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“Welcome one and all to the e3 derby!  The horses are lining up in the gate. AND THEIR OFF!  Coming out of the gate strong is the microsoft owned horse, OnThe Back Of Natal. Meanwhile the Sony Owned horse seams to have stumbled out of the gate…”

Yes, welcome to the week known as e3.  By the end of today, the winners of the e3 derby will be determined by me based on who i felt had the best showing.  And this is like a derby because out of the gate with a huge head start was Microsoft.  The ability to go first lent them a few advantages, first they are setting the whole tone for the convention with their “Showing not telling” mentality.  Secondly going first allowed them to unleash the first in game demo of Final Fantasy 13 on the XBox 360.  Square Enix has really spread their wings as of late, deviating from their Sony mentality.  This isn’t to say they haven’t always been multi-platform, but with Final Fantasy being mostly Sony exclusive (although not contracted) they always felt Sony-centric.  Now this is one bullet that has literally been taken out of the chamber of Sony’s gun.  Sony can no longer say that any announcement for Final Fantasy 13 is new or interesting, Microsoft beat them to that punch.  Microsoft also came out with a nice selection of exclusive games, including stealing another one from Sony.  With the announcement of Metal Gear Solid: Rising coming out for the Xbox 360, I don’t know if anyone can catch them. 

Let’s go into a bit more detail and go with some ratings.

Presentation 9/10 – A lot of what makes e3 what it is, is gaudy press confrences.  With a set that would rival almost any major award ceremony, Microsoft took the stage strong.  At first I thought, opening with Rock Band: The Beatles seamed a little weak.  I understand a lot of people still enjoy music games, but I think the craze is starting to die out.  Then they pull out all the stop with Olivia Harrison, Yoko Ono, and most importantly Paul and Ringo, the remaining surviving members of the Beatles.  Then they follow that up with more star power, bringing out Tony Hawk to introduce his new skateboard controller.  The rest was very general till the end, when they unleashed Project Natal onto the world, but that’s for another section.  OVerall the production was amazing, and by not letting the confrence get dragged down by numbers, they were able to keep excitement up and kept people interested.

Announcements 9/10 – Another 9 here, the only reason it doesn’t get a 10 is cause if you bring out the maker of one of your best game properties (Gears of War) and have them announce that they are working on an XBLA game, it’s a big let down.  Last year CliffyB from Epic Games comes out with a Lancer (Chainsaw gun from Gears Of War) and that was the big moment.  I understand Epic may only be ready to release this XBLA game, but don’t announce it here, let it leak before the confrence.  However the advent of Metal Gear Solid: Rising coming to Xbox exclusivly, Facebook, last.fm, twitter, Halo: Reach and of course Project Natal makes up for it.  When Peter Molyneux came out and showed that video from Lionhead Studios showing what Natal can do, I was blown away.  Now I am sure they only showed off what was already programed, but think of the applications.  A friend who can help your son or daughter out with their homework.  Someone who will help keep your children active, and maybe, in the future, a babysitter.  You may think it strange to leave your child in the care of a computer, but what if you know you are only going out for an hour or two for a nice dinner with your spouse.  Turn it on, and hook up a special Xbox 360 alarm system  to your house. At the first sign of trouble, if they kid looks sick or starts crying, it can through the internet, call you immediatly.  Or in the event of a break-in can call 911.  I am sure there are more practical uses (personally I can’t wait for the golf games) but these are just some of the many options that now become available.

Games 8/10 – Showing off Halo: ODST and Halo: Reach was nice.  It was good to finally see some actual game play for ODST.  Alan Wake has the feel of another Blacksite: Area 51 type of game to me.  A very simple style third person shooter that may have great story but weak gameplay. The in game demo they showed, he spent more time walking then anything else.  Crackdown 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 both look great but not a lot of good footage from either.  Tony Hawk Ride looked nice, especially with the skateboard.  Shadow Complex does look like it can be a fun game.  Final Fantasy 13 is looking good but in true square enix style, they gave us only a small clip to leave us wanting more.  Rock Band: The Beatles has some nice new innovations like actual harmonies (something I was hoping for in rock band 2). 

Overall 9/10 – I think Microsoft has more then set the tone for all of e3 with this briefing.  They left it open for more news to come out over the course of the week.  They came out strong setting a bar for the rest of the big three to try to catch.

 In a half hour from the time of writing, the Nintendo Confrence will start.  Lets see if they can come out strong enough to even be noticed.  Nintendo doesn’t need to come out as flashy cause of what Nintendo is about.  If they can drop a few hardcord gamer’s games, and a bunch of high quality first party games they can still do well.  I will be back with part 2 sometime later today.