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I miss being surprised at E3. Lately it’s like the video game industry has "kid sister" syndrome where they want to tell everyone everything, all the time. If it’s not platform makers posting the details of their press briefing hours beforehand, it’s producers talking throughout entire demos, telling us every bit of detail so we don’t–god forbid–gloss over how well textured each street lamp is. Can someone in this industry practice some discretion? Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate demos and trailers, but some of these games risk being overexposed too early into their development cycle.

I really wish I hadn’t known about Halo 4 before it was announced; it would have been a great surprise at the end of Microsoft’s otherwise humdrum showing. While I’m wishing for things, I also wish “Mr. Caffeine” didn’t exist. Some games showed well but the combination of carefully scripted demos and over-anxious PR reps giving talk throughs rather than walk throughs, left some of the presentations feeling a bit flat and uninspired. I don’t need to know how many weapons are in the game; I assume there will always be a shotgun and sniper rifle in every game from this point on and I look forward to shot-gunning Lebron James in NBA 2K12 as much as the next guy.  I also don’t need to know how many different ways I can take down a thug. Yes, I’m glad I can break every damn bone in his body when I level up; yes, I’m that angry, but let me find that out for myself.

Letting me discover things on my own adds so much to the experience. I think experimentation is one of the core attributes of the game industry. When I turn on my game for the first time, I press all the buttons one by one to see what each one does. I don’t bother opening that flimsy user manual for help, besides, these days it’s only good for reminding us not to swallow our tongues and if said tongue is swallowed Activision is not responsible. So I want to be on my own. I want to get the game in my hands and run around; finding out what the developer has in store for me first hand.

Lastly, if a game isn’t scheduled to come out in the next 16-24 months and/or you don’t have a single piece of game footage, would you kindly not tell me. I noticed Nintendo made an attempt to get the attention of the hardcore by mentioning they were making Super Smash Bros for every platform they ever created. That proverbial dog bone was thrown in towards the end of the show, and while it got a thunderous applause, Nintendo didn’t show a single slide and quickly moved on to the next topic, thus killing the momentum.

E3 is a lot of fun and surely this is the place to make announcements and show off new builds of upcoming games. After all, when the stock market is watching, everyone has to put their best foot forward – just don’t show all the goods at once.