E3 2012: Who Won E3?

Posted June 6, 2012 by Robert Thorpe

E3 2012 is still going on right now, with many more reveals that could possibly still happen, except I doubt that any more titles will get revealed.

However, the press events held by the five major companies holding press events this year are in fact over. And the question is which one of them “Won” E3 2012!

The choices that are available to choose from were the big 3, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, each one of them had something for them, Sony had Quantic Dream’s new title Beyond, Microsoft had…..well we will get back to you after all the Nike, Tablet and …wait they had Gears of War: Judgement that was kind of new, and then we had Nintendo that revealed an extensive look at the Wii U launch line-up and especially NintendoLand because I really wanted to have a in-depth look at fireworks in a game, thanks guys!

And then we had two publishers revealing some major titles, we had EA on the table revealing Dead Space 3, Most Wanted and how they got the rights to UFC, and then we have Ubisoft for showing us extensive looks at Assassin’s Creed 3, Far Cry 3, Rayman: Legends and couple of other which shall be named.

However the question is who “Won” E3?

Well if we had to look at each group individually, let us start with the Big 3! Was it Nintendo with their Wii U Line-Up? Was it Microsoft with their….stuff! Or was it Sony revealing one game and then some awesome gameplay?

In my opinion out of the big 3 companies, the all out winner was Sony!

Sony came out and announced the newest title from Quantic Dream, Beyond, and showed it to an expectant ground in the Auditorium and Live Streaming to show off some of the most spectacular graphics and in game footage from the studio that brought us Heavy Rain and Fahrenheit.They then moved on to show us even more footage of the Super Smash Bros. rip-off Playstation All-Star Battle Royale which displayed several characters going up against one another and finishing the presentation to reveal Nathan Drake from Uncharted and the Big Daddy from BioShock will be playable characters.

Moving swiftly on they showed off a host of Ubisoft titles like Assassin’s Creed 3 naval battles, Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation, a PSVita Assassin’s Creed title and Far Cry 3, confirming that it has a second four player co-op campaign.

All before finally finishing off with the first in-game look at Santa Monica Studios upcoming God of War: Ascension, showing a visually younger Kratos laying a gory smack down on a host of mythological beasties, one of which some kind of anthropomorphic elephant man that Kratos splits its skull open with the chaos blades which was a very gory end to the beast. And then to round off the show, they ended with Naughty Dog’s dystopian future game The Last of Us, showing us some brutal and dynamic gameplay from the studio that brought us Uncharted, and by all means the footage they showed us really stood out as it took clear inspiration from games like Uncharted and Ubisoft‘s I Am Alive where weapons and ammo are scarce and enemies react to your presence and what exactly you will do!

And then the show ended for Sony with only one game actually getting revealed that was new, but the gameplay footage alone make this studio stand out of the big 3!

Now as for the publishers, we had EA and Ubisoft, they were the only two that actually had a live stream for publishers, Namco Bandai and Capcom apparently had conferences but they weren’t televised. Now we did have EA, the studio did debut a host of games that we knew existed and they did confirm a new multi-year agreement with UFC. However EA despite being good wasn’t excellent, the excellence goes to Ubisoft who literally will get higher praise than anyone else, to me Ubisoft WON E3 2012!

The list of reasons as to why Ubisoft won E3 are extensive. Firstly, they were genuinely showing off AAA title after AAA title, revealing games on all systems and displaying games for the upcoming Wii U system. In fact they released cinematic footage and later gameplay footage of the upcoming mature Wii U title, ZombiU, which has actually sold me a Wii U system! It is a zombie game based in the UK and it is a genuine survival horror game featuring a whole host of interesting game mechanics not seen in another game before, it looks thrilling, terrifying and I simply want to play the game right now. Rayman: Legends, if you haven’t played Rayman: Origins yet STFU and GTFO! Rayman: Legends is a 2D platform title that looks fantastic, will be great fun to play and on the Wii U it is up to five players co-op.

However the news didn’t stop there, Ubisoft went out to look extensively at upcoming titles such as Far Cry 3, showing off another fantastic looking trailer and gameplay from the eagerly anticipated sequel, a game that looks both gorgeous and bloodthirsty on a island filled with bloodthirsty pirates. I am not sure what it is but I can’t wait to play Far Cry 3, it looks like the best one in the series since they have now added four player co-op I certainly cannot wait to play the game. And they they went out to show some of the most extensive looks at Assassin’s Creed 3. We know its going to be good, we know its going to sell lots of copies, but the gameplay they have released at E3 this year isn’t even coming close to good, it is excellent. Revealing a new cinematic, to a look at the missions you can face, to showing of fast and thrill naval battles, Assassin’s Creed 3 is certainly one of this years must have titles.

And lastly, Ubisoft revealed two more new titles, the first is the spectacular looking sequel in the Splinter Cell series as players return to assume control of Sam Fisher, still a spy and a fugitive it seems from the trailer for Splinter Cell: Black List. Sam is now on the Iran/Iraq border on a mission to assassinate a terrorist leader. Revealing a fast and action based cinematic, the game also had gameplay footage to show off how much has been improved since Splinter Cell: Conviction, on top of which they revealed what game modes will be returning to the title.

Now last but not least, Ubisoft brought on Ubisoft Montreal to reveal an upcoming title called Watch Dogs. Watch Dogs is a slightly futuristic game set Chicago, Illinois during the 2010s and revolves around a man named Aiden Pearce, who has breached into Chicago’s “ctOS” (Central Operating System), a centralized computer system which controls almost every piece of technology in the city, and contains information on all of the city’s residents which can be used for various purposes. The game wasn’t a cinematic, it wasn’t even a pre-recorded demo, it was a LIVE demo, a demo that has literally blown me away! The world that they have created it both stunning and beautiful, producing graphics I have not seen in a game right now, and interactions and free flowing combat that just doesn’t exist on current generation systems! Now I know Ubisoft have said the title will be coming out on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, but who are they kidding? They effectively showed off to the world one of the first Next-Gen title they are working on! No system could produce that standard of quality in a game right now, if it could we would have already seen it on previous titles and since they haven’t even given a release date, expect to see Watch Dogs are one of the first games to appear on the future Playstation and Xbox systems.