Here's one really distressing thing I've figured out regarding this year's E3: Most of the best shit has been outside of the conferences. At least most of my favorite things anyway. I think a few years ago Luke Smith went on a rant on 1up Yours complaining about how all the "good shit" at E3 was behind closed doors while EA was wasting titon-tron 360-degree screens on "new fucking Madden". Now the companies are wasting conference space on NintendoLand and a bunch of shooters. Ubisoft is the only company whose conference I think had any core games that looked new or interesting.

But if you really look for it, there's actually a lot of good stuff to be found at this year's E3. It's just all shown in side interviews and show floor videos.

Hell,l the Wii U's lineup actually doesn't look bad when you consider that the next Hideki Kamiya game (Viewtiful Joe, Okami, Bayonetta) is going to be exclusive to it. On top of that, the actual gameplay videos and descriptions of Zombie U look REALLY interesting - it seems to be sort of a survival horror RogueLike or something - like a more polished version of Day Z. Also regarding Nintendo, Reggie just confirmed that Fire Emblem: Awakening is headed to North America... by mentioning it off-hand to a random reporter who had to tweet it to get the word out. One of my top games at E3 so far has been Dishonored - which has an excellent gameplay demonstration at G4's website.

I understand that when you show off games at the conferences it has to be in a way that will catch the public eye, but it seems to me that this too often betrays the true nature of what each company has in store. To me the press conferences might be starting to lose their relevance in the shadow of the real meat of E3.