire conference. But I guess they have to keep their slot for next year.

Microsoft nailed it for me. Easily the one conference I enjoyed the most. A bunch of cool looking indie games, Anthem, Sea of Thieves, Anthem, some pretty great Minecraft updates that me and a friend are real excited about, Anthem, Crackdown 3, Anthem, State of Decay 2, Anthem. Microsoft basically had games that would be awesome to play with my friends. The Forza stuff makes me look forward to Horizon 4.

Sony didn't really captivate me much, in comparison. Shadow of the Colossus remake is neat, but I saw some people play through that and have no intention of doing it myself. God of War: Now Murder More Gods seems interesting. I still haven't played Horizon: Zero Dawn but I want to. That's about it for me. Oh, the Spiderman game seemed alright, but a little QTE heavy for my tastes. I would include Monster Hunter, but that'll be hitting for everything basically. Still looks real fun.

Bethesda had Wolfenstein and that looked pretty good. EA had Battlefront II which looked awesome. I can't recall anything else either of them showed, to be honest.

Edit: Oh right EA had A Way Out. That looked cool.

I still have to finish up about half of Ubisoft's and the entirety of Nintendo's conferences, but Ubisoft showed XCOM: Mario Within and that's kind of amazing.

I don't have an ordered list for them, but MS was my most interesting so far.

For me this is the order:

1. Ubisoft: Yeah, another Assassin's Creed & another Far Cry. But they're good games and they had other new stuff to go alongside it. Which also looked pretty good. Just liked the happy, positive atmosphere during the conference. It felt genuine.

2. Microsoft: Xbox One X looks impressive, good games list, they're one AAA exclusive short to make the conference a complete success. Production wise the best conference of them all, head & shoulders. Like every year almost.

3. Nintendo: Mario looks good, other stuff I'm not really interested in but I understand it's a big deal for some.

4. Bethesda: Typical Bethesda style press conference, good games, some weirdness.

5. Sony: It's like they pressed the rewind button on last year's E3 and pressed play again. Almost nothing new and no The Last of Us 2 update. Missed chance. Weird production as well this year.

6. EA: Complete mess. Nothing looked super good, even FIFA is getting stale again. Also: 30 minutes of uncut gameplay has no place in a conference. It's a clear sign they had very little to show.

Ubi wins barely by ditching the gimmicky crap, rest were a shit show or just didn't bring it.

6. Sony - I wasn't sure what to expect and it turned out not a lot???

5. EA - Spotty but A Way Out looks rad

4. Bethesda - Wolfenstein looks great?

3. Microsoft - Don't care about the X but I very much care about that Anthem demo. Sea of Thieves also looks pretty fun

2. Ubisoft - Mario x Rabbids? Beyond Good and Evil 2????? What the heck? Definitely wasn't expecting Ubi to be a standout and yet

1. Nintendo - I mean, that Mario Odyssey trailer

1: Sony 4/10

2: Nintendo 7/10

3: Bethesda 3/10

4: Microsoft 8/10

5: Ubisoft 4/10

6: EA 3/10

-EPIC CROW GUY APPROVED xD-

1. Ubisoft
2. Nintendo
3. Microsoft
4. Sony
5. Bethesda
6. EA

Rayman-Mario-XCOM filled me with a level of sheer ecstasy that I certainly was not anticipating, and finally getting more info on the sequel to one of my all-time favourite games was certainly cool too - super enjoyable conference with a lot of heart and some neat games. Nintendo was similar but a little less-so just because I've never really been a big Nintendo guy - that said, Odyssey looks fantastic. Sony and Microsoft were both less great just because of the really manufactured-looking footage of games we've mostly already seen, but all told alright. Bethesda and EA were both just super dull.

1: Ubisoft

2: Microsoft

3: Nintendo

4-6 in any order: Sony Bethesda EA

Not a very exciting EA, makes we want a switch, I guess to play Mario games.

1. Microsoft ( Ashen, Dragonball Z, A Way Out, Sea of Thieves, State of Decay, Last Night, new Ori, new Life is Strange)

2. Ubisoft (Rabbids, Skull & Bones, BG&E might turn out fun? at least it's exciting)

3. EA ( NFS, singleplayer star wars, Anthem)

4. Bethesda (Wolfenstein 2)

5. Sony (Monster Hunter )

6. Nintendo (Mario, Rabbids)

1. Nintendo - tight 25 mins with stuff coming out this year (Mario) + some good future announcements (Metroid + Pokemon). 9/10

2. Microsoft - Xbox One X isn't going to make me get rid of my pc anytime soon, but I think they did a pretty good job of selling the new half-step console. Anthem looks neat but I'm not buying into the hype just yet. No crazy 1st party surprises, but a solid conference top to bottom. 8/10

3. Ubisoft - Mario x Rabbids looks bonkers in the best way possible. Everything else doesn't really do it for me, but Far Cry will probably be cool. It's going to be a while for Beyond Good and Evil 2, so who knows what that actual game is like. 6.5/10

4. Sony - God of War looks cool. Days Gone looks boring. Do we need another remake of Shadow of the Colossus? 6/10

5. EA - I like Janina Gavankar in The League. Battlefront II is the sequel you expected. That game will probably be pretty good. A Way Out could either be terrible or amazing. Same with Payback. Unsure why they keep trying to make NBA Live games. 5.5/10

6. Bethesda - Wolfenstein is one of the three best games of the show, but everything else was not good. 4/10.

No one "won" E3, pretty much every company dropped the ball in one way or another. This is the first time in many years that Sony was not my favorite.

Special Mention: Devolver Digital (A; after seeing all the conferences, this one was the true winner in my heart)

1. Microsoft (B+; From showing Metro: Exodus, The Last Night, and Anthem)

2. Ubisoft (B; Miyamoto and Yves on stage together is bliss)

3. Nintendo (B; Metroid Prime 4, and Mario Odyssey insanity)

4. Sony (C; Monster Hunter, and nothing else really... )

5. EA (D; At least A Way Out looks really cool)

6. Bethesda (D; Minimal effort, Wolfenstein 2 looks good, but it's more of the same)

1. Nintendo- teased Metroids (!), Mario Odyssey looks just as trans formative as Breath of the Wild, New Kirby, New Yoshi. I think I have to get a switch soon ish
2. Ubisoft - Just a really solid conference, lot of good stuff (rabbids/mario, South park, Far Cry 5, Steep DLC, possibly intriguing Skull & Bones and Ass Creed) and of course the Beyond Good and Evil 2 teaser
3. Microsoft- Lot of interesting games like Ashen and Sea of Thieves, they definitely brought titles and yet none of them really sold me that I need or even want a Xbox one X to play them. Props to them for the backwards compat with the original Xbox. And I gotta say I appreciate how hard Spencer is trying to turn the ship around. .I'm probably going into the Xbox ecosystem for the first time soon, but it will be through the PC.
4. Sony- I'm really excited for a proper big Monster World. That looked dope. Not much else was new. concerned about MvC:I The stuff we knew about it looked good though. Where is Deep Down Capcom? Sony didn't need a good conference this year after the first half they've had, but they will next year,
5. Betheseda- Not last because of Wolfenstein II. That looks dope.
6. EA- better than the last couple years and yet somehow the worst yet again. I'm probably just Salty that the Bioware game is a Destiny type game... I'd probably be more excited if I wanted to play A Way Out with somebody else.

Nintendo saved E3 for me. I can't remember being so incredibly hyped for so many things all at once. Absolute heaven ^_^

Ubisoft comes second for having the most heart and revealing some pretty interesting surprises.

Bethesda's third. Nothing too special here, but they didn't waste my time. It was a quick look at what's coming. Best of all, everything's coming this year IIRC.

EA's fourth. I was just bored for pretty much all of it, but I understand the changes to these are big for some and Battlefront looked decent I guess.

Microsoft's 5th. Kudos on introducing the most expensive console and then not giving any real reasons to buy it the whole time. Waste of time.

Sony's 6th. Just as big a waste of time as Microsoft barring Monster Hunter, but they made it personal when they took a gigantic crap all over Spider-Man at the end. What the hell was that?? >:(

1. Bethesda (New Colossus looks soo good)
2. Nintendo (Mario looks soo good)
3. Ubisoft (Mario+rabbids totally surprised me)
4. Microsoft (New hardware seems cool)
5. EA (A Way Out looks amazing!)
6. Sony (nothing that really interested me, I can't believe they would fund Days Gone and make Last of Us 1 and 2 at the same time)

1. Ubisoft- they showed the best stuff

2. Microsoft - some games looked good but i wish they went more in depth with some of the games they showed like Ashen and that one with thd guy who was yelling. It was a lot of trailers. But i liked the conference. Xbox One X looks interesting. Anthem, Crackdown, Forza 7 and Metro were really nice.

3. Nintendo - Mario looks really fun and the rest was good.

4. Bethesda - Wolfenstein looked really cool, I probably would like Fallout vr but i have no desire to jump back in. The rest was lackluster.

5. Ea - Battlefront 2 looked cool. I really want Battlefront 2

6. Sony - vr stuff almost killed me. Spider man looks really cool but the gameplay looks a lot like the Arkham series to me. Detroit and Days gone dont appeal to me. God of War looks solid.

Idk, I was way more hyped about Microsoft than others because I'm not thinking of the conferences in terms of just that one company. Microsoft showed a bunch of games that will (eventually) be available to anyone with a PS4, Xbone, or PC. I'm excited for those games and they just happened to be shown at Microsoft.

But in the spirit of brand ware fare:

Ubisoft: Mario and Rabbids is bananas and I like it. I'm hopeful for Crew 2--Ubi has a history of correcting bad games on the second attempt. Pirate stuff could be cool. Far Cry could be cool.

Microsoft: they showed the most games. Revealed release dates for indie games I'm excited for.

EA: Battlefront looks like what the original should have been, which is good. A Way Out was the second coolest thing.

Nintendo: New Metroid and new Kirby is cool. Odyssey is bizarre but all the game play they showed looked pretty simple and boring.

Sony: Weird conference. Spiderman was cool but all the QTE's were disappointing. New Shadow of the Colossus looks gorgeous.

Bethesda: Wolf is all they had. I'm guessing they are in a weird place in development with other games and they just had this conference cuz they've been having one for the past few years now. This was by far the most uninteresting of them all.

I think there have been a lot of cool games announced and shown off. I'm super happy with E3 so far.

1. Microsoft: They had a lot to show and kept a consistent pace, it was an interesting conference to watch, even to me who plays on a PS4.

2. Ubisoft: Getting rid of Aisha Tyler and having Yves presenting was one of the best decisions Ubisoft ever made. The whole conference felt much more friendly and inviting. I was counting on every trailer to show the same Ubisoft mechanics, but thankfully they showed some unexpected stuff. I'm curious for some of their games, let's hope they don't ruin them!

3. Nintendo: Pretty much the type of conference I was expecting from Nintendo. Weird that some stuff that should be on the conference was saved for the Treehouse stream.

4. Sony: I get that having people presenting on stage is becoming less and less interesting, but I'm not sure if just showing trailers back to back is the best way to go. It wasn't a bad conference, but it wasn't great either. Nothing that was presented seemed bad but nothing stood out either. No unexpected reveal outside of Shadow of the Colossus.

4. Bethesda: Tied with Sony. Wolfenstein was pretty much the only big thing they had, everything else felt like more of the same and their constant rehash of Skyrim is just tiring by now. The whole "Bethesdaland" presentation, while not amazing, was good and a different take.

5. EA: Worst conference of the year. Besides the sports, EA showed three/four games and teased Anthem. The rest was just "influencers" and "youtubers". The conference could have been 30 minutes and it would still be too long for the amount of atual content they had to show.

5. Devolver Digital: Tied with EA. Some funny bits but overall it felt like they were trying too hard to be edgy.

Overall, I think this was a very low-key E3 for me, nothing really exciting. Those crazy Mario games and Beyond Good & Evil 2 are the only ones that got me the most curious and eager to learn more about.

1. Sony
2. Nintendo
3. Microsoft
4. EA
5. Bethesda
6. Ubisoft

Honestly, I didn't think any were bad. I'm a PS4 owner and neither Nintendo or Microsoft convinced me I needed their system.

Games I want to play: Sony > Nintendo > Ubisoft > Bethesda > EA > Microsoft

Quality of show: Ubisoft > Nintendo > Microsoft > Bethesda > EA > Sony

I will say this, the stage shows starting on Saturday and being drawn out over Saturday, Sunday and Monday was exhausting even just watching it. By Monday afternoon I was tired of e3, yet ist had only just started. I guess e3, much like a dirty band-aid, is best pulled-off in one big RIP.

Everyone except Ubisoft should get a low scores if I rated them this second. All the companies were more afraid of screwing up than actually making a stand, you can see this by how little many companies actually said this year. This is the most bloodless/lifeless e3 in years, it is down right dull as of Tuesday. Even the most out there conference (Ubisoft) with the most out there game (Wolfenstein on LSD) was sedate given their past shows. There is no blood in the water, because nobody made a big moves.

A few games are shining diamonds out of the general glare of decent games. And, hear me there are a ton of good games coming. Yet only games where I said, "Well, that was neat" were - A Way Out, Beyond Good & Evil 2, Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus, Ylands, and Skull and Bones.

1. Ubisoft - Mario+Rabbids is the best thing I've seen so far, I'm hit or miss on Assassin's Creed but I thought it looked good, Skull & Bones looked great, and BG&E looked weird but cool also. They were kind enough to do their dance routine while I made a sandwich.
2. Nintendo - Keeping it short and sweet with Mario Odyssey and a new Metroid Prime. Xenoblade games always look great but I don't like playing them.
3. Microsoft - I thought it was a good showing for the Xbox One X, even though it didn't convince me to buy one. Expanding BC to OG Xbox games is neat. Anthem looks great. Crackdown 3 looked rough but hey it's still a game, maybe a little too indie focused?
4. Bethesda - This would be higher on my list if I played ESO I'm sure, I thought the kids at the beginning was cute, Bethesda Land not so much, Wolfenstein II looks incredible, CCGzzzzzzzzz
5. EA - Kind of a weird show but at least they didn't talk to me for 45 minutes about FIFA, I'll play NFS: Payback, Anthem and Battlefront II, maybe they should be higher on my list...
6. Sony - Just a lackluster show in general, too much DLC not enough new games, God of War still looks great but I didn't feel like it showed anything that new over last year, Days Gone looks soulless, and I don't care about VR.

1. Ubisoft: Great energy, great presentation flow and some legitimate surprise announcements. Even though I'm pretty fatigued by Ubi's general game design sensibilities, this is the sort of show I watch E3 for. Also, Mario+Rabbids looks way more interesting than it has any right to be.

2. Microsoft: Dumb name aside, I thought they did a pretty damn good job of selling the new hardware. Lots of new announcements of various sizes and scopes with generally good contextualizing and salesmanship. Anthem looks straight-up bad to me and that Darwin Project shoutcasting was tacky as hell, but otherwise I thought they did quite well, especially considering how lackluster they've generally been this generation.

3. Nintendo: I don't own a Switch and don't have the money for one right now, but it was still a cool cavalcade of new announcements that sold the platform really well. Mario Odyssey looks adorable.

4. EA: A Way Out looked rad and that was about it. The "influencers" were all terrible and I just can't bring myself to get excited about another Battlefront.

5. Bethesda: Wolfenstein being totally batshit (barely) salvaged what was an otherwise super-poor presser. Wrapping the return of paid mod bullshit up in that cutesy graphics package made my skin crawl.

6. Sony: Whew, okay, bit of a rant here...I thought it was structurally a mess and underwhelming as hell. I really, really detest the "nothing but trailers" approach. They buried Hidden Agenda, their (subjective) best announcement in the pre-show while giving 5 minutes to Detroit for the third year running and making next to no new non-VR announcements (a remake and a multiplatform Monster Hunter game should never be the announcement lynchpins of a first party press conference) while trotting out a bunch of "Greatest Press Conference Hits and Co-Marketing Obligations of the Last Two Years" as their centerpieces. If they had fewer press conferences every year (saving TLOU2 and Uncharted: TLL announcements for this show instead of PSX, for example), had rolled some of their pre-show announcements into the main stage (while relegating dreck like Bravo Team to that purgatory instead) and actually given some damn context to each new announcement, this could have been a GOAT show. As it was...ugh.

I found this E3 to be all over the place in terms of press events. I own a PS4 Pro to take advantage of some PS4 exclusives, but 98% of all of my games and money will be piped directly down the monstrous gullet of my PC. With that I actually found Microsoft had much more on show and offer than the others at this E3. Metro: Exodus looked AMAZING. Anthem looks like It might be worthy to take a gander at in time. Yes the "shoutcaster" segment was bad, very very bad. I'd chalk it up there with EA's heavy reliance on "youtube creators" and that bumbling doofus who botches his lines live on camera. But don't worry though he saved it by rolling up the one sleeve on his jacket.

To be honest, I honestly think Microsoft is slowly going to become more and more of just a publisher in the same sense as EA, Bethesda, or Ubisoft; than a Console developer in the sense of like Sony or Nintendo. If I recall the company is still trying to build steam to get more people onboard with gaming on Windows 10, and even though Games for Windows Live was a disaster, corporate probably still believes in pushing efforts toward that regardless. So I don't think we'll ever see any Xbox console exclusive anymore, not since Microsoft is trying to build a later ecosystem with Windows 10 and Xbox. I am whole heartedly okay with this, it means more games are coming to PC. I just hope they crawl out of their ass with the walled garden of the Windows 10 store.

Sony's press event was a bit lack luster, I actually thought their 2016 E3 event was stellar, but the lack of any teases of the larger more anticipated titles did little to help regain the performance they had last year. The God of War showing looks neat, but I felt like they had a lot of build up for games that didn't have as much weight to throw around this year. I was kind of disappointed that their big special Playstation Experience was another Spiderman game, but I suppose I'm not that much of a fan of Spiderman.

Nintendo's got a lot of neat tricks up their sleeve, and I like the direction they're heading in with their franchises. I did not crap my pants in excitement like everyone else upon seeing a still screen of a logo for Metro Prime 4, I actually felt that was a bit weak. If you're going to hype up a game, do so with a short teaser trailer than just slowly revealing a logo and a quick photoshopped tagline of "now in development". Also Mario go weird, but I am a-okay with that.

Bethesda's press event was kind of disappointing. Out of everything they showed it's nothing more than VR versions of games they've already released, or the repeated beating of a dead horse that is paid mods. If their Creator Cave Collection thing actually put out DLC sized mods or full suites of items, then i'd be less pessimistic about it. I'd rather not pay 150 Bethesda-bucks for crab armor, or a single custom backpack in Fallout 4. Out of everything Bethesda had to show Wolfenstein: The New Colossus takes the cake, I'm very much excited for what they're doing with that even if the trailer was all over the place I very much liked that it touched on a lot of things randomly. It gave me a better understanding of the tone they are going for with this game, and does well to hide how much of the game there is.

I didn't find too much excitement out of Ubisoft's press event. Beyond Good and Evil 2 looked crazy, and heavily inspired by the Fifth Element. I am onboard with whatever else they have to offer in terms of that. I did not like the mixing of RPG elements of Assassins Creed. Leveling up or having my dude wuss out and say he can't kill some dude because their number is greater than his seems weak. He's an assassin, he kills people. I would very much like the game to hide the fact that I cannot kill someone, and let me make the mistake of picking a fight with a harder enemy than just telling me right out hey you can't kill them. Skull and Bones or whatever it was looked like Gritty Sea of Thieves, I'm not sure i'm feeling it. The Mario XCOM Rabbids game I'm not sure what to make of yet but I feel this is where game development needs to go. Crisscrossing genres and gameplay styles to make a really unique thing is great, more developers should be encouraged to do these things.

EA's press event was the worst out of the entire E3 for me. Mostly the cringeworthy amount of crap EA pulled for their event just made everything come across half baked. I mean the drum-line bit in the beginning was bad, the over emphasis of "youtube creators" really tainted the presentations of their games. The new need for speed game and the direction to mimic the fast and the furious movies is a sound approach to keep that franchise alive. A Way Out looked pretty cool, by far the best of the entire EA press event from what I could tell. Everything else was Sports, sports, and more sports; or Star Wars, star wars, star wars. Maybe they'll right the ship with Battlefront II, but to be honest having to wait 2+ years for them to fix something that should of been there all along really taints the excitement and fun one should be having with the game they were trying to show.

Tis about it..