This is a Bleach Fan Music Video I made. It took me a lot of time to create. Let me know what you think.

This year's e3's press conferences were a bit of a drag and watered down. It was clear that Microsoft and Sony was battling it out both with games and their online while Nintendo was happily attacking the casual gamers with their casual games. The only conference that had a kick to it was the Microsoft conference towards the end which shocked gamers and RPG fans that Final Fantasy XIII was now heading to the Xbox 360...Microsoft had a big finish being the first press conference and the other 2 conferences lacked that.

Now let's have a breakdown of what was announced. First of we have Microsoft. Their conference was about 90 mins and their focus was both on games and Xbox live. The good thing about Microsoft is they actually had a couple of games and gameplay footage of various titles to show the public, even though some of them were multiplat. Microsoft seemed very confident in the success so far and this conference really show it.

Microsoft's Major announcements;

A brand new design and layout for Xbox Live which is coming this fall and the addition of personalized user avatars. - Microsoft may have copied Nintendo's Mii, but at least the avatars are an improvement of the concept. People fear change and others embrace it. I personally cannot wait for the new design and I look foward to see how well live will function with the new interface and avatars. I'm also looking foward to Xbox Live Prime Time, which would feature the new Avatar system where users can play gameshows live with each other. I just hope there isn't any extended downtimes like last year and it is glitch proof.

Microsoft also announced that netflix is coming to live so subscribers can now look at their movies through live

Banjo-Kazooie is coming to Xbox Live Arcade later this year.

The megaton announcement came towards the very end of the press conference that Final Fantasy XIII was announced for the Xbox 360.

_____________________________________________

Nintendo had the shortest conference, being only about an hour. Most of that time was taken up discussing marketing strategies and showing off two new Wii games, Wii Sport Resort and Wii Music. Nintendo's target was for casual gamers and it left hardcore gamers with a feeling of abandonment. Link and Samus were no where to be seen.

Nintendo's major announcements;

Wii Sport Resort. This is like a sequel to Wii Sport.

Animal Crossing: City Folks. This game will use the new Wii Speak feature which is nintendo's solution to the lack of voice chat in their games.

WiiMotion Plus. A new Wii Accessory, that would improve the sensativity of the Wiimote

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars was announced for the DS. No gameplay footage was shown. It was just mentioned. This was the only game mentioned that targeted hardcore gamers.

Wii Music. This game was first show for the Wii before its launch. Finally it's announced and will feature hundreds of playable musical instruments. This is the perfect family game

_____________________________________________

Sony and Microsoft are clearly at war. After losing a very hyped and anticipated exclusive, Sony still managed to do rather well despite the Xbox 360's megaton announcement. Sony was not the best conference, but they still managed to come close to Microsoft. Their conference focused a little too much on the PS2 because they are pushing the life span of their system to 10 years. The focus on the PS2 is good for those who cannot afford a PS3, but bad for PS3 owners, because the PS2 is only holding back the success of the PS3. Sony needs to realize that and let last gen die with the rest of consoles. This is one of the reasons why the Xbox 360 has been so successful. It was also mentioned that the PS2 didn't get most of it's killer titles until a few years into the console's life and it's true. Quite frankly I haven't given up on th PS3 yet. I have my hopes high that in the future some excellent games will be released.

Sony's major anouncements;

Little Big Planet and Resistance 2 gameplay were shown and both games look nothing short of spectacular!

PS3 greatest hits were announced: Resistance, Warhawk, Motorstorm, Call of Duty 3, Fight Night 3, Need for Speed Carbon, Rainbow Six Vegas, Elder Scrolls IV, and Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Now PS3 owners can purchase these games at half the price

Ratchet and Clank: A Quest for Booty is coming to PSN. This will be a sequel to Tools of Destructions, will be cheaper and shorter but will have the same intensity

Movies are now avaliable on PSN

God of War 3 teaser trailer shown

Resistance: Retribution announced for the PSP. Gamepaly footage was shown and it appears to be 3rd person shooter

MAG was announced. This game supposed to be the biggest online experience on any console. It will feature 256 players online with teams of 8. This title was one of the shockers of the press confernce and to be honest, it actually looks interesting and Sony might be able to pull this one off because it's coming from the creators of Socom

_____________________________________________

Now that the conferences are out of the way let me state the top 5 games (in no specific order) that got my attention for every console. Believe me it was not an easy decision to narrow this down to only 5. My decision was made on the content I saw both on GameSpot's live E3 coverage and on G4.

Xbox 360
Gears of War
Fable II
Too Human
Infinite Undiscovery
Viva Pinata 2

PS3
Little Big Planet
MAG
Resistance 2
Killzone 2
inFamous

Wii
Animal Crossing
Wii Sport Resort
Spore
Castlevania: Judgement
Dead Rising

Multiplat
Final Fantasy XIII
Resident Evil 5
Dead Space
Silent Hill 5
Project Origin

Okay one word sums up both Nintendo and Sony's press conferences; lame.

Seriously now, Nintendo's press conference was the shortest one of all 3 being about an hour. The only game that got my attention was Animal Crossing Wii. Even the DS games previewed didn't impress me. I would have said the GTA DS, but it was just mentioned and no footage was shown. There was no focus on online and just like last year a lot of effort was placed on sales and sales figures and marketing strategies. No Link or Samus = failure

Sony wasn't all that better, but it was still better than Nintendo. Sony was placing too much hype on the PS2. The PS2 is dead, but still Sony is pushing it for a 10 year ife span and there are still games being made for it, which is good for owners stuck in last gen but bad for users in this gen. Resistance 2 totally blew me away! I was not expecting the game to be that impressive! The gameplay shown was awesome and the graphics even better. I just hope the folks at Epic is making notes, because I want to see battles like that in Gears of War 2. Little Big planet looked really decent. I was disappointed in God of War 3, I wanted to see more, not just a simple movie. I really wanted to see the gameplay graphics. Sony set lifetime for the all its consoles to 10 years and that was being stressed on conference and the PS3 is only in its second. It was also mentioned that all the great PSone and PS2 games were released late in the consoles lifetime and that's actually a good point. To be completely honest, I haven't given up on the PS3. I still think some killer titles will be released in the future. There was not even a mention of a current Final Fantasy and no Killzone 2 gameplay footage. Lame.

Overall Microsoft had the best conference, showcasing the best games and features, followed by Sony and then Nintendo.