So the 2008 E3 Media and Business Summit has wrapped up. Bitter fanboys are sure to have run out of tears, at least temporarily, while tired journalists are no doubt catching up on some much needed sleep. I have no doubt that many of you have long lists of games you're now salivating over even more than before – better start putting those pennies aside. On the other hand, those of us on the reviewing side of things are currently wondering how on Earth we're going to manage to cover all of the fourth quarter's games without going insane.

This week, we'll reflect on the events that transpired during the three manufacturer press conferences and discuss our thoughts and any potential ramifications, and we'll also look at a few of the best games that were on show.

E3 2008: The Aftermath

Let's hope Fallout 3 makes it to our shores

After a somewhat disjointed effort last year, ESA decided to bring the E3 Media and Business Summit back to the Los Angeles Convention Centre, while continuing to maintain the more intimate show and smaller attendance of last year's show. With many of the big publishers having their own media days to announce software over the last few months (and some not even attending the show), I think it's safe to say the days of E3 being the place to unveil a new game are over. Instead, it seems like E3 is being used to give more in-depth looks at games that have been announced, but kept under wraps for some time, as evidenced by the lengthy looks at Resident Evil 5, Resistance 2 and Fallout 3.

Microsoft, as always, was the first cab off the rank, with their press conference early on Tuesday morning. Unlike previous years, I actually enjoyed the Microsoft conference; they showed some of the best games they had coming out for the console, including lengthy demonstrations, threw more weight behind the Xbox Live Arcade initiative and showed off their new dashboard interface. I welcome the new dashboard interface with open arms; I was never a big fan of the blades, and their re-categorisation last year only served to make it more difficult to navigate. Being able to run games off the hard drive will be a huge plus. The introduction of avatars (or Mii-toos, as they've been dubbed by some critics) and more video on demand stuff initially led me to think that Microsoft's moves for the press conference were reactionary, based entirely on matching offerings from the Wii and PS3, but really, the positive thing I'll take away from their showing is that we'll be playing a bunch of kickass games this Christmas.

Resident Evil 5's co-op will be a blast

One thing that still gets me a bit annoyed is Microsoft's never-ending, half-assed and blatantly copied attempts to get into the casual gaming demographic. They're going to be hard pressed getting the consumers that would buy SingStar games to cross the stream to Lips – bringing music in on your iPod is good in theory, but remember, they tried something similar last gen with the Xbox Music Mixer, and that bombed. Same deal with Scene It – the Lights, Camera, Action! release last year was not a success, and the same will ring true for this year's game. Honestly, I'd rather Microsoft to fully embrace the core gamer, particularly since core gamers are the ones keeping this ship afloat. The You're In the Movies segment was absolutely painful to watch. The whole video on demand thing sounds all well and good, but it has "only in America" written all over it.

Exclusive games aren't as big a factor for Microsoft as they used to be. Sure, they have them, but they're not making them out to be the foundation of their strategy. Two of their exclusives, Too Human and Halo Wars, weren't even mentioned during the press conference. I can't blame them for distancing themselves from Too Human though – I don't know what the hell I played when I booted the demo up after the conference, but I can tell you that I did not like it at all. It seems like they are more concerned about getting exclusive content for third party games so that they can proclaim that the Xbox 360 version is the best, enticing you to buy it on their platform. If such content is of a good standard, then I think that the strategy will work for them. Final Fantasy XIII hitting the Xbox 360 in America and Europe is a big deal, but the series' impact is not really what it once was thanks brand dilution through endless ports and remakes. I do not understand why Microsoft did not pursue a 360 port for release in Japan, since that's the region where they need a boost the most.

Wii Sports Resort should be a lot of fun

Nintendo's conference at 2am on Wednesday morning was not really worth crawling out of bed for, especially if you were expecting new announcements. Many people are outraged over the fact that Nintendo showed nothing new. Honestly, I wasn't expecting anything drastically different from E3 2007's showing, but come on – they didn't even show a new Mario Party game. Nintendo doesn't care about the attention it gets from the gaming media anymore – it's chasing the mainstream media's attention so it can draw in new and exciting customers. I love how all of these gamers basically acted as guerrilla marketers for Nintendo, getting their mums, sisters and grandparents to play the Wii and DS, and are now furious at Nintendo for focusing on these new customers.

New peripherals seemed to be the focus of the show, with Nintendo unveiling the WiiSpeak peripheral, a long range microphone, alongside Animal Crossing: City Folk and the Wii MotionPlus add-on, an extra accelerometer allowing 1:1 movement, alongside Wii Sports Resort. Wii Music was also demonstrated in-depth. No more details on existing announcements and no major reveals for core software. Animal Crossing kinda looks like more of the same to me – hard to get excited about when the original game gives you migraines, but I'm sure the folks that liked the original will get into it. Wii Sports Resort was the best of the bunch, the new Wii MotionPlus add-on allowing for true 1:1 movement, letting players duke it out in sword-fighting games. The jetski game looked pretty cool too – apparently the original Wave Race team have a hand in it. Wii Music seems like a glorified music box, but instead of controlling the box's sound and flow with a handle, you press a button on the remote. The drums looked okay, but I don't know about the rest of it. It could be great fun to play, but the concept does not inspire me at this point.

I can't wait to kill Resistance 2's Leviathan

The best the core Nintendo gamer got was assurances that the Mario and Zelda teams are hard at work on new titles – but did not reveal what they were. Personally, I think the Zelda franchise could be rested for a couple of years while they freshen it up – we've had a new Zelda game every year since 2002. Later in the week, Shigeru Miyamoto revealed they were starting work on Pikmin 3, but will not be shown until they're ready – given Nintendo's recent stance on announcements, that means about 3 months before it's due to come out – as far as we know, it could be a situation like Super Smash Bros. Brawl, where the development team learns about the project at the same time we did. I am a little baffled as to how Animal Crossing has suddenly been tossed into the "core gamer" category by Nintendo. In 2002, when Animal Crossing hit the States for the first time, it was anything but a core gamer's game, and the 10 million sales of the DS version would testify to this. Terminology has clearly changed – back in 2005, the guy that bought Madden and a few action games every year used to be the casual gamer. Also confusing was their decision to show Clone Wars, Raving Rabbids: TV Party and World at War as their core games – I can't think of anyone I know who finds these games the least bit appealing. [Ed: I can think of a certain ugly punk who may argue with you on the Rabbids...] Shaun White Snowboarding looked pretty cool, but I have my doubts as to its level of polish.

Sony's show started out strong, but just lost steam as it continued. Prior to the show, Resistance 2 wasn't even on my radar – I think the original game was an average-to-good game surrounded by filthy turds that made it look good by comparison – but the fight against the leviathan was pretty impressive. They even managed to make their pie-charts and sales figures interesting by integrating them into a LittleBigPlanet level, which also helped to show the depth offered in its level creation kit. Their plans for PlayStation Network seemed solid, particularly with Ratchet & Clank, Fat Princess and Flower, but I think Live Arcade will continue to rule the roost here until Sony can get us some high quality games on a regular basis. Life with PlayStation sounds like a nice addition, but isn't anything to really get excited about.

Mirror's Edge looks great, but does it have the goods?

After that point, Sony sent us all into a snooze with empty promises about PlayStation Home, their robust but US-centric plans for video on demand and bundles for every console under the sun. They did show a renewed interest in the PSP, which has been an area which they gave little attention to in previous E3s, but I don't think there's the depth to really get people playing their PSPs again. Resistance Retribution looks pretty rough (though Sony Bend is a capable studio), and LocoRoco 2 and Patapon 2, despite the originals being good games, are pretty niche. I'm really surprised about the lack of PSP announcements from third party publishers – with the way the Slim & Lite reinvigorated sales of the console, and God of War and Crisis Core proving that quality titles can still sell in big numbers, you'd think a few publishers would throw the PSP a bone.

Jack Tretton was keen to remind us that PlayStation is all about the exclusives, but I think it would be better to show trailers of exclusive games that actually look good, because DC Universe looks like rubbish. CGI teaser trailers do nothing for me, so the God of War III and MAG videos had little impact on me – though 256 player multiplayer sounds promising. I don't understand why they didn't show off more of a few other exclusives that we already know about such as White Knight Chronicles, LA Noire, Heavy Rain, Tekken 6, the full Gran Turismo 5 and Wipeout HD. The PlayStation 3 has always had a lot of potential, but it's really time for Sony to turn that potential into viable software, and deliver on some of these promises – Home, LittleBigPlanet, Killzone 2 and such have been dangled in front of our noses for far too long. Sony is in a good position to keep its second place spot, particularly with the Blu Ray format prevailing in the HD video format war.

The return of the bear and bird should be good

As for the games on show, I found that the games I was most excited about are almost all action games this year. Usually there are a few RPGs or oddball games in there, but this year seems to be a little different. I was looking forward to seeing more of Resident Evil 5, and what was shown was pretty damn cool – the game looks great and the cooperative play should be a blast. It's a little concerning that they're using a lot of the same animations from RE4 (mostly the canned death animations), but with eight months to go (and the ever looming possibility of delays) they've got enough time to sort it out. Resistance 2's leviathan battle has me sold on the game, but the promise of 8 player co-op and 60 player multiplayer sweeten the deal. Fable 2 was looking a lot better than last time I saw it – drop in co-operative play should do a lot for the game. The fact that the game is actually finished means that it's probably the first Peter Molyneux associated game that hasn't been delayed for at least a year.

DICE's Mirror's Edge was looking even more impressive than before. I'm still a little cautious – it could be straightforward context sensitive-heavy gameplay. Its dedication to staying in a first person perspective reminds me a lot of Breakdown from the original Xbox, but I have faith that DICE can easily top that. Ubisoft's Far Cry 2 is looking fantastic; great graphics, hi-octane action and the promise of no mutants seals the deal. Fallout 3 was pretty high up on my want list (hell, I even pre-ordered the Collector's Edition, something I rarely ever do), and the demonstrations at Microsoft's conference had me a little worried. They nailed the look, but the way it moves and plays seemed very Elder Scrolls-esque. However, the more I saw of the game, the more I wanted to play it, so I'm not worried.

It wasn't all about the shooters though; Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is looking pretty damn cool. It's been a long time since Rare has done a traditional platformer, but this effort is looking very promising. The XBLA release of the original Banjo-Kazooie is a sweet little addition to the line-up. Ubisoft's new Prince of Persia game is looking particularly cool as well – I just hope this one has the right balance of platforming and combat. Finally, Wario Land for the Wii is looking pretty cool; traditional 2D with wonderfully animated sprites and retro-style gameplay. Wario hasn't had a particularly good run on his own for the last few years, but this could be very good.

Time to start saving.

Next Week

Next Sunday, I'll have a bit of a rant about the lack of progression in sports games, and give a few suggestions for improvements.