E3 2011 Review
Posted on Aug 6, 2011 in Events and attached to E3 2011 Predictions
Well, E3 was a few months ago, and I promised that I'd post a follow-up to my predictions - so here it is! E3 wasn't totally amazing, but it was better than last year, in my opinion. Of course the biggest news was Nintendo's announcement of the Wii U and its touch-sceen controller, but there were a few other interesting bits of information released as well. Let's take a quick look at the big three's keynotes and the news contained within them. Then I can match them up with my predictions to see how many I got right!
Microsoft
Microsoft's keynote was the first off the mark, and was definitely the worst of the big three keynotes, simply because of the terrible Kinect demonstrations. There were painful (to watch) gameplay demos involving small children, horrible laggy lightsaber fights (lightsaber ON!), dancing games, and the like. We also saw some Mass Effect 3 footage, Modern Warfare 3, Tomb Raider, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Fable: The Journey, and a few others. Halo 4 is announced, as well as a high-definition re-release of the original game.
Predictions
"Hardcore" games for the Kinect will be demonstrated. The graphics, gameplay, and controls will all look terrible.
Partially correct - To be fair, the graphics on most of them looked pretty good. The gameplay and controls looked awful, though.
Somebody will make an idiot out of themselves on stage while demonstrating a Kinect.
Extremely correct - The annoying children and the Ubisoft guy trying to play an FPS with Kinect were among the most awkward demonstrations of the show, but the worst one involved two guys playing Kinect football. Definitely the worst part of the show.
A Halo game will be announced. Possibly two.
Double correct - They didn't just announce one. They announced FOUR. (HD re-release, and a new Halo trilogy)
Two people that nobody cares about will talk for WAY TOO LONG about something that nobody cares about. (Think the ESPN crap from last year)
Partially correct - We had the Disney kids, the UFC guy, the EA sports guy, the voice controlled menus, and much more. Nobody cared about any of them, and they all talked for too long, but none of them met the criteria of WAY too long.
Cliffy B will, yet again, wield a Lancer gun (from Gears of War) on stage.
Partially correct - The Cliffster was on stage, but no plastic gun. He did wield Ice T (the rappper) instead, so I think that counts.
Microsoft will show off a bunch of statistics and numbers to show why they have been the most successful game company this year.
Incorrect - Microsoft actually didn't do this. They said that this was their biggest year yet, but didn't actually do the boring stats.
Sony
Sony was up second. They opened with a talk about the PSN hacking incident, and even apologised for it! Then we got an excellent-looking trailer of Uncharted 3. There was also a demo of Resistance 3, which looks almost as generic as Uncharted does not. After a few demos of the Playstation Move and some games supporting it, they announce their big news. The new Sony handleld , the Playstation Vita (which rhymes with 'cheetah') will be getting released this year (recently this has been pushed back to 2012 in the west). Pricing is US$250 for a wifi version, or US$300 for one with 3G.
Predictions
Nothing will be said about the PSN hack.
WRONG! - Jack Tretton opened the keynote by talking about the PSN downtime.
Sony will brag about how the PSN is such a great and robust service (while still ignoring anything about the hack).
Partially correct - They bragged about the PSN, but they did acknowledge the hack.
Uncharted 3 will get a sexy new trailer.
Yes, yes, and double yes - A new trailer AND a bunch of gameplay! And it was very sexy.
Resistance and/or Killzone title(s) will be announced. No gameplay will be shown, just a very cool looking cinematic cutscene.
Wrong - Nothing. Got a bunch of Resistance 3 gameplay, but we already knew about that one, and it was gameplay, not just a cutscene.
The new Sony tablets plus the phone will be talked about for an extremely long time. Nobody will care about them.
Wrong - Nothing at all was said about anything that wasn't PS3 or NGP.
More games for the NGP are announced, but none will look as cool as Uncharted.
Correct - Dead on with this one.
No price tag or concrete release date will be given for the NGP.
Incorrect - Nope, got a price and a release "window" for the end of this year. Recently though, my joke about the NGP being delayed has come true.
The menu screen of the NGP software will look less terrible.
- Nope, it still looks the same. They really need to improve that thing.
Somebody makes a "RIIIIIIDDDDGE RACER" joke.
Correct! - Almost missed it, but the Ridge Racer joke made it into the very end of they keynote. Hooray!
Sony will show off a bunch of statistics and numbers to show why they have been the most successful game company this year.
Nope - Pretty light on stats all around this year. Good for you, Sony.
Nintendo
Nintendo were saving their big announcement for last. There was a full orchestra on stage, celebrating the Zelda anniversary with some re-releases of classic Zelda games on the Virtual Console. There were some videos of upcoming 3DS games: Mario Kart, Starfox 64 3D, Super Mario 3D, Kid Icarus: Uprising, and Luigi's Mansion 2. A few third-party games were shown as well. The new console was announced next: the Wii U. The big feature is the controller, which has a large touch screen built in, capable of receiving streamed HD video from the console. Some third party games were teased for it, but nothing from Nintendo themselves. Nice work, Nintendo. Nobody will want your stuff until you announce some games! They partially made up for it by announcing that two new Super Smash Bros. games are going to be developed for the Wii U and the 3DS (but work hasn't started on either yet).
Predictions
The "Wii 2" will contain Nintendo's gimmicky gimmick ever. Everyone will love it.
You decide - Hard to tell with this one. Obviously the gimmick is the screen in the controller, but I think the 3DS is more gimmicky than that.
No price tag or concrete release date will be given for the Wii 2.
Correct - Saw that one coming.
Online functionality in the Wii 2 will hardly get a mention. Friend codes will return.
Correct - Nothing was said, at all. Not even about friend codes.
Nothing will be said about the following things in the Wii 2: Patches, DLC, achivements, or any service to provide these features.
Correct - Dead on.
The Vitality Sensor will, yet again, be mentioned (at least in passing). No release date (or real games) for it will be announced.
Partially correct - Nothing in the keynote, but the vitality sensor was discussed in the post-keynote Q&A session. It was 'still under development'.
Skyward Sword will not be delayed for release as a Wii 2 launch title.
Correct - They wouldn't make the same mistake twice.
At least one announced title will be a re-release of a classic Nintendo title with a large fan base. (Wait...do they have any left?)
Correct - Had to think about this one, but Link's Awakening DX on the 3DS technically fits the bill.
The announced Wii 2 launch titles (if any) will be mostly rubbish.
Technically correct - (The best kind of correct!) No Wii U launch titles were announced. (Third party games don't count!)
New 3DS titles will also be mostly rubbish.
Incorrect - Nothing much was announced in terms of new games, but Super Mario 3D and Luigi's Mansion 2 were among them, and they didn't look rubbish at all.
One unexpected game announcement will trigger an enthusiastic response from the audience.
Correct - Smash Bros! Also, when Batman: Arkham Asylum was shown, it got a big cheer. Mostly because it was completely unexpected for a Nintendo console.
Four people will participate in a co-op game demonstration.
Mostly incorrect - No gameplay demonstrations were in the keynote, but Nintendo released a 5-player demo immediately after they keynote footage. I don't think it counts, though.
Nintendo will show off a bunch of statistics and numbers to show why they have been the most successful game company this year.
Nope - Nintendo continues the trend and doesn't say anything about stats, for the most part.
The Leftovers
Let's clean up the remaining keynotes, starting with the EA one. Nothing much interesting here, but there were lots of game videos including Mass Effect 3, and Battlefield 3. There were some idiot football players on stage, and they couldn't leave fast enough. Nothing new of interest was announced, I guess they save the big stuff for their cameos in the larger keynotes.
Ubisoft was mostly the same, except with one major difference: the presenter. Ubisoft managed, somehow, to choose the most annoying person possible to present their keynote. Watch the keynote yourself if you're into that kind of thing, but it was simply terrible - even worse than Microsoft's. Far Cry 3 was announced, continuing the tradition of it not being related to the previous entries in the series in any possible way.
Predictions
Buzzwords like "Innovation" and "Experience" will be used far too often.
You better believe it - They couldn't say the buzzwords fast enough.
A multi-platform game will be advertised to run the best on one particular platform.
Maybe - I think this was tossed around a bit, but nothing concrete. Lots of little things involving the Kinect/Move exclusives, though.
No newly announced game will be single-player only, except for Nintendo games.
I think not - Tomb Raider got some coverage, and that probably isn't multiplayer. There was also a Fable game. Far Cry 3, as well (as long as tacked-on multiplayer that nobody will play doesn't count). There were a few others, too.
Capcom will port Street Fighter 4 to at least one more platform.
Well.... - There was nothing at E3, but, the game was re-released on Steam only a few days after I posted the predictions. Also, they've recently announced a complete re-release of the game on all platforms for next year. Nice cashing-in action, Capcom.
Nintendo will announce a new IP.
What did you expect? - Nintendo's new games only included existing IPs (Mario, Kirby, Super Smash Bros.)
A new Advance Wars game is being developed.
Unfortunately not - Nothing. I really hope that the series isn't dead, but it doesn't look good.
A Wii 2 launch title will exclusively target a hardcore audience.
Impossible to know - No launch titles were announced.
Sony apologises for withholding information during the PSN hack incident.
Partially correct! - hey apologised for "any inconvenience", which is part of the way there.
Sony or Microsoft will promote a game by advertising that it does NOT contain motion control.
Nope - It didn't happen, from what I can recall.
Valve will announce, and show a trailer of, a new Half-Life game.
Like that was going to happen - Valve HAS NOTHING TO SAY ABOUT HALF-LIFE. Ever. Stop asking.
Closing
And that's it for this year's E3 posts. I know there was a big delay on this follow-up post, but at least it's here now, right? To conclude, the arbitrary "winners" and "losers" for this year:
1. Sony - Lots of interesting stuff, but mostly because of the Uncharted 3 gameplay.
2. Nintendo - The Wii U looks interesting, but no games were announced. Some interesting 3DS games were, though.
3. EA - While there was no new game announcements, EA gets third simply because they weren't as bad as the others.
4. Microsoft - Lots of painful-to-watch Kinect demonstrations involving football and children.
5. Ubisoft - the presented was simply the most annoying person at the show, Ubisoft gets last place for that reason alone.
The predictions will make a return for next year! Until then, follow your favourite games website for your information, because I'm not going to tell you anything!
