In general, I am pleased with this 3-disc set. I certainly cannot complain about the price - three DVD's for $9.95 plus shipping. I spent the better part of tonight checking it out, and here's a quick review...
The overall program presentation is good and the DVD production values are above average (audio levels bounce around a bit, but the video is fairly consistant.) The first disc contains a 10-12 minute segment called "The E3 Experience" (or something along those lines) which does a fair job of capturing the flavor of the show.
Also included on disc 1 are the (sometimes oddly edited) press conferences hosted by Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. Personally, I thought the Microsoft show generated the most heat. By the same token, it also features some cheesy, overblown video segments. The Sony presentation is a real snooze-fest! Kind of like being forced to sit through a marketing 101 lecture (complete with overhead slides!) All I can say is that it's a damn good thing Sony has some amazingly good looking AAA titles lined up for fall and winter, because if their future success was in any way tied to this sorry mess of a show, they'd be in real trouble... Also be forewarned - during the last 90 seconds or so of this presentation when they're unveiling the new PSP, the video cuts completely to black. (Like I said earlier - oddly edited!) Nintendo fares slightly better than Sony as far as presentation, IMHO. Once again, the day is saved by trotting out some pretty impressive looking 1st and 2nd party titles. But, and it's a BIG but, they beat a dead horse with all this GCN/Gameboy connectivity stuff that I personally could care less about.
The final disc 1 feature is a recap (including video clips) of the "Best of E3" awards as determined by the GameSpot staff.
The remainder of disc 1, (along with the entirety of discs 2 & 3) contains footage of all of the games at E3 (arranged in alphabetical order.) This is navigated via a straight-forward menu system that works pretty well. The only criticism I have is that you never know for sure (except in the case of the exclusives) what system a game is for, and in the case of multiple console releases, which version of the footage you're seeing. I won't spend a lot of time discussing the contents, except to say that some stuff looks totally amazing! Some games look okay. And unfortunately, there appear to be some real stinkers in the crowd! One can only hope that a magical transformation will take place between the time of E3 and the respective release dates of some of these games.
In the end, GameSpot gives you hours and hours of E3 show coverage to mull your way through, all at the bargain price of less than 10 bucks (more if you are not a GameSpot Complete subscriber.) For a first time effort, I give the GameSpot staff a big
!
