As I've said in the past, E3 is an anachronism, a convention for a day and age now long gone. Every company these days chooses to do their own reveals. Every E3 since the generation began has been a bust.
Like I said, E3 is largely a convention for another day and age. Originally, video games were shown at CES until E3 was launched in 1995. And back when all we had was gaming magazines and online interaction was limited to CompuServe and FIDONet, E3 and CES were exciting, because there was pretty much of a media blackout at all other times of the year imposed by the technology of the times. But even back in E3's early days, it largely took a backseat to the Tokyo Game Show even among American gamers, given how heavily Japan dominated the gaming landscape on PS1. Nintendo never participated in TGS, preferring to highlight their stuff at Shoshinkai/Spaceworld. It did become important on the PS2/Gamecube/Xbox because of the steady shift of the game industry from Japan to the US at the time, but even when the 360 and PS3 made their debuts at E3 2005 and E3 2006, E3's attendance was dropping year-on-year. Eventually, the publishers decided that the old overblown E3 format of the past was too expensive and not worth it.
E3 '95 was entertaining. Sega announced that instead of its original projected launch date in September, the Saturn had already been shipped to retailers. Then Sony countered that by announcing the PlayStation would be $100 cheaper than the Saturn. :)
E3's been shitty since the generation started, TBH. The last E3 I remember being excited about was E3 2006, when they showed off the PS3. That was the year before they tried their two-year fiasco that was the "E3 Media and Business Summit," where they stripped away the booth babes and just held press conferences with business suits. But by the time they reinstated all the excess of E3s past, the magic was gone. Microsoft spent E3 2009 talking about Netflix on the 360 and showing off that creepy Milo demo for what would become Kinect. Nintendo had some games, but nothing people didn't already know about, and I don't even remember Sony's E3 2009. It went downhill from there.
Meh. E3 is an anachronism anyway, a relic from a bygone era. Most companies show their stuff at their own events nowadays, and E3 gets more and more boring with every passing year. The console makers show non-gaming apps, the game companies show stuff we've already seen a million times before. I don't think it will make much difference one way or another. Nintendo never participated in TGS.
Final Fantasy VI had cutscenes, ditto Chrono Trigger They just weren't CG movies. Non-interactive narrative segments powered by the game engine, even if it's a 2-D sprite-based engine, still count as cutscenes.
Dragon's Dogma was made in-house. It was produced by Capcom staff that had worked on the Japanese DMC games, Monster Hunter, and the Breath of Fire series.
Whatever they're drinking at those corporate meetings, I want some of it, because it's apparently good stuff. They expected Dragon's Dogma to sell 10 million copies. The only RPGs in history that have achieved that lofty level of sales are Final Fantasy VII, Skyrim, World of Warcraft, and several Pokemon games. I love Dragon Dogma, but no way in hell was it going to sell 10 million units. There was also no way in hell DmC was going to sell 3 million units.
I can agree with that idea. I'd like to see more developers set aside the fetishism and cosplay bait.
Sure did. More ostentatious gaming-related crap. Yay! 
Did you mean The Evil Within, which is Shinji Mikami's game that's going to be published by Bethesda? I'm interested in that one. I'm a huge fan of the former Clover/Platinum team. I think The Killer Within was an episode of The Walking Dead.
Liking the new A Link to the Past - the original is my favorite Zelda game other than Twilight Princess. I do wish it were being made for the Wii U instead of the 3DS, or being made for both systems.
My biggest game of the year, now that I have Ni no Kuni and Bioshock Infinite, is Tales of Xillia. I preordered the collectors' edition. Thankfully it wasn't exclusive to Namco's online store, after the Ni no Kuni fiasco (I did get the hardbound strategy guide for free though, so that worked out okay), and I could preorder it through Gamestop.
My dad felt the same way as you in 1971. He'd been in the Navy since 1957, and they sent him on four tours of Vietnam. He didn't get to see my sister until she was about a year old because he was stuck in Vietnam, and he decided he couldn't take it anymore. Make good use of your GI Bill and Veterans' Preference if you decide not to re-up!
