Nintendo's E3 Press Conference

Then finally, the moment we had been waiting for, came. Nintendo were to show Café. Every muscle in my body where cramping up with excitement. This was going to be the most awesome press conference ever.

Shigeru Miyamoto gets up on the stage, to start the show by talking about The Legend of Zelda, as it celebrates 25 years this year. Among the Zelda announcements where Links awakening and Four Swords Adventures to the DSi, and that's about it. He talk about how Ocarina of time 3d comes out soon and Skyward sword will be released in time for Christmas.

Then, the 3D started. Five Nintendo-games were shown for the platform 3DS. First up was Mario Kart. It looks like a Mario Kart-game, so it should be good fun. And if it's anything like Mario Kart usually is on the handheld consoles, this should be really good. With online multiplayer, this could be really great actually, looking forward to seeing it when it's released.

Second up was yet another Nintendo 64 conversion with some extra stuff, like online multiplayer: Starfox 64 3D. This is something of a warning sign for me. The game is great, as it was then it first was released, but I just hope that Nintendo won't put too much effort into just renovating Nintendo 64 games and releasing them in 3D.

Next up was Super Mario 3D. It's a brand new Super Mario game, drawing a lot of its inspiration from Super Mario Bros. 3. This really tickles my nostalgia sense. Somehow it fits perfectly in the trend called new-retro. Just as New Super Mario Bros. was inspired by the first games, or rather the whole 2D era of Super Mario. Just looking at it gives me some type of sense that this will be a great game.

Then they showed another new trailer and gameplay footage for Kid Icarus: Uprising. A couple of new features where shown, like, again, multiplayer. This it probably one of the few games that compels me to buy a 3DS. A lot of the games shown are games that I would by if I actually had a 3DS, but this one actually makes me want to buy one. As long as they succeed with the gameplay, this is a game that will make 3DS even more attractive.

The fifth and final Nintendo-game shown for the 3DS was Luigi’s Mansion 2. Haven't played the first one, but I think it looks a little like a Nintendo version of Ghostbusters. The atmosphere is great, but I'm not sure how fun it actually looks. Looks kind of repetitive. But who knows, I, for one, likes Luigi so let us hope that this is a great game after all

Next up was a video of some third party games to look forward to, like A couple of Resident Evil-games and a conversion of what I consider to be a real indie-pearl; Cave Story. If you haven't played it, get it now!

Nintendo ended their 3DS section by presenting Pokedex 3D. It looks really stupid, could be a cool idea, but the fact that it only contains the 150 new Pokémons of Black/White makes it less interesting.

Then it happened. Nintendo showed us, for the first time, their new stationary console. It is called... Wii U... WHAT THE?!! Wii U?! Seriously? Why couldn't they have gone with Stream, like it was rumoured? Or Café, even that sounds better then Wii U. I hated the name Wii, but I learned to live with it. Wii U sounds retarded. Wii U sounds like an upgrade, rather than a completely new console. Let us hope that I'm wrong by saying that.

I, as many others it may seem, thought that it was only a new controller. I got really scared. When I understood that it in fact was an entire console, I calmed a little. The Console, with the new controller as the new revolutionary thing about it, was still a big let down. The controller looks great, with things like camera, microphone, gyro, dual analogue sticks and a big touch pad. The fact that it actually looks more like a controller make me happy, and it would seem that it makes the third party developers happy as well. You can play, due to the screen on the controller, on the controller if the TV is occupied. The only thing I'm concerned about when it comes to the controller is the size of it, it doesn't look that comfortable to hold, plus that the analogue sticks looks tedious to get to.

Other things revealed about the console itself were things like HD-graphics (yay) and that's about it. No specifications were made, no price, no nothing. The trailers shown for the various games weren't even shown on the Wii U, but on a PS3. The only thing that we actually got to see from a Nintendo-view was a graphic demo of The Legend of Zelda, although that looked amazing. Let's hope it will come to the console later on.

After a small announcement that it might be a Super Smash Bros.-game on the platform, a trailer was shown, showing the games being released on Wii U by third party developers. Among them, Darksiders II (Looks really cool), Tekken, (For the first time on a Nintendo console!), Batman Arkam City (Got by far the biggest response from the audience, and sounds great to me), Assassins Creed (figures, but good game) and Ninja Gaiden 3.

And that's it. No Nintendo-games at all. This was so disappointing, that I left the Nintendo E3 press conference with a big disappointment. But then I started to think. This was actually great. Nintendo-games will come, of course they will. But the fact that Nintendo now has the support of this many third party developers is amazing. And the fact that many of the games are games that focuses on a mature audience is a big step in narrowing the gap between Nintendo and the hardcore-players they lost with Wii. But too much is still a question mark. Maybe it's because the hype was way up in the skies, that we felt that this was a failure. Or the fact that it was announced to be two hours long but only lasted 45 minutes. Hm, here's a thought, maybe Nintendo decided to skip a big part of the show. Maybe they're hiding something. Let's hope we get to enjoy more of Wii U (worst name ever) during E3. And to be honest, Nintendo's E3 conference was still better than Microsoft and Sony’s conferences, just not as much better than I thought.

Sony's E3 Press Conference

After about fifteen minutes of delays, Sony's press conference gets going with a really long and quite boring video of games. Then the parade of games shown began.

First up was Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. To compare it to Tomb Raider shown on Microsoft’s press conference isn't wrong but when I do, I see how much better Uncharted looks. Anything left in me wanting to buy Tomb Raider just went up and left to pre-order Uncharted 3. Great action, great platform jumping, great game. If you haven't played the series before, now is a good time to start.

Next they showed Resistance 3. I continue to wonder how this game does well with much better options, like Modern Warfare, Halo and Killzone out. It's not a game I will buy, maybe if you're a big FPS-fan, then it's probably going to be a good game, but for me, I'll pass.

After that, they started to talk about 3D, announcing two game series to get 3D and HD conversions. The first was the God of War-series released on the PSP, and the second one was more of a reminder, but is never the less, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. The later one is one I really look forward to. The surroundings of those games, in HD, that is nothing else but awesome, truly awesome.

The second 3D announcement was a Playstation 3D and HD 24" screen. This is probably one of the smartest ideas that Sony have had in a long time. An affordable screen that isn't to big. One function mentioned, which I found interesting to find out more about is the fact that you can play split screen in 3D and making it look like it's two screens. Finally we can say good-bye to small split screen games. I just hope it is as inexpensive as they say.

After a quick showing of NBA 2K12 with a very funny Kobe Bryant, The time had come to show of some of the Move games. First up was Medieval Moves, in which you steer a skeleton to battle other skeletons in some kind of quest. It looked kind of fun, swinging a sword and shooting arrows. But, as with most if the Kinect games, this seems like it's made for kids.

Some other games with support for move were shown, like Infamous 2, being released tomorrow and other games. Again, it seems like some kind of a gimmick, more than i tool for better gaming, most of the time anyway, and it really is a pity. Let's hope more developers learn to use it right.

After a cool trailer for Starhawk, which looked really cool, and for Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, which didn't seem to have changed since the last game, we were presented with Dust 514. It's the great idea of combining the already popular eve online, with an FPS. The FPS will take place parallel with Eve, and you are going to be able to link the games together. It sounds like a really great idea, and I just hope that it's well executed.

Then we get to the highlight of Sonys conference, according to me. Bioshock: Infinite. The trailer shown took my breath away and made me shiver. I didn't have that much of a drive to buy the game before, but this was great. The characters, the atmosphere, oh the atmosphere! This will be amazing. Ted Levine also quickly announced that they are working on a Bioshock to the Next Generation Playstation.

Next they showed a Star Trek-game, that looked like it could work, but it also looked like a Mass Effect copy. This could go either way, but I don't think the Star Trek universe is as great as it was when it started. This was followed by talking about SSX, Need For Speed: The Run and Battlefield 3, all previously shown on EA's press conference, all looking great for people who are fans of the series or the genre.

The next announcement I thought was very interesting. Playstation Suite is a service that lets you download Playstation games to your android or tablet. It sound a little like what Nintendo is rumoured to do with Café. Therefore, this is the closest thing to a respond that the E3 press conferences have come up with. I am waiting eagerly to see what is to come on this front.

Then the big finally came, the announcement of NGP true name, Playstation Vita. With gyro, touch both back and front and compatibility to PS3, this looks kind of cool. Some of the titles included Uncharted, Little Big Planet and Modracers nation. I think i spotted something similar to Onimusha, but I'm not sure.

A game that takes advantage of the compatibility to Ps3 was the hack'n'slash RPG Ruin. In it you could save you game, plug it into your PS3 and pick it up where you left off. It is actually kind of cool, but I'm not sure if any of these games are enough to push the 3DS of the throne.

The last game to be shown was the PSvita-version of Street Fighter X Tekken. For fans of the series, or for fans of fighting games, or for anyone who have ever played any of the games, this is great. Kazuya versus Ken. Hadouken!

Sony left me quite disappointed, not like with Microsoft, but because there were so many games missing. I wanted to hear from Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Versus, The Last Guardian, Arkham City. I wanted them to announce some big game, like Kingdom Hearts III. And where were God of War IV? Sorry Sony, this was kind of bad as well.

What puzzles me is, when the knew quite some time ahead that Nintendo was going to announce a brand new console, why didn't they try to match it. It's like they just gave up. One huge game announcement and showing one portable console that we have known for quite some time that it existed, is not going to top Nintendo going all Revolution on E3. No I wanted to see life signs of the new Xbox, I wanted tons of game announcements. It seems like this year belongs to Nintendo as well.

Microsoft's E3 Press conference

These are my thoughts of Microsoft press conference on E3 today.

First of, we get a demo of Modern Warfare 3, not too surprising. I have never played the former MW-games before, but this makes me want to. The graphics looks great, the gameplay is great, the game looks all around great and you get some sort of a wow feeling about it all. I hope to play it when it comes out.

The second game is Tomb Raider. I just have to say, as great as the new Lara Croft looks (I love the makeovers characters known to the gaming world is getting) I can't help but think that she's really whiny in the trailer. Although I must say that I feel the pain she's having during the first couple of minutes of the demo. The game looks not that different than it's predecessors, if anything, it looks a bit messy. But who knows, lets hope that it's not.

At this point, Microsoft starts to talk about a lot of Xbox innovations for the Xbox 360 as a multimedia platform. Things like easy access via voice and the addition of Bing searching and YouTube. This looks really great and well done. They have accomplished what they wanted. But is it what we want? I for one wants games, and this takes up way too much of the time of the conference. This is what Microsoft has to conquer Nintendos Café, and it's not enough.

Next they show a new Ghost Recon with Kinect features. I have always been a bit sceptical against Kinect, it's a toy, not a tool for gaming. Ghost Recon does not help prove me wrong. It tries, but I still prefer a controller.

And then, Mass Effect 3, and this is just great. I longed of this game when I had played the second one, and this just makes me want it even more. They have added some Kinect voice features that some seem pointless, like choosing a dialogue in the dialogue tree by saying the phrase, but some seem kind of cool, like quickly ordering your teammates to do certain attacks by saying the name and the attack. The sixth of mars 2012 is the date to look for.

Next they show two games quickly following each other. Ryse, which is the new name of Codename: Kingdome. Now THIS is what I wanted Kinect to be used for. Slashing and defending with shields, like it's real. I'm really looking forward to knowing more about the game soon.

The other trailer was for Combat Evolved Halo: Anniversary. It's Halo with HD graphics. Nice!

Forza 4 was shown, nice graphics, but I can't really say m
uch else about it. Not a big fan of racing games so not something I will buy.

Next up is Fable: The Journey. Now, I love Fable, all three of them. And this seems to be a first person version of it, going on tracks and completely being steered with Kinect. It looks rubbish actually. The atmosphere is great and I'm interested in the story. But it's not a movie, it's a game, and I'm not sure if I'm going to like playing it. I can just hope, because I love Fable.

They also showed Gears of War 3, of course, looking as amazing as ever. This, I'm really looking forward to, and I hope for four player co-op. Hopefully we will get more information during the week.

After this, the conference cools of for me. They show a conversion of Minecraft to the Xbox that looks kind of cool. They show some games for the Kinect that are clearly kids games, like Disneyland adventures, which just makes me long for Kingdom Hearts III, and the Sesame Street game, that looks really bad. The only thing going for it is that it is made by double fine. Kinect Star Wars were also shown, but that also looks quite bad. Let's hope I'm wrong.

More for Kinect, Kinect Sports 2 and Dance central 2. I know that Harmonix knows what they're doing, so for people who like to dance, this is the game to play. Kinect Sports 2 is... well, Kinect Sports 2.

Kinect Fun Labs is a tool to do a lot of things with the Kinect, like building your avatar quickly without needing to flip through a bunch of menus, and such. It look kind of cool, but again, nothing really game related, just a customizing feature.

The presenter ends the conference by thanking everyone here and the room darkens for a last trailer... A new trilogy. The screen shows the cells of a body... The heart... We can hear a muffled voice... I becomes clearer... "Wake up John." Of course, it's Halo 4, once again with Master Chief and Cortana in the leading roles. I'm exited to see what 343 studios does with the popular series. I hope it's amazing, and I hope it's new and fresh, but still recognizable. The hype is bigger than ever, lets just hope anything can live up to it. We will see at the end of 2012.

To sum it up, Microsoft's E3 press conference 2011 was a dissapointment, and I don't see how Nintendo and Sony could not top it. With too much focus on the Kinect, the only things I went "awesome" at were Ryse and Halo 4. It's not good enough. In a few minutes we'll se how Sony does.