For years the press conferences at E3 have been known to set the atmosphere for the rest of the convention. A bad press conference usually meant the ground floor would not be too exciting. Fortunately, this year’s round of conferences offered exhilarating announcements, and mouth-watering game demonstrations.

Nintendo may have been the last conference out of the gate, but it certainly gave us the most exciting news with the unveiling of its new console, the Wii U. As always with Nintendo’s gaming consoles, the first aspect that catches everyone’s eye is the controller. As if someone stole blueprints from an Apple store, the controller has a 6.2 inch touchscreen in the middle, and is just shy of being as big as an iPad. The controller is also said to have the same motion controls that had put the Wii as the number one console in the gaming market, while the system itself is promised to have HD capabilities.

The announcement was followed by a slew of proposed games for the console, including a new Super Smash Bros. game, as well as a plethora of “Mature” games, including an Assassin’s Creed game, Batman: Arkham City, Tekken, and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge. For all those who said the Wii was for your kid brother, Nintendo is trying to prove that if you love blood and gore the Wii U is for you.

Those who can’t get enough of Nintendo’s Wii Sports, and games that involve their “Mii,” won’t be left out. Nintendo revealed Super Mario Bros. Mii for the Wii U, which will have players embarking on adventures with Mario via their Mii. The Wii U will also have the aptly named Chase Mii game, where one player will have a bird's eye view of four other Wii U players trying to catch them.

Nintendo had a heartwarming tribute to the Legend of Zelda series, which is celebrating it’s 25th year anniversary. Hearing the live orchestra play the legendary game’s theme music brought me back to my childhood. Not the puberty experiencing adolescent times, but the times when you could play video games all day and get away with it. The latest Legend of Zelda entry, Skyward Sword, will be released this holiday season, and will give players the opportunity to buy a gold Wii remote being released with the game. If you have to swing a Wii remote like a sword, you might as well do it in style.

Most of the other focus was on the Nintendo 3DS, which will be getting a plethora of games this year including Kid Icarus: Uprising, Ace Combat 3D, Tetris, Cave Story 3D, Luigi's Mansion 2, Metal Gear Solid 3D, Mario Kart, Pokedex 3D and Star Fox 3D. With so many 3D games one could easily mistake Nintendo for a Hollywood film studio. Overall, Nintendo reminded us with their console unveiling that they are always willing to take a risk, an aspect anyone can admire.

Microsoft's underwhelming conference is easy to sum up. They proved to the crowd that their obsession with Kinect is not going anywhere, focusing on only annoucing games that will feature Kinect support. Mass Effect 3 will utilize Kinect's voice recognition, Ghost Recon: Future Soldiers lets players use Kinect to create guns in the new gunsmith mode, and players will be able to control thier horse and cast spells using the Kinect in Fable: The Journey.

The most surprising news came from an unlikely duo: Master Chief and Disneyland. Although seeing Master Chief killing the covenant in the “It’s a small world” attraction would make the ride a lot more interesting. Microsoft has entered a partnership with Disney to recreate their famous rides in a virtual setting, and will use Kinect to allow gamers to play mini-games on the rides. I’m anxious to play the “catch the decapitated head” mini-game on the matterhorn ride. Besides revealing that the classic Halo: Combat Evolved will be getting an HD remastering treatment, excitement reached a peak when Microsoft played a teaser trailer for Halo 4. My hands are shaking in anticipation at the chance of returning back to playing Master Chief, after installments of playing lesser Spartans. Halo fans will have to wait until 2012 before stepping into the Chief's shoes.

One common similarity that I found at a few of the press conferences was the re-occurrence of water levels in the demonstrations. Infinity Ward had a Modern Warfare 3 demo at Microsoft’s press conference, featuring an underwater level. At Sony’s press conference, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception had a live demonstration featuring Drake escaping a watery tomb. Then, at Ubisoft’s press conference, a Far Cry 3 demonstration featured the player getting thrown off a cliff and into a ravine filled with water. It’s obvious video game developers are trying to disassociate themselves with aqua-phobias.

Bioware fiends like myself got a nice Mass Effect 3 appetizer from the Microsoft press conference, but the real meal  came from the EA press conference. A new Mass Effect 3 teaser trailer was unveiled, and it made me wish the March release date was a lot sooner. Afterwords, the demonstration showed the game would have even more action than past entries, and would implement a more prominent melee element. Seeing Commander Shephard gutting an enemy with a knife is what dreams are made out of. While Bioware did release a brand spanking new and awesome trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic, they didn’t offer much else, telling anticipated fans to check it out for themselves on the ground floor. I plan to...

What would an EA press conference be without showcasing their sporting games? FIFA 12 promises a slew of new features, such as tactical defending, precision dribbling, and a new player impact engine that employs real-life physics. Madden 12 will have a collision system for tougher hits that will effect another new feature for the game; a player confidence system. Sack a quarterback, and he won’t feel as pumped about the next play. However, the person that sacked him will be even more pumped then before, and likely to excel in the next play. Finally, EA announced the EA Football Club, a live service that will give players weekly challenges, and implement stories taken from the top matches of the week. EA is trying to prove the only thing more real then playing one of their games, is actually getting off the couch and playing a sport.

Another big announcement came in the form of Need for Speed: The Run. For the first time ever players can step out of the car. The demo showed the player hitting button prompts to successfully run across rooftops, fight the police, evade helicopters, and steal other cars. EA ended the conference with an inside look to the highly anticipated Battlefield 3 game. The high octane action promises to keep online multiplayer fans busy, although they will have to wait until October 25.

Most of Ubisoft’s press conference was focused on existing properties. An overly caffeinated rep’s noble double entendre advances ended up proving to be just a lead in for a cool Driver: San Francisco trailer. The conference also showcased a Rayman Origins demo that promises more hilarity from the beloved series, as well as a new Brother in Arms game that will take a violent historical revisionist approach on World War 2, a beta announcement for Ghost Recon Online coming in the fall, and a fun Raving Rabbids announcement that revealed it will support X-box Kinect, Playstation Move, and the Wii. On November 8, 2011 players will finally be able to torture rabbits interactively. The conference ended with a demo of Assassin’s Creed Revelations, showcasing a rugged Ezio using grenades to blow up buildings and set ships aflame. It’s no revelation that Ubisoft has an instant hit waiting to be released.

Last, but certainly not least, Sony proved they know what gamers really want to hear about: The games. After picking up the ball with a promising Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception demo, they announced that Sly Cooper will be making a return in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time. Sony also released more info on their sci-fi first-person shooter Dust 514, which will have closed beta later in the year.

Along with the games came the announcements of bundles. Sony is making it evident they need to recoup what they lost from the PSN outage, revealing a variety of bundles, including a 3D bundle pack that comes with a 24-inch 3D television, 3D glasses, and Resistance 3. Resistance will also have it’s own bundle that will come with the game, a Playstation Move sharpshooter peripheral, and a Playstation eye camera. While I joked about them offering these bundles to recoup their losses, the fact that they announced bundling the first Bioshock with the series' latest entry, Bioshock Infinite, for free says otherwise. They can’t be hurting financially too much if they are offering a free awesome game, when you buy another awesome game.

While the news that made my jaw drop in anticipation was the long awaited release date of the Ico and Shadow of Colossus HD collection, coming in September with the God of War Origins collection, the biggest news for Sony was the unveiling of it’s next portable gaming console, The Playstation Vita. Vita will have front and rear cameras for augmented reality gaming, and will be competing for a place in your home this holiday season; offering plans for wi-fi at $249, and wi-fi with 3G for $299. Even though the announced partnership with At&t made a lot of fans cringe, the lineup of games for Vita, which includes Uncharted, Little Big Planet, Stardust, and Wipeout, is enough to redeem the new console in the Sony family.

With all the juicy glorious news being presented, one would think E3 is over. In truth, it’s only just begun. Keep your eyes glued to unWiredTV for more E3 news. Until then, let’s play some games!