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For me, E3 started on a
Thursday. I have a real job that foots the bill for stuff like this,
and I have to make sure that I'm keeping it real with them, so I
could only take 2 of the 3 days off to enjoy the show. I'm not
exactly sure why the E3 guys decided that they need to have the
conference completely on a weekend these past couple years, but they
have, and next year they're going to do the same thing.
So, Thursday morning, I loaded up the ClayMobile and made the much
shorter 20-minute trek to E3, thanks to the fact that our two
ex-tester friends Linda Dam and Erin Nakagawa had let Rick and I
crash at their place in L.A. in exchange for us getting them passes,
and Rick & I cooking dinner every once in a while. After forking out
$8 for parking, and showing my industry ID proof, I went through a
much shorter registration line on Thursday, and was ready to absorb
the show.
For me, "Ugh" factor set in relatively quick this year. Fellow
attendee Kisu Kang dubbed this E3, "The Year of Mediocrity" and I
can't argue with that at all. In general when I've gone to E3, the
first day is spent fumbling through the halls and finding out what
looks cool, grabbing stuff, and mentally setting up what games I'm
going to play the next day.
Well, they weren't throwing out as much stuff this year, and there
also weren't that many things I wanted to see this year. For some
reason companies all met together and decided on two things. First,
they were going to all make 3rd person action games, and second,
they were all not going to make RPGs. I didn't see KOEI, Atlus, or
Working Designs there this year, and their presence was sorely
missed.
The must-see section of the show this year was the Square Enix/Half-Life
2 corner. Square Enix probably had the playable lineup of show,
showing off Final Fantasy X-2, Final Fantasy XI, Final Fantasy
Tactics Advance, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, and Drakengard at
various locations in the halls. Half-Life 2 was just showing a
movie, but you had to wait in line to catch it, but it was a pretty
intense line to be in. Since I was only going to be in attendance
for 2 days, I passed on the line, but game related traffic was at a
high in that section.
If you're talking non-game related traffic, then the two booths that
led this year in that category would have been Eidos, Tecmo, and the
Street Racing Syndicate booth that kicked Simon and Schuster out of
their normal spot underneath the stairs.
Eidos brought in live bands to play, (I believe Cold, and Vanessa
Carlton) and various wrestling stars who I care nothing about. They
were throwing out copies of Backyard Wrestling 5 and some t-shirts
that I out jumped people to grab. Respect the mad boxing-out skillz.
They also had some girls dressed up in Fast & The Furious outfits,
so they were able to keep traffic in their booth high, even though
Deus Ex: Invisible War on the XBox certainly wasn't packing them in.
Tecmo brought their normal thing. Sex sells their game, and it also
packs their booth. You could take pictures with the various models
brought in to pose as the girls from DOA. They were also having a
pretty weird "live-action" show where they would perform some
various bits of mock kung-fu. In addition they strutted around in
their bikinis from DOA Beach Volleyball, and signed volleyballs that
they tossed out to the crowd. Probably the most difficult to get
item in the show, and this booth was so packed, Event Staff was
making sure the crowd didn't just overflow into the aisles.
Street Racing Syndicate had the best looking booth babes of show,
and their game had an interesting concept...Race your car...get the
models. Rick went out and crashed the game, while others jammed
their booth to get pictures of the girls up close, completely
ignoring the two tricked out cars that were on display. (Yes, the
horns on the cars worked.) As far as making the best out of a bad
location and small booth, these guys definitely accomplished their
goal. I'm pretty sure anyone who was up close and ogling the women
there is probably going to pick up a copy of the game, especially
since you can unlock videos of the same girls dancing through
gameplay.
It's always fun to see the companies that are in limbo between the
Promised Land that is the Main Halls and what is typically the
wasteland known As Kentia Hall. It's like they're still trying to
maintain the image that they're big time, while everyone really knew
they weren't.
The unlucky 3 this year were deserving of being fully banished to
Kentia. Acclaim, with their paltry lineup of NBA Jam, Freestyle
Soccer, some crappy motocross game and other stuff that was too lame
to mention, has served notice. They will tolerate no company
competing for the title of Acclaim of the New Millennium...that
title is theirs and theirs alone.
THQ was one of the other hanger-ons, showing off Alias, and a whole
bunch of games I don't even remember. I was in and out of that booth
in something like 2 minutes.
Then we had Atari, who used to be known as Infogrames. (Pronounced
Info-GRAYMES.) Atari wasn't showing anything unless you had an
appointment which meant it wasn't in a form that should be viewable
by the public, and that they definitely belonged outside of the Main
Halls.
PC Gamers, you don't have a lot to look forward to this year. Halo
finally makes its way to the PC, which is where it belonged.
Half-Life 2, once again, only viewable in movie format, as was Doom
III. Tron 2.0 Light Cycles was one of my biggest disappointments of
the show. On the plus side, XIII looks really nice on the PC, and
while I don't know if its going to have any multiplayer it does look
like it brings something new to the table for the avid FPS fan. If
you like 3rd person, Enter the Matrix was pretty nice, and should
make up for some of the disappointment you felt after watching the
movie.
Final Fantasy XI is coming to a PC near you, if you like MMORPGs. If
you do, then Kentia Hall was probably where you wanted to hang out.
At least 4 different developers were showing off their newest
creations, most of them Asian themed, which is a nice change of pace
from the standard variety medieval European fantasy game. City of
Heroes looked kind of cool, too, but for the most part, all the
MMORPGs they had at show involved having a lot of people walk
around, which isn't really going to grab my attention too well.
As far as good news for the PC goes, Rise of Nations wasn't as
revolutionary as I thought it was going to be, but at the same time
it pushes the boundaries a little bit, and remains just as playable
as Age of Empires was. Not going to be a huge year in terms of the
number of games churned out, but it should be enough to keep PC
gamers happy.
The breakdown of console dominance plays out something like this to
me:
1. Playstation 2
1. Game Boy Advance (tie)
3. Gamecube
4. XBox
5. N-Gage
6. Phantom
There is just SO much coming out for the Playstation 2 and Game Boy
Advance, that they can't possibly lose their position as the best of
the best. Even if the GameCube is struggling to keep pace with the
XBox, the Game Boy Advance can keep Nintendo treading water.
Playstation 2 has a slew of good titles coming out for it. Gran
Turismo 4 is more than just a graphical upgrade to the same stuff
we've been driving since the Playstation. Square Enix is definitely
going to be a force to be reckoned with in the near future, and it
looks like with their new determination to be dominant on more
consoles than just the PS2 is good news for the GameCube and GBA,
and bad news for the XBox.
The Gameboy Advance has Advance Wars 2, Sword of Mana, Final Fantasy
Tactics Advance, and a host of other great games that are going to
have gamers craning their heads forward in the months to come.
Anyone who owns a GBA will probably be 6 inches shorter by next
year.
The GameCube decided to step up where the Dreamcast had failed and
get some real third party support for their console. Square Enix got
the Crystal Chronicles, Konami lent them Metal Gear Solid, and on
top of that, they've got their eagerly anticipated first party
titles to boot. Bravo, Nintendo.
The Xbox still hasn't learned. Aside from Crimson Skies there wasn't
a playable XBox exclusive title on site that was anything to get
excited about. The games there were so bad, I really can't
distinguish one from the other they just kind of all run together
into one uninteresting booth to me. They're floundering, but they
still aren't as bad as...
The N-Gage. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE this product. Just not as a
gaming console. This is probably the most full featured phone ever
created. You've got a color screen, an MP3 player, and international
calling capability in the palm of your hand. This phone will mark
the first time a phone in the US beats the cell phones in Japan.
That being said, a gaming console with a screen the size of a phone
screen isn't going to cut it..It's cool that I can play Splinter
Cell on my phone...for like 3 minutes. Then I'll just go back to
playing with my GBA SP. I can see tech junkie gamers rushing out to
pick up this phone, but not for its gaming capabilities.
Last, least, and barely even worth mentioning is Infinium Labs'
Phantom, which lived up to its name and didn't show. Way to look
legitimate, guys. Thanks for the laughs..
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