E3 Thoughts So Far

I'm sure I missed some stuff, but here are brief thoughts on Nintendo's pre-E3 stuff, Ubisoft, Microsoft, and Sony.

WiiU pre-conference: The new Not Xbox controller should be included with the system. I want to use the tablet for a larger, more comfortable version of Colors. Miiverse is a terrible, terrible name.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance: Still has the best nonsense title. This new trailer contains a lot more game play, and a lot of it's pretty gross. The game looks like a lot of fun and outside of MadWorld Platinum/Clover's never let me down yet. It wouldn't be a Metal Gear if I didn't have the option of avoiding enemies/taking them out non-lethally but I haven't seen any of that yet.

Resident Evil 6: The videos already interest me more than RE5's promotional content did. The setting looks less uncomfortable, the characters look more fun. I wish they'd stuck with RE4's tongue in cheek tone with an unrelated story than going back to Serious Business With Umbrella again.

Assassin's Creed 3: Makes me want to actually start playing the copy of 2 I bought. The ship stuff looks pretty exciting. I wish AC: Liberation were the main console title instead of a Vita game, I dig the hero's character design.

Watch Dogs: Looks good to me, even the Walking Simulator bits. New IPs don't tend to get hyped up this hard and that alone's enough to get me curious. Definitely want to see more on this one.

Halo 4: Looks gorgeous and I'm sure it will be a lot of fun, but I don't really get excited about Halo games.

Xbox Smartglass: I don't see the appeal of having a phone/tablet separate from my controller sitting next to me as I play. I understand the single unit style of the Wii U. Only a handful of developers will ever support Smartglass.

PS3 Wonderbook: Even fewer developers will ever support this. It looks like all of the horrible awkwardness of trying to get my 3DS to recognize its AR cards, only with more expensive hardware. They're promoting a JK Rowling story based in the Harry Potter world and giving it a name as uninspired as "Book of Spells?"

Beyond: The game with a character played by Ellen Paige. I want this to be good, and I appreciate Sony opening their convention with this instead of an easy sell, but I'm wary after how badly Heavy Rain managed to mangle its own story. Sony saying that Heavy Rain was 2010's game of the year will be this E3's biggest lie.

Last of Us: The game with a character inspired by Ellen Paige. Gorgeous environments and the action scenes actually make me feel queasy in a way that impresses me. If there's a way to play this game focusing purely on stealth, I'd prefer to do that.

Sony Smash Bros: It looks like a slower, less fun Smash Bros and I don't have an interest in any of the characters so far aside from Parappa. Big Daddy from Bioshock is an even more bizarre guest character than Snake was in Brawl.

God of War 4: I still don't have any interest in this series, and the video of this one was less exciting than anything I saw from 3.

Of the six games I'm most interested in to varying degrees, three are new IPs, and that's pretty unusual for E3. Here's hoping Nintendo shows something interesting today.