Microsoft had the best show.
Sony had the best GAMES show.
Microsoft's show was paced and staged the best by far, although I think they used too much time on the cross-platform Rock Bond: Beatles, even though I'm pretty hyped for it. Super star-studded, (which had to impress the mainstream media,) and very few hype killing moments. And, it was easily their best show ever. That's a BIIIIG deal.
Their future tech 'vision' segments were much more 'visionary' than anyone else, even if some of the claims seem a bit far-fetched. I don't mind far-fetched stuff (except maybe the impossible 'instant 1080p' video stuff) because I love to be wowed by new tech. It's one of the reasons I'm a gamer.
Their game lineup was good overall and great in a few places, but not necessarily great in the 'console exclusive' territory. The best demo of a game was the non-exclusive Modern Warfare 2. Only Crackdown 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Splinter Cell got me really hyped, and of those, Splinter Cell was the only one demoed. Halo just left me sad, since it's so far behind the big modern shooters these days in tech. Forza's segment seemed kinda desperate.
Sony's show had terrible pacing, as it totally crushed it at the beginning with the mind-blowing Uncharted gameplay, yet just as totally bogged in the middle where they are trying to launch a new iteration of a platform (not good, Sony,) only to surge back again with some true megatons at the end, and a cool little cart racer. NO 'star power' to speak of, but the exclusive games were the stars.
While Microsoft's camera system seems more visionary, Sony's actually looks a lot more practical for real gaming with the games I'd want to play. The lack of lag compared to everything else, (especially MS's system, which seems super-laggy) and the insane precision suggests that while it's not as ambitious as MS's project, this thing will actually work well for fun gaming.
Sony's long montage of all the known first and third-party games was impressive (although I wished it was FULL FUCKING SCREEN) and the big exclusives just blew my mind. Easily the most big exclusives to be excited for IMO me.
Nintendo should just quit doing shows.
If I had to give out grades, Microsoft and Sony would both get A-. Best Microsoft show ever, and one of the best gaming show's I've ever seen, but could have focused more on the exclusives. Sony had the exclusives, but the pacing and presentation was far from perfect. Nintendo would get a C-. If it weren't for the awesome Metroid first-look and the quality of the DS lineup, they would have failed completely. I totally expected SMG2 in 2010, so that's not that big a deal. It might be a great game, but it's no megaton. Metroid was the only thing that came close to a megaton, and I don't know how many gamers like me are left.