Top 10: E3 2008 Disappointments

What made E3 2008 one of the worst in the show's history?

E3 is very quickly becoming a shadow of its former self. A few years ago E3 was looked upon as the one industry event everyone involved in games wanted to attend - for many people who grew up playing games it was something to strive towards. But now things have changed. Where we once had grandeur we now have the mundane. Giant statues have been replaced with private meeting rooms and the endless techno beats have been muted. In keeping with the air of unhappiness surrounding this year's E3, read on to discover our Top 10: E3 2008 Disappointments.

10. Bringing one demo home

Do you remember the Lost Planet demo we got at E3 2006? That was part of Microsoft's E3 Bringing it Home campaign on Xbox LIVE. It was just one of many demos Xbox 360 owners were given access to and it made E3 all the more exciting. Since then we've expected MS and others to do the same, but this year it seems the whole Bringing it Home campaign and ethos has all but been forgotten. We did get a demo of Microsoft's Too Human, but that was it. No demos for Gears 2, Fable 2, Resistance 2, Killzone 2. Nothing. Perhaps Capcom spoiled us with Lost Planet two years ago, but we just wanted more of the same.

9. Where are the handheld games?

It can't just be us who've noticed a severe lack of new announcements for handheld games. We're not talking about yet another licensed money maker targeting kids, but full-on triple-A brilliance. At E3 2008 the only handheld games of note we remember seeing were Sony's Resistance Retribution, Konami's Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia and SEGA's Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. Considering E3 has become almost entirely about showcasing the games due out before the end of the year the lack of exciting handheld games is somewhat worrying. Where are the new DS titles from Nintendo and Sony's blockbusters for PSP?