Five things I learned from E3 2012

5) This last batch of games might be amazing

While E3 felt like a disappointment, and the general attitude may mark this year as a footnote in game history, there's no denying that this last batch of Xbox 360 and PS3 games could be incredible. Developers have been making games on these consoles long enough that they can make the hardware sing, and larger studios seem to be getting the hang of the huge teams and expensive AAA development cycle. With that knowledge comes increasingly confident games with more depth than we've been used to lately.

In more than one E3 interview, I heard a developer refer to their game as a "systems-focused" game. What that means is a game that has a complex set of rules between its world, AI, and player. These rules all work in concert to create a more realistic, living, breathing world with more freedom of interaction than the typical linear shooter. Think Skyrim or Deus Ex, and you have good example of systemic game design.

Games like Dishonored, Far Cry 3, Tomb Raider, Assassin's Creed 3 and even The Last of Us all seem poised to offer more meaty, ambitious types of experiences. With any luck, 2012-2013 will be more than a stopgap before new consoles, and instead be the year that true gamer's games ruled.

 

What did you think of E3? Have any observations of your own? Please share them in the comments section below.

4) Rollercoasters of violence

Like an extended episode of Eek! The Cat, E3's various game trailers sent our heroes on insane rollercoasters of cartoonish violence. Tomb Raider was front and center in this respect—once again Lara was thrown through a gauntlet of pain even more absurd than last year's trailer. It seems Crystal Dynamics started something with their tortured heroine too, as a lot of trailers put their protagonists through similar hells.

This year, everyone was jumping away from danger, being blasted away from giant explosions, and outrunning certain doom at the last possible second. If previous E3 trailers focused on more positive actions like cool three point landings or walking away from explosions, this year's is more about showing the hero stumbling their way out of fatal injuries, almost by accident.

Isaac Clarke got swallowed by a giant monster and swam through its intenstines, Leon Kennedy almost got hit by about 400 flying cars, and the guy from Far Cry 3 was too high to remember shooting a tiger. Did the guy in Star Wars 1313 really have to turn the ship into a giant exploding metal playground?

Nope.

3) Secret Racing Game Sequels

Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Forza Horizon both looked great at E3, but also seemed to be hiding something. If you're in the market for some spiritual sequels, you need look no further.

First of all, Need for Speed: Most Wanted had "A Criterion Game" emblazoned below the logo on its box art for a good reason. The open world driving game bears quite a similar style to Criterion's much-loved Burnout Paradise. While it maintains Need for Speed's cops and robbers themes, it goes back to the intense crashes and absurdly zippy driving of the Burnout series. Watch any video of the game and you'll see the resemblance is uncanny.

Then there's Forza Horizon. The spiritual sequelization may not be so apparent here, but I think there's a strong argument to be made that Horizon is the closest thing we're likely to get to a Project Gotham 5. For one, the game rewards drifting in much the same way PGR did with its Kudos system. Even better, the team behind it contains former members of Bizarre Creations, the team behind Project Gotham 1-4 and Blur.

These secret sequels have me thinking 2012 might be the secret best year for racing games.

2) Not Enough Has Changed

Let's face it, overall this may have been one of the most disappointing E3 conferences of all time. Yes there were a handful of standout games, but there was a distinct lack of huge announcements, and a giant pile of status quo.

Microsoft continued to peddle technology that makes the Xbox 360 more of a media device, and less of a game console. Xbox Smart Glass, a new tech which helps apps interact between consoles, phones, tablets, and PCs, seemed billed as a way to enhance apps like HBO Go and Netflix more than games.

Sony had one of the better conferences, but managed to totally lose the audience when they derailed any and all momentum to showcase a reading game for kids. Sony Wonderbook is an augmented reality game that combines children's book-level reading with visuals and Playstation Move controls. Sony seemed like the last of all the companies to waste conference time on the casual audience, but there they were, doing it anyway.

Then there was the Wii U. Nintendo stood as the only company with new hardware to show off at E3 and the entire conference was theirs if they wanted it. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like their hearts were in it this year, and the collection of games and Wii U tech on display was largely disappointing. It seemed that despite their claims to the contrary, Nintendo still focused on the casual market. Hardcore gamers were tossed scraps like a port of Arkham City, while the casual crowd got NintendoLand, a suite of simple games designed to showcase the hardware. That HD Zelda people have been pining for? Nowhere to be found.

E3 2012 has come and gone, the secrets are out, and with so much news all at once it's hard to avoid some of the common themes popping up. We already know that the 2012-2013 game season will forever be immortalized as The Year of the Bow, but what other themes cropped up during the show? Here are five things that stood out as I poured over the deluge of E3 news.

1) Next gen winks & subtle nods

The next generation of game consoles is coming, and I'm not talking about the Wii U. The PS4 and Xbox 720 (or Orbis and Durango if you want to stick to their rumored code names) are sure to come out next year, despite how little Sony and Microsoft are saying.

Nowhere was the evidence more clear than in the presentations of Ubisoft's Watch Dogs and LucasArts Star Wars 1313. Both games showcased graphics that simply can't be done on 360 or PS3. 1313 was especially beyond current gen, and Lucas Arts wasn't afraid to say that the game was running on top-of-the-line PC hardware. Ubisoft stuck to their guns, insisting that Watch Dogs would come to 360 and PS3, while remaining coy about the possibilities for future consoles.

Between those graphical showcases and Epic's latest, ridiculously-stunning Unreal Engine 4 tech demo, there is some truly next-level stuff in the pipeline. My guess: Developers want the new consoles sooner rather than later. They want people talking about next gen technology now, and it is working. And to be perfectly frank, this is a catalyst we need, because…

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Video games became an amazing, artful, interactive story-driven medium for me right around when I played Panzer Dragoon Saga on Sega Saturn. Ever since then, I've wanted to be a part of this industry. Somewhere along the line I, possibly foolishly, decided I'd rather write about them than actually make them. So here I am.