Now that the Los Angeles Convention Center is having its floors cleaned of spilt Mountain Dew and crushed Doritos, it’s time to reflect on what we saw at E3 2013. Who were the winners and losers? Which games stood out?

Sony vs. Microsoft

Microsoft kicked off the convention with a decent showing including promising new IPs Ryse: Son of Rome and Insomniac’s Sunset Overdrive. A short teaser for Halo 5 was also welcome, if not entirely unexpected.

There were two significantly weak aspects to Microsoft’s showing – first, the price: $499/€499/£429, which was met with an awkward silence as it was revealed to the press conference attendees. The second major problem with Microsoft’s press conference was that it ignored the elephant(s) in the room: the controversy and confusion surrounding Microsoft’s policies for used games on the Xbox One, and the need for the console to connect to the Internet once every 24 hours.

By failing to cover these issues in the press conference, we couldn’t help think “well, all this great, BUT…”

If Microsoft had been willing to back down on one of these issues, and explain their reasoning for doing so (i.e. because they’d listened to their fans), the press conference might have been taken more seriously.

Sony were seen to have won the battle at E3 largely because they priced their console significantly lower, at $399/€399/£349, and also because they announced that the PS4 will not require an Internet connection, and used games will not be blocked. It’s telling that the biggest cheer of the night came when this was announced.

Sony were also wise to get the non-gaming part of the press conference out the way early. When they did talk about games, they barely paused for breath, giving the impression that the PS4 has a huge lineup of titles. However, the number of titles heading to the Xbox One and PS4 seems about the same, so far.

Nintendo

Oh yeah, Nintendo! The third player in the console wars, Nintendo left it to Microsoft and Sony to battle it out with large press conferences, instead choosing to broadcast a Nintendo Direct on their website.

Nintendo lead off their online stream with a wise choice: Pokémon X and Y. Fans were shocked to hear of something big announced for the series: the addition of the 18th type of Pokémon, “Fairy.”

Games like Mario Kart 8 and the HD The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker remake were either already announced or already expected.

As their prerecorded press conference came to a close, fans were left thinking that nothing big was going to come out of the broadcast, save the Pokémon news.

Then, the Super Smash Bros. 4 footage started rolling. Revealed were not only Megaman from Capcom’s game of the same name, but also Animal Crossing’s generic The Villager.

The internet was abuzz with excitement for the latest developments in many fans’ favorite series. Although Nintendo didn’t have new hardware to display like Sony or Microsoft, they proved that they could pack a punch with a little Poké and Smash bombshells.

Ubisoft and EA

The other two major press conferences at E3 were held by two of the largest Western publishers, EA and Ubisoft.

EA presented a strong line-up of games, with Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare and Dragon Age: Inquisition looking ridiculously fun and ridiculously epic respectively. Reveals of Mirror’s Edge 2 and Star Wars: Battlefront were crowd-pleasers and definitely got everyone talking.

A huge chunk of the EA conference was dedicated to promoting the next iterations of its sports franchises. Was E3 really the right platform to discuss these games?

The only other disappointment in EA’s showing was no mention of The Sims 4. We didn’t expect a trailer, but a mention of how they hoped to evolve the franchise would have been welcome, and perhaps reassuring.

Ubisoft’s showing was relatively weak, held together by a new trailer for the pirate-themed Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, and new footage of Watch Dogs. The only other offerings of significant interest were a new trailer for the next Rayman game, and a first look at post-apocalyptic shooter The Division.

Overall E3 impressions

E3 2013, like recent E3s, was all about the ridiculously over the top press conferences with pre-recorded gameplay, scripted banter between developers and those demonstrating the games, not to mention the incredibly awkward celebrity cameos.

With the software lineups for the new consoles yet to be revealed, the press conferences should have been the platform for Microsoft and Sony to show off their exclusive titles. Although some exclusives were shown, arguably the talking points of the press conferences (Metal Gear Solid V, the teaser for Kingdom Hearts III) were games that were not exclusives. Instead, we were given the impression that they were exclusives, with the developers and publishers later clarifying that actually, these games were for other platforms too.

Whilst watching the press conferences, it was clear that some serious money had been offered to these developers to unveil their games at either Sony’s or Microsoft’s show. Although neither Sony or Microsoft lied about these titles being exclusives, the practice is still misleading. Hopefully, with several months until the consoles release, consumers will be able to gain more information about the games and consoles before making decisions.

By contrast, the Nintendo Direct event was clear, restrained and without any bad dubstep. Nintendo’s presentation was one of the only sane things that came out of E3 – the rest was all hype and light shows and awkward jokes. Maybe we’re the wrong audience for E3. That’s another problem with the convention – who is it meant to be aimed at? Investors? Hardcore gamers? Casual observers? Maybe that’s why the press conferences seemed to drag and lack focus: they were simply trying to please too many different types of gamers.

More reassuring was the presence of indie developers and titles at the press conferences. Sony proudly showed dozens of indie game developers playing their games on the big screens, using them as a real selling point for the PS4. Unfortunately, the games given the most time in the major press conferences were still shooters (Battlefield 4, Watch Dogs, Destiny and Titanfall). Sure, they each had their own twists on the genre, but it’s not really anything drastically new. We’re weary of FPS games being centre stage.

E3 2013 was also a quiet victory for PC gaming. The new consoles are barely as powerful as current high-end gaming PCs. Further, PC games will remain significantly cheaper than identical console titles. While everyone was talking about the PS4 and the Xbox One, PC gamers were quietly making lists of the games that they’d pick up on Steam at their launch.

Overall, this year’s E3 was much stronger than the past couple of years, for obvious reasons. However, that didn’t stop it all from feeling a little too over the top.

Just show us the games, please.

What did you make of this year’s E3?

Additional reporting: Mitchel Clow