Well, all has been said and done… The three major conferences of E3 are over. So let’s go over what we saw!

Microsoft were the first to have their Conference and theirs was certainly a very interesting one. Beatles Rock Band was the first of many games to be show, with the remnants of the band showing up on stage to promote the game based upon their work. It should be worth looking into if you’re a fan of the Beatles and you like your music games. After that, Tony Hawks came onto the stage to endorse and promote his new game – Tony Hawk Ride. Another game that doesn’t look too appealing to me, but then again I’ve never actually liked skateboarding games.

Next up was the Modern Warfare 2 trailer and playthrough… Very clean and crisp graphics on a snowy mountainside, seen as we’re climbing it. Things are slow at first, but then really kick into gear. Much more hectic and intense than Modern Warfare. Afterwards, we’re treated to some snowmobile action – very awesome stuff. Before Modern Warfare 2 leaves our sights, however, we’re told that the game will have timed exclusive map packs on Xbox Live.

Now comes Final Fantasy XIII. Yup, we’ve got another playthrough. Kinda strange to see the game running on a 360 in English when we were told by Square Enix that they wouldn’t start development on the 360 version until after the release of the PS3 version in Japan, but nobody really cares. The game looks better than what we got to play on the FFXIII demo, we even get to see some new stuff we haven’t seen yet. Very good stuff, especially thanks to the announced release date of Spring 2010.

On comes Cliffy B and BigPark to announce Shadow Complex and Joy Ride, respectively. The former is a 2.5D XBLA-exclusive game that’s a mixture between Bionic Commando and Metroid. We’re promised a ten hour long campaign, huge boss fights and glitch-free gameplay (unlike the demo). Joy Ride is basically for Avatars what Wii Sports is for Mii’s – take your Avatars and chuck them inside cars and race away! We’re told it’s free to both play and download, kinda like 1 vs. 100.

After that comes a slew of trailers… First Crackdown 2, then Left4Dead 2, then Splinter Cell Conviction… All three are amazing looking, definite day one purchases across the board. While the Crackdown 2 trailer has no gameplay, the other two do and Splinter Cell Conviction in particular looks amazing. For a game that spent a lot of time off our radars, this is probable the best way ever to recapture our attention. Now we see Forza 3, a lot of time spent on discussing and describing the incredible customisation options that will be available in the game come October. Halo 3 ODST then hits the big screen, gameplay and all, with the Halo Reach teaser showing afterwards. Alan Wake is then played, plenty of atmosphere evident from the off. Gameplay is really well done, players required to expose enemies to light before they can kill them.

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That’s basically it in terms of awesomeness from Microsoft’s E3 Conference! Next up, Nintendo!

First up from Nintendo is NEW Super Mario Bros. Wii. The first multiplayer sidescrolling Mario adventure, allowing players to carry each other and even share power ups. Hopefully this means four times the traditional amount of enemies, eh? If co-op isn’t your kind of thing, there’s a Competitive mode where you compete to collect the most coins during levels… We’re not told if you can steal points off each other by jumping on heads or anything. Would be a nice addition, anyway.

Wii Fit takes to the stage, bores us all with sales figures and the announcement of the excuse of a rerelease – Wii Fit Plus. Highlights? 15 new balance games with a bundle being released this fall. After Wii Fit Plus, Reggie comes onto the stage to further discuss Wii Motion Plus. What we’re shown is impressive, albeit boring. Wii Sports Resort is shown, with skydiving and archery among other games.

Up comes a slew of RPGs – a Final Fantasy title and a Kingdom Hearts one for the Wii, as well as Mario and Luigi RPG 3 and Golden Sun DS. Yes, you really did hear me right. Golden Sun DS. Want me to repeat that again? The game many of us, me especially, have been waiting for since mid-2003 is finally confirmed. This, for me, is the biggest news of the entire E3 event. A trailer is shown, a sweeping look at Vale before showing us to a cave. Isaac is the protagonist once again, it would appear, and we’re shown some very beautiful Summons. Golden Sun DS is now completely 3D and looks just as good as FFIV did, and doesn’t seem to have lost any of the charm. Sadly, we didn’t get to see any in-battle gameplay, but that’s probably to stop any plot spoilers regarding further protagonists… I just really, REALLY hope we can transfer save data from The Lost Age. We’re given a tentative Western release sometime next year, so I’m personally hotly anticipating a Japanese release before the end of this year.

Next comes some more DS games I didn’t really pay much attention to, thanks to still getting over the shock of the Golden Sun DS announcement. One game was called Women’s Murder Club, a visual novel based upon a James Patterson novel, with the other being Cop: The Recruit – basically a Driver game with a storyline ripped from The Fast and the Furious for all intents and purposes… There’s a quick trailer for another game, something to do with fashion, but that’s about it. The next two games, Mario vs. Donkey Kong 3 and WarioWare DIY, both show up with a neat little twist in that players can make their own levels and whatnot. I assume these levels will be shareable across WiFi and stuff.

After this, Nintendo slips into it’s normal mode of boring announcements that nobody cares about… But then they shock us all with not one, but two major Wii game announcements. Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M. The former is a game that seems to bridge all Mario games before it. The level designs are really beautiful, as well as highly nostalgic, and there’s even Yoshi to ride! The latter is, we’re told, developed by none other than Team Ninja. Encompassing both third and first person sections, the game looks like a lot of fun from what we’re shown. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on that one.

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That’s Nintendo done! Finally, here’s Sony!

They run a montage of footage at first, showing off a large variety of PS3 and PSP games… After that, Tretton takes to the stage and jokes about the leaks. An impressive 364 games will be released on the PS3, PSP and PS2 over the course of 2009, with 35 being exclusives, we’re told before more talk of figures and charts and whatnot. He also points out the PS2′s pricepoint and how it’s getting 100 new games this year.

In comes an actual playthrough of Uncharted 2! Seriously, this game looks incredible without a doubt. The levels are large and dynamic, the game itself far more hectic than I remember Uncharted being… I know bigger and better is the way to go with sequels and, from this one level, it seems like Naughty Dog have hit the mark. There’s an air of tension as you’re being chased constantly by an attack chopper, dodging fire from both that and the many armed soldier dudes that pop up every couple of rooms. There’s quite literally no room to breathe and I love that! After that, we’re given a playthrough of MAG. Sad to say, after the Uncharted 2 playthrough, MAG looks really tame. The only important thing to note is that the playthrough was a full 256 player battle and there was no lag whatsoever.

Now Kaz Hirai comes along, “announces” the PSP Go. The console is small compared to the standard PSP. Much like Nintendo did with the DSi, Kaz stresses that the PSP Go will not replace the PSP. 16Gb internal memory, bluetooth, Wifi, expandable memory slot… New media applications to make things run much smoother. The biggest problem? A $250 pricepoint. I don’t know how anyone can justify buying a new PSP for that much when it has no compatibility with any existing PSP software. I assume that PSP owners will just have to repurchase any games they already have if they want to play them on the PSP Go.

Now for some PSP games… Gran Turismo PSP finally shows up, full scale with 800 cars over 35 tracks and at 60fps. Plenty of awesome extras, like Ad-Hoc multiplayer and trading. If that wasn’t enough for PSP owners, Kojima announcing Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker should be. Set ten years after MGS3, players will control Big Boss as the leader of the Militaires Sans Frontieres – his own private army, hired by an unknown army. All we do know is that this game will chart the birth and rise of Outer Haven. Kojima couldn’t stress enough that this is no spin-off, or side story, that this is a full game on the PSP – even being made by the people behind MGS4. Leaves me wondering who’s making Rising, if the best of Kojima’s men are working on Peace Walker… Before the PSP onslaught ends, we’re treated to another slew of reannouncements as well as a tease of Resident Evil hitting the console.

Rockstar’s new secret game thing called Agent is then announced before we see a really awesome video of Assassin’s Creed 2. After that, Square Enix announces FFXIV… Yup, they’re announcing Final Fantasy 14 before Final Fantasy 13 is even out. It’s an MMO and looks very traditional medieval, as opposed to the futuristic approach of recent Final Fantasy games. ModRacers is then announced, called the LBP of the racing world.

Team Ico formally announce The Last Guardian, the trailer used being a far more advanced looking version of the leaked one from a while back. The game actually looks really beautiful. To top off their already impressive Conference, Sony then shows a playthrough of God of War’s first level. Everything you’d expect from the game is there, visceral combat and plenty of QTEs. Very incredible looking, brilliant detail and great designs. My only reservation is that the demo, for that’s what it is, is played in the exact same way the other three demos for God of War games play. The only difference is that the giant monster boss you fight at the end is one of the Titans.

And that’s it for E3! What did you think? Tell us your opinions of E3 in the comments, and don’t forget to tell us what your game of the show was! A very special thanks to

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