E3: recap & thoughts from a guy who wasn’t actually there, but just watched everything online

Matt Hawkins Contributing Writer, Video Games

So how did E3 2011 stack-up in the end? Was it actually noteworthy or just another amass of hot air and hyperbole? Were the big games really worth getting excited about?

e32 E3: recap & thoughts from a guy who wasnt actually there, but just watched everything online

First off, how did the big boys fare? Well, as noted in my Microsoft presser re-cap, I’m glad they’re sticking with their current hardware and pushing it to the max instead of just abandoning ship for the right to say they’ve got the first next gen hardware in town, especially MS, as tempting as it might be (much like they did for original Xbox, but then again, the strategy did work in the end). That being said, their emphasis on Kinect, as well meaning as it might be, still bored everyone to tears. But hey, at lest I can actually play the damn thing at home. Otherwise, the new Halo also failed to generate the amount of buzz that I believe MS was expecting. Sorry, but no Bungie? No buys. But hey, Gears of War X Body Count? Most definite thumbs up.

As also noted in my Sony rundown, they said sorry about PSNgate, and generally speaking, you could tell they meant it, which at least counts for something I guess. Otherwise, the focus was on the PlayStation Vita, their new handheld that has WAY too many inputs for my liking. But there were a few genuinely neat looking games for it that will make resisting ultimately hard. As for the PS3, lots of old PS2 games with a new HD coat of paint. Yawn. Also, sequels to stuff and very little anything new, but that’s hard to give Sony grief over since everyone’s guilty of that, Them chasing after 3D at home is similar to MS and Kinect: cool I guess? But ultimately, most do not care (especially since many folks just got their fancy LCD and plasma screens and are not looking to upgrade anytime soon).

And finally you have Nintendo, who had lots to say and show, but in the end, many folks didn’t know how to feel. The only thing anyone can say with any degree of certainty is how awesome the new Zelda looks, but that was a given. The upcoming crop of 3DS software looks gladly welcome (as well as awesome), even if its a bit on the late side. Though the lack of any 3rd party support was troubling to say the least. But the real big news was their new home console, which combines the Wii, the iPad, and Apple TV into one huge confusing mess (even the President of Nintendo has admitted that they could have done a far better job explaining everything on stage). Once again, despite their attempts at winning back the hardcore, Nintendo is clearly moving to the beat of their own drum, and many remain unconvinced that the Ghost Recon that they’ll be serving up will be any better (let alone just as good) on the other systems. They certainly have their work cut out for them… it’s never good news whenever a new system in introduced and the company stock actually goes down.

Moving onto the slightly smaller guys, the other publishers had tons of cool teaser vids for games that sound great on paper, but the jury will remain out until we actually see gameplay footage. Though I’m already confident that Overstrike from EA will be awesome, since Insomniac generally makes pretty kick ass games. I’m always happy to see folks who stick to just one platform stretch their legs. Especially since… well, at least in the case of the PS3 and 360… both platforms are basically the same.

Ubi’s Rayman Origins also sticks out as one of the few things shown that actually had gameplay footage as well, which was also drop-dead gorgeous to boot. Again, more sequels for the games you know and love, and more games based upon the movies and comics you also love, which may or may not live up to the source material. Thankfully, the first Batman game from Rocksteady demonstrated that good licensed games isn’t a totally anomaly. Yet on that note, it’ll be interesting to see if BioWare, who did the last truly great Star Wars game can do another one, since they’re not the same company from the days of KOTOR.

Thankfully a few original games, attempts at experimentation with established franchise, and general weirdness from Japan were also present. Though Japanese fare as a whole not as represented as one might hope or expected, but that’s a trend that’s been the case for the past few years, and a sad reflection of the rocky state of game development on that end. I’m also surprised that we hardly saw or head of any iPhone/iPad games. Since, you know, it IS such a major gaming platform, something the hardcore gamers hate to be reminded of.

Oh, and you also had examples of trickery and all around buffoonery. Again, just another E3.

Basically, wasn’t a very exciting show. Is that because there were no good games? Of course not. If anything, this year’s E3 again proved that gaming has never been bigger, which means lots of different types of folks playing… and many different masters to please… and more and more ideas plus games to pump out… which not only makes things impossible to keep track of things (no doubt, the next big thing was in some corner of the show that most of don’t know about yet), but also the sensation of “seen that, done that” since its far easier and more cost efficient to recycle ideas than to churn new ones (especially since platform B can now have a game that platform A takes for granted). The fact that, as already stated above, how both the 360 and PS3 can effectively be interchangeable, leads to a further blurring of the lines. And having boundaries be nonexistent can be both good and bad. At the very least, it makes one hard to become truly invested in one particular iteration of hardware, which was half the fun of gaming, at least for us old folks. The Nintendo vs Sega war had a lot more to chew on that the Microsoft vs Sony (on the home-front that is; we clearly have two different types of handheld systems again, which on the flip side still sucks because that’s two the crap to carry around).

And yes, the fact that I’ve left Nintendo out of the equation is further evidence that they’re in a weird space that they’ll have to bust their asses to get out of. Just name-dropping a new Smash Bros isn’t going to cut it, as they’re also just discovering. But back to the issue of perception: I get so annoyed whenever someone makes a big general statement like “there’s nothing good out there anymore” because that’s generally speaking 99% wrong and that person has not done their homework. So that being all said, I can see where folks are coming from. Hell, I did pick that Jerry Rice dog football game was the best game of the show.

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