What announcements or conferences had the greatest impact on you? There were quite a lot of surprises.

I was pleasantly surprised by the Gears of War beta announcement, and got to physically try it out within 24 hours, which was awesome. I'm also really looking forward to Gears 4. Gears of War was one of my favorite gaming experiences last generation, and I'm excited to see more.

Of course, nothing shocked me more than the Shenmue III Kickstarter announcement. I had never backed a game on Kickstarter before, not even Bloodstained, but I've never thrown $175 at anything so quickly in my whole life. Shenmue I and particularly II on Dreamcast were absolutely fantastic, and I've been waiting 14 years to find out what happens next. I may even wind up buying a PS4 just to play it.

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I understand this point of view and I've seen more than a few folks around the Web concur. However, my speculation is that if Sony (and/or whoever else is funding the game's development) were willing to simply go ahead and fund it, they would have done so. They probably wanted to gauge player interest first, and Kickstarter is an extremely reliable way of doing that because talk is cheap, but money is money.

They could have sent a poll out to people that asked "Would you buy Shenmue III?" and gotten 50,000 "yes" responses, but that is no guarantee that 50,000 people would buy it. Now, they have an assurance that tens of thousands of people WILL SPEND MONEY to play Shenmue III, and therefore the game will be made. Without that assurance, they were probably not willing to spend their own money to go forward with development. Now, that is just speculation on my part, but if I'm right, I'm much happier that it happened this way, versus Shenmue III never being made at all.

Is there any other way they could have gauged actual money-spending interest? Apart from partnering with GameStop, Amazon or another major retailer to take pre-orders for a game that hadn't yet been made, I'm not sure what else they could have done.

Also, I don't necessarily agree that this sets a precedent for future E3s. A few weeks back we asked, "what's left?" Duke Nukem Forever came out, Shenmue III is being made, an FF7 remake is being made...besides Half-Life 3, what else have gamers been wanting for over 10 years? I don't think folks would be lining up by the tens of thousands to Kickstart anything else quite like this. Except, possibly, Half Life 3. But that would be a crock of shit, because we all know Valve is still around and still capable of developing it if they want to. So yeah, I don't think this will ever happen again.

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Pixel Shits MMO

Now begins the campaign: Pixel Shits MMO for "most used listless answer ever"

Man, people HATED Metroid Prime: Federation Force (One of the modes was part of NWC2015 but then it was revealed during their E3 presentation)

I mean fans have started a petition to have it cancelled before its even out! Of course if this is a 'if it sells well, we'll work on a new title for Wii U/NX' then they're going to feel really stupid...

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To get back to the topic question, I think Microsoft had the best conference and I don't even own an Xbox One. Of the three major home console presentations, they had the best mix of games coming out soon and games coming out a while from now. As far as what had the greatest impact on me, again it was Microsoft with their backwards compatibility announcement. I know it's limited, but it's something, and I know if Sony had announced a feature like that, I would have been over the moon just for the sheer number of games I own on the PS3. Last Guardian and FFVII were cool announcements, but those already leaked in the weeks before E3, so I wasn't stunned like the rest of the internet.

As far as the side topic that cropped up here, the Shenmue thing is dumb and shady as hell but I've been saying that about these 90% pre-funded Celebrity Kickstarter projects for a while now. They are just taking advantage of loyal, desperate fan bases and it's all just a marketing/pre-order ploy. Look forward to tons more Kickstarters featured at E3 from now on.

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I'd be a lot more excited about the Microsoft BC thing if A) I had XBox Arcade games, or B) the list grows to include the limited array of 360 games I have. But therein lies my lack of enthusiasm...PS3 was my main console last-gen, so I have a lot less invested in XB games. And I have two working PS3s, so BC isn't really a factor.

I might feel very differently if, for example, all those Lego games I have for 360 suddenly could play on an XB1. But as I've said many times, I would eventually get an XB1 anyway, if there were enough exclusives (or the right ones) on that system. The exclusives they have now are either timed (like RotTR) or games I don't really have much interest in.

As for Shenmue...it's the evolution of Kickstarters for games, as so many saw coming. I can only speak for myself...I have yet to invest in a Kickstarter, period, that wasn't a matter of personal connection to the person or situation. I'll happily wait for the actual product to be a thing.

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