Pocket Gamer does E3 2012: Our showfloor highlights
Bows! Statues! Women! Bows!

E3 2012 is over, which means it’s time we kicked back in our chairs, swirled a glass of brandy, and reminisced on the show some commentators are already calling “the biggest E3 since the last one”.
But forget about the games - what you all really want to know is what the show itself was like.
How extravagant were the stands? Who had the biggest gaming-related statue? How much self-worth has Will retained after taking a photo of a booth babe for this feature?
The answers to all those questions and more can be found below.
Shooters are quite big in the console world...
Apparently, some game called Call of Duty is quite big in the console world. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s essentially a modern version of one of those rifle games at a fairground, albeit without a furry toy as a prize.
I only say this because it seems the industry as a whole has accidentally opened Activision's bank statement and collectively decided that every second console game should be a first or third-person shooter.
In fairness, I like FPS games. I’ve put in my fair share of hours/days into COD’s MP (a little too much, if I’m being honest), but by the end of the show even I was feeling a little gun-shy from all the explosions and shouting from the promo videos.
...and so are sequels
As a fun game while walking down to the convention center for the final day, Kristan and I decided to add up the number of sequels revealed at E3 this year.
We didn’t actually have time to count them all before our 20-minute walk was finished, and we restricted ourselves to ‘third entry and above’ only.
If you like, have a go at beating us in the comments thread. I'll start you off with Resident Evil 6, Tomb Raider, Crysis 3, Halo 4, Gears of War: Judgement, and Assassin's Creed III.
Nothing says ‘big game’ like a big statue
There was a sense that each publisher was desperately trying to outdo the others when it came to stand decoration at E3. More specifically, there were a lot of massive statues on show.
From lumbering xenomorphs to a frankly scary Sonic, every stand had its own take on the ‘bigger is better’ mantra.
Even GREE got in the act with this dragon, which looks a lot more impressive in the photo than it was in reality (it was an inflatable toy).

I missed the memo, not being on the console games press release list, but apparently a gaming law was passed at the end of last year dictating that every new release should feature a bow at some point.
If you think I'm exaggerating, look at this:

Okay, that’s Legolas. He has to have a bow by default. How about this one, then:

Okay, fair enough. Lara Croft’s next adventure takes the series back to her 'origins' and she’s likely had to have made that bow herself. Like Brave, here:

So I guess all those bows are justified in a way. However, if there were a sci-fi game that featured a bow, that would be a little harder to explain. There can’t be any of those on the horiz-


You could hear it whispered in the press room, spoken quietly in the corridors outside the exhibition halls, and instantly dismissed as nothing more than a fad by people who’ll be out of a job in a few years time.
“What the hell are these GREE and WeMade things and why are there no first-person shooters on their stands?”, the dissenters cried, before queuing up to see Combat Warfare XI: Men of Brave Spec Ops Honor.
E3 2012 might not prove to be a tipping point in terms of acceptance, but it was the first time two massive mobile companies from Japan and Korea came to town in a big way.
Adding to the symbolism on show, GREE’s stand was apparently the one used by THQ up until this year. Lock up your children: mobile and tablet gaming is on the warpath. Sort of.
Mobile makes its presence felt in the strangest places
Outside of the GREE and WePlay stands, there wasn’t really that much in the way of mobiles and tablets on the stands around the exhibition halls.
Some publishers gave the formats a nod, scattering iPads about on their stands and tucking a few unannounced iPhone games behind closed doors (hello, Capcom), but in the main most mobile developers were holding meetings with press in small conference rooms and in the Starbucks outside West Hall.
However, there were still adverts for mobile games peppered around the exhibition centre, like the above pictured example located in one of the eating places just outside South Hall.
Gamers love cars
“Hey Chuck, you know what gamers love?”
“What’s that Zack?”
“Cars.”
“Isn’t that more a generic male thing? I mean, the most recent demographics for gamers actually put women at almost an equal proportion to men, and even then, the whole idea of men loving cars is a stereotype propagated by decades of marketing by industries reliant on selling the punter a false sense of masculinity via consumerism”
“What?”
“Fine. Let’s get a car in.”
Booth babes are still a 'thing'
I'm not going to open up 'that' debate again in a light-hearted round-up of E3 activities, but - having been to quite a few different gaming exhibitions over the years - I will say that E3 seems to be the biggest supporter of male teenager marketing.
Pretty much every company had at least a dozen women in tight-fitting clothes on hand to, well, stand around and pose for photographs.
Even the more family-friendly firms like Nintendo were in on the act - although, in fairness to the big N, the clothes for their ladies were probably the least revealing of the lot.
Also, as you can see from the picture above, there tended to be a car near the ladies, even if the game in question featured no cars. Coincidence?
PS Vita and 3DS games were really hard to find
Both Sony and Nintendo seemed a bit quiet on the handheld front in their press conferences this year - something Mike noted in his Who Won E3? feature (which you should also read).
This was reflected on the showfloor, with Nintendo essentially hiding away every 3DS in the building in order to show off the Wii U. Only Square Enix seemed to really want to show off any titles on the 3DS.
Sony was a little better, with quite a few PS Vitas set up on its stand, but - once again - some of the biggest new games were hidden away, either behind closed doors or elsewhere in the halls.
The most confusing of which was Sound Shapes, which I happened to randomly stumble upon in the Indiecade section, alongside experimental PC titles and J S Joust.
Naff photo ops and free tat are bafflingly popular
You’d have thought, given that console events are usually stuffed to the gills with useless tat and rubbish clothing items, that journos and bloggers would be a bit sick of branded T-shirts and the like.
This, sadly, couldn’t be further from the truth. Indeed, the line for Mickey Mouse hats (shaped like the Disney mascot’s ears) was reportedly two hours long. For a hat. With big mouse ears.
The other big queues around the exhibition halls at the convention centre (outside of the games, of course) were those for seemingly naff photo opportunities - usually with someone dressed up as a game character.
This full-size replica of a Warthog from Halo (pictured above) was the best of the bunch, but you should still probably execute a swift and loud facepalm if you spent half the show queuing up to stand next to a fictional jeep.