Which of the Big 3 won E3 2008?

[blizzak]

I agree that Sony needed to show more in game footage to help their cause. But the thing that irked me most was the clown speaking for Sony was less entertaining than than watching Jack Pallance doing one armed pushups. I have seen steamers on my lawn with more personality than that motherfucker.
That being said, bring on Fallout3

[Szlia]

No one managed to show a game that was both new and jaw dropping. Suckage all around I say.

[Tavik]

This is the Penny-Arcade comic from Wednesday

[Sithro]

Microsoft in my opinion. I usually judge E3 by megatons, and XIII was a big one.

Overall, it sucked major balls though. I do like the motion+ announcement, but jeeze, they could have shown something else (Nintendo).

[Lalala]

At least, some games companies know E3 suck now: Gamasutra - Top Execs Criticize Current State Of E3

[Cybsled]

Stalemate! You're all losers!

[Blank]

Originally Posted by Vorph

E3 completely sucked. Microsoft sucked the least, but that's not exactly worthy of a prize.

this is what I voted for.

[kedwyn]

E3 wasn't that great but Microsoft had the best showing by far.

[rodahn]

I voted E3 sucked in general. MS may have had the best conference, but it was a Pyrrhic victory at best.

My impressions on the MS and Sony press conferences (I did not watch Nintendo's as there is absolutely nothing there that interests me):

Microsoft -- I agree with what some of have already posted in that they had the best presentation from a gameplay exhibition perspective. MS simply showed more of what people wanted to see.

That said, there was really only one title out of their entire line-up shown that I am interested in, and that is Gears 2 (which looks friggin' amazing BTW). Other than that, they seemed to fap over their music/movie-based offerings, which did not interest me in the slightest. The dashboard overhaul looks sweet, too, forgot about that. Also, I personally found their keynote fairly devoid of personality and largely uninteresting to listen to. But that's all just personal taste. FF13 is a non-factor for me.

Sony -- Was kind of disappointed in their lack of exhibition of their flagship titles. Resistance 2 was the only big title they seemed to show significant footage on (but very cool footage!) But . . . Where was Home? Where was God of War 3 (actual gameplay)? Where was Killzone 2? Where was Little Big Planet (sales chart portion aside)? To be fair, I think the reason they did not show them was because they had most of them playable or at least demoed next door in the arcade room, so I can forgive them that, I suppose. But still -- who the hell uses CGI to show off highly-anticipated games? Did they not learn from E3 2005 and Killzone 2? LULZ @ Sony :P

Now, Sony showed plenty of in-game footage on many of their other titles, just not a lot in their big hits department, which is what was ultimately where I felt let down.

Despite that, I will say that Sony's conference interested me the most, for a few reasons:

1) Their products personally appeal more to me.

2) I really liked how they integrated Little Big Planet into the marketing portion of the conference. I found that very cool and unique.

3) I've always like Jack Tretton, and I think despite his nervousness and a few vocal stumblings, he was pretty fun to listen to, and seemed like he was having a good time (LOL @ the Jack Palance running gag). Hard to put a finger on, his presentation just seemed more engaging.

I maintain that Sony's real magic was on its demo floor, just not so much in the conference room.

Overall:

They need to make E3 worth the wait and watch again. Not just Sony, not just MS, not just Nintendo -- everyone! Seriously. If the announcement of FF13 going multiplatform was the biggest "wow" moment of the show, then LULZ @ what E3 has become.

Here's an interesting 3-hour podcast on post-E3 (WARNING: NWS for language and adult themes)

[Sean]

You enjoyed listening to a posturing monotone dolt for 2 hours? You have some fucked up tastes. The guy is a TERRIBLE speaker.

[rodahn]

Eh, he wasn't that bad. Your opinions and tastes are in no way superior to mine, or vice versa.

[Sean]

There are some universal standards of decency sir.

[rodahn]

Perhaps, but if Tretton didn't fit that bill, then MS's speaker certainly didn't either. I seriously wanted to search for a panel on his back that opened up to expose the circuitry, because he was about as engaging as a robot.

/shrug

I just found Jack's presentation more enjoyable. I am not going to get into a huge back and forth discussion why, just to say that I personally preferred it, and leave it at that.

[Aztlan]

My opinion on the speakers.

The thing I found annoying about Jack in Sony's presentation was that he just didn't seem into it. It might of been that he was almost the only one the whole time speaking, so he was getting tired or something but that didn't change the fact that he just seemed like he didn't want to be there, or didn't seem convincing enough on his excitement on showing us Sony's stuff.

On the other hand, Microsoft's speaker wasn't all that sensational or great either, but at least he showed some of his own excitement when some of the presentations were introduced, especially during the FF13 announcement. The guy was like a little kid, giddy and excited, when Square's president came back on stage.

Nintendo, wow. That presentation sucked big time. First we start off with a woman speaking from a Mom's perspective, trying to put that spin on it, when we all know hardly any Moms are going to be watching this. Then almost all of the rest of the conference was done like a stock holders meeting, with them talking about how many Wii's they sold, and how their projected outlook looks. That shit is worthless to me. We all get NPD, I don't need to see that shit again. I want to see games, and more games.

[Sithro]

Unfortunately Nintendo has said that they're no longer going to really show any of their Zeldas or Marios at E3, as it's a press event and they want the mainstream to know about their non-gamer games or whatever. They'll probably hold their own event in a few months.

Its working, though, saw some stuff about Iwata on BBC.

Still sucks for gamers, though. I miss the old E3. They need to bring it back or just cancel this shit all together.