14 DAY TRIAL // E3 2012 took place this week and, despite hearing a lot of details about a wide range of games, the three large hardware manufacturers - Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft - have disappointed a large number of fans by playing everything safe and not making any truly huge announcements.
Microsoft had already professed its intention to once again focus on entertainment during its E3 2012 press conference and kicked off with the upcoming Halo 4, while featuring quite a few other games, like Tomb Raider or Resident Evil 6.
Sadly, it quickly reverted to more casual experiences, like Dance Central 3 (complete with an Usher performance), and then started presenting some “great” new features for the Xbox 360, like Internet Explorer. While I agree that the SmartGlass tech looks relatively interesting, I don’t want to interact with an array of devices at the same time while I’m at home.
Sony was up next and kicked off its press conference rather strong with the likes of God of War: Ascension or The Last of Us, not to mention the intriguing Beyond: Two Souls.
It also began stumbling, however, with the introduction of Wonderbook, a gimmicky PS Move title that only caused an awkward silence from behalf of the audience. PS Vita owners also felt left out, as they only received Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation and a quick acknowledgement that Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified was coming to their device.
Gamers had the highest expectations from Nintendo, however, as the company was finally going to present the final version of its future Wii U home console.
While that occurred, the game lineup for the device isn’t that interesting. Sure, there’s a new Mario, in the form of New Super Mario Bros. U, and Pikmin 3, but the true core franchises, like Legend of Zelda or Metroid, were absent.
Third-party support for the Wii U was also lackluster, as while Ubisoft tried to innovate with ZombiU or Rayman Legends, most games that will appear for the Wii U at launch are just titles that have already been launched on the PS3 or Xbox 360 a long time ago – Batman: Arkham City, Assassin’s Creed 3, Mass Effect 3, Darksiders II.
Meanwhile, publishers like Ubisoft or Electronic Arts managed to draw in huge crowds and the approval of fans by doing what the audience wanted, which was showing great games.
What do you think? Have the console manufacturers lost E3 2012 or do you think they still put up a good show?