*Electronic Entertainment Expo’s (E3) “big three”: Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo (The Father the Son and our Childhood Spirit.)

This year’s E3 was quite a filler for our nerdy mecca; after last year, a year of next-generation consoles, this year was just more of what we already knew was coming: more “console” and “timed” exclusives, with words like “innovative” and “immersive” being thrown around like footballs on Sunday night. 

Microsoft:

The Microsoft press conference was mostly void of Kinect, TV, and superfluous application; Microsoft’s conference was most certainly superior in every way to the conference they held last year.

Microsoft’s conference opened up with what we Americans love most: guns and cars. The blockbuster money makers Call of Duty and Forza showed off footage and discussed new iterations in the two very established franchises: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, starring Kevin Spacey as the primary antagonist (Frank Underwood is already a great villain so this can only be awesome!) and Forza Horizon 2, starring a sentient Artificial Intelligence constantly adapting to the player (so a Terminator?)

The press conference went on to some other multi-platform games with timed-exclusive downloadable content (DLC). Call of Duty and Assassins Creed Unity were notable mentions. Ubisoft showed off their annual Assassin’s Creed game, Unity, which takes place during the French revolution and, for the first time in an Assassin’s Creed game, will feature online four player co-op.

If you were a fan of Left 4 Dead, then you may be interested in the next-generation exclusive Evolve by the same team behind the chaotic zombie game. Evolve is what Monster Hunter would be if it was a first person-shooter. You are dropped in a large arena with three other friends; there are some smaller monsters roaming around, but they are nothing compared to the big baddy of the domain. Your goal is to hunt the gargantuan beast while the player controlling also hunts you.

The eccentric developers behind the very fun but poorly constructed cult classics like Bayonetta and Vanquish, Platinum Studios, are coming out with a new Xbox-Exclusive IP: Scalebound. They only showed a CGI trailer of Scalebound where a cocky teenager in hipster clothing uses his sword (and built-in rock armor?) to slay giant beasts with his pet dragon. The trailer was nothing special; however, the premise is interesting and the team has made plenty of great games to warrant our attention.

Halo 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 are all coming to Xbox One. The Master Chief Collection features the initial four games will be coming to Xbox One n 1080p and 60 frames per second along with the HD remastered versions of both Halo 1 and 2. Now, we all saw this coming; Halo is a given E3 topic for Microsoft. Regardless, it’s still a pleasant addition to those who have never experienced the game beforehand. Naturally, The Master Chief Collection and Halo 5 will be Xbox One exclusives.

Insomniac Games, famous for the always PlayStation exclusive Ratchet & Clank games, showed off another Xbox One exclusive IP Sunset Overdrive. Sunset Overdrive aims to shoot past the bland, brown, military shooter and bring color and creativity back to the shooter genre – shown extensively by their comedic fourth-wall breaking trailer. Taking place in a city poisoned by a soft drink, the game allows you to play as a character of your own creation with a very diverse arsenal of weapons, including a firework and propane tank guns. Needless to say, the game looks like an exceptional amount of fun with its fast-paced parkour elements and colorful graphics, even though the game has failed to show a coherent story or balanced gameplay structure.

Finally, the third Crackdown game was announced in all of its gang boss killing glory. Strangely enough, it is only going by the name of Crackdown. Not a lot was shown of the game other than a CGI trailer, a breed of trailer that the gaming community has learned to never trust.

Sony:

Sony’s press conference only allotted an hour for games – boy, how the tables have turned. Luckily, most of Sony’s new games were notable.

Similar to the case of Insomniac games with Sunset Overdrive normally being associated with PlayStation platforms, Sony has a similar deal going for them with Bungie (the creators of the Halo games prior to 4), where they get exclusive content for their new game Destiny. Destiny is an open world MMO like FPS which takes place on Mars. It is one of the most anticipated games of 2014, which is the reasoning for Sony opening up their conference with an impressive trailer for the game. Fun fact: the robot that narrates the trailer is being fully voiced by Peter Dinklage from Game of Thrones and X-Men fame.

Next are two PlayStation 4 exclusives similar to each other in theme but very far apart in execution: The Order 1886 and Bloodborne. The Order is a cinematic, steampunk third-person shooter set in medieval times, but there are futuristic weapons from the team behind the Resistance franchise, Ready at Dawn.

Meanwhile, Bloodborne is a game set in medieval times that also presents horror elements brought to us by the mind behind what is considered the hardest gaming franchise ever, the Souls series- Hidetaka Miyazaki. Miyazaki’s games are known to take you out of the game with cut-scenes, but also keep you hooked with well-balanced swordplay and death… lots and lots of death.

The charming platformer sequel none of us knew we wanted was Little Big Planet 3! The lovable Sackboy returns this time with new adorable little friends. As usual, the game will be driven by user-generated content, which worked wonders for the first two prequels due to the immense amount of creativity the gaming community has.

The last true exclusive is the very ambitious indie title No Man’s Sky made by four friends! The game stars a protagonist and his space ship as they travel around the seemingly endless universe, which is randomly generated for all users: Think of the maps in Minecraft expanded to entire galaxies and you have the goal of No Man’s sky down.

Of course, there were other indie games at the conference, but most of them are just ports of already existing PC games. The folks at Devolver Digital have signed a contract with Sony, bringing all of their games over from the PC to the PS4 along with all future games being released simultaneously. This is not to forget the classic point-and-click game Grim Fandango, being released on the PS4 in HD.

The re-selling of old games doesn’t end there; the two games that dominated award season last year are both being remade for PS4: The Last of Us and Grand Theft Auto V. Most of us foresaw this, but it is still nice to see the games being confirmed for the definitive experience.

Nintendo:

The company that stole everyone’s heart at E3 and almost unanimously won the whole shebang also had the shortest press conference. Of course, they had the unfair advantage of being pre-recorded and not having to deal with a live audience. Still, one cannot deny an anime style fight between two businesses clad CEO’s was the best opener we’ve ever experienced.

Smash Brothers stole Nintendo’s E3 as its new characters like Pac-Man and the amiibo feature (Nintendo’s version of Skylanders) were introduced. There was also a playable demo on the show floor, which was a huge hit to anyone lucky enough to physically attend E3.

A new Legend of Zelda trailer was shown with yet another new design for Link and a very pleasing aesthetic. Also, a Dynasty Warriors game with a Hyrulian twist shall join the Wii U catalog as early as late September. Sadly, the Legend of Zelda was a teaser to the purest sense: we got no name or release date.

Everyone’s favorite mushroom headed adventurer from Mario 3D World shall be cast as the main role of his own adorable video game, Captain Toad’s: Treasure Tracker (even his alliterations are cute)! Also from the Mushroom Kingdom, we get Yoshi’s Woolly World, which is essential Kirby’s Epic Yarn on Yoshi’s Island- so amazing!

Speaking of Kirby, the pink fluff ball that never chews his food will be returning in a game not entirely made of string with Kirby and the Rainbow Curse. Not a lot was shown, but, similar to Star Fox, we know it is in development and we are very excited for it.

Bayonetta 1 and 2 will finally find their way to the Wii U in October, and both seem to be surpassing the original release on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

But Nintendo finally did the unexpected. They announced a new IP! And, to everyone’s disbelief, it looks like a lot of fun.  Splatoon is a third-person multiplayer 4v4 shooter where you beat up your opponents by covering more of the map with your team’s color than they do, leading to hours of chaotic colorful creativity!

Consensus:

This year’s E3 was good enough to write home (or the internet) about, but it was not overwhelming at all. Microsoft and Nintendo played it very safe and stuck to games (although the Seth Green Claymation skits were a hilarious change of pace for Nintendo) while PlayStation tried to discuss apps and a network of new capabilities that just bored us all to tears.

Nintendo really has to take the top for showing the audience actual reasons to buy a Wii U- which is a huge accomplishment in retrospect!