Who won E3 2012? VideoGamer.com scores the big five conferences
Ubisoft and EA steal the show, whilst Sony beats Microsoft, and Nintendo really disappoints.
E3 traditionally kicks off with conferences and VideoGamer.com was there to enjoy the announcements with you.
After taking in everything which took place, Tom, Martin and Dave did what they do naturally and applied scores out of 10 to each conference.
Microsoft was the first of the platform holders out of the starting blocks, but after wowing with Halo 4 failed to show off anything new and exciting. Even the likes of Gears of War, Fable and Forza wasn't enough to help the conference score any higher than 5/10.
Sony faired slightly better with the reveal of David Cage's Beyond, plus impressive demos of God of War: Ascension and The Last of Us. But where were the PS Vita games? Sony was awarded 6/10.
And what of Nintendo? With all eyes expecting to be blown away the Big N flopped big time. Pikmin 3 looked pretty cool, but after that there was nothing to get people excited. The less said about Nintendo Land the better. Nintendo earned an average score of 3.66/10.
It's EA and Ubisoft which come away from E3 with their heads held high, both offering a number of great looking games. EA showed Medal of Honor: Warfighter, Crysis 3, Dead Space 3, Sim City, FIFA 13 and the impressive looking Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Ubisoft also looked to the core gamer with Far Cry 3, Assassin's Creed 3, Splinter Cell Blacklist and the stunning Watch Dogs – likely to come away as the game of E3 2012.
EA and Ubisoft scored a mix of 7s ad 8s.
So what do you think? Have the VideoGamer.com trio got it right, or were you blown away by Nintendo and Wii U? Let us know in the comments below.
Highest Rated Comment
squidman
User Comments
munkee@ squidman
Thanks VG for all the hard work!
squidman
munkee
3.. 2.. 1.. GO! games-games-games.. Done. Same as they did last year.
Woffls
Ubisoft won on software alone, despite an average presentation. I didn't think much of AC3, but apparently lots of people did. Watch_Dogs is clearly game of show, and their other games look genuinely good... mostly.
*After this point, the conferences get horrendously bad. I would have happily not watched any of them, and all that made it entertaining was VG Chat which I LOVED by the way. Shame we can't have more excuses to use it in the future.*
EA was a solid show full of sports games and shooters. Whoopee.
Sony squandered their chance to upstage the other two, and what was shown wasn't that impressive. Last of Us was too Unchartedy, Beyond wasn't revealing enough to get excited about, books still suck and Vita might as well not exist.
Microsoft could've not turned up and I wouldn't be any less excited for what they're doing right now. Sports can piss off, and so can the partnerships that I swear they announced last year. Their first party output has been boring to me since 2008, and they've clearly got the right roster of business executives to match.
The one positive thing I will take from this presentation is that Lionhead and Rare were completely absent. To me, along with that Rare job listing we saw asking for action/fps experience, implies they are both working on next gen titles at the moment which might not suck.
To put Nintendo at the bottom of my list is saying something. While I'm still excited about the Wii U platform, they have really shot themselves in the foot this year at E3. They have put so much effort into getting 3rd party support, yet we've seen next to nothing from EA and Activision. They claim to be targeting core gamers properly this time, but it seems the only people who are doing that properly is the guys who made the advert they showed in the pre-E3 show.
The conference was so half-hearted. Miyamoto did practically nothing, and Reggie had no charisma at all this year - it was very uninspiring. I don't know who they thought their audience was, but if this was an attempt to convince gamers like us that Wii U has exciting software, then they failed completely.
But what makes this even worse, is how they actually had the substance to make a half decent conference, but for some reason it was all pushed out of the main presentation into things like software showcase and website exclusives.
This year, Nintendo failed to understand that the people outside the LA Convention Center are just as important as those inside with press passes. I only hope that they have a really god damn good line up of launch window games to show us in the next 4 months, because this year has really been testing my patience.
MJTH
Ubisoft: Ubisoft's was so good in there E3 show that some of it even spilled out into other shows.
Sony: Sony's was entertaining as they showed off some good stuff beyond and last of us.
EA: EA's wasn't bad, it was well round and had something for everyone.
Microsoft/Nintendo: And then we have Microsoft and Nintendo joint last. Microsoft conference was by far worse then Nintendo with so much blah for 2 hours, but Nintendo's was so crushingly disappointing it was saddening especially since they started of strong with the pre E3 show and pikmin 3. They needed to show off their new but they console but it go well didn't. Atleast the 3DS conference was decent and the fact watchdogs is an allegedly an Unreal 4 engine game and could be brought to wii u as well is a couple good things to remember.
My subjective list is a bit different...:
Ubisoft
Nintendo/ Sony
EA
Microsoft
... But that is because more stuff interested me personally in the Nintendo conference then the Microsoft or EA conferences.
MrGloomy
draytone
pblive@ altaranga
altaranga@ pblive
Actually I do admire VG with what they attempted with their coverage of E3. It was certainly miles above their competitors in many ways. It's just a shame that E3 failed to shine, yet again.
And let's not forget Gaston's Bingo Cards. I never got around to using them (I didn't watch any of the conferences) but kudos nonetheless.
Clockpunk
Ubi retain their title as best showing, in spite of that idiotic presenter (girlwood, everyone's a little gay, who wouldn't want a pet tiger to kill...? What?) and her straight man (whoever he was, the one backstage).
But yes, I think PAX is now the conference for fun and proper gaming news...
pblive
munkee
EA
These guys showed a relentless stream of amazing software. Their games played it safe with sure-fire hit sequels. But, the standard was right at the top throughout. They even managed to squeeze a social Facebook game in there and keep me interested.
Ubisoft
A pretty strong showing throughout the show with some big appearances on all the console manufacturers stages. Their big IP reveal was definitely star of the show. But, for me, they just didn't seem quite so strong as EA.
Sony / Microsoft / Nintendo
Perhaps one had slightly better content, one had a bigger opener and one was more fun. But, all three of these guys knew what the fans really wanted and not one of them delivered. Sony, where was the Vita love? Why 20 minutes of wonder book (another new technology you won't support) when you could have encouraged the people who bought your expensive handheld instead? Microsoft, CGI teasers and trailers for games are not good enough for an E3 stage conference. Show us the games being played. And Usher is for little girls. How many little girls were in the audience? Nintendo, you took two opportunities to sell us your new games console. But, you know what? I still don't want it because you failed to excite me with any software. From what I've seen, you've just made a flashy GameCube with an iPhone attached to the controller. You had an opportunity to prove me wrong. But, you didn't.
Hooded
Ubisoft
Microsoft
EA
Sony
Nintendo
Microsoft wasn't anything special but they had some decent games and Smart Glass looks like it could be something special, i've read a few things and people seemed to be very impressed with it. It can change the way we play games, not like Kinect, this has a real opportunity to chance real games for real gamers.
Sony's dragged on with boring presentations, the only good thing they shown that tickled my testicals was The Last of Us.
Adamhall1974
Glad that abes oddworld oddysey is getting another runout. I wish they would remake oddworld strangers wrath too...