E3 2011 press conference highlights

Courtesy of Engadget.

Microsoft press conference highlights

• Demo of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

• Demo of Gears of War 3 co-op played by Epic Games’ creative director Cliff Bleszinski and rapper Ice-T

• Demo of Mass Effect 3 and its new Kinect features

• Halo 4 debut and trailer

• Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary debut and trailer

• Pushing Kinect functionality

• Notable Kinect-only games: Kinect Disneyland Adventures and Kinect Star Wars

Overall: There were no surprises of note. People expected an announcement of Halo 4 and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, as both of those titles had been rumored for quite some time. Regardless if there weren’t any bombshell announcements, the amount of “hardcore” games in comparison to the other platforms still favors on the side of Xbox. Although, it was still disappointing, even with the amount of focus on the Kinect, that none of the Kinect functionality in the titles made me get really excited.

Sony press conference highlights

• Demo of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

• NGP handheld officially named PlayStation Vita (pronounced vi-tae)

• $249 for Wi-Fi only

• $299 for Wi-Fi + 3G

• Launching this holiday

• Focus on 3-D integration

• Games, games and more games

Overall: The entire breadth of Sony content is staggering. Whether it was PlayStation 3 160GB, Vita or Move content, Sony had a lot of stuff on display. The price of Vita was a huge surprise. I was expecting something astronomical like $399 for just the Wi-Fi-only model. The base Wi-Fi unit is priced at the same level as Nintendo’s latest 3DS portable gaming device. A plus in my book is a price for Vita that not only core early adopters are OK with, but casual-gaming early adopters as well. The press conference may have been scatterbrained with amount of things Sony wanted to show off, but it was a solid presentation with some surprises and quality games regardless.

Nintendo press conference highlights

• Next home console: Wii U

• Wii U controller

• Console specs: More powerful processor, 1080p output over HDMI, flash memory for storage

• Coming 2012

• Nintendo 3DS titles: Mario Kart 3D, Super Mario 3D, Star Fox 64 3D, Luigi’s Mansion 2

Overall: Once again, Nintendo is trying to change the game like they once did with the Wii years ago. In a bold move, Nintendo unveiled their next home console, the Wii U. What makes the Wii U special is its controller just as the Wii remote did for the Wii. The capabilities of the controller are endless and would take far too long to list. Basically, the Wii U controller looks like a tablet with a touch screen in the middle and standard controller buttons around it. The Wii U controller utilizes a 6.2 touch screen to take the game you play on the TV straight to the controller, or using both the TV and controller screen at the same time. Nintendo made another ballsy move at E3 this year. Will the Wii U be a hit like its predecessor or a giant Virtual Boy flop?