Summary

This E3 was rather surprising. We were expecting the strongest PC showing in years and for the PC to drown out the aging consoles, but this was not to be. Surprisingly, it was neither the public demonstrations of the PlayStation Portable (which apparently imbibes battery power rather voraciously) or the Nintendo DS that stole the show. It was, in fact, the Xbox that took center stage.

Forget the EA/Microsoft deal. That may be the foundation for the rising popularity of the Xbox, but EA wasn't the reason to be excited at E3. One trip to the Xbox booth revealed the biggest crowds at the show - a situation somewhat exaggerated by the walls encompassing the booth, but still an impressive sight. Gamers were lining up to play racing games, sports games, two highly notable action RPGs in the form of Jade Empire and Fable, as well as Doom III and the surprisingly good Chronicles of Riddick. Unfortunately we missed the Halo 2 event, and judging by the size of the line, we're sure a lot of others did too. MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf and Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict drew considerable interest from the multiplayer crowd.

The Xbox absolutely crushed all its console competition. The only PlayStation 2 games to receive as much attention are the next Metal Gear Solid (which drew audiences for the giant screen video reminiscent of Metal Gear Solid 2), and Gran Turismo 4 (it looks absolutely amazing, the driving physics are terrifyingly realistic). This surprising success for Microsoft's console bodes well for Xbox 2, particularly since the Xbox isn't riding on the strength of any single title alone. Sure, there's no game as big as Metal Gear Solid 2 was at E3 2000, or Doom 3 in 2001, but the Xbox has just the most solid lineup overall and is nicely complemented by Xbox Live.

The decision to make Xbox owners pay for online access was seen as very risky a few years ago, but given the extra features Microsoft has been delivering, it is obviously totally worth it. The unified network is simply the most convenient and attractive online console option and in fact it leaves the PC behind in many ways.

On the PC front, all the major publishers - Vivendi, UbiSoft, EA, Activision - had strong showings, though we'd give the nod to Activision and Vivendi. THQ and NCSoft showed the biggest improvement - having firmly established themselves with huge booths in South Hall. These two smaller publishers were not so long ago relegated to the more distant corners of the LA Convention Center.