Sony

Well Sony actually did impress me. The beginning of their press conference started with Killzone 3, which I gotta say looked awesome...even though it looked exactly like Killzone 2. Then they started talking, and talking, and talking, these guys easily talked the most of any of the big three. But then, Kevin Butler came out, and that was the turning point. After delivering a rousing speech on gaming itself, the conference picked up, with Dead Space 2 and Medal of Honor getting shown, both of which have exclusive content for the PS3 version. They showed off Infamous 2 (dang I do not like that new design for Cole) LBP2, and unveiled Twisted Metal, which looked like a blast to play. They also, like I predicted, pushed Move to the fullest, and showed off the incredibly generic looking Sorcery. However, Socom 4 looked pretty good, but the Tiger Woods stuff just looked like the Wii version. As with Kinect, I love the technology behind these, but can they grasp it like Nintendo has and move it past being an HD Wii? I don't know, but I hope they can. They also pushed 3D to no end, with the words 3D being said at least a hundred times, and truth be told it did get annoying with them acting like they owned 3D, when both the 360 and 3DS can push 3D too. One of the biggest disappointments for me at least was that they showed nothing of The Last Guardian, it wasn't at the show at all. After playing Shadow of the Colossus, I really want to see Team Ico's next project. Overall, Sony had an average showing, and the exclusive content from EA and the announcement that Portal 2 was coming to the Ps3 didn't hurt.
Final Score=B+

-Smith

Nintendo (WOW!)

My gosh, what a shocker. That press conference was absolutely incredible. It was better than Nintendo's past three conference combined. They showed soooo many awesome games. They also announced so many amazing looking games. Donkey Kong Country Returns, a Goldeneye 007 reboot (Yes the 7 year old kid in me just lit up), Kirby's Epic Yarn, Epic Mickey, Metroid Other M, Kid Icarus for the 3DS. Speaking of the 3DS, I truly expected it to be some gimmicky machine with terrible 3D effects and stupid glasses. Turns out, NO GLASSES! I have no idea how they did it, but plenty of high profile developers attested that it worked. Hideo Kojima, Capcom with Resident Evil, Kingdom Hearts, and plenty of other developers have announced that they are developing games for the 3DS. It was absolutely ridiculous the amount of games they showed, and I haven't even talked about the biggest of them all, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. There were some control issues on stage, but all the gameplay they showed looked cool, and the one-to-one sword control, and nunchuck as shield are all great ideas. Overall Nintendo blew me away with everything they showed, and the 3DS seems to be one of the most innovative products to come out in awhile
Final Score=A+

-Smith

Microsoft

Well Microsoft's press conference just wrapped up, and I'm am completely...indifferent. Nothing shown shocked or wowed me in any way. I mean it just listed no response from me. The coolest thing they showed was the Gears 3 demo, and they also unveiled a new mode, called Beast, but gave no details on the mode at all. The Reach demo was cool but short, Metal Gear Rising had a cool engine, and we got a new Fable 3 trailer, but in the end, none of it wowed me. After (what seemed to me) rushing through their game line up and announcing an exclusive game coming from Crytek, they moved on to all their Kinect stuff. I love the technology and potential that that little camera has, and all the dashboard and interface stuff they showed was all really cool, but the games just look...meh. It just looked like family games. The Star Wars thing was cool, and the new Forza stuff really impressed me, but besides that the rest just looked like it was trying to appease the casual market. That is their goal I guess though, they want Xbox to be the biggest gaming brand in the world. At the end though, they brought out the 360 slim, and that is what saved them. They finally included Wi-fi support, it has a 250 gb hardrive, and is going to be completely Kinect compatible. It also looks a good bit cooler too. In the end Microsoft pushed Natal to no end, and while that conference started out cool with all their exclusive games, the end result was a conference about Kinect. I have no doubt that Sony is going to do the same thing with Move, and like I said I like the technology behind both of them, but I'm not a fan of how they are using it.
Final Grade=C+

-Smith

Kinect....what?

So it's official. Microsoft has finally named there fancy little camera, and they have named it Kinect. Pronounced connect. Personally, I think Natal sounds cooler, but that is just me. I also like Arc better than move and Revolution better than Wii so I guess companies just hate me. Among the games announced for Natal...I mean Kinect, only two have me interested because they don't sound like crappy Wii-style shovelware. Joyride, which is that racing game that was shown last year, and the announcement that both Disney and Star Wars properties have announced that they will be developing heavily for Natal...Kinect gosh that will take forever to get used too! Well, tell me what you think in the comments below, and be sure to watch for all the coming E3 coverage.

-Smith

E3 Blowout

Ok guys, the biggest week in gaming is upon us now. E3 starts Monday with the Microsoft press conference and I gotta say I think it's gonna be a great show this year. At this (very late) time I'm watching the E3 blowout episode of GTTV, and man are there some good games we've got lined up. Dead Space 2, Gears of War 3, Halo Reach, LBP 2, Infamous 2, Killzone 3, Fable 3, Force Unleashed 2, Devil's Third. KOTOR online and even more unannounced games. If I'm forgetting anything (which I'm sure I am) please tell me in the comments below. I thought I'd let you know that after each press conference (Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony) that I'll be providing a recap of what was showed and what I thought was awesome and not so awesome. Before you read those let me warn you I am not the biggest fan of motion controls haha. Maybe it's because I am a lazy bum, but anyway, I'm gonna be working hard to keep everyone updated. Now, as for the predictions. Let's face it, Nintendo has the most to win or lose this year. With Sony's Sonymote and Nunchu....I mean sub controller they can essentially say "Hey Nintendo fans, upgrade to HD!". Fits in with their whole, it only does everything slogan. Now that isn't a bad thing at all, Nintendo is too lazy to announce a Wii HD and Sony was smart and essentially beat them to the punch. Nintendo neeeeds a reason for their fans to keep playing their Wii. Even if they do show the new Zelda game, it can't support them forever. They need to show something mindblowing that will show Microsoft and Sony that they deserve to lead in sales and that they can't be beat when it comes to motion control. However, if they do as crappy a job this year as they did last year then that doesn't bode well for them. Also as a closing note, I have to point out my dark horse game for this E3, Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned. Just go look up Ign's article on this liscensed game that actually looks like an amazing action/RPG. Alright guys, sound off in the comments, and be sure to watch E3!

-Smith