I could be wrong but I got the feeling that the new format for E3 insulated the elitest hard-core gamer critics in a little bubble ...
Typcially Nintendo gets nominated and wins E3 awards based on 'grass-roots' popularity among the peons that aren't allowed into E3 anymore. Historically speaking, as E3 opens there are people who sprint to Nintendo's booth for an opportunity to play Nintendo's games before release; it wasn't uncommon to have the shortest line at Nintendo's booth being longer than any line at any other booth in spite of Nintendo having far more kiosks available for people to play.
If E3 was in its usual format I expect that these critics would be forced to bump certain games off of their list because they couldn't ignore the 3 hour long line-up for people to try Wii Fit, the 8 Super Smash Bros. Brawl Kiosks that constantly have 4 player games going on, or the constant crowd around the Metroid Prime 3 and Mario Galaxy kiosks to simply get a glimpse of these games.
