So E3 is just about over (Other than the excellent live cam feed that Gamespot has been doing...good job for once, guys) and I have plenty to say about what was the gaming world's very own Super Bowl and World Series rolled into one. It was happy, it was sad, it was pathetic and sometimes it was beautiful. A display of electronic nonsense that was without peer, and sometimes without any decency either if you count the scantily clad booth babes that take women's rights back a few decades.

Skin-painted women aside, there was plenty to talk about at E3 this year and I'm going to touch on a few of the things that moved me...either for good or for ill.

:)

Nintendo: (Overall grade: D)
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First up we have Nintendo's big announcement....which turned out to be a console that I suppose is more powerful than it's two competitors but looks to have nothing on it that helps it stand out. I don't want to sit here and beat up on them because so LITTLE is known about it, but it does reflect badly on Nintendo for not showing more actual footage of and perhaps demo'ing a game or two. For a system that is due out next summer you'd think they would have, at the very least, some mock-ups running on stage.

How Nintendo is going to deal with the Xbox720 or the PS4 (Can't say that'll be their names) when they come out a couple years down the road (Industry rumors say 2013) I haven't a clue.

For the record I did like the gamepad with screen design, but the placement of the analog sticks looks very wrong and whether this thing has a real online network like XBL or PSN remains to be seen. If it doesn't, then the Wii-U (Say it quickly, like an Ambulance siren) will be the kind of flop that doesn't just embarrass a company, but ruins a company. Nintendo had better realize how important the success of their system is to their future. Naming it a silly name was not a good start, either.

Perhaps even more egregious of a sin was Nintendo's lack of info concerning the mysterious state of Last Story & Xenoblade's English release. With all the rumors about these games it shocks me they haven't addressed them. Especially since the Wii is STARVING for RPGs so much that fans are actually buying up used copies of Arc Rise for 40 bucks due to its demand and rarity.

People want Last Story and Xenoblade and yet Nintendo avoids mention of it with almsot as much strength of denial as they do Earthbound/Mother.

Also, no Dragon Quest X news, even though it's suppose to be a wii title. Though rumor suggests it may have been pushed back for a Wii-U release. Even still, NO NEWS OF IT.

Good job Ninty, you failed.


Microsoft: (Overall Grade: F)
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Kinect Kinect Angry-white-men-shooting-brown-people Kinect Kinect Kinect more-realistic-wargame-shooters kinect kinect Gears-of-War kinect kinect Halo

/end of show


Sony: (Overall Grade C)
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Sony played to their strengths, mainly the footage of Uncharted 3 and its new handheld platform, the PS Vita. Announcing that the Vita's price was the same as the 3DS (250 bucks) was a smart move and a nice change of pace considering the last time they announced a portable at E3. Even Tretton made a veiled "Riiiiidge Racer" joke after the demonstration which helped me crack a smile for the first time in nearly two years.

The Vita looks good but I don't see anything worth buying for it yet. If I wanted Uncharted I'd simply buy the new PS3 one, why buy a whole new system for it? If I see the same RPG lineup the PSP enjoyed I might bite and get one when it reaches a sub $200 price tag but until then I'm not interested. It looks amazing and is certainly light years beyond the wimpy looking Dreamcast-esque visuals of the 3DS but I won't spend $250 bucks on a system that has no "killer aps".

That being said I'm disappointed that Sony didn't devote time to Dark Souls. I expected them to show that up on the big stage but they didn't. I suppose Resistance 3 is more important sinc eit meets the "Angyr men shooting guns" requirement that they are all forced to adhere to now. Yippee.

While Sony *did* show off some Move games, they didn't ride its dry, dusty corpse the way Microsoft did with Kinect. For that I give them a semi-respectable C.



Overall Winner: PC
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Like me and my friends said on twitter, since all 3 major companies failed to impress that means the PC wins by default for not even showing up. Rumors say Gabe Newell didn't appear at E3 because the cafeteria there didn't serve onion rings. Or so the joke goes, anyway.

Therefore, he (and we, by proxy) won E3. congrats fellow PC gamers!



Games I was really impressed with:
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I have to say that even though the majority of the games shown were shooters or bland re-hashes, I did see a few things that looked incredibly good and were put on my "must buy" list. First among these was a Korean MMO coming out this year called "Rusty Hearts". While Musambani/Lunethex did show me this last year, I never got to see how amazingly cool it was until Gamespot's live floor cam feed yesterday.

Rusty Hearts is a very simple but very fast dungeon crawler/beat-em-up that combines all the visual flair of a paid title with the ease of play you'd find in a F2P game. With a little Guardian Heroes st.yle gameplay and a very slick user interface you'd have to be a very grumpy, jaded gamer (even more so than me) to not see the charm the game exudes. I was impressed enoguh to actually sign up for the beta and intend to try it out with Musmabani a month from now, time permitting.

Another surprise was Capcom's "Dragon's Dogma". While it is a very light RPG and is considerably more action based than what I'm used to, it still looks amazing. Resembling Demon's Souls in look and gameplay (But no doubt not as hard) it easily cuaght my eye and seperated itself from the pack of me-too shooters that seem to always populate the E3 show floor.

The large open world, the huge boss fights, the shockingly decent graphics (It even had god rays)...I almost thought it was a PC game until a quick glance at the booth showed the X360 and PS3 symbols. Shame too, because Capcom really should release a PC version of this. It's certainly no worse than the drek Bethesda is going to pump out later this year. Ahem.

Also impressing this jaded gamer was Snowblind's "Lord of the Rings: War in the North". I've had my eyes on this for awhile since Snowblind was behind it and I lvoed their console Baldur's Gate games, but getting to see a brief in-game dmeo of it during Gamespot's live feed convinced me I need it.

Basically, the game is what I wish Diablo 3 could be. It's a very visually appealing fully 3D "Loot centered" co-op action-RPG that doesn't look like it's reinventing the wheel but seems to make a good one nonetheless. With Diablo 3 and Dungeon Siege 3 looking so old and busted it seems like this could be the one ARPG that really breaks out and makes me want to spend my money on.

Last but not least is the new Tomb Raider. Though they showed VERY LITTLE footage of it, what I *did* see excited me. Lara's new (less bustier) look and the engine re-design really help make the game look more like an action adventure it started as rather than the lame wannabe shooter that the series has become. If I want an Indiana Jones 3rd person shooter I'll play mroe Uncharted, not a Tomb Raider game pretending to be one.



Overall Grade of this year's E3: C
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Wasn't really feeling it this year. No truly big announcements other than Ninty's oddly named console and most of the games I thought would make it actually didn't. Plus a lot of the games me and Musmabani/Lunethex wanted to see were behind closed doors. Really wonderful job there guys. Show up to reveal your game then refuse to even talk about it. Brilliant.