Sony had more wow moments, but Microsoft has closed the competence gap

[Administrator]

First things first, congratulations to Microsoft. I have been on their case ever since that awful mess in Redmond last May, but Monday's E3 press conference was a vast improvement. The message may have taken a long time to go in, but the focus on games that everyone has been asking for was inarguable - so much so that even a cool new Snap mode app giving you more control over Achievements was relegated to the pre-show, presumably not to dampen the focus and risk incurring further wrath.
At the end of 90 solid minutes of games, I remarked on Twitter that it felt like a strong conference but would probably be judged on the strength or otherwise of Sony's a few hours later - and so it proved. It felt like Sony had more wow moments than Microsoft and, despite sagging a little in the middle, generated more positive headlines. A few hours later in the warm light of Tuesday morning, though, perhaps it's not so clear cut.
As is often the case on day two of E3 week, I awoke to find my friends on social media bickering merrily about the conferences. The object of their debate was Grand Theft Auto 5 on PC and next-gen. Is it a big deal? Yes, said one camp, because it will be nice to roam around such a beautiful and carefully constructed open world, one of the finest ever created, at a higher resolution and frame-rate. No, said the other, because we can't spare them another 50 hours for the same thing. Except: can't we?
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