Xbox 360
First held in 1995, E3 is considered the high point of the gaming calendar, where player, designer and critic alike come together to revel in the most exciting games pending.
Since 2006, it has become restricted to press and industry only, providing greater coverage and more in-depth previews.
Despite their market dominance, Nintendo actually showed poorest this year. With little to no exciting titles announced, their high point was merely an improvement to the wii-mote's sensitivity and wii music, a sort of poor man's rock band where people fail to play fake instruments.
Sony's flashy "we've got more money than all the third-world countries put together" presentation looked good enough, but what they needed was the announcement of solid new exclusive titles. The only really exciting new announcement was MAG, an online team game in the vein of Battlefield 2, but with over 250 players involved at one time. Microsoft had a lot to prove, having neither the market lead, nor the most powerful hardware.
The announcement of Final Fantasy XIII was a significant strike against Sony, who used to get all the FF games first. The most impressive game however was Fallout 3, a resurrection of the 90's RPG series set in a post-apocalyptic earth with a 50s B movie style. Developed by Bethesda, the minds behind Oblivion, it took on a first-person perspective creating a more immersive world. Less exciting were the introduction of avatars for Xbox users, which look like a simple rip-off of Nintendo's Mii's.
Overall, this wasn't the most exciting conference E3 has ever had, and quite a few people came away less than buzzing about upcoming releases. Could it be that the new format is simply too dry to entice great enthusiasm? Or are we simply hitting a quiet patch for games? Only the future will tell.