Gaetano

I don’t think anyone could argue that this years E3 conference in LA was better than last years. Even better than 2007’s. E3 lost some of its pizzazz and glamour for a few years before finally getting back to its roots this year. We’ve seen quite a few attending publications make note of how different it was compared to previous years. There has been more on show and more people meaning that companies were putting more effort in.

The three major players had been fairly quiet at E3 before this year, opting to save big announcements for their own conferences at separate times of the year. Nintendo was noticeably shallow at last years E3 and Microsoft and Sony each gave less-than-memorable keynotes. Thankfully, all three showed off the big guns during E3 2009’s keynote presentations as E3 stepped up a gear.

There have been so many great announcements and moments that it’s hard to pick the best of it all. The announcement trailer during Microsoft’s press conference was pretty cool, showing off Crackdown 2 and Left 4 Dead 2. Natal was an impressive presentation and Milo blew my socks off! I loved hearing about Gran Turismo PSP and seeing God of War III in action, but the one moment that made my jaw hit the ground was when Uncharted 2 came on screen. I’m amazed at how gorgeous that game looks. It’s tattooed on my mind more so than Milo or Natal, which both impressed me. I’m a big fan of the PSP GO and I really can’t wait to get my hands on it, so that was another memorable part of the conference for me.

Ben (ICC)

E3 this year has trumped 2008 hands down. While it’s not in the same league as past years when new consoles have been announced, every gamer should be happy with the software line-up on show for their particular system. The best thing about E3 this year was that we got big name titles for the Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, DS and PSP that we didn’t previously know about. There’s nothing worse than when E3 just rehashes what we already knew. Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M are both great, and unexpected, announcements for Nintendo fans of old. Halo Reach & Left 4 Dead 2 will more than satisfy Xbox 360 fans. Meanwhile, PS3 owners should be over the moon with the announcement of Agent. OMG an exclusive Rockstar game, permission to run around screaming hysterically!

On the handheld front the entire PSP announcement library was impressive. To be honest the PSP has been lagging behind other platforms for a while now, but the likes of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Resident Evil look set to change that. While it was a quiet year for the DS we did get one major revelation; Golden Sun DS. If you ever played one of the GBA games you’ll know what I regard it so highly.

Gaetano

Again, it’s hard to really pick one specific moment. I think a lot of people expected Nintendo to blow us away with something new. I hate getting on Nintendo’s back all the time, but they disappointed me once again. The Vitality Sensor does absolutely nothing for me, and going by the posts in the official conference thread on MyWii as it was announced, it didn’t do much for most people. Of the conferences, Nintendo’s was easily the less impressive. Microsoft made a note of “showing” rather than telling and Jack Tretton at Sony gave a really impressive demonstration. But Satoru Iwata of Nintendo almost put me to sleep. Literally. He took forever to get to his point and I actually wanted to nibble at my ankle in anticipation of his point. When he finally announced the Vitality Sensor, I didn’t know what to think. I was overwhelmed by a lack of interest. I didn’t think that was possible, but I was.

While they had plenty of great announcements, like Galaxy 2, a new Metroid title and some nice DS titles, Nintendo only reiterated the direction I think they’re going in – to ditch the core gamer for a non-gaming and overly casual crowd, with titles like Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports Resort. I asked XBOX Australia’s product marketing manager Adam Pollington if Microsoft were ditching the Halo and Call of Duty gaming audience for a more casual audience with the Natal like the Wii has, and he literally baulked at the suggestion. Nintendo continue to tell us what we want, instead of assuming and/or giving us what we want. Sony has been the best at giving gamers what they want, with Microsoft close behind. Nintendo continue to make statements like, “gamers want this” and “this will be fun” instead of “we want to do this” and “we expect this to happen”, which is the direction the other two players go in. Perhaps I think too much, but the more I see of Nintendo, the more I dislike them. And this is coming from someone who backed the Gamecube and N64 more than any other console during those generations.

As much as I don’t mind Microsoft and Sony going in the direction with motion controlling, I didn’t like Sony’s motion-controller presentation. Dr. Richard Marx was overly nervous and struggled to get his words out and the presentation itself was dull and boring. I just wanted to see more PS3 games and thankfully that’s what we ended up getting at the end.

Ben

I don’t have that much to complain about this year, besides a few titles that I had really hoped for, but deep down inside I knew weren’t going to see the light of day this year. I predominately covered Nintendo’s showing at the event this year. Therefore, I’m leaning towards praising and bagging them with a majority of my answers here as I know their announcements inside and out. Fortunately I don’t have to move past them to find the worst thing at E3 this year.

The presentation from Nintendo of Japan President, Satoru Iwata, was terrible. He took to the stage and gave an extremely long, seemingly unnecessary speech, about Nintendo attempting to increase its audience. After this went nowhere, he finally got to a point (I have no idea what ‘the point’ was) by announcing the Wii Vitality Sensor. After speaking for so long about nothing important, or even related to anything, this was the anticlimax of the show. The Wii Vitality Sensor itself looks relatively useless. This man is in charge of Nintendo; that explains a lot.

Gaetano

I’d go with Microsoft, but only by a nose-hair. If someone asked me to choose one of the two to watch again, I’d probably flip a coin. While there wasn’t a single moment during Microsoft’s press conference that bored me, Sony had some great announcements with Rockstar’s Agent, a great presentation of Uncharted 2 and some amazing gameplay footage of God of War III. They also showed off the PSP GO and finally set a release date for Gran Turismo PSP. Resident Evil on PSP is also a great announcement.

Microsoft win it with me through announcements of another Halo title in Halo: Reach, the revealing of Metal Gear Solid: Rising, the announcement trailer that showed off Crackdown 2 (which looks AMAZING…or maybe I’m just a Crackdown fanboy), and the movie streaming service on XBOX Live. We got confirmation through Adam Pollington that it will be coming to Australia before Christmas, which means we can be streaming Full HD movies through our 360 in a matter of months. Natal was impressive and previews from the show say it’s just as good as the trailer shown during the keynote, and the Milo video gave me goose bumps. Gameplay footage of Alan Wake also blew me away, as this was the one game I wanted to see during the conference.

I really loved both keynote speeches and one barely outdoes the other, but for me personally, Microsoft takes the cake with an overall better presentation that I thought flowed better and showed off a few more surprises through Crackdown 2, Left 4 Dead 2 and Alan Wake.

Ben

It’ll be interesting to see the direction that gaming goes in the next few years. With Sony announcing the PS3 motion controller, Nintendo further pushing Wii MotionPlus and Microsoft announcing Project Natal I hope this isn’t the end of console gaming as we know it. It will either produce an array of great games in a way we’ve never seen before, or Sony & Microsoft will go down the path of Nintendo, and sell out in favour of the casual market.

Microsoft takes it home for me. Project Natal looks really interesting and I’m definitely more interested in what no controller can do, rather than another remote, so long as it’s not just a jazzed up version of Eye Toy. Sony’s controller didn’t really interest me; the demo was cool, but it seemed like a cheap attempt to cash in on Nintendo’s success. While I do think it looks more accurate than Nintendo’s Wii Remote, I think that’s all it is, and the wrong direction for Sony. Big name games were on show during all three Keynotes but Microsoft lead the way here again (maybe only just). With games such as Halo Reach, Left 4 Dead 2, Crackdown 2 and Forza 3 now is a great time to be a 360 owner. While there wasn’t anything completely unexpected it was almost all quality, and an even better software line-up than we could have hoped for.

Gaetano

There are so many! PSP GO, Natal, Milo, Agent, Left 4 Dead 2, Metal Gear Solid: Rising, Super Mario Galaxy 2. For me, it’s easily Crackdown 2. The first game has such a cult following and seems to get more fans by the day. The original developer is working on APB for PC (which looks friggin’ unreal!) and whenever a rumour popped up about a sequel they always seemed to be quickly squashed. But when that announcement trailer began and I could hear the voice-over and see the Crackdown logo, a smile went right across my face.

I understand some of you, especially the PS3 diehards out there, might find it difficult to understand how that can be the best announcement for me, but Crackdown was one of my first games of this generation. While it didn’t get outstanding reviews upon launch, it seems to get better with age, which is normally impossible for a title. It’s gotten more popular as time goes by. It’s without a doubt the Fight Club of this generation – a title that gets decent reviews but then eventually ends up being one of the best of its kind (in reference to the film, not the terrible Fight Club game). Ask any 360 owner what 10 games are a must-have and I think you’ll find that most will include Crackdown in that list. The gameplay is so addictive it’s not even funny and I can’t wait to cause havoc once again.

Ben

The PSP Go looks really cool. I never owned a PSP but I’ll definitely be entering Sony’s handheld market when this bad boy hits shelves. Alright, so technically we already knew about this prior to E3, but it was ‘officially’ announced at Sony’s Keynote so I pretended we didn’t. It was also great news for existing owners to hear that the new iteration of the handheld wouldn't make the PSP-3000 or UMD obsolete and that Sony intends to continue to support both in the future, even after the PSP GO is released.

I think it’s worth giving an honourable mention to Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 as the biggest sequels this E3. Nobody saw it coming after Nintendo opened their Keynote by revealing New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Super Mario Galaxy 2 is the first true sequel to a 3D Mario title, and the first time two 3D Mario adventures will appear on the same console. To clue in non-Nintendo fans this is massive news. The original title was awarded game of the year by many publications in 2007 (including MyMedia in our Choice Awards as voted by members). It was up against titles such as Call of Duty 4, and yet despite Nintendo 'selling out' we know a masterpiece when we see one. Galaxy 2 heads my list of sequels I’m most interesting in, just above Modern Warfare 2 and Left 4 Dead 2. The latter is the second announcement in the ‘I think I peed a little’ category. Left 4 Dead was one of the biggest games of the year and seemingly came out of know where (or maybe I just wasn’t following it). Either way it was a pleasant surprise and I can’t wait to see more of it!

Gaetano

Nintendo had a whole bunch of them. There was the Women’s Murder Club on DS, Wii Fit Plus and then the Vitality Sensor, which Iwata seemed to have taken a decade to finally reveal. I can’t imagine anyone who stayed up that late to watch the keynote would have shown much interest in Wii Fit Plus, as the people it’s actually aimed at (people like my mum) probably wouldn’t have been up watching it. I really want to care about the Vitality Sensor, but I just can’t. With Natal and even Sony’s motion-controller being revealed, this debacle by Nintendo just didn’t grab my attention at all. I was expecting something big from Iwata after he spoke for 300 minutes, but then when he brought that out, I felt like stabbing the screen.

Ben

I already said Wii Vitality Sensor, can I say that again? No wait, at least it’s something new, I’m going to go with Wii Fit Plus. Maybe I’m picking on Nintendo a little, but Cammie killed the atmosphere by following up the awesome New Super Mario Bros. Wii with Wii Fit Plus. Noooooo! We don’t care, nobody who’s watching the entire press conference live cares. Wii Fit was a great direction for Nintendo financially; they must have made a bucket load off of the game that’s good for you. It was inevitable that a sequel would come, but frankly it received was it deserved, nothing more than a ‘meh’. We’re sure Wii Fit is doing wonders for fat kids out there, but we don’t care.

Gaetano

I think the biggest shock for the crowd in attendance was Final Fantasy XIV Online. When Tretton announced that, you could actually hear people say “what!?”. It was pretty left field. I loved how he said it so calmly as well, with no emotion on his face. He wanted to smile, but he wanted to make out like it wasn’t that big.

For me, it’s the announcement of Resident Evil on PSP. I think of the possibilities of PSP GO, with the 16gb internal memory, and I hope we see something along the lines of RE4. Maybe not quite as advanced, but something along the lines. I’m curious to see how it works without a thumb pad, but Resident Evil is one of my favourite franchises and along with Viewtiful Joe is something I’ve been dying to see on PSP (Red Hot Rumble doesn’t count!)

Crackdown 2 was also a shock, but a small part of me kind of expected it.

Ben

We got two massive bombshells in the software department this E3. Sony announced that Final Fantasy XIV Online will be coming exclusively to PS3 and PC in 2010, and Nintendo concluded their show with Metroid: Other M. I believe Microsoft had the best overall line-up; however, these two were huge, but unexpected, announcements. A trailer was shown for both; the audience didn’t know how to react after watching either and sat in ore of what they had just witnessed. Microsoft may have had the best conference overall, but it was Nintendo and Sony who delivered the biggest shocks. To avoid sitting on the fence yet again I’ll go with Metroid: Other M as the biggest shock, just because the Metroid titles on the GameCube introduced me to the last generation of gaming.

Gaetano

It’s been a massive conference. So much on show, so much announced. I could say the gamers won, as Ben has below, but that would be a bit too cliché. If we want to be official, I’d say Sony and Microsoft in a tie, with Nintendo a distant third. If I want to be a fanboy, I’d say Microsoft because of Crackdown 2. But really, we have an amazing year still to come for games. 2009 is going to end incredibly strong and now with Forza 3, MGS: Rising, Crackdown 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Galaxy 2 and Alan Wake on the horizon, the gaming public really did win E3. Kudos to Microsoft and Sony for helping to bring us amazing and conference – one of the best in recent memory!

Ben

You, the gamers! Is that too cliché? Who cares it’s true. Microsoft had the best showing overall. Halo Reach, Project Natal, Left 4 Dead 2, Crackdown 2, Metal Gear Solid Rising, Forza 3, and Splinter Cell: Conviction and the list goes on. Sony fans better start saving some coin as well with the PSP Go, Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker, Final Fantasy XIV Online, Agent and God of War III looking to blow socks off. Nintendo had a weaker showing, but I’m not complaining and neither should you. It was a bazillion times better than last year (yes that’s my very professionally summed up conclusion). Two new Mario titles and Metroid: Other M are more than enough to keep loyal Nintendo fans around for at least another year. Golden Sun DS wins the award for ‘biggest under the radar announcement’. Golden Sun was one of the best RPG’s on the GBA and it’s fantastic to see it back. Whether you’re a fan of Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo or a combination of, something big came out of E3. At the end of the day conference that’s what really matters.

Nintendo and Sony headlined the busiest day of E3 this year, with back to back keynotes that were sure to keep us entertained on E3 2009 Day 2.

Nintendo started proceedings with a bang. After a slight delay Cammie Dunaway kicked things off with a Mario montage, leading in to the announcement of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. The all new 4 player Super Mario title was demonstrated on stage and will certainly please Nintendo fans of old.

Unfortunately the excitement level dropped directly after as Cammie went on to announce the leaked Pre-E3 Wii Fit Plus - a game that is heading in a 'new direction' and would help people "create a specific workout program that's perfect" for them. Cammie showed off a range of new minigames, including skateboarding and barrel jumping, which finally puts the gamer in Mario's shoes.

Reggie then came on stage to start talking about 'innovation' and went into a promotion for Wii MotionPlus and Wii Sports Resort, two items that were announced at E3 last year. Nintendo's Bill Trinen showed us that Wii Sports Resort will begin with skydiving, and then gave us a look at the very interesting archery and basketball games. Reggie reminded us that third party developers are making use of Wii MotionPlus, including EA with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 & Grand Slam Tennis and Sega with Virtua Tennis 2009.

Reggie dropped an interesting statistic by claiming that more 3rd party games were sold on the Wii and DS than any other platforms. Wow! He used Square Enix as an example of upcoming RPGs by showing off a trailer for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearer and Kingdom Hears 358/2 Days. Continuing the RPG trend Reggie discussed how Bowser sucks, and this time he literally means it. In Mario & Luigi RPG: Bowser's Inside Story the famous brothers have been shrunk and find themselves inside their nemesis!

The biggest under the radar announcement was that of Golden Sun DS. After a 6 year absence one of the best RPGs of the GBA era is back, and deserved way more excitement than it got.

Cammie replaced the Nintendo of America President on stage to announce Woman's Murder Club, an interactive book for the Nintendo DS. This is all about 'taking risks' and trying new things. It's definitely an interesting concept, and one we'll see more of if it turns out to be a success. Continuing with the DS content she announced COP: The Recruit. An open-world third-person urban crime game, Cop puts players behind the wheel, and on foot, as a street racer who's faced with the choice of returning to his criminal ways, or helping the police. The action packed trailer looked like GTA meets Driver mixed in with some Anime style cutscenes.

The DSi has some interesting unique features, including the ability to download content and 'applications' from an online store. In keeping with this theme Nintendo announced that it is developing a system for users to be able to share DSi pictures on the World Wide Web. Users will be able to take pictures with their DSi and then directly upload them to their Facebook page straight from their DSi console. WarioWare DIY is another DSi exclusive title and will allow players to create their own microgames, using features such as the DSi camera, then send them to their friends locally via Wi-Fi.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata came on stage and confused everyone. He gave an extremely long, seemingly unnecessary speech, about Nintendo attempting to increase its audience. He said there are three active groups - those who actively play, those who never play and those who might. If gaming is to grow, it must come from the "maybe" group. There are 295 Million people in Japan, Europe and the US actively playing games. Then there's another 145 Million who say they might be involved in games. He continued to discuss non-gamers for quite a while and it seemed as if he didn't really have a point.

Eventually Iwata announced the Wii Vitality Sensor - a device the plugs into the bottom of your Wii Remote and receives information about your heart rate by being attached to your finger.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 was announced to the surprise of many since a new Mario title was announced at the start of the show. Check out the trailer to see Mario running around the spherical world, this time with the help of Yoshi. Super Mario Galaxy 2 is the first true sequel to a 3D Mario title, and the first time two 3D Mario adventures will appear on the same console.

Reggie reads the blogs. He knows we want more mature titles from third party developers. So, he decided to show us three games on the horizon that fit this description, and one of those games was Dead Space Extraction.

Nintendo started the show with a surprise, and ended it with a massive shock, by announcing that they were teaming up with Team Ninja to bring Metroid: Other M to the Nintendo Wii. It's Metroid like you've never seen it before, and as Reggie says, it takes a name you know well and turns it into something new. The game is due out next year and features a mix of 1st and 3rd person gameplay. With that Nintendo concluded their Keynote for E3 2009.

Later in the day, at their roundtable discussion, Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed that a new Wii Zelda title is in development. Don't expect it until 2010 at the very earliest and reports that we won't see it again until next E3 suggest it may be further away than that.

The morning continued with Sony's Conference starting at 4am local time. Jack Tretton started proceedings by thanking everyone for coming and stated that they won't be "out done" by anyone. He discussed the success of the PS2 and that Sony was the first company to have 3 successful consoles in the industry at the same time along side the PS3 and PSP. inFamous is just one of 35 titles to come exclusively to the PlayStation 3 in 2009 and looks set to further increase the 13 million PS3 that have already been sold worldwide.

Sony played montages of various upcoming games throughout the entire keynote. Out of all the videos the show early in the piece Heavy Rain received the biggest applause.

The PSP was a major player in the keynote as Sony officially announced "the worst kept secret of E3" the PSP Go. They also confirmed that the new iteration of the handheld wouldn't make the PSP-3000 or UMD obsolete and that they intended to continue to support both in the future, even after the PSP GO is released.

Sony did have a surprise or two in store for us, however, by bringing out Kojima to announce Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for PSP. It is set 10 years after the events of MGS3: Snake Eater and is said to be a true sequel to that title. The game is set in 1974, where a powerful group takes over Costa Rica.

Gran Turismo PSP kept the good news coming for PSP fans as it was announced along side the PSP Go and showcased with an impressive trailer. There will be over 800 cars, 35 tracks and 60 layouts of those tracks. The game will also run at 60 fps. It will be a launch title along side the PSP Go.

Finally Agent was announced exclusively for the PlayStation 3. "We have always enjoyed making action games, and with Agent we are making what we believe will be the ultimate action game," said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. We didn't get any images or footage but nobody is going to complain about an exclusive game from Rockstar.

Sony dropped a bombshell during their E3 2009 keynote speech when they announced Final Fantasy XIV Online exclusively for the PS3 and PC. A small trailer was shown, although no gameplay was in the trailer. The response to the announcement was one of amazement, as the audience at the keynote didn't quite know how to react to it.

In keeping with the FF theme Sony revealed that Final Fantasy VII is going to be released on the PS Store for download.

The biggest shock of the morning came when Sony announced their new motion controller for the PS3. While the controller was still in the form of an early prototype it worked in a similar way to the Wii Remote. However, with the aid of a camera it appeared to detect movement better than the current Wii Remote. Dr. Richard Marx, creator of the EyeToy, demoed the controller on stage, showing off its real-time movement and how precise it is with the gamer’s swings. We'll post the video of the demonstration shortly.

Sony also announced Mod Nation Racers - a community and creative-focused title from developer United Front Games. The title will be a kart racing title, allowing you to generate your own characters and build your own karts.

Another PS3 exclusive, God of War III will be hitting shelves during March 2010. It just snuck in towards the end of the conference and we're glad it did with a trailer. The gameplay is just as we expect it to be - gory, violent and action-packed! The environments look stunning and the enemies just as massive and aggressive as we remember from the first two mind-blowing titles. And with that Sony Concluded their Keynote.