So what went down on Day 1?
The day started out with Microsoft’s Media Briefing, which was really…a mixed bag to say the least. Games like Halo 4, Gears of War Judgment, South Park: The Stick of Truth and Splinter Cell Blacklist stole the show from the less good bits like the emphasis on SmartGlass and that god-awful performance by Usher. Don’t get me wrong, I think SmartGlass does have some potential but it could make things more complicated for developers in the long-run and you know it’s pretty bad when the makers of South Park go on stage to rip apart the concept by saying “How many times have you been watching an episode of South Park and thought, ‘I’d like to be able to watch this on my television, while hooked into my mobile device, which is controlled by my tablet device, which is hooked into my oven,’ all while sitting in the refrigerator?”.
No news on Xbox 720 or whatever they decide to call their next piece of hardware, but that wasn’t a huge surprise. So overall, Microsoft had some good games to show off…but the extra just didn’t cut it.
EA had an impressive line-up with the likes of Dead Space 3, Battlefield 3 Premium, MOH Warfighter FIFA, Madden, Crysis 3, NFS Most Wanted and stealing the UFC license, which probably resulted in THQ closing down it’s San Diego studio (OUCH) Overall it was good, but it didn’t have anything new beyond the UFC and Most Wanted. Is it me or does Most Wanted look like Burnout Paradise 2?
The big surprise of the day came from Ubisoft. Now, the past conferences have been a mixture of cringe and boredom so 2012 was a nice change of pace. Ok so the hosts were still a bit irritating, but with the likes of Splinter Cell Blacklist, Far Cry 3, Rayman Legends and of course the show-stealing Watch_Dogs, it was the best part of Day 1 by far.
Sony also had a mixed bag like Microsoft. It had some great games to show off from The Last of Us, God of War Ascension and Beyond, but faltered at Wonderbook and the lack of any real news was a letdown.
Overall, Day 1 wasn’t as good as some had hoped. The games look superb, but the ideas from Sony and Microsoft haven’t gone down well. Let’s just hope that Usher doesn’t turn up at Nintendo’s conference….