Watching all three press conferences helped me realize three things:

1. Move and Kinect are supposed to be interesting, but aren't to me.

2. I have to play 10 more futuristic shooters this year, but will kill myself first.

3. Nintendo thinks outside the box, but perhaps a little too far.

1. Watching Microsoft and Sony's press conferences was interesting and distressing in the same regards. Both focused on their respective new technology that they introduced last year. Both had games to support the hardcore market, but also provided a plethora of casual titles to interest a different crowd. I watched most of the Kinect stuff waiting for it to end, wanting more Mass Effect 3 and Gears of War 3 gameplay. However, I was intrigued by Ryse, a game that relayed a style similar to both consoles. An "on-rails" experience, but with interesting bloody combat struck the Roman soldier in me. However, it also showed that these experiences are very limited. Your control is limited, the amount of content they can throw at you amounts to shooting galleries. And although shooting isn't the word in this case, in titles like the medieval tales game from Sony and the Fable: The Journey game show this same style. These games have an audience, but it isn't the hardcore, it's the hardest of core. My experiences with Kinect and Move are at friends houses, and these games are not going to sell to me. Maybe that's not their goal, but as a hardcore gamer who buys a lot of variety, these aren't for me.

Sidenote: Entertainment controls with Kinect are interesting, but not a selling point.

2. GEEZ! I am usually pretty excited to see new shooters, fresh or sequels alike, but HOLY **** can we flood the market with any more shooters? MW3, BF3, Resistance 3, Bioshock Inf, Halo 4, Halo CE: Anniversary, GOW 3, Mass Effect 3, Uncharted 3, Aliens: Colonial Marines! That's 10 of what I am sure is less than half at the show this year. I understand there is a wide market and that many of these games have separate followings or different gameplay mechanics, but this is getting a little insane. Watching so many new ones roll out only depresses me more. There's room for new IPs, but understanding how flooded the shooter market is now (i.e. 6th Halo game, 6th Call of Duty), it's overwhelming in a bad way.

Sidenote: I forgot Brothers In Arms, Call of Juarez, Duke Nukem...

3. Wii U? Wuu? I wanted to hate this, no one knew exactly what was coming, only the basic controller concepts. I was impressed with the 3rd party support. I was impressed with the versatility. I think it may be a step too far. This is the second console iteration in a row that Nintendo has gone far beyond the expectations of normal console cycle. The backwards compatibility was a plus, the golf and shuriken demo was a woah/huh? and the promise of managing two different markets of gamers is very intriguing. If anyone can do it...well, it's not Nintendo, not yet anyway. But this is the closest anyone is trying to get. Aside from Sesame Street and Disneyland with terrible child actors. I'm hoping this is a step forward for games.

Sidenote: Zelda Anniversary was a flop, surprise ****tily directed orchestra.

So where do they stand? Nintendo showed a lot of new hardware. If that's what wins E3 2011, then they did it. But what really sells the consoles are the games, according to Reggie. Microsoft announced some solid titles and Sony followed suit with Vita and more PS3. This year is shaping up to be AWESOME!