No. Microsoft unveiled a great many Xbox 360 entertainment features, Sony showed realistic game previews for Playstation and their ability to take a risk on hardware and Nintendo brought much of the same with regards to hardware and aimed for a home run with software and entertainment announcements, but those big swings were a miss.

WiiU

Hardware

Not much new here. The gamepad has changed slightly with the addition of more buttons and built-in features. The WiiU gamepad was shown in video demonstrations over and over again during the press conference. Images of families gathered around a television with gamepad in hand playing games, exercising and whatnot. The problem is we’ve seen all that before, some of it at last year’s E3. So what’s new? Well, it comes in black too.

Now don’t get us wrong, we were intrigued by the WiiU last year and continue to be fascinated by its usage possibilities. The issue with the E3 2012 presentation was the lack of live gameplay through the WiiU. Pre-recorded footage is fun to watch, but doesn’t fully depict real life usage.

Completely outlining all the ins and outs of the WiiU could be an article in and of itself, so we’ve borrowed an infographic from Nintendo’s Facebook page to define the buttons and included a video to detail their usage.

Gaming

There were a couple bright spots in gaming for Nintendo. ZombiU was easily the most integrated for play on the WiiU. It took the idea of having a second screen for maps or gear switches and turned it into an accessory for gameplay with shaking to escape a zombie’s grasp and as a detector for enemies. ZombiU made the WiiU look like a piece of hardware worth having.

Super Mario Bros.U and Pikmin 3 round out the positive vibes towards WiiU games. Super Mario Bros.U looks like Mario of old and you can’t help but feel nostalgic about the franchise. Pikmin 3 looked creative though the game could clearly be played without a WiiU gamepad and probably be just as much fun.

Third party title offerings were essentially old games just redeveloped for the WiiU. Batman Arkham City Armored Edition is a new title, but still an old game with new features for the WiiU. Mass Effect 3, Ninja Gaiden 3, Aliens Colonial Marines are all coming to WiiU, but are old games.

The remaining game lineup involved a lot of silliness and undesirable content.

• SiNG is basically karaoke
• Tank! Tank! Tank! Looked horrible and should not have been shown.
• An assortment of fitness games including Wii FitU.
• Nintendoland. There are all sorts of problems with this, but if I were a parent I’d be watching how the interaction is monitored for this.

Other News

MiiVerse was introduced as the new welcome screen when powering up the WiiU console. Described as Main Street, it’s a social leap for Nintendo. The idea is to bring everyone who uses the WiiU along with all friends into the MiiVerse together on screen. Seems like a nice idea, but I don’t see the purpose in it. When owners turn their consoles on, they want to play games or watch a movie, etc., not draw pictures and hand draw chat boxes on the MiiVerse screen. It just seems unnecessary.

3DS has a multitude of games lined up. We’ll cover this more in our E3 2012 Game Recap.

Final Thoughts (Editorial notes)

Normally, I wouldn’t be so harsh on Nintendo. After all, I grew up with it, but these latest turns could be the end of a once great gaming platform. The WiiU is handy at best. It is advantageous to use a second smaller screen for maps and inventory views, but not a ‘game changer’.

The video presentations seem to expect users to view the small screen while visitors (non-players) enjoy watching the same or similar thing on a big screen (television). I’m telling you flat out right now, people do not want to watch others play video games – they want to play them. As a player, if the gamepad is in my hands, I will be looking at the large screen unless I’m forced to look at the gamepad screen. As a mobile gaming option, I like it. A family member can watch TV and I can still play a game – great!

The marketing team for the WiiU has their work cut out for them, because right now there just doesn’t seem to be a reason to invest in a Nintendo WiiU.

If you enjoyed or found this article useful, please show us some support by liking us on Facebook or by sharing us on your favorite social website. Thanks!

The post Nintendo Highlights And Details [E3 2012] first appeared on GeekITDown Computer Services & Technology Solutions.

The answer in many ways depends on your definition of success. Does merely being part of the most important gaming event of the year constitute success or does a company need to create the most buzz and be dubbed a winner to be successful?

Let’s jump to the answer and then look at the reasoning. Sony’s E3 performance takes home the silver for 2012. Xbox unleashed a flurry of features which just couldn’t be matched by the others this year and Nintendo was completely unexciting, which left Sony somewhere in the middle.

The Good

Games

Sony ended their press conference with some high quality game previews. The Last of Us looks brilliant and God of War: Ascension looks poised to keep that franchise running smooth with it’s high octane combat and brutal finishing scenes.

The Last of Us for PS3

There were a number of other game mentions including BEYOND Two Souls which stars Ellen Page (Juno fame) and a unique sea battle trailer from Assassin’s Creed 3.

The fact is, Sony’s game situation is stable. They have some intense new games lined up while existing franchises will continue to flourish on the PS3 platform.

Entertainment

Cross-play between PS3 and Vita was announced. The option to start a game on one device and continue play on the other gives players convenience and adds appeal to an increasingly irrelevant Vita.

Playstation Plus

Sony announced that Plus members will receive 12 new games this month and that they continue to expand their Plus offerings. Look for Infamous 2, LittleBigPlant 2 and Saints Row 2 among the new offerings. At $5/month the cost may be worth the return.

The Average

Vita

There wasn’t much excitement from Vita, but how much was really expected anyway? Announcements included YouTube for Vita, along with Hulu Plus and Crackle. The only time frame given for those channel additions was, “soon”. So while it’s encouraging to know more entertainment is coming to the Vita, lack of a definitive date hampers the announcement.

Games for the Vita include Assassin’s Creed Liberation which features the first female assassin in the franchise and coincides with the timeline of Assassin’s Creed 3, set during the Revolutionary War. Another notable mention was Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified which is set for release Holiday 2012. Overall, Sony projects 60 new titles in 2012 will be available on Vita with PS one classics coming to Vita soon.

Assassin’s Creed Liberation

Other News

Playstation Suite has been renamed to Playstation Mobile.

Playstation is partnering with smartphone makers to ensure their devices are PS certified. The move is designed to create the best possible smartphone and tablet gaming for Playstation games. Sony announced that the first partner in this project is HTC. Normally this kind of announcement would be considered good news, but we’re designating it as average due to lack of time frame and real use demonstration.

The Questionable (Not Bad)

Wonderbook

There’s no real bad segment, just questionable and Wonderbook fits squarely into that category. Set to go on sale Fall 2012, Wonderbook is add-on hardware for the PS3 that delivers augmented reality. It is a hardware book which generates video responsiveness on screen. To simplify it, Wonderbook is intended to bring storybooks to life on screen through the PS3.

Wonderbook Trailer

Sony announced that their first partner for Wonderbook is J.K. Rowlings Pottermore. Book of Spells was demoed on stage, which demonstrated it’s integration with PS Move and how physical responses with the book translate on screen.

The demo was, in my opinion, a failure. It didn’t seem to work properly and the demo users on stage had to repeat the same gestures over and over again until Wonderbook acknowledged them. This is one of those times where a gameplay video would have been better served than a live gameplay demo.

Technical details aside, and we are willing to chalk Wonderbook up to technical problems, the entire idea is questionable. Wonderbook is described as having educational opportunities yet the presentation revolved around a fictional tale of magic. Perhaps this is an attempt to outdo LeapFrog or similar, but cost wise that doesn’t make sense. Maybe it’s just an add-on to generate additional revenue for what is likely the last year in PS3’s life cycle. Regardless, Wonderbook was a flop and something we’d more expect from Nintendo not a console that delivers hardcore gaming to a highly dedicated following.

Final Thoughts

Sony’s press conference was at times boring, but ended with a big wow! In the end they came up average, lacking clear and ready mobile details compared to Xbox’s SmartGlass. They outperformed Nintendo on games and cloud offerings, but could have done more. Finally, their new Wonderbook is a wild card that will be a complete disaster or be saved by the golden touch of J.K. Rowling.

If you enjoyed or found this article useful, please show us some support by liking us on Facebook or by sharing us on your favorite social website. Thanks!

The post Sony Playstation Highlights [E3 2012] first appeared on GeekITDown Computer Services & Technology Solutions.

View Playstation Highlights
View Nintendo Highlights

Web Access

As if more programming choices and advanced searching wasn’t enough, Xbox is bringing to the console what so many of us have desired for what seems like forever, Web Access.

That’s right, Xbox will now have complete and full access to the internet through Internet Explorer on the Xbox. This leap forward puts Xbox on the front lines and, if they hit the mark, will put the other consoles to shame in terms of a complete home entertainment device. We need to see more from this new feature and hope that our expectations are met if not exceeded.

Release date for Web Access is set for later this year, Fall 2012.

Search Expansion

Starting this fall, Xbox will bring more advanced and intuitive search for entertainment. Through the power of Kinect and voice recognition, Xbox owners can search via genre and title for movies and television shows.

Pre-existing subscriptions will be integrated into voice search. Bing will search through the different subscription services that owners are a part of whether it be Netflix, Amazon Video or other service. In addition, 12 new countries will be added to the Xbox voice recognition library in order to reach more users who speak many different languages.

More Channels

Xbox is adding a number of new channels to its library. Over 35 new channels are being added including, NBA GameTime & League Pass, NHL Gamecenter, Nickleodeon, Paramount Movies and ESPN 24 hour live broadcasting (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 & ESPNU).

Sports is a huge draw on any content delivery system and with the addition of the NHL and NBA, Xbox is extending their mainstream reach. ESPN shows will include the popular Sportscenter along with other popular programs which means a large step forward for streaming content.

Music

Xbox Music will deliver over 30 million tracks on the Xbox 360, Windows 8 tablets, phones and PCs. The presentation was put together very well and the entire concept looks and sounds great. The delivery will be what defines success or failure. Microsoft is not alone in this venture either. Well established competition from iTunes and Amazon as well as more recently Google Play make this endeavor an uphill climb for any music service.

We believe success of the music service will hinge greatly on Microsoft’s ability to deliver on the other entertainment enhancements on the Xbox. If everything else works and is an enjoyable experience, then music will fall in line.

Here’s a video summary of Microsoft’s E3 2012 press conference on the entertainment portion of the Xbox 360:

If you enjoyed or found this article useful, please show us some support by liking us on Facebook or by sharing us on your favorite social website. Thanks!

The post Xbox 360 Entertainment Additions Highlights [E3 2012] first appeared on GeekITDown Computer Services & Technology Solutions.