Despite my less-than-fun experiences with EA and Ubisoft’s press conferences, I was excited when Sony’s came around. Last year, Sony won E3 for me. This year, I couldn’t wait to see more about The Order: 1886, and with rumors that Sony might unveil some old favorites like Crash Bandicoot (which turned out to be just a rumor), I had confidence this would push Microsoft’s press conference out of the top place.

Microsoft
EA
Ubisoft
Sony
Nintendo
More From Nintendo
Conclusion

It began on Mars. Yes, it was time for Destiny, Bungie’s upcoming shared-world shooter, which would interest me a lot more than it does if I could play it outline. As it is, it seems pretty cool, but I’m not sure I want it. In this trailer, we got to meet a little cube-AI thing that reminds me a lot of 343 Guilty Spark, from Halo. We also learned about the alpha and beta.

Then my video crashed, and when it came back, people said the dark, creepy thing on the screen was a new IP. I wondered what it could be until I saw the character’s face. He looked a lot like the main protagonist from that game I was interested in seeing…

…because it was him! New IP, yes, unannounced game, no. We saw a dark gameplay demo for The Order: 1886 and got to meet one of the Lycan enemies. I’m still interested in it, but not as much as I was last year. Last year I almost ordered a PS4 the moment I saw The Order’s trailer. Now, it still looks good and has a cool premise, but I’ll wait for more previews, if not reviews, before I make any decisions.

The next game, Entwined, looked beautiful and mysterious. It claimed to be a story about love, but I’m not exactly sure what it is. It’s on my list of games to consider…although it was released that night and hasn’t met with the warmest reception.

Standalone DLC for Infamous: Second Son. I plan to try that series someday.

And then, out of nowhere…. LittleBigPlanet 3!

New characters, new features, new puzzles… I may have only played a little bit of the first LBP game, but I’ll definitely keep this one in mind for the future. I wasn’t expecting it at all, and it was a great surprise announcement.

So, what did they show after the cute, happy celebration of fun that is LittleBigPlanet? Bloodborne, of course, the newest dark adventure brought to us by From Software, who created the Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls game. Rumors about Bloodborne, under its working title of “Project Beast,” had been in the air for quite some time before E3, but most fans thought it would be a new Souls game. It looks very dark. I can’t wait to see more.

Far Cry 4 gameplay. I was no more interested than I was when Ubisoft showed it.

Next, Sony went for a bit of a sillier approach, with the presentation of fan letters. Fans apparently want to see more zombies (the zombie craze is not over yet!), so Sony presented the upbeat, somewhat comedic trailer for Dead Island 2. I have nothing against zombie comedy, as you might have guessed, but I didn’t think Dead Island was a cheery game. Well, I didn’t play the first one, and I probably won’t play the next one.

Enemies from The Last of Us are entering Diablo 3. I’ve played neither, though I may try TLoU sometime.

Battlefield Hardline. Still no interest.

Exclusive PlayStation content for Disney Infinity 2, which I haven’t played.

More Destiny, and its PS-exclusive content! (And an out-of-place “Hulk smash!” leftover from the Disney announcement.)

I didn’t know what the next trailer was for, but it was quite entertaining. It turned out to be for Magicka 2. I never played Magicka, but after that trailer, maybe I should look into it. (Kind of like how Tomodachi Life’s trailer got me interested in a game outside of my standard genres…)

That added a dose of amusement, and the next game announcement–and the letter that preceded it–ratcheted it up even further.

1. Tim Schafer is hilarious.
2. YES!!! GRIM FANDANGO!!!

It’s possible I’ve never mentioned Grim Fandango before, but it’s one of those old games I’ve wanted to play for a long time. Wikipedia describes it as a “dark comedy neo-noir adventure game.” I love dark comedy, as you might remember. Adventure games? I love them too. As for neo-noir, noir can be pretty cool. Add in an underworld setting and Tim Schafer, who created one of the greatest games ever (Psychonauts), and I would have already played Grim Fandango if it wasn’t one of those games that’s so old it’s crazy-expensive.

So a remake? Yes, yes, YES! Right then, I knew Nintendo would have to work hard to come in at #1 for me this E3.

Indie game montage! Some looked interesting, especially The Talos Principle.

Suda 51 was up next, so I knew it would be something weird. However, Let It Die didn’t really catch my interest.

ABZÛ, an atmospheric adventure compared to Journey, was up next. I’m not really sure what it’ll be like, and I never played Journey, but nevertheless I’ll keep my eyes open for news on this one.

No Man’s Sky is another one of those games it seems like everyone is interested in except for me. I just don’t like the idea of a procedurally-generated open universe…much as I’m not too thrilled with open world games in general.

It took a break from games, then. Project Morpheus and its demos available at E3, PS4 and activity statistics, Youtube/Twitch stuff, new “social gaming” features, and new content for the Playroom. Free-to-play montage! Information on the upcoming PlayStation Now open beta… PS Now interests me mainly because of its backwards compatibility potential. Still, this was part of the long lull in Sony’s conference. It really lost its momentum after the initial rush of games. They talked about the Vita for a while, and then introduced something new: PlayStation TV. It allows you to remotely play PS4 stuff on a second TV. I don’t have a second TV, so I don’t think I’ll be picking one up.

Back to games, with Mortal Kombat X! I’m not really interested in the Mortal Kombat series, but I know it’s a big deal.

Back to non-game material… and we learned about an original series called Powers for far too long. Maybe it’ll be interesting, I don’t know. Most of what I know about comic books comes from Atop the Fourth Wall. Since I’ve never heard of the comic series Powers, it might be good. But I watch E3 to learn about games. I couldn’t wait for the section on Powers to be over.

There’s going to be a Ratchet & Clank movie. I’ve never played the games, but I want to.

A look at the remastered PS4 version of The Last of Us was the next feature for the night, but it came with a spoiler warning, so I stopped watching. I came back for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Metal Gear Solid…. yes, I’m going to admit it…. it’s another one of those series everyone loves except me. I did like the music in the Phantom Pain’s trailer, though. It really fit the mood.

After that, Grand Theft Auto V was finally confirmed for the PS4/Xbox One/PC. Never played GTA, probably never will.

But are you ready for the best trailer of the night–perhaps the best trailer of E3?

Yes. Batman: Arkham Knight has had my attention for a while. I’m not done with Arkham City yet, but I loved Arkham Asylum. And that trailer… and my reaction of, “Wait, was that a glitch? Is it glitching? Or is it….him!”

Scarecrow was one of the best parts of Arkham Asylum. I can’t wait.

They ended with a new trailer for Uncharted 4, which gained its subtitle “A Thief’s End.” Ah, Uncharted… I’ll give the second game a try someday, despite hating the first Uncharted so much I didn’t even finish it.

And that was that! Of course I wasn’t interested in every game shown, but it was a strong press conference for Sony and put them in first place in my mind. The combination of LBP 3 and Grim Fandango was enough. All that remained was to see if Nintendo could top them…

Are you ready to find out?

E3 2014 is over, and it’s time for me to compile my thoughts about everything I saw.

Spoiler: Nintendo won.

Okay, so no one really wins E3. It’s not a competition, it’s a way to show off new games and appeal to fans. Still, people always talk about who won E3, and for me, Nintendo beat the competition hands-down. I was still a little disappointed at the end, because Gyakuten Kenji 2/Ace Attorney Investigations 2 wasn’t announced for localization, but we have plans to deal with that. There wasn’t a Majora’s Mask remake announcement, either, but that’s a far lower priority on my list than Ace Attorney.

But I’m getting ahead of myself! I’m going to discuss all of E3, not just the games I wanted to see that weren’t there. We’ve got a lot of stuff to cover, so here’s a handy table of contents to help you out:

Microsoft
EA
Ubisoft
Sony
Nintendo
More From Nintendo
Conclusion

Let’s start with the first day of E3 and the first company to deliver its press conference…. Microsoft!

Last year, Microsoft soundly lost E3 (at least in my opinion), but Phil Spencer started shaking things up the moment he was put in charge of Xbox. He got rid of the Xbox Live Gold paywall for apps like Netflix, introduced the Kinect-free Xbox One Microsoft previously swore would never exist, and maintained a focus on games, rather than other entertainment options.

He carried out his promises at the press conference, which only mentioned one thing that wasn’t a game–Ridley Scott’s live action Halo series. That was great news for me. I use my game consoles to play games, so the more games Microsoft showed, the better chance it had to convince me to get an Xbox One.

First up was Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. I’ve never cared about Call of Duty, but I’ll admit that the original story trailer for Advanced Warfare caught my attention. The gameplay shown at E3 didn’t do much for me, but it was worth it just to hear my friend–who mocked me ever since I admitted to being interested in the game–say, “Hey, this actually looks fun!”

Once they were done with Call of Duty, it was time for Forza 5. Racing games don’t interest me unless they’re along the lines of Mario Kart. Next!

Then they showed Evolve, the 4-versus-1 multiplayer game everyone is excited for. Everyone except me, that is. Next!

Assassin’s Creed Unity is yet another game that everyone wants except me. I’ve never gotten into the Assassin’s Creed series, although I plan to give it a try sometime since I got a couple of the games with my PS3. Anyway, Unity looked nice, but I’m not too interested. I am curious about how none of the NPCs noticed the super-conspicuous assassins.

After some good old fashioned decapitations, it was time for a game near and dear to my heart–Dragon Age: Inquisition. I still haven’t played DA2, but Origins was fantastic. Even though the second game gets pretty mixed reviews, this new one looks like it will be amazing, and I can’t wait. (Well, I can wait… long enough to catch up with DA2 and maybe finish some of the other games in my backlog…)

A trailer that opened with a scene worthy of any generic, grim shooter quickly exploded into the colorful chaos that marks Sunset Overdrive. Now this is one that makes me wish I had an Xbox One.

Sunset Overdrive is a zombie apocalypse (or the Awesomepocalypse as dubbed by Insomniac) game with the philosophy that fun is better than realism. The people of Sunset City have been turned into monsters by some sort of evil energy drink, and you need to save the city by fighting back with style and a variety of insane weapons, like explosive teddy bears.It was probably the most colorful game at Microsoft’s conference, and it looks like it’ll be a blast to play. Once that was done, Capcom poked some fun at itself with the Super Ultra Dead Rising 3 Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX Plus α. Just DLC, but it maintained the levity.

Fantasia: Music Evolved. Not interested. Dance Central Spotlight. Same.

Fable: Legends was up next. I’ve never played any of the Fable games, but I like RPGs. It could be interesting. You can play the villain, too. I believe this is another 4-versus-1 multiplayer setup.

Then they showed Project Spark, a game-creation thing that doesn’t appeal to me personally, but I can understand why a lot of people would want to play it. It sounds like it has a lot of possibilities and could lead to some great things.

Then a squirrel cut the logo in two.

Conker is back… not getting a game of his own, but as a part of Project Spark. I guess fans are supposed to make their own Conker sequels? I’m not sure how that’s going to work out, but okay, that’s something. While I was still puzzling over that, the next game was shown. Ori and the Blind Forest was one of those that only got a trailer and no explanation, which is too bad, because the trailer was pretty neat.

When the Halo music started, I jumped up and down in delight, because I’m the kind of crazy Halo fan who reads the books and everything. A new trailer for Halo 5: Guardians was revealed. It shed a little more light on the story (yes, I play Halo for the story, not the multiplayer) and the new Spartan, and best of all, it showed one of the things I really wanted in Halo 5.

And while I was still delighting over Thel ‘Vadam (the Arbiter) returning, 343 Industries went on and announced the Master Chief Collection, which will include games 1-4, and some other stuff, including the live action show I mentioned earlier. I’ll admit, I’m tempted. If I had an Xbox One, I’d be getting this for sure. Considering I have all the original games, though, it’s not a system-seller for me, not even with the remastered Halo 2.

Halo was the focus for a long time, but then it was time for a creepy game called Inside, by the same developers who created Limbo. Limbo was okay, not one of my favorites. This could be good.

Indie game montage. Nothing really grabbed me, but it could be too early to say.

The next trailer was intriguing, and it proved to be for Rise of the Tomb Raider, a sequel to the Tomb Raider reboot, which I have yet to play. If I play it and like it, I’m sure I’ll be interested in this, so it’s one for me to keep my eyes on.

CD Projekt RED took the stage next to show new gameplay from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The Witcher is another RPG series I still need to try. I’m excited for this game even without playing its predecessors, though, because it looks really cool. It’s also one of the few games that got me to comment on graphics, because it looks beautiful.

When the next developer promised to be reviving an old, beloved franchise, a lot of possibilities ran through my mind, and none of them were Phantom Dust, which was what was shown. Sorry, Phantom Dust fans, but I didn’t even realize the original existed. Wikipedia helped me out and taught me about the original Phantom Dust, a “pseudo-card-based action/strategy game” from 2005. Okay then.

Tom Clancy’s The Division, another game I’m not interested in even though everyone else seems to be.

Platinum Games arrived to show Scalebound, which looked cool, but I’m not sure what it’s about except action, dragons, and monsters.

Crackdown. Very explosive. The series never interested me.

Closing montage of games, and then it was over after 90 minutes. I was impressed, but not blown away. You might say I was mainly happy for Microsoft and the Xbox One, since they redeemed themselves from last year. There were several games that caught my eye, but keep in mind that exclusives are what will convince me one way or another about a console.

Sunset Overdrive, Ori and the Blind Forest, Halo 5: Guardians, and Halo: The Master Chief Collection. I’m interested, but not convinced enough to get an Xbox One yet. Well, that’s about it for my thoughts on Microsoft’s showing at E3. Ready for something else?