Ubisoft, Microsoft, Sony, and EA were the big sources of news today, which means that Nintendo was (mostly) not. The bad news was that the Wii U and 3DS stuff was still a day away, but the good news was that I could enjoy four press conferences without a massive workload (or, any, if I recall correctly). While not getting into Microsoft or Ubisoft’s press conference, I did get into the EA one, which ended up being superior to both in my opinion when all was said and done.  

Although I love big, modern video games as much as I enjoy any other type of game, Microsoft did nothing to quell any of the things that made me uncomfortable about the Xbox One, and made a purchase impossible to justify with the $499 they tossed out at the end. Even worse, rumors of the $99 Xbox 360 ended up being false, so it looks like Microsoft’s consoles may never end up in my home. Ubisoft was not bad, but it was more or less a conference filled with nothing.

While one would be justified in shrugging off the EA press conference, it was exciting to me because It was an E3 press conference that I got to see live. And frankly, I thought it was pretty good.  Regardless of what you thought of the games themselves, EA presented them smoothly and professionally, with a few small bombs like Battlefront and Mirror’s Edge 2 to boot (which is more than we can say about some other press conferences). 

Of course, the experience and the surround-sound made everything exciting to me, including that new Plants vs. Zombies game.  It might be the opposite of Nintendo to some of you reading this, but the fact that I got to see a press conference of any kind made all the difference.

Following EA (which I saw with Gui and Jonny), I got to eat Fatburger, another regional burger chain, which was about as delicious as Sunday’s mythical In-N-Out. Ubisoft was after that, and following Ubisoft was a conference only second to my hype for the Nintendo Direct, the Sony press conference, which featured almost everyone in Gui and Jared’s hotel room except for Aaron, if I remember correctly. Needless to say, you all can figure how that went. It started in disappointment, shifted into mild anger, shifted into mild interest with the Square Enix segment, and ended with a series of atomic bombs so huge that Sony won E3 before Nintendo even took the stage (in my eyes, anyways). Yes, I’ve pre-ordered a PlayStation 4.

The night ended with a late dinner paid for by the extremely kind and generous E3 home team captain Carmine Red, praise for PS4, and insurmountable hype for the Nintendo Direct expected to happen in but a few short hours.