Best and Worst at E3

Another E3 has come and gone and with it some awesome new stuff to look at and some things we would have rather not seen.

Here at the TGA we are going to show you the top 10 the best things that you should look at and the 5 worst things from E3 2012.

Nintendo E3 Press Conference Coverage

Nintendo had big shoes to fill at this E3. All eyes were looking to Nintendo and what the Wii U was going to bring to the table. Most of the conference was spent on Wii U with 23 titles shown during the conference and little of 3DS as well. Let’s get down to business and see if Nintendo hit a home run this year at E3.

E3 Predictions

With E3 beginning in just a few short hours we here at The Gamer’s Abstract would like to throw out some predictions for the major press conferences. Alongside those predictions will be stuff that is most anticipated and the biggest shocker announcement of E3. This will be written in the order of the press conferences themselves.

You will see the big heavy hitter first party titles here. Expect to see some new clips involving Epic Games new Gears of War title, and also more in depth with Halo 4. Microsoft will want to reinforce why gamers choose Xbox 360 above all else with the strength of their first party IP’s and how they have exclusive content first to the market. Microsoft will remind users that Xbox is the only place to get Call of Duty content first on the market and show some gameplay footage from Black Ops 2. Look to Microsoft to have a dedicated time slot to just showing off the Kinect. As always this might include a bunch of kids or adults doing silly things on stage in their 2 minutes of fame. Xbox 360 seems to want to become more and more integrated for being the only media device one might need for a household (cable, dvd, bing, ESPN, etc.) . It will come as no shock to see that Microsoft will announce further integration with the mobile market and moving more into a cloud based system. Microsoft wants to be like Apple in that all their devices will talk and communicate with one another.  I do not anticipate that there will be any announcement or buzz for the new Xbox and will be absent from E3 until next year.

Sony may never outsell Microsoft but they do gain more and more ground with their IP’s each year. Look for videos of the new Assassin’s Creed, Sly Cooper  4, The Last of Us, The Last Guardian, God of War: Ascension, and the newly announced All Star Battle Royal. The Last of Us and All Star Battle Royal will be the highlight of the unreleased games during the press conference. The big push will not only reinforce why gamers choose the wide variety of exclusive games on the PS3 but will also focus on the Vita. Vita sales are less than what Sony would like them to be and gamers need a reason to go out and buy a Vita. I would recommend that Sony get Kevin Butler to do this segment as if anyone could get people pumped about buying anything gamer related it would be him. Expect Kevin to make an appearance at the conference and just like his appearance in 2010 people to be hanging on his every word. Vita will be seeing a price drop due to lackluster sales in the range of $50-$100. PS Move seems to be something that didn’t and still hasn’t caught on. Move will be mentioned but not to very much extent. Sony has been rumored in doing a strictly streaming based form of gaming sort of like onlive, I expect to see more details announced as to what exactly is in the works. With the PS3 still strong and the Vita in need of more sales it would not be smart for Sony to announce a new system at E3. I do not expect that this will be in the arsenal for Sony

All eyes are on the Big N this conference with buzz and hype all centered on Wii U. The name is here to stay as recent pictures of the tablet controller have the Wii U branded logo all over it. People want to know what it is, what the intended way to play this new system is, and what the recently leaked Rayman Legends trailer with Wii U means. (For those of you who do not know there was a trailer that showed putting action figures on the Wii U tablet controller and being recognized on the screen as an item, possibly game, or character. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSlccZt5O2o ) Consumers will see a release date of Early 2013 and no price point yet. There will be announced 1^st and 3^rd party games for the system possibly in the realm of Metroid, Mario, and Super Smash and how these games will work with the new tablet controller. Pikmin 3 along with the New Super Mario Bros 2 and the popular upcoming 3DS titles like Paper Mario and Luigi’s Mansion 2. And last as always we will be graced by the wonderful and charismatic personality of Reggie Fils-Aime. Who always manages to bore and annoy the crap out of me every E3 press conference.

With Predictions also comes the most anticipated already expected stuff that here at The Gamer’s Abstract are itching to know more about or can’t wait to see. Below is a list of what we here at TGA will be looking out for. Those things would be:

Castlevania DS and Lords of Shadows
Wii U (We want to know wtf this thing is)
Kevin Butler as always makes a great addition
Paper Mario and Luigi’s Mansion 2
Bioshock infinite
Resident Evil 6
Tomb Raider
Assassin’s Creed 3

The biggest shocker prediction to hit E3:

Valve will finally man up and announce Half-Life 3
What do you think will happen at E3? Post your comments in the section below and  remember to follow us on http://www.facebook.com/thegamersabstract

Nintendo: How the Mighty Have Fallen

Nintendo the once famed company that revolutionized mainstream gaming and provided many great gaming memories seems to have fallen by the wayside as of late. 2011 has not been a good year for the Big N. It seems that every choice that is being made ends up being in the entirely wrong direction and further securing themselves in the hole that they themselves have dug.  A recent fiscal earnings report shows that Nintendo reported a loss mostly due to the unsuccessful selling of the 3DS, but also is attributed to the strong value of the yen.  All hope is not lost for Nintendo so long as the company can look at the bigger picture and start coming up with a whole new concept built from the ground up.

The concept of  the Wii was a humongous hit when it was shown off as a new way to play games.  When the Wii launched it was almost impossible to find at any retail establishment for a good 2 years.  Nintendo had such a great marketing model for their system that they were able to keep a steady demand for it.  Nintendo was back on top after the very unsuccessful release of the Gamecube and for quite some time they had the hottest selling item in the gaming world. As time went on I came to a startling realization that the Wii was fun and quirky, but it was starting to lose its appeal to me. Right now the Wii still has the highest worldwide console sales, but I feel most of that has to do with Wii’s great starting success.  The starting success that the Wii had has since faded and sales have been steadily declining over the past couple of years.

Nintendo has completely left the hardcore gamer in the dust. All that Nintendo does now is rehash the same first party titles because they can no longer come up with anything original. Occasionally that rehash comes in the form of a retro reboot, borrowing older designs to make more contemporary titles.  Nintendo just sticks with this family friendly model and refuses to deviate from that. There is a way to appease both sides of the spectrum, but Nintendo refuses to do so. I want Nintendo to take the gaming industry by the balls and come up with something new and fresh.  Focus on new 1^st party titles that can reignite the old spark that they once had. It’s so bad to the point where I think of the new Zelda game dropping in a few weeks and I have zero excitement for it. I just find myself saying, “Oh another Zelda game, great.” I have zero plans to pick it up at launch  and with titles like Uncharted, Skyrim, and Assassin’s Creed surrounding its release, I have even less of a reason to care.  How is that anyway for me, a loyalist of Zelda,  to feel about a new Zelda release?  This series has provided me with countless hours of enjoyment and ranks as one of my all-time old school favorite gaming franchises, but why do I have this feeling of being disenfranchised?

I will be picking it up……eventually.

So moving into this year Zelda marks the only big title release to drop on the Wii.  I find this to be an issue because Nintendo only saw it fit to grace its current generation hardware with one AAA release.  They have obviously shifted their priorities elsewhere, mainly the 3DS.  Starting off the big thing from Nintendo this year was the 3DS, which with the hype of the new 3D technology was planned to be a big success for Nintendo. I was planning to get one once Zelda came out months after, but found myself questioning my decision to spend the money. The titles just are not there and they still aren’t. The handheld market as a whole isn’t that strong anymore and launching a new system with no titles to drive sales, a promise of a market that wasn’t launched until months after the release of the system, the price drop, and the latest addition of a 2^nd joystick just sends a big F U to all the fans and consumers. I have seen some bad new releases, but this one sticks out in my head as one of the worst.  Nintendo cannot support themselves in the handheld market with the Playstation Vita on the horizon to compete with and the ever growing mobile market that is already well established.

The 3DS has not shown promise since the moment it was released. The system only being a little over half a year old has really put into perspective that you cannot just come out with a newer version of the same handheld system and have it sell. I still want one myself, but there has been nothing that has made me break down and get it. These days not only does handhelds within the market compete with each other, but it also competes with the smart phone market.

Where’s my Metal Gear Solid 3?!

When the 3DS launched it had no big titles to speak of that made the consumer run out and buy one.  The first big hit title that enticed gamers to buy the 3DS was the 3D remake of Zelda: OoT. The virtual console was another big selling point, but because Nintendo rushed the release of the 3DS that function of the 3DS was not seen until June 6^th months after the system’s launch. On August 12^th Nintendo made the decision to drop the price from $249.99 to $169.99 because of the system’s abysmal launch selling numbers. All these decisions do not instill confidence in the consumer for wanting to purchase the 3DS. The last issue is the 2nd joystick attachment that was recently released in Japan.  I feel that that attachment should have been integrated into the original design of the system.  This is typical of Nintendo to release an incomplete product as we all know that 2nd joystick will be integrated in a later version of the hardware.  The choices surrounding the 3DS are all detrimental to the overall growth of the system. You can’t release a system without any need to have titles and then come out with the e-market that should have been there day one only to have the system dropped $80 in price.  Even the “Ambassador’s Program” was still not enough to compensate for those who paid full price at launch.  I still plan to get one, but with each big decision that is made about the system I am more inclined to wait longer to see what happens.

The new 3DS: now with more designs that should have already been there.

So let’s talk about the biggest slap in the face to gamers everywhere, the unveiling of Nintendo’s new console the Wii U. This is a console that is designed to graphically compete with the PS3 and 360 and add a whole new dimension to gaming. So let’s take a moment and really analyze this, Nintendo wants to create a new console to compete with consoles that have already existed for 5yrs. Said console manufacturers are now looking to revamp their hardware in the near future to compete with and reduce the recent gap between PC and consoles. It’s going to have this new innovative tablet controller that is going to add a whole new dimension to gaming, but wait I only get to use one of them on my new system? Well as long as they are making good use of it, and can entice me with the created games and concepts they will have in store I can see myself being excited for tablet based controls. However Nintendo walked into E3 with no games to demo at all and are just going off of concept ideas with no titles at all in mind and 3^rd party support for games that will already be launched by then. Not to mention the demos showed of those 3^rd party games aren’t even from those titles on the Wii U. What a complete disappointment that was. I liked the concept that you may be able to play some games physically on the oversized new controller, but I don’t see why they couldn’t try to increase 3DS sales by finding a way to mix the two together. Such as instead of making a controller to play the game on you can send it to your 3DS to play on instead, keep track of your online name and progress and be able it send it back to the Wii U and stay interconnected. Nintendo did a very good job with combining handhelds and consoles in the past with the Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, and Gamecube and I feel that this needs to be implemented into Wii U.

Nintendo just seems to be heading in the wrong direction.

Nintendo has been making a lot of poor decisions to try and stay in the game and have failed at every attempt so far this year. Nintendo needs to completely change the rules of the game and find a means of keeping itself afloat. At the current pace that Nintendo is moving at could in time turn them into the new Sega of gaming. What does Nintendo need to do in order to keep up with Microsoft and Sony? What would you like to see more of and what would you like to see less of? What do you agree with and disagree with? Leave all questions, concerns, and insights in the comments below.