E3 Review and Reaction

Now that E3 is over, let's take a look at what happens and what this means for gaming. Since I only previewed and predicted for the first party developers, let's keep this review and reaction to the system presentations. I will look at the positives and negatives of each presentation, then I wil award each a medal for their performance. To be dramatic, I'll start with bronze and end with gold.

NINTENDO

First, let me start with the disappointment that Nintendo decided not to make a presentation at E3, but rather chose to do a "digital event," the Nintendo equivilent of a podcast. I would understand if none of the major Nintendo leaders could make it, but that was not the case, for Miyamoto and Fils-Aime was there (Iwata could not make it due to health complications). Just think about how Konami does not have E3 press conferences, and how that reflects on their poor games. It's easy to get that same thought about Nintendo. On the same note, I'm disappointed on the length of Nintendo's digital event. Microsoft spent 90 minutes on XBox, which is about average to present a system. Sony spent 120 minutes on PlayStation, which did seem a little long, but can be excused because they had so much to present. Nintendo spent a mere 45 minutes on both the WiiU and 3DS. If the length of the presentation reflected how much they were working on, it would feel like Nintendo is doing half the work the other companies are doing. There was so much to talk about, but they spent so little talking about it. I will talk about this more later.

The digital event begins with a warning: content rated M. I'm thinking to myself, "Woah, Nintendo is starting off with a game rated M? That's so not like Nintendo. This is going to be awesome!" But it wasn't for a game. It was a short skit provided by Robot Chicken. I appreciated the laugh it gave me. I also appreciated that Nintendo allowed it to make fun of itself. But it did take out time to present game, which as I already said, was lacking, and I will say it again later.

When Nintendo got to presenting games, the first one was, of course, Super Smash Bros. I liked the humorous sketch of Iwata and Fils-Aime fighting to announce Miis as Super Smash Bros fighters, although I will admit that it seems like the Miis will be another version of Captain Falcon (Brawler), Link (swordsman) and Samus (shooter). I'm still kind of iffy about the Amiibo. At first, it seemed like a copycat of Skylanders and Disney Infinite, which to me feels like a cheap way to nickel and dime people. But the more I heard of its capabilities, the more I was convinced. The Amiibo give the Super Smash Bros. character RPG abilities and elements. This means that if two people chose Fox, for example, it would not be an equal matchup, as it would be picking the same computer chosen player, the characters might have different strengths and weaknesses. This would make fights a whole lot more interesting. If successful, I hope the WiiU can incoporate this into more games.

Next two more games were announced. First, Nintendo announced Yoshi's Wooly World with an interview and a trailer. Yoshi's Wooly World is pretty much a gameplay sequel of Kirby's Epic Yarn. Shortly after, Nintendo announced Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, a game where Toad becomes Indiana Jones and hunts for treasure. Now even Toad has his own game. Watching both games, I found myself constantly saying, "That's cute" or "That's adorable." That's what these games were: cute and adorable. Perfect for kids and fanboys, but not for hardcore gamers.

I accurately did predict a new Zelda game, but it wasn't exactly what I was thinking. First, Nintendo announced Hyrule Warriors. This game viritually took Dynasty Warriors and put Legend of Zelda characters in it. Therefore, both Dynasty Warriors fans and Legend of Zelda fans will love this game. Then Nintendo got to real the Legend of Zelda game. We got to see Hyrule in 1080p, and it was beautiful. Miyamoto plans to embrace this beautiful landscape by making the most open world Legend of Zelda game yet. That's all we got. We didn't even get the game's name; it was referred to as "Legend of Zelda for WiiU." Later on, we were even told the name character may not even be Link. That's it. It's better than nothing, but I would have loved to hear more. They definitely better share more next year.

As for 3rd party development, we heard about Bayonetta 2, and that was it. Not even in the EA or Ubisoft conference was Nintendo really mentioned. Later on, Ubisoft admitted that they were only making Just Dance 2015 and Watchdogs for WiiU, and that was it for the year. Not even a Raymond game. As I said before, Nintendo needs to show 3rd party support if it wants to compete in this 8th generation console war. First, EA withdrew and now Ubisoft. If Nintendo looses Bayonetta, they are in trouble. They would have to continue on focusing on Nintendo fanboys by rebooting old franchises again. As for Bayonetta, it's nice that Nintendo will package the 2 Bayonetta games together, but since the first one came out on the Wii, and the WiiU has backward compatibility with the Wii, it's really unncessary.

Other games Nintendo showed off at its digital event were Mario Maker, Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire and Splatoon. Mario Maker looks fun to both create and play, even though unofficial mods like it have been on PCs for years. Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire kind of scares me. What I really want is my 3rd generation of Pokemon updated to most recent handheld, but it feels like Nintendo is adding too much with things like mega evolutions. Splatoon was an interesting take on a shooter game. Most importantly, it's child friendly, which is what Nintendo always shoots for (no pun intended). The show ended with announcing a new Super Smash charachter and plans for future games. That was it.

The worst part of this press conference is what didn't happen. Throughout the week, Nintendo announced more new games. Not that this was a problem; I see what they were doing. The problem was that they were some the best games, and they did not announce them at their key presentation. Some of these games were Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright, Mario Party 10 and Kirby and the Rainbow Curse. Did you know about these 3 games? You probably wouldn't unless you watched the whole thing. The sad part is these are possibly the best 3 games of the week, and Nintendo kept them hidden unless you watched every instance. Furthermore, Nintendo had a demo of a generic 1080p Star Fox game for the WiiU on the E3 showcase room. The only way the gamer would know about this either playing it at the expo or hearing a reporter report on it. A Star Fox for the WiiU was the most anticipated game. There definitely should have been more coverage of it.

All Nintendo had to do show they were keeping their promise that the first made with the WiiU: good graphics, good online play and good 3rd party development. The only thing seen was the good graphics, thanks to the future Legend of Zelda WiiU game. Online capabilites were left silent. Nintendo focused more on multiplayer on the same console than on different consoles online. What was really lacking was the 3rd party development. Not only did Nintendo not show off any 3rd party games, neither EA nor Ubisoft showed off the Nintendo WiiU. This digital event would not want anyone who does not have a WiiU to want to get a WiiU. Heck, it might even make someone who has WiiU regret they choose this system for their 8th generation console. It leaves them to ponder if they want to buy a new console or become a Nintendo fanboy.

+Positives+: Robot Chicken clips were funny, future plans of new Legend of Zelda game and Star Fox game for WiiU, good graphics displayed
-Negatives-: Best games weren't announced until afterward, no 3rd party backing, silent on online capibilites, short presentation, too many cute games
~Top 3 games~: Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright (3DS), Mario Party 10 (WiiU), Kirby and the Rainbow Curse (WiiU).
*Medal*: Bronze

Microsoft

Microsoft did exactly what I predicted. XBox did what Nintendo usually does: stick to their first party games. During the Microsoft press conference, we heard the most about Halo: Master Chief Collection, Halo 5: Guardians, Fable Legends and Forza Horizon 2. Even if they weren't faimilar franchises, Microsoft spent a lot of time on new first party games, like Sunset Overdrive, Below and Quantam Break. This demonstrates that XBox can continue making good games on their own. The 3rd party game Microsoft did present were the ones they knew had a huge fanbase on their system, like Call of Duty: Advance Warfare and Assassin's Creed: Unity. All these games looked legit. Sunset Overdrive felt like Duke Nukem meeting Left 4 Dead. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare looked so real, I had to take a second look to see if it was really a video game or a movie. Fable Legends made it clear that it abandoned the Kinect gameplay used in Fable: The Journey for going to back to the more true gameplay to the series. The most impressive had to be the Halo: Master Chief Collection. It has the 4 original, mainline games (this makes sense why Spartan Assualt was the Free Game with Gold on Xbox One. Halo 2 got the full update to XBox One graphics, but players can still play on the original graphics too if they want to go old school. For the lover of gamescore achievement points, a player can get 1000 points for each game, meaning they can earn a total of 4000 points. All these games, especially Halo: Master Chief Collection, showed that XBox knew its fanbase.

This did not mean Microsoft's press conference was perfect. It was far from it. The big one was the lack of Kinect. Only two games were announced for Kinect: Fantasia: Music Evolved and Dance Central Spotlight. And I emphasize that they were merely annouced. Neither gameplay nor a cinematic trailer was shown. Furthermore, neither the EA press conference nor the Ubisoft press conference really talked about Kinect either. All of this, combined with the "new" XBox system without Kinect, tells me that Kinect is on its way out the door. On another note, something I did not like was there was too much emphasis on co-op play. It seemed like XBox mentioned it with every game. Clearly XBox doesn't know its fanbase well enough to know XBox gamers don't have friends and therefore prefer single player :-P

Microsoft didn't do well enough to make up from all those years of mistakes to climb back to the top, but they did enough to not finish on the bottom and begin their climb back to the top.

+Positives+: Stuck to old first party franchises, introduced new first party games, stuck to third party franchises they knew were popular
-Negative-: Too much co-op play, not enough Kinect
~Top 3 games~: Halo: Master Chief Collection, Fable Legends, Forza Horizon 2.
*Medal*: Silver

Sony

Sony begin announcing a new color for the PlayStation: glacier white. I think I prefer the black color instead. That wasn't Sony's only new hardware introduced. You would think Sony would talk about Project Morpheus, but they did not, for they had not made more movements forward on it. That was a smart move on their part. They talked more about the PlayStation 4 camera, and how it has helped the improve the gameplay experience, although not requiring it, make a cheap shot at XBox One one more time. Then Sony moved on to more hardware improvements. Sony announced that anyone who has a Sony TV will have access to the PlayStation digital game library. PlayStation also announced a device that will allow a player to play PlayStation 4 on other TVs in the house. Most people weren't expecting hardware announcements years after the new consoles came out, but Sony shocked everyone by announcing so much hardware. The only thing they did not talk about was the PS4 and PS Vita bundle, which I would have loved to hear on how those two worked together. The other hardware left out was Move. Sony should have mentioned how good the new PlayStation camera was that it does not need Move.

What good would all this hardware be without software. Sony did a good job displaying the full line up of video games they had available. PlayStation gave equal time between 1st party games and 3rd party games, showing that PlayStation was dedicated to both their franchises and other franchises. Sony also demonstrated it targeted both hardcore gamers and casual gamers, without sacrificing one for the other. What better demonstration was demonstrating everything from Little Big Planet 3 to Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. If all these 1st party and 3rd party games weren't enough, Sony announced plans to make digital downloads of old PlayStation games from previous generations' consoles, as well as opening up a huge library for indie game developers to upload their games for download. Unlike Nintendo, Sony made its fans proud to own a PlayStation 4. But the best part is that the online digital libary is also available for PlayStation 3. Unlike XBox, Sony demonstrated that it was still loyal to the PlayStation 3 and those who haven't updated from a PS3 to a PS4. This alone should be clear why Sony won this E3.

+Positives+: New hardware, balance between 1st party and 3rd party development, huge game library, still loyal to the PS3
-Negatives-: Lack of Move, no mention of PS4/PSVita bundle, little time on PS Vita games
~Top 3 Games~: Little Big Planet 3, Uncharted 4: A Thiefs End, Grand Theft Auto V.
*Medal*: Gold

E3 2012 Review and Reponse

Alright, let's make the intro short and sweet. We'll do it the same as last year. We'll first review the 3 first-party developers (Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony) in order of their presentation. Then we'll review the 3 third-party developers (EA, Konami, Ubisoft) in order of their presenation. Each developer will receive a gold, silver or bronze rating in their category of first or third party developers.
FIRST-PARTY DEVELOPERS

Microsoft XBox 360

One of the predictions I made about the XBox 360 press conference is that it would appeal much to its XBox fanboys. Mark that down as my first correct prediction. The press conference opened with a cinematic opening to Halo 4, and then a super awesome gameplay demo. Before the conference hit the quarter-way mark of the conference, trailers of Gears of War: Judgment and Fable: The Journey were shown. But that's a problem. That's all was shown: trailers. These trailers said very little about each game, in both game play and story. Heck, it seemed like we learned more about Fable: The Journey in the last E3 than we did this year. But it doesn't stop with the XBox fanboys. Microsoft also appealed to the FPS fanboys such as Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Resident Evil 6 and, to top it all off for the grand finale, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. The problem with appealing to fanboys is that it's a very easy task. All you have to do is give them a new game from their favorite franchise and you're good. And that's exactly what Microsoft did. These games were just your typical shooters, whether they're from the first person point of view or the third person point of view. These games were simple sequels in the story, for they added nothing to it gameplay-wise. Although they said Resident Evil 6 is your "classic surrival horror," with hero being all gun-ho, it's more like just a horror game, or even just a TPS (third person shooter) with zombies in it. I'm not sure if this is what Microsoft was going for, but they selled themselves off as the perfect system for the shooter fanboy.

The second prediction I got right was the XBox interlinking with the Windows tablet. Microsoft calls it "Smart Glass." Smart Glass, however, was not how I really envisioned it. I envisioned it to be more an additive to games, even as a possible controller. While their showcase of Smart Glass did discuss possible game uses for a short while, it showed it more to be another way to browse through  XBox menus. I will admit, browsing on a tablet might be easier than using motion control or voice commands via Kinect, but it's still just another way to do what a controller can easily do.

Speaking of Kinect, Kinect did not come as strong as it usually did. Most of Kinect was limited to voice commands. The only Kinect on Madden 13 will be play calling. The only Kinect on Splinter Cell: Blacklist would be commanding teammates and operating menus. Along with other games, it left me asking, "Is this really Kinect? Why can't I just us the headset for voice commands?" It's true, I can hear and speak better with the headset than with Kinect. There was only 2 games that utilized the Kinect motion control, and one was an XBox Live Arcade. The one that was not was Dance Central 3. This surprised yet again. Harmonix takes its time making Rock Band games, and yet it makes sure to come out with an annual Dance Central game. If I had to take a guess, Microsoft pushes Harmonix to make a new XBox Kinect game. After all, the Dance Central series is the best selling Kinect game. Yet the presentation during the XBox press conference was lackluster. Nothing was mentioned about the gameplay, nothing was mentioned about the story. I really didn't know what Dance Central 3 was about. All we got was a performance from Usher.

Speaking of which, Microsoft gets the award for most celebrity endorsements. Usher endorsed Dance Central 3. Joe Montana endorsed Madden 13. But as many will say, the celebrity endorsements really do take away from the presentation. I already think cinematic trailers are bad enough, celebrity endorsement trailers are worse.

Microsoft XBox 360
+Positives+: Continuing to promote Kinect, Smart Glass intergrating tablets with XBox
-Negatives-: Kinect was reduced to voice commands, too much appeal to XBox fanboys, too much appeal to shooter fanboys with too many shooter games, trailers lackluster with more cinematics than gameplay, too much celebrity endorsement
~Top 3 Games~: Halo 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Resident Evil 6
*Medal: Bronze*

Sony PlayStation

Well, I was wrong in my prediction that the PlayStation 4 would be announced. It wasn't even mentioned. Maybe the announcement that leaked a few weeks earlier was premature. But I wouldn't use that against PlayStation. Better to not give any details than give bad details or wrong details. What did hurt them was that they had a fairly new handheld, the PlayStation Vita, and mentioned it very little. The most it did mention was the connection between the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. Just like I did predicted, the PlayStation Vita can be used as a PlayStation 3 controller. Added to that, a game started on PlayStation 3 can be continued on PlayStation Vita. Very handy. I we ould even suggest it could work like the Wii U. When someone else wants to use the TV, the game can be switched from the PS3 to the PS Vita. The big difference, and big advantage, is that the PS Vita can be used more than 30 feet away from the PS3!

Continuing our discussion of hardware, Move wasn't talked about too much, but moreso the Eye Toy used for the Move. The new hardware technology is Wonderbook. Using agumented reality technology, the Eye Toy can turn a reading book into an interactive game. It debuted with The Book of Spells, written by no other than the wizard expert J.K. Rowlings. While I was amazed at the technology, this does seem more like a kids game.

The software leaves me 50/50 with pros and cons, positives and negatives, good and bad. The good news was that Sony did bring fresh, new ideas to their video games, from start to end. The first game introduced in the press conference was Beyond: Two Souls, from the same studio that created Farenheit/Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain. We know this is brand new and not a sequel because the creator hates sequels. But Beyond: Two Souls is using the supernatural, and that did turn out to well for Indigo Prophecy. That has me being cautiously optomistic. The press conference ended with The Last of Us, a survival horror game. This survival horror game looks more legit than Resident Evil 6. On the flip side, the bad news was the rest of the games were simply sequels that drew in the PlayStation fanboys. There was God of War: Assension, a prequel in the God of War series that was just a gory as the sequels. There was Far Cry 3, a sequel to the Far Cry series, which was just as racist. The cross between the good news and bad news is PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. It was a new game, similar to Super Smash Bros., where the all-stars from PlayStation battle it out. The presentation was quite fun. Real gameplay footage was played. The game will be offered on both the PS3 and PS Vita, and one game can be interplayed on both. Also, two new characters were annouced: Drake from the Uncharted series and Big Daddy/Mr. Bubbles from Bioshock. Drake was obvious and good choice, but I'm uncomfortably uncertain about the Big Daddy. It's not just because Big Daddy is a third party developer game, but if you remember, you played as a Big Daddy in Bioshock 2, and that game wasn't as fun as it sounded. But the overall game looked and sounded good. I would want to play it.

Sony PlayStation
+Positives+: Brand new games,  good intergration between the PS3 and PS Vita, Wonderbook was a good use of augmented reality
-Negatives-: Too many sequels to old franchises, no new home console, too little coverage on the PS Vita, needed more Move motion control
~Top 3 Games~: Beyond: Two Souls, The Last of Us, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale
*Medal*: Silver

Nintendo

The Nintendo press conference was so big, it took up 3 conferences! There was a pre-conference, focusing on the WiiU's hardware specs, especially explaining the changes as seen on the patent. There was the regular press conference, focusing mainly on the Wii U software. Then there was the post-conference focusing solely on the 3DS because there was no room for the 3DS on the other conferences! Nintendo was able to fully justify all the changes it made with the WiiU controller in the pre-conference. The control-pads were better for handheld devices, while joysticks were better for home consoles. I was sold on all the changes, I believe the controller is now better that they made the changes.

I'm sold on the games, too. 23 games were presented during Nintendo's 2nd presentation (the regular one). 9 games were from 1st party developers. 2 games were from 2nd party developers. 13 games were from 3rd party developers. Yes, most games were from 3rd party developers. Nintedo showed that they could play with the big boys when it came for the 3rd party developer games. To me, it showed that the 3rd party developers were still on board with the WiiU. The leader of the 3rd party games was Batman: Arkham City. This game was not simply a re-release or a delayed release. While it was the same game, it added features that used the Wii U game pad. For example, the Bat vision would be viewable through the Wii U pad's screen. And it would have all the DLC installed on the disc. But still, I think I rather just play the "Game of the Year" version of the game than buy the Wii U version. Nintendo did show a trailer compiling other 3rd party games on the Wii U, like Dark Siders 2 and Assassin's Creed 3. Yet there was no gameplay shown, and very little cinematics. Although the 1st party games are the minority, they got the most attention. The first game was Pikimin 3, which can be played with either the Wii U pad or Wii Motion Plus. This is good because most people said that the Wii Motion Plus was easier to use playing Pikimin than the 2 joysticks on the Game Cube controller. More Wii U games need this option, just like PlayStation 3 lets players choose between Move and the sixaxis. Another game I liked was Scribblenauts Unlimited. Scribblenauts in the past has been a basic puzzle game, but Scribblenauts Unlimited turned Scribblenauts into a open-word sandbox exploring game with a story. There was also New Super Mario Bros. U, which last year was called "New Super Mario Bros. Mii."  But the 3D 480p Mario platformers are starting to seem repetitive, so there's nothing that sticks out to amazing to me. What I'm upset that I didn't see is was the new Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U. That was what was selling me on the new home console. Without it, I'm not really sold on the system. Actually, no game really sold me on the system, which made me want to say, "I need it now."

For their last presentation, the post-presentation, it was all about the 3DS, and the games it had. Nintendo keeps milking the return of the Mario platforming with New Super Mario Bros 2. It had me thinking of the Super Mario Bros. 2 for the NES as released in the U.S., but it's nothing like that. Still the game seemed like it was another sequel in the same franchise. At least they only did with the Mario franchise. And that's what I liked about the 3DS game presentation. There was a new Donkey Kong, Metroid, Zelda, Star Fox or Kirby. There were some repeats in old franchises, but it wasn't overdone franchises. A good example would be Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. The Luigi's Mansion franchise hasn't been around too long, so it's too old or too overdone. I'm actually looking forward to it. Paper Mario: Sticker Star will give a new gameplay addition to the Paper Mario series that I like. Finally, last but not least, they briefly mentioned Pokemon Black 2 and White 2. It's for the Nintendo DS, but it will have advantages for the 3DS. This is just killing the Pokemon series for me, almost as bad as Pokemon Conquest. It's bad enough that they downgraded from precious stones to metals to colors, but now they are adding numbers?!

Altogether, Nintendo did everything they needed to do to prove the Wii U is legit. And they even were able to prove the 3DS was worth its price in the games they are making for it. It was interesting to see the 3rd party games that came out. There were T rated games, M rated games, but not all were shooters. See, you can have a good game without being a shooter!

Nintendo
+Positives+: 3 conferences to cover everything, covered both WiiU and 3DS, covered both hardware and software, WiiU has 3rd party backing, Wii U offers serious games for the hardcore gamer, Wii U offers old franchises for fanboys, hardware changes were justified
-Negatives-: Nothing sets the WiiU apart as better than the XBox 360 or PS3, no must-have game, too much Wii U and not enough 3DS
~Top 3 WiiU games~: Pikmin 3, Scribblenauts Unlimited, New Mario Bros. U
~Top 3 3DS games~:  Lugi's Mansion: Dark Moon, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, New Super Mario Bros. 2
*Medal*: Gold

Before I totally transist into the 3rd party developers, may I point out that I was correct in predicting that Nintendo would lead the way in two 2 screens/touch screen movement in the next generation of home consoles, and that Microsoft and Sony would follow? Microsoft and Sony thought they were in the right by not having motion controls like the Wii in 2007,  but when everyone was going for Wii over XBox360 and PS3, they realized they were in the wrong and they followed suit quickly with Kinect and Move respectively. This time around, Microsoft and Sony didn't wait at all. When they saw Nintendo was adding a second screen, a touch screen, they quickly found out a way to do the same. As much as hardcore gamers won't like to admit it, they need to admit it: Nintendo is the leader in home consoles. If a hardcore gamer can't admit that, he is no more than an XBox360 or a PS 3 fanboy.

Alright, let's move on to third-party developers and their games. 2 third-party developers had presentations during the E3 week: EA and Ubisoft. Konami wasn't invited to have one, so they once again held a "pre-E3 kickoff" so they could host their little own press conference. To make it an even 3, I will include Konami with EA and Ubisoft. Once again, each will be ranked with a gold, silver or bronze for how they went about their press conference.

Konami

Although I'm including Konami, and although Konami's press conference was the same length as EA's and Ubisoft's press conference, there's really not much to say about Konami. Why? Konami continued their bandwagon of sequels to old franchises. First up was the Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) 2013. This sequel wasn't as bad, as it was a yearly release of a sports game, and the game did make improvements in gameplay that made the game feel realistic. Another sequel was Metal Gear Solid Revengeance, a Metal Gear Solid game in honor of Metal Gear Solid's 25th anniversary. This does take a new spin on the series, where the main charachter is an old character that has never been played before. The preview for MGS Revengeance was meant to be the center of the press conference, as there was a cinematic trailer, a gameplay trailer, and even a comical trailer. The Castlevania series adds 2 games to it: Castlevania: Lord of Shadows 2 for the home consoles and Castlevania: Lord of Shadow - Mirror of Fate for the Nintendo 3DS. I never was a fan of sequels within sequels (like Final Fantasy XIII-2), and Lord of Shadows doesn't help it, and Lord of Shadows - Mirror of Fate makes it worse. But the worse than sequels, or sequels within sequels, are "collections" because they are really just re-releases of older games. This time, it's a Zone of the Enders Collection. HD graphics, a demo of MGS Revengeance and a season of anime isn't enough to make me want to buy this game.

The other problem with Konami's press conference is that what it didn't have. It only briefly mentioned the Fox Engine, but it didn't talk about it it all. Did you know there was going to be a sequel to Little King's Story?  It's on Konami's E3 display floor, but it wasn't mentioned at the press conference. Did you know another Silent game is coming out? After all the hype Konami gave the Silent franchise last year, between the Silent Hill Collection and Silent Hill Downpour (and even the movie!), Konami never mentioned it. Then again, maybe it's not worth mentioning. The PlayStation Vita game, which will be known as Silent Hill: Book of Memories, is called a survival horror game, but it looks more like a gung-ho horror game. Games weren't the only thing Konami was lacking. For example, Konami mentioned the Fox Engine, but barely spoke about it. Most importantly, Konami lacked a lot of dates for these games. We got things like "holiday 2012" or "early 2013." It wasn't the most reassuring.

Konami
+Positives+: Improvements in gameplay with sequels, approaching old games from new angles
-Negatives-: Only games were new sequels to old franchises, lack of details
~Top 3 Games~: Pro Evolution Soccer 2013, Metal Gear Solid Revengeance, Silent Hill: Book of Memories
*Medal*: Silver

Electronic Arts (EA)

Electronic Arts (EA) has always been neck and neck with Activision as the leader in third-party developers, so I expect a lot from EA. EA was a disappointment because they got onboard with appeasing their fanboys with sequels. They displayed 10 games, and all 10 games were sequels or some other kind of addition to the franchise. And the extensions were the worst. At least with a sequel, you have a fully brand new game, even if it's from an old franchise. But EA tried to get away with expansion packs and DLC. Instead of making a new Battlefield game, EA made 5 Battlefield 3 DLC packs. Instead of making a new Star Wars game, they just released more content on their Star Wars MMORPG. Come on, EA, I expect more from you. If you're just going back to your old franchises, at least make a brand new game, not just DLC or expansions.

What I did like about these presentations was that EA made sure their game trailers were not just cinematic, but also showed gameplay. At the same time, the gameplay did not show the full extend of the game. For example, EA failed to mention or demonstrate any Kinect use in their EA Sports games. EA also seemed more focused on social interaction with their games than actual gameplay. I play games to play games, not soically interact. Besides, from what I know and experience, most people don't care about your game progress posted on Facebook and Twitter.

And that's why I'm going to give Electronic Arts a worse rating than Konami. Both of them only gave game repeats, but EA tried to pass off DLC and expansions as new games, which is worse than passing of a Collection as a new game. While Konami's games were offering new gameplay ideas in their sequels, EA offered nothing new, or at least nothing the press conference showed.  Much was expected from EA, and little was given in return.


Electronic Arts (EA)
+Positive+: Gamplay in trailers.
-Negative-: More focus on DLC and expansion than new games, only repeat games of old franchises, sports games did not demonstrate Kinect capabilities, too much social networking
~Top 3 Games~: Madden 13, Medal of Honor: Warfighter, Dead Space 3
*Medal*: Bronze




Ubisoft

I really don't know why everyone hates on Ubisoft, so much they can't get the spot as the number 1 third-party developer because they truly deserve it. The first thing that I like about Ubisoft the most is that Ubisoft does not fear the new handware on the consoles, but tackles them dead on to advance video games as a media outlet. This year, Ubisoft dove head first into the new Wii U pad. Out of it, we got Zombi U, a legit, M-rated (can you believe an M-rated game for Nintendo?) game for the Wii U. It can easily rival any zombie game out there. Also, to continue bringing old franchises to the Wii U, there's Rayman Legends, where players can control characters from all sorts of controls. This is a game for everyone. In the past couple years, the newest technological hardware Ubisoft interacted with was the Kinect for XBox. Years later, Ubisoft has not given up on Kinect, but continues to with Just Dance 4. And let's not for Sony, nor forget handhelds. Ubisoft conquered the new PSVita with Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation, which fully utilizes the PSVita hardware, especially the amazing graphics. Ubisoft doesn't need to make their own console or handheld, for their games show their talent on their own.

What I also like about Ubisoft is how they go about their presentation. All the other press conferences are serious business. Ubisoft also always has fun, from the people playing games to the annoucers cracking jokes. The celebrity endorsements don't take away from the presentation, but add to the fun. In this press conference, Flo Rida was the introduction to Just Dance 4.
It's actually kind of hard for me to think about what I didn't like from the press conference. If I had to pick something, the only negative would be a little bias towards my favorite genre, the music game genre. Ubisoft said nothing about their guitar game Rocksmith. Indeed, Rocksmith did have an important annoucement. A new edition of Rocksmith will be soon released in the fall, adding bass. If you already have a copy of Rocksmith, the bass upgrade will be available for DLC. Ubisoft really should have announced this. Rocksmith is rivaling Rock Band's Pro Guitar among serious gamers. Soon it will also be rivaling it in Pro Bass.

Ubisoft
+Positives+: Entertaining press conference, new games with new ideas, takes on new hardware challenges, something for all ages and all types of gamers
-Negatives-: Lacks mentioning Rocksmith
~Top 3 Games~: Zombi U, Rayman Legends, Just Dance 4
*Medal*: Gold