E3 2012: Winners and Sinners

As we bow out of what was possibly the worst E3 in years, it's time to look back to find out just who had the worst showing over the last few days, and whether there's much we can salvage. Now I'm just speaking as someone who watched the five press conferences. From reports throughout the gaming press it's clear that there was plenty to enjoy on the show floor, and a lot to be taken from this year. But come on, this is E3! We expect a lot from the main press conferences, be it hardware information, amazing software reveals, or... er, miscellaneous.

So this year we might as well get the negative out of the way. I covered a lot of the whining in my previous posts, but Christ the big three messed it up this time around. Between Microsoft's contemptuous nonsense, Sony's magical AR faff, and Nintendo missing a bloody open goal, we were spoiled for choice. Hell, we were faced with the interesting prospect of a third-party publisher "winning" the show, so to speak. Very rarely has that happened. But hey, let's take each conference on its positive and negative elements.

Microsoft


What a way to kick off the conference. I can't say we were expecting great things; after the Kinect-fest last year, and the promise that there would be no new hardware this time around, there weren't too many directions Microsoft could take this one. Showing a demo for Halo 4, and a new Gears of War is all well and good, but I can't help but feel we're hitting saturation point for those series. We've now had seven Halo games in the last ten years, and Gears of War will soon be hitting its fourth instalment in seven. Tell you what: imagine if, instead of releasing six Star Wars films in thirty years, George Lucas had pumped them out over a decade? You'd be sick with boredom (arguably how you felt during the latter three anyway), and videogames shouldn't be any different.

A bright new dawn on... Nothing new whatsoever.

We got little else in the way of games, with Microsoft instead promoting the various multimedia features of their console. Their big reveal was Smartglass, a way of making all your media devices bombard you with useless information at the same time. I'm sure we've all sat there watching a film and, unable to contain ourselves until the credits, we just had to view the cast list then and there. Also, say you're watching the hilarious Jack Black vehicle School of Rock. Wouldn't it be amazing if you could, at the touch of a button, summon up all the scenes featuring the rotund star, and watch them at your leisure? Man, I thought watching films in the right order was cool and all, but I really wish I could pick and choose my favourite scenes without having to fuss about skipping and fast forwarding. 

Other amazing announcements included a version of Internet Explorer, everyone's favourite browser, for the 360, as well as various bits of fitness software that utilise the Kinect. The whole mess is fairly well summed up by this utterly hateful trailer, Microsoft's own. "It's amazing... when TV is something you can play!" Well hey I thought watching it was great and all but sure thing, take all my money. Large amounts of noise were made about being able to stream various American sports on the console, and after a while you sort of forgot you were watching a games conference.

Was there anything positive we could take from this? Well the South Park guys showed up for a couple of minutes, roundly taking the piss out of the Smartglass before being rushed off stage. That was kind of funny. I think some games might have been shown at one point, and they looked quite nice, but it was all sort of drowned out in the monotonous mulitimedia buzz that resonated throughout. Edge already put it better than I ever could, but by the end you were left in no doubt that this was one of the most boring and off-the-mark conferences in E3's history.

Smartglass: enjoy Jack Black's menacing glare in more ways than ever before.

EA/Ubisoft

On to the big third party publishers then, starting with EAzzzzzzzzz..... Oh sorry, I think I dozed off during the several hours spent announcing the latest editions in their various sports franchises. You know what you're going to get with EA. New FIFA, new NFL, NHL, whatever. They managed to claim the UFC license from troubled THQ, which I'm sure was exciting to some people. We get to enjoy an Activision-rivaling premium service for Battlefield, which I'm sure many thousands of people can't wait to shell out for.

Positives were some neat looking footage from the latest Criterion-developed Need for Speed. It's no surprise that it resembled Burnout in places. Dead Space 3 looked nice enough, though a new co-op mechanic seems to be pushing the series from horror roots to genero-marines in space. And we get not one, but two new Sim City games, though one is unfortunately played through Facebook. Not much to say overall, Ubisoft gave us more to talk about...

...by starting their conference with some quite excruciating banter between the two co-hosts, a theme that would sadly run throughout the hour. There was a slightly worrying sexual element to proceedings as well; with constant references to "girl wood" intercut with bad CGI boobs (courtesy of Far Cry 3), and Ubisoft packing the stage with scantily clad gamer babes to participate in a confusing battle of the sexes between some suspiciously hunky Counter Strike "champs". I think it was something to do with a new E-sports shooter, maybe. Between that, Flo Rida's wailing, and the increasingly painful noises coming from the presenters, I was about ready to cave my head in with the laptop.

But credit to them, Ubisoft managed to save it. Some lovely footage of Assasins Creed 3 lifted everyone's spirits, as did the very interesting looking ZombiU, a zombie-themed shooter for the Wii U (the clue's in the name). Rayman Legends also got a showing, looking as lush as you'd expect, before Ubisoft finished the conference in exactly the right way: Watch Dogs. It was perhaps the most interesting thing shown anywhere at E3 this year, and had everyone talking after the show was over. It also gave a tantalising glimpse at what the next-gen might look like, with the demo seeming far in advance of what the current consoles are capable of. And with that, Ubisoft stole the show.

Getting your phone caught in a spider web is a pain.

Sony

Like Microsoft, Sony weren't showing off any flashy new hardware this year, leaving the current generation to lumber on for a while yet. But hey, maybe we'd get some Last Guardian news, right? Right?? No, as it happens. With many people seemingly buying a PS3 in anticipation of a new Ueda game, we're faced with the reality that instead of the lovely looking Last Guardian, we have to make do with Ico and Shadow of the Colossus HD. Well... Ok then.

What we did get was a stupefying amount of long gameplay demos, kicking things off with David Cage's latest, Beyond. Staring Ellen Page and her amazing staring, Beyond showed off some neat visuals, with its facial capture particularly impressive. We moved on to Sony Smash Bros, a game whose actual title is so long I can't really be bothered typing it out. Showing off all the mechanics of Nintendo's series but with none of the heart, it's sure to be a hit among those put off by Sakurai's meddling in Brawl. I wonder if Fat Princess is top tier? Anyway, also shown off was Uncharted lookalike The Last of Us, featuring the latest in brown corridors, questionable AI, and ultraviolence. The audience's bloodlust was evidently sated when a point blank shotgun blast to an enemy's face was met with deafening cheers. Lovely.

The notable thing was that the Playstation Vita seemed to have been left to just die in a corner, with Sony announcing almost nothing for the poor handheld. The lack of Vita news was especially strange given that the console is less than six months old, and is currently being outsold by Nintendo's 3DS at a rate of thirteen-to-one. Sony actually admitted that they should have given it more attention, but that was too little, too late. Vita owners definitely weren't winners here. All the time that could have been given to the handheld was taken up by Wonderbook, and augmented reality storytelling thing for children. For something so wonderful, it didn't really work that well, with the demonstration cocking up on more than one occasion. And that put an end to a hugely underwhelming conference.

If you thought books were great, wait 'til you see them on your TV not working.

Nintendo

So it was up to Nintendo to wrap up the show, and in true Ninty fashion they managed to exceed our expectations in the worst possible way. Being the only games company with actual new hardware to show off, you'd expect they'd make a song and dance of convincing us that the console was worth our time and money. Well after about four hours worth of conferences, pre-conferences, announcements, webcasts, and the like, I'm left with the impression that Nintendo really don't know how to sell the Wii U. 

It all started off so well. Pikmin 3 launched the show, giving off a good account of what an HD Nintendo game might look like. Colourful, as it happens. Miyamoto pranced around being adorable, and spirits were high. Then Reggie came out and promised that we were about to see a ton of games for the Wii U, so many in fact that the 3DS was getting its own conference the next day. Wow, well this wouldn't disappoint then! Er, amazingly it did.

What we got was an absolute shambles, to say the least. Nintendo lurched through a series of disappointing reveals (Arkham Asylum! Scribblenauts! New Super Mario Bros U!) and the audience became noticeably downbeat, as cheering and applause became a rare commodity. By the time we'd made our way through the torturously long Nintendoland presentation, and been treated to the most anti-climactic end to a show I've ever seen, the crowd was eerily quiet. It was as if they'd been stunned into silence. 

The black Wii U looks lush, pity we'll be waiting years for Nintendo to release it

It became clear that Nintendo seem to have no idea why we would want a Wii U. In years past they've been able to sell their new hardware, gimmicks and all, based on the strength of fantastic launch software. Super Mario 64 showed off new 3D graphics and was the perfect introduction to the pad's analogue stick. The Wii came with Wii Sports, and once the relationship between swinging the controller and your character swinging a bat clicked, we were sold. Nintendoland was meant to have the same effect, but something was missing. Another minigame collection just won't cut it. On the Eurogamer podcast the point was made that Steve Jobs needed an hour to introduce the iPhone, a device that changed mobile communication. Now it seems that Nintendo needs about four times as long to explain that their new pad has a touchscreen in the middle, a concept that shouldn't be hard to get across. And we still came away barely knowing anything about the machine: No launch date, no specs, no price.

Conclusion

Despite all my negativity there was plenty to take from E3 this year. Ubisoft's strong showing gave us something to look forward to, with Rayman Legends looking superb, ZombiU threatening to sell the Wii U to me, and Watch Dogs proving that interesting new IP will get people excited. Sony showed off a decent set of software, albeit in a fairly muted way. And Microsoft's SmartGlass tech looks to have a lot more potential than its trailers and demonstrations suggested. Pikmin 3 also showed us why it's great that Nintendo are going to be making HD games at last, a tantalising prospect. HD F-Zero anyone? Yummy.

You just wish that they'd showed us a bit more, something like F-Zero might have saved the show. This was a year of endless sequels, Uncharted clones, and frustrating conferences. The three hardware manufacturers were the worst culprits, each delivering shows that were either stupidly boring, cringeworthy, or just plain rubbish. It's a shame that Sony and Microsoft weren't even threatening to hint at new consoles. This hardware generation is clearly on its last legs, and the Wii U just doesn't cut it as next gen. Edge suggested that, in Watch Dogs, Star Wars 1313, and Agni's Philosophy, we might have seen what the next consoles will be capable of, raising my hopes that we'll see something announced next year.  Roll on E3 2013 eh?

E3 2012: Nintendo conference round-up

It all started out so promisingly. In the wake of Microsoft and Sony's poor showings the hope was there that Nintendo could rock the show. The fact that they have a new console out this year practically guaranteed it, right? What purported to be a leaked trailer for a Wii U remake of Majora's Mask had everyone speculating over its authenticity, and buzzing with anticipation. Expectations couldn't have been much higher, and so to be a bit disappointed in the end could be understandable. Nintendo were never going to give us a new Zelda, 3D Mario, F-Zero, Starfox, et al, no matter how much we wanted them. But maybe we could hope for one or two big reveals.

The ever-loveable Shigeru Miyamoto kicked us off with some delightful Pikmin shenanigans, revealing the third game in the series. It all looks pretty enough, and was a colourful way to show off Nintendo's first HD game. A new pikmin type was revealed, and the whole thing was played on a lush looking black Wii U gamepad. I can only hope we don't have to wait as long for that as we did the bloody black Wii. Shown off pre-release, then takes three years to arrive. Cheers Nintendo, you tease.

After a start like that everyone was smiling, and when Reggie was summoned out to tell us they had 23 Wii U games to cram into the hour long show, we hoped for the best. The 3DS was even getting its own, separate show at another time, because there was so much Wii U stuff to cram in! But something started to go wrong. Reggie wasn't shutting up about the social side of Wii U, despite the promise of a focus on games, and the fact that we'd heard it all on the Nintendo Direct briefing days before. The audience's goodwill was obviously still high, as they cheered the announcement that the console would support more than one game pad. Going mental over the announcement that a console supports controllers seemed a bit strange, let alone when it's the USP of the bloody thing. Sadly, it was all downhill from here.

The new rock pikmin type, looking fetchingly Ghibli-esque

A new Mario game was announced, but it was a follow on from the Wii's New Super Mario Bros, rather than the 3D sequel to Galaxy that almost everyone was after. Its Miiverse integration looks passably interesting, but the whole thing was leaning dangerously close to the casual conference people were expecting months ago. Next a quite baffling amount of time was given over to demonstrating the Wii U port of Batman: Arkham City, a game that many of the assembled journos presumably completed nearly a year ago. The Wii U pad is used in various gimmicky ways, perhaps not impressing me enough to part with another £40 to play the game game. A new Scribblenauts was also shown, reassuring us that the Wii U won't lack for games you'll play for five minutes then never touch again.

A trailer showing off more third-party ports from the last year or so was up next, ticking some boxes. Mass Effect 3? Yup. Ninja Gaiden 3? Uh-huh. I'm sure it'll be great to play Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and Trine 2 again as well. Quite why Aliens: Colonial Marines was relegated to a spot in the trailer was anyone's guess. Suppose those hopes of it being a Wii U timed exclusive were wide of the mark, eh? Lego City Undercover looks to be a fun GTA knock-off, but this wasn't what everyone was hoping to see. Where was the killer first-party announcement?

By the time Wii Fit U was pushed up to centre stage it was clear that the audience was losing hope. Applause was becoming noticeably muted, and E3's customary whooping had transformed into deflated silence. Despite giving us what might be the first game you can control with your arse, Wii Fit U wasn't impressing many. Yet another karaoke game, Sing, brought out the backing dancers and loathsome pop soundtrack, and I started to have worrying flashbacks to Usher and Flo Rida's appearances the previous day. It utilises the gamepad to allow one player to control the dance moves for the other players. Reggie was asked how it felt to be a puppet master. "It's like running Nintendo of America!" he quipped. One feels that if he'd added "I can release anything and still get these clowns to part with their money!", the truth would've shown a bit more. And just like that, we were onto the 3DS games. Er, weren't we meant to be getting a dedicated conference for that?

Bums are definitely an underused method of control

Nintendo evidently weren't done bleeding poor Mario, whose withered husk of a corpse must look terrible by now. So instead of one middling 2D platformer, we get two! Yes, a 3DS New Super Mario Bros stunned precisely no-one, nor did its central gimmick of, uh, coin collecting. Lots of coin collecting. Luigi's Mansion seems to look no better than it did during last year's reveal, and we were treated to another trailer reel of games that look more interesting than the ones we'd just been talked through. Well, at least 3DS owners have a fair bit to look forward to this year.

Ubisoft's Yves Guillemot was led out, and my hopes briefly rose that they would somehow save the show. The promising looking ZombiU was shown, and some of its central mechanics were explained. A single-life system is interesting, as is the idea that you have to track down and kill your zombified former character to reclaim your items. But the shadow of Red Steel looms large, and the fear that this could be another set of empty promises will linger until ZombiU can prove itself. After the truly awful demo of a zombie camera, which plants zombie features on your face in the style of a shitty iPhone app, an Ubisoft trailer ran. It featured Assasins Creed 3 and Rayman Legends, which was heartening, but Watch Dogs was conspicuously absent.

Nintendo had about ten minutes to save the show, and of course we were about to get a big reveal! Maybe this is what we'd bee- Oh, it's just a minigame compilation called Nintendo Land. Apparently it's the Wii U's answer to Wii Sports though! The game that makes us "understand" the hardware we're playing on. And what better way to show that off than a confused demo of a Luigi's Mansion themed Pac Man VS, a game that came out nearly ten years ago on the Gamecube. But don't despair, also included are minigames themed around Animal Crossing, Donkey Kong, and other Nintendo favourites! That was their big finish by the way, it just ended after that. Nobody cheered, unsurprisingly. What happened here?

Coming to a Wii U near you soon, more minigames!

In what was a year of bad conferences, Nintendo's might just have been the worst. Perhaps not in terms of its games, some of those looked fine, but simply because it was such a colossal misfire. With expectations so high it was understandable that we might have left a little disappointed, but Nintendo's conference lacked practically everything it needed. No triple-A titles announced, a lack of new third party software, and a quite baffling lack of information about the console itself. Come to think of it, we still haven't seen the machine itself properly. When was the last time a controller took centre stage ahead of the console it's designed for? We left with no release date, no launch price, and little idea of the specs.

Nintendo have made a lot of noise about convincing us that this controller will change the way we play games, but we're left with the impression that they don't really know how or why that's the case. Nintendo may never have an easier conference at E3: The only hardware giant releasing or even featuring a new console, and coming off the back of an intriguing pre-E3 video as well as dreadful showings from their rivals. But as my good pal Gav put it: "You had an open goal and missed. You completely Van Vossen'ed it." And as the post-conference trailer ran, showing off games that should have been included in the show itself (a new Warioware? Platinum Games' latest project?), we were left with the confusing image of Iwata staring intently at a bunch of bananas. Sums it up, really.

E3 2012: Sony conference round-up

Watching Sony's conference involved staying up 'til 2AM waiting for the bloody thing to start, but after Ubisoft's promising show I had my hopes up. A couple of slugs of vodka gave me the kick up the arse I needed to stay awake, and I settled down to see what Sony had in store. The thought of maybe seeing something, anything, new about The Last Guardian was keeping me going as well. In truth I'd have been better just getting a decent night's sleep. Thanks goodness I'm not a Vita owner either, otherwise I might have gone to bed even more irritated.

The ever ambitious David Cage kicked us off with his latest movi- er,Playstation game, called Beyond. Surprise surprise, it's a Holywood style stab at interactive storytelling, but this time spanning a 15-year period in the life of the title character, played by Ellen Page. Despite crowing about her performance before showing a demo where she did nothing but sit around looking gormless, Cage's clear enthusiasm for the project made it seem as though it has potential. Not particularly striking though, and following it up with Playstation All-Stars: Battle Royale didn't lift my mood much.

The Smash Bros inspired title looks fun enough, and we were treated to the announcement of cross-platform support with Vita, as well as two new characters in the form of Nathan Drake and Bioshock's Big Daddy. The problem is that Sony lacks the rich history of interesting exclusive characters that Nintendo boasts. It's proof, if anything, that the best thing about the Smash Bros series was its character roster. no matter how much I try I just can't get excited about playing the same game with such gaming icons as... Sweet Tooth from Twisted Metal, or the charismatic Fat Princess. The whole thing reminds me of the Mario Kart clones that every company released at one point or another.

Could be to Smash Bros what Crazy Frog Racer was to Mario Kart

The loveable Jack Tretton did his best to keep up the enthusiasm levels, but with Vita getting royally shafted in the market what it really needed was some solid support here, and none was forthcoming. Offshoots from Call of Duty and Assassins Creed III were announced, as well as DLC for LittleBigPlanet 2, but it felt like too little. With Nintendo throwing their weight behind 3DS, dedicating a whole seperate conference to talking about it tomorrow, there's the feeling that Vita might get left behind rather quickly.

Attention quickly steered back towards the PS3, and we were treated to more footage from Ubisoft's conference in the shape of Far Cry 3 and Assassins Creed III. The latter was actually very impressive, showing a wind-swept naval battle that looked beautiful. It was actually a more impressive demo of the game than Ubisoft offered at their own conference, moving away from the tired sneak-and-stab formula to actually show us something new. Who was expecting Ubisoft to come out of this as the stars of the show?

We were then treated to Wonderbook, an augmented reality storytelling title that utilises the Playstation Eye camera. Despite the rather over-zealous claim that it was the "Reinvention of the story book", in truth the tech looked pretty innovative, showing off effects like a paper dragon rising from the pages, and flames burning over your hands. The fact that Sony have negotiated a tie in with J.K Rowling's Harry Potter series practically guarantees that this will be a money-spinner, ant the potential of the software could lead to some interesting titles in the future. That is, if it works better than the glitch-ridden on stage demo does.

Wonderbook at least looked like an interesting bit of kit

Sony followed up that delightful reveal by plowing head first into ultraviolent territory, with a surprisingly boring look at the new God of War game, and straight back onto the bum notes. Jumping straight form childish magical spells to caving an elephant man's head in was a radical shift in tone clearly designed to get the audience back on board after the slow Wonderbook demo, but it came across as yet another misstep by Sony. It then veered straight into Naughty Dog's latest, The Last of Us, which I initially mistook for yet another Uncharted game. Guess I can only keep track of so many rugged, beardy protagonists.

It looked to offer a slightly different take on the stealth/action genre, with an Ellen Page-alike young sidekick, and a slightly more lethal take on bullets (if that makes sense), but the whole thing just left me cold. What was controlled and what was a set piece wasn't made entirely clear, and some of the AI looked rather shonky, but it's early days. A point-blank shotgun blast to an enemy's face was met with slightly disturbing levels of whooping and hollering from the audience, and on that bombastic note the conference abruptly ended.

So that was Sony's E3 conference this year. Was it worth staying up til nearly 4AM for, or the vodka induced hangover I enjoyed the next day? Nope. The lack of Vita support was worrying, the game demos either went on for too long or didn't show us anything, and despite Jack Tretton's boundless enthusiasm I couldn't keep my spirits up. I'll illustrate the reason for that with a graph, in the traditional Sony manner.

God damnit Sony

E3 2012: EA and Ubisoft round-up

After Microsoft's stunningly dull conference, which Edge called "One of the most contemptuous in E3 history", all eyes were on Sony to see if they could make more of an impression. First up though was the software-focused double whammy of EA and Ubisoft, and the hope that either of them would deliver something surprising.

EA kicked off their conference in promising style, with a video of the upcoming Dead Space 3 showing off a new co-op mode. However it seemed to have taken a disappointing step away from the horror of the previous games, in favour of a more action-packed "marines in space" style of gameplay. There was also the news that EA had gained the licence to publish UFC games from troubled publisher THQ, who today laid off all the staff from their San Diego office.This was followed by announcements of the usual updates for their various sports franchises, as the audience began to lull.

However interest was piqued with the mention of two new SimCity games to be released within the next year; one a dedicated sequel in the style of previous games, the other a more casual version that will be played through Facebook. It is an open statement of intent to rival developers Zynga, whose dominance of the social games scene has clearly caught EA's attention. Some stonking demo footage of the new Need For Speed followed, with developer Criterion clearly steering the series in the direction of Burnout, and that was your lot. Another slightly disappointing conference out of the way, and it was up to Ubisoft to pull off something interesting.

After an opening dance sequence far too reminiscent of Usher's wailing at the Microsoft event,  some truly hateful opening banter between the two chirpy presenters, Ubisoft piled straight into an impressive demo of Far Cry 3. Despite the bizarre focus on bad CGI boobs and tiger killing it was a visually lush presentation, and *smirk* a far-cry from the various brown and grey shooters we'd been treated to thus far. A brief demo for a strangely late to the party Averngers game followed, before we were treated to a look at Rayman Legends running on the Wii U.

Visually it was as lush as could be hoped for, with slightly meatier 3D models replacing the flat toon stylings of Origins without losing any of the charm. It gave a good account of the Wii U's capabilities, and showed off the use of the new gamepad in a 5-player co-op mode. A new character is controlled through the touchscreen on the pad, helping the other four through various puzzles and set pieces. It was nice to see something running on the hardware, and it increased anticipation for Nintendo's own conference.

They followed up with another Wii U demo, this time for the laughably named ZombiU, which clearly owed its existence to the acclaimed Dead Island trailer from last year. After more joyous bickering between our presenters, Ubisoft rolled out the long-awaited gameplay footage from Assasins Creed III. Everything was impressively fluid as we watched the protagonist batter into some innocent deer, a few wolves, and several English soldiers with suitable gusto.

A strange battle of the sexes followed, with the world's hottest pro-gamers competing in a confusing game of something called Shoot Mania, which Ubi seemed to be pushing as a sort of e-sports title. And just as you were hoping that someone would beat the presenters to death with a sock full of pennies, Ubisoft went and stole the bloody show with the demo of their new IP, Watch Dogs.

Developed by Ubisoft Montreal, and clearly influenced by their superb Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Watch Dogs puts you in the shoes of a Laughing Man style hacker who can influence various bits of electronic equipment around him. The video shows him infiltrating an exclusive club to assassinate a target, done by jamming phone signals, hacking data about associates, and messing with traffic lights to cause a car crash. Taking elements from Deus Ex, Hitman, and other sources like Ghost in the Shell, it's safe to say that the demo blew almost everyone away. See for yourself. 

While question marks will remain over where the line between freedom and set piece is drawn, and just what hardware it's running on, there's no doubt that Watch Dogs was easily the most impressive thing seen at the conference so far. There's obviously a lot to be said for interesting new IP in an era of endless sequels and re-releases, and it was the perfect way for Ubisoft to end their conference. Whether Sony could produce anything to rival that was up for debate, but hopes were running high again.

E3 2012: Microsoft conference round-up

Microsoft kicked off E3 2012 in earlier with a disjointed and slightly dull conference, that focussed strongly on the multimedia future of Kinect and the Xbox 360, but left a little to be desired when it came to games coverage. The show started promisingly, with footage of the upcoming Halo 4 showing off some of the gameplay from the single player campaign. There was also a look at the new direction for the Forza series, with the latest title Horizon bearing a resemblance to more action-oriented racers like Need for Speed and Burnout.
 

Much of the conference was taken up by announcements for the Xbox's multimedia offerings, with an enhanced entertainment range including more sports and music highlighted. Kinect integration was on the agenda as well, with Microsoft adding new features to its Bing voice control search, and a long-awaited web browser boasting voice interaction. Perhaps the most interesting announcement was of a new service called SmartGlass, that connects your Xbox with smartphones, tablets, and other similar devices. It allows you to share content between the hardware, and utilise it in interesting ways. For instance, you can watch a film from your ipad, pause it, then continue from the same point on the Xbox. More in-depth and creative uses were confirmed, with an interactive map related to Game of Thrones shown. 

 

Those hoping for a focus on games were left disappointed

Fitness was also on the agenda, with Nike fitness software for Kinect given prominence. Bearing more than a little resemblance to Nintendo's Wii Fit, Nike + Kinect Training promises professional standard training programmes for you to enjoy in your living room. Dance Central 3 was also demoed, with an exuberant Usher popping up on stage to urge the assembled journalists to “Get up out of their seats”, before popping out some dance moves. 

 

For those in the audience starting to wonder whether Microsoft had forgotten to bring any games, demoes of the latest Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, and Splinter Cell titles were shown. South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker were rolled out to talk about the upcoming RPG based on the show, before they were hurried off stage after mocking Microsoft's SmartGlass reveal from earlier. It was a welcome moment of humour in what was an otherwise underwhelming show. It finished with a bang, as an extended demo for Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 was shown, but it was too little too late for an audience that seemed to have long since lost interest. 

 

Kinect integration seems to be key to Microsoft's future plans

One feels that Nintendo stole some of the thunder with their pre-E3 video announcement last night, which was packed with new information about the Wii U. It was an interesting bit of strategy to drum up interest before the conference proper, and Microsoft were going to have their work cut out trying to top it. But as intriguing as a lot of the stuff shown here was, it's undeniable that a greater focus on games rather than multimedia tech might have captured the audience's interest a bit better. With people already claiming that Microsoft has “lost” E3, it'll be interesting to see what Sony come up with during their own conference later tonight.

Via: @VoidBurger