E3 2011: Loot Ninja Grades The Conferences

With E3 in full swing at the moment, I’d figure I’d go back and rate our favorite moments, announcements, and even throw in a few jabs at the over-the-top Mr. Caffeine from the 2011 press conferences. We’ll start with the big three (Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo), then roll on into the publisher conferences of EA and Ubisoft later.

Microsoft - C+

Microsoft had a lot to show this year, but sadly, most of it was Kinect stuff. This droned on and on about shit we didn’t care about. Sure, I love the fact that Mass Effect is getting voice recognition, but I’d really like it if I could just do that shit with a headset.

Gears of War 3 with Ice-T was a cool addition and definite excitement-getter, but it’s Gears 3. We saw it last year.

One of my biggest issues with the show was coming out swinging with Modern Warfare 3. Why on earth would you do this? This needs to be a demo that is shown off after all of the Kinect Fun Labs, Kinect Me, and other mention of all of the dashboard integration. This would have gotten people back on the edge of their seats. Instead, I just relaxed for a bit and let my mind roam off (and yes, I was doing this during the liveblog) right after that.

Then we get to all of the Halo announcements. The 30 second teaser trailer for Halo 4 was great and definitely got me excited, but looking across the other conferences, Microsoft just didn’t have as many high points.

Sony - B

I’m a sucker for new technology, and the PS Vita shined. With it’s almost-PS3-level graphics, to it’s front and back touch pads, the PS Vita has got a lot of features crammed into a handheld for $250-$300 dollars.

Mr. Tretton came right out and said what he needed to say off he cuff: a non-scripted, from the heart speech about the PSN outage. He then made the fatal mistake of showing us a trailer for Infamous 2 that came out the next day? Why? Use that time to show us something better and more hard hitting? And Insomniac? What the hell are you doing with Resistance 3? That was by far the worst onstage hands-on demo I’ve seen in a long time, if not ever, and definitely leaves me questioning the quality of Resistance 3.

As always, the Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception demo stole the show. With it’s crazy water effects and ambient lighting, Drake is back and looks to be better than ever.

But also throw in the cool features in Ruin - and I’m sure coming to future handheld PS Vita games - is the play on the handheld, save to the cloud, then play on your PS3 feature. All in all, Sony did what they had to do. They came out swinging with the PSN outage talk, then Drake, and didn’t have too much fluff and lackluster Move games.

Nintendo - B+

Nintendo was great this year, if not a little confusing. The orchestra with Miyamoto was incredible, and definitely showcased the class involved with the Japanese company. They set release windows for most of their 3DS games we’ve been clamoring for, and announced a few new ones in Mariokart, Luigi’s Mansion 2, and Starfox 3D.

I look back at the Nintendo conference this year and think of it as a “tie-up the loose ends” type of conference. Skyward Sword, Kid Icarus: Uprising, and even all of the other 3DS projects announced at the 2011 show get a release window. This is a far step from last year when we were bombarded with game announcements, but a year has gone by and we’ve yet to see any of them released.

Next came the big announcement of the Wii U, a core gaming platform set on par with the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t set the bar higher, but is probably going to be about the same graphically-wise as what we see elsewhere. I just love though that even though Nintendo is reaching the core gamer, the Wii U controller still has features to appeal to the common, older style gamer. Nintendo knows its shit, and they proved that with all of the cool features that go into the Wii U 6.2 inch touch screen, gyroscope and accelerometer, it can still be integrated into the Nintendo family. We still see Wii controllers being used, we still see nunchucks being used. This all adds up to a core gaming experience for those that want it, and the casual gamer can have a cool experience as well with the same machine.

I think Nintendo did the best job of getting us excited about the future games they have coming out, if only because of the future platform and what it can do. That is still yet to be seen, but with any new technology, for now, the sky is the limit.

How do you guys rate the conferences? Anything I missed that should send one over the top?

The bottom line: Microsoft showed off too much Kinect shit, Sony was all about the PS Vita with a few lackluster demos and some that didn’t need to be there, and Nintendo wrapped up everything it needed to, as well as leaving us wanting more (which is ultimately what a conference should do).