The platform holders have all had their moment to shine and now that the dust has settled, it’s easy to be a bit disappointed by the press conferences. There weren’t really a whole bunch of surprises mixed in this year. I suppose with a downgraded event, no one wanted to take a chance. Better to save that secret weapon for a rainy day. With no Megaton announcements, it was interesting to see the direction that each company focused their message on. 

Microsoft is evidently trying to grab gamers across the board, roping in the kids with Disney movies and Pinata party games, and the hardcore with footage from Halo 3 and Halo Wars. Of course, they didn’t miss the opportunity to mention that the only place you can play Madden, Grand Theft Auto 4 and Halo 3 this fall was on the 360. I honestly couldn’t be more excited for Halo 3, Mass Effect and Bioshock. Even a little bit of new footage is enough to get me drooling, even so enough with the footage, let me play them already!

Nintendo is continuing to focus on the casual gamer. I mean, why the heck shouldn’t they? Of course, they’ll sell you a couple more peripherals while they’re at it too. Personally I won’t be messing with the Balance Board, but the soccer moms will eat it up. Maybe they’ll even want to zap some zombies too. As more of a hardcore gamer, what stood out to me was once again the three big heavy hitters: Mario, Metroid and Smash Brothers. Holiday 2007 is going to be a great time to be a Nintendo fan. 

Still when push comes to shove, the company that put their best foot forward was Sony, at least with regard to the PS3. The PSP redesign is a big yawn, but the lower PS3 price point, and details on some solid looking games coming soon should help with them their current image issues. It’s got to go up from here on out anyway, they really can’t sink any lower. It was interesting to see that a majority of their heavily-hyped games were shooters, including the PS3 exclusive Haze, Unreal Tournament 3 and Killzone 2. I normally don’t play shooters on PlayStation systems, but those three games are looking really good.

It might not appeal to everyone, but man that Metal Gear Solid trailer was freaking sweet. It sounds as though we’ll be seeing some demo footage in Tokyo next week. Hopefully a demo will materialize on PSN sometime before the end of the year. I’d also like to hear about this mysterious other game Kojima is supposed to be working on.

There might not have been a whole bunch of new games and announcements at the press conferences, but there was still plenty to get excited about. The best part of the whole deal is the realization that there will be awesome games to play this holiday no matter what system you own.