I admit that I'm really weird for thinking this, but I feel like E3 conferences shouldn't be judged on the strength of the individual game titles themselves, but rather on the presentation as a whole.
I totally can get behind picking favourites, and giving golden stars to games that happened to shine through terrible conferences, but I feel like when people rank the conferences they should be doing so on the strengths and weaknesses of the presenters, the trailer composition, the technicality of the conference and so on. People don't cheer, laugh, cringe or cry during these events just because their game's trailer got played, but because of the way the rest of the conference builds the hype and engages you.
For that reason, my ranks are so:
1) Sony: Extremely high class presentation with great pacing; no interviews and the hosts said only the minimum that was needed to be said. Good unveil of the hardware to boot. Only problem was that they ended the conference on the wrong thing (new IP based on the zombie-fad which is on the way out), but it was still an amazing conference overall.
2) Microsoft: At the time, this was just amazing after Day -1 failed to impress; after seeing Sony, it feels like they were so close, but just spent a tiny bit too much time faffing about and their indie games killed the atmosphere for certain other trailers.
3) Ubisoft: Bethesda with a little less disappointment and FAR more energy. Showcased much more EXCITING gameplay but they indulged in being a little too chatty at times (especially in regards to the movie).
4) Bethesda: So little energy between presenters; it felt like any momentum the game/trailer footage generated was instantly killed. Hell, Pete Hines looked basically dead and Todd Howard had lost his soul. There was also a bit too much time spent on slower (card) games, and far too much chatty-chatty. Compounded by technical problems during the event.
5) PC Gaming Show: THEY KILLED ALL THE MOMENTUM THAT MICROSOFT GENERATED! This only beat EA because they showed some gameplay. Otherwise, a complete waste of time and would have been better as standalone one-on-one interview videos between the other EA conferences. No big announcements or hype generated (in fact, I heard there was massive backlash to the Killing Floor 2 update).
6) EA: There's very high expectations for the company that goes first, and EA completely fumbled the ball and lost it. This was a conference designed for investors, not for media and consumers (like everybody else), and so they focused on features that they couldn't possibly build hype with. They also have failed to taken note that just because FIFA and Madden sell a lot of copies every year, doesn't mean those are the people watching E3.
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