PixlBit

The staff lends their best guesses for what the upcoming show has to offer excited gamers.

Bradley Osburn's Predictions

Sony’s going to have to put up a good fight this coming week. I expect at least a small apology for the network being down and a reminder to everyone that the Welcome Back program is in full effect. “Infamous 2” releases during E3 so expect Sony to push it hard, possibly linking it back to the free “Infamous” download offered in the Welcome Back package. “Uncharted 3” will receive an incredible amount of screen time during their press conference as well as “Modern Warfare 3.” Expect them to talk about their series of HD remastered classics, especially the just-announced Zone of the Enders and Metal Gear Solid collections. They will at least bring up “The Last Guardian” and mention again the release date for the “Team Ico Collection”. Hideo Kojima won’t be there though, and neither will “Metal Gear Solid: Rising” if reports are to be believed. This is cause of sadness.

As far as their handheld presentation is concerned, expect Sony to try and pump every dime out of the PSP that they can before they unveil the NGP and its official name, allegedly the “Vita.” They’re going to talk about the PSP Remaster series, though it won’t help them push those last few thousand units at all. Who knows, maybe they’ll talk about that much earlier in the conference and then try to convince us that it’s still worth it to pick up a PSP instead of waiting for the NGP. The Next Generation Portable is going to get a lot of time onstage. They’re going to talk up its features for a while and end with a spectacular montage of footage from upcoming games. And last, I hope that they’ll at least give us something to justify the existence of the Playstation Move.

Microsoft is going to come out of the gate really cocky after a month with no Playstation Network. They’ll talk up their online services, possibly even unveiling some new initiative. They’ll devote a good deal of time to “Gears of War 3” and showcase the 360 edition of “The Witcher 2.” They’ll have their own version of the “Modern Warfare 3” presentation and mention that the MGS and ZOE collections are going to be released on the 360 as well. We’ve been promised a lot about the Kinect and I hope they deliver. I want a reason to own a 360, and an actual, legitimate game running very well on the Kinect may just be what makes me pick one up. And who knows, we may get the shocker of shockers and have Microsoft unveil a handheld system. Probably not though.

Nintendo is going to take the show with Project Café. Hands down. It’s going to be the talk of the show. They’re going to showcase their new “Legend of Zelda” title and maybe unveil a new “Mario” or “Donkey Kong,” but bet on Nintendo spending the lion’s share of their time on their new system. They’ll spend a good amount of time talking about and explaining the logistics of their new controller, what with its touch screen and camera and candy dispenser and dog walker. I mean really, Nintendo just released the 3DS, do we really need a controller that doubles as a handheld system? Speaking of the 3DS, they are going to try their best to get people to go and buy it. Game reels, demonstrations, free sandwiches, you name it. They have a hunger for your headaches and the 3DS is the perfect medium to facilitate that.

Those are my predictions for E3. I hope it’s a lot more exciting than that. I hope we get a ton of new game announcements, but it’s not likely. We will, however, see tons of new stuff on the big third-party games like “Bioshock: Infinite,” “Batman: Arkham City” and “Assassin’s Creed: Revelations,” and honestly, I can’t wait for it. The most interesting things to watch this time around will be Sony’s NGP and Nintendo’s Project Café. Unless Microsoft pulls out another Milo with the Kinect I don’t expect too much from them at all this year, but I hope I’m wrong.