Today at E3
E3 isn't so much a trade show as it is an unending cacophony of noise, lights and people, all overlapping on top of one another to form some sort of orgy of videogame bliss.
But I get ahead of myself.
The day started at 7am (actually 8am for me, one of the nice parts of PST), so that we could make the 8am breakfast/media briefing. After a tumultuous cab ride to the convention centre (where the cabbie tried to drive us through a security blockade) we started to make our way to the briefing.
Once we were inside the building it was clear something was wrong. The lights were dimmed or off, the media room was locked down and there were far fewer wifi hotspots than normal. Yes, there was a power blackout in front of one of the most power consuming events in the world.
However, a mix of emergency power and the power company knowing they were screwed if everything wasn't up and running by the 10am opening time made sure that the show started as if nothing happened. I was more than impressed with this.
Also, by eight there were already a lot of people milling about the area.
The media briefing was interesting, the President of the ESA essentially said we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves and that the gaming industry still has a lot of room to grow (mainly with women and casual gamers). I stayed for the Q&A afterwards, which meant by the time I got out, the meager breakfast had an hour long line to it. I skipped it. I then made my way to the doors:
As you can see it was getting crowded very quickly. By the time the doors actually opened I was worried about getting trampled by the multitudes behind me. When the hour arrived, we moved forward as one, a throng of people with a single mind, and a single purpose.
Quickly scanning my surroundings I found an open console and started playing. It was a new Incredible Hulk game in the style of Grand Theft Auto. I lost myself in the smashing, and jumping, and jumping and smashing before finishing the objectives and turning around to try something else.
Unbeknownced to me approximately an infinite amount of people had come in after me. The showfloor was now a collection of elbows and sweat, almost impossible to navigate. I decided to change halls (one hall held SONY and Nintendo's booth, which was the one I was in, and the other had Microsoft and everyone else's booth). I made my way around this other hall while trying to find some PR images for Dan Lazin. Along the way I spied a statue for Blizzard's game Star Craft: Ghost.
After dropping the stuff off for Dan I attacked the hall once again. By this point the autograph session for the Fantastic Four movie had started (no Jessica Alba sadly) and the corner between the Blizzard, Activision, and Namco booths took literally ten minutes to navigate (and I do mean literally). I was able to capture one very blurry image of The Thing, but didn't go in for an autograph.
This is where the people really started pushing there way in. I checked out Ubi Soft's booth, they had a demo of Prince of Persia 3 running, and it seemed to solve at least some of the problems from the second one. The implemented a "sneak kill" system, so if you are acrobatic and stealthy you can get rid of enemies quickly without a fight, eliminating the most annoying part of the first two games.
I also saw Konami's booth and saw the Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer. It was rendered using the Metal Gear Solid 3 engine, so it looked dated (the real game will be on the ps3 and will look a bunch better). It was also funny in a way that only video game nerds would find funny. Which was okay because everyone there was a video game nerd.
At this point I saw Tony Hawk signing autographs to promote his new Xbox 360 game.
I got burnt out at that point and went to the media flop room. Unluckily, I missed the free lunch. Luckily, the Wayans brothers were still in their press conference promoting their collectable cardgame/cell phone game based on "Yo Momma" jokes. They seemed very disinterested in the entire ordeal. The developer on the other hand was unnaturally enthusiastic. Note, not only were Marlon and Damon there, but Keenan Ivory was there as well.
After seeing the Wayans I ventured back onto the show floor and saw the Buena Vista booth. They were promoting the Narnia game, which seems like a total rip off of the Lord of the Rings. From what I've seen of the film I think that is a fair assessment.
Escaping from the hall once again, I went to the E3 merchandise stand, which lead to this, the only properly exposed photo of the day:
After the merch tent I was on a gaming rampage, sampling as many games as I could find.
After supping more games than I can count, I decided to bite the bullet and move on to the giant line that had formed outside of Nindendo's booth. You could tell it was Nintendo's by the monstersized logos and super-mushroom sized Mario standing tall over everyone:
Now you see, I was entering this line mostly on faith. I guessed we were going to be ushered into the back of Nintendo's area to play the new Zelda (officially titled The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess), but I wasn't sure. It wasn't marked anywhere, and the people in front and behind me in line were about as sure as I was. A Nintendo lackey came over to us and said "we might get it before closing time" and we all decided to stick it out. After being corralled into the back we found we were indeed playing the new Zelda and after the ten or so minutes I spent on it I can definitively say that is definitely Zelda, with the same basic engine that has powered the last three games, only with cooler looking graphics.
After that I left E3 and went back to the hotel, ate for the first time today and half napped/half watched Riddick on HBO.
But I get ahead of myself.
The day started at 7am (actually 8am for me, one of the nice parts of PST), so that we could make the 8am breakfast/media briefing. After a tumultuous cab ride to the convention centre (where the cabbie tried to drive us through a security blockade) we started to make our way to the briefing.
Once we were inside the building it was clear something was wrong. The lights were dimmed or off, the media room was locked down and there were far fewer wifi hotspots than normal. Yes, there was a power blackout in front of one of the most power consuming events in the world.
However, a mix of emergency power and the power company knowing they were screwed if everything wasn't up and running by the 10am opening time made sure that the show started as if nothing happened. I was more than impressed with this.
Also, by eight there were already a lot of people milling about the area.
The media briefing was interesting, the President of the ESA essentially said we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves and that the gaming industry still has a lot of room to grow (mainly with women and casual gamers). I stayed for the Q&A afterwards, which meant by the time I got out, the meager breakfast had an hour long line to it. I skipped it. I then made my way to the doors:
As you can see it was getting crowded very quickly. By the time the doors actually opened I was worried about getting trampled by the multitudes behind me. When the hour arrived, we moved forward as one, a throng of people with a single mind, and a single purpose.
Quickly scanning my surroundings I found an open console and started playing. It was a new Incredible Hulk game in the style of Grand Theft Auto. I lost myself in the smashing, and jumping, and jumping and smashing before finishing the objectives and turning around to try something else.
Unbeknownced to me approximately an infinite amount of people had come in after me. The showfloor was now a collection of elbows and sweat, almost impossible to navigate. I decided to change halls (one hall held SONY and Nintendo's booth, which was the one I was in, and the other had Microsoft and everyone else's booth). I made my way around this other hall while trying to find some PR images for Dan Lazin. Along the way I spied a statue for Blizzard's game Star Craft: Ghost.
After dropping the stuff off for Dan I attacked the hall once again. By this point the autograph session for the Fantastic Four movie had started (no Jessica Alba sadly) and the corner between the Blizzard, Activision, and Namco booths took literally ten minutes to navigate (and I do mean literally). I was able to capture one very blurry image of The Thing, but didn't go in for an autograph.
This is where the people really started pushing there way in. I checked out Ubi Soft's booth, they had a demo of Prince of Persia 3 running, and it seemed to solve at least some of the problems from the second one. The implemented a "sneak kill" system, so if you are acrobatic and stealthy you can get rid of enemies quickly without a fight, eliminating the most annoying part of the first two games.
I also saw Konami's booth and saw the Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer. It was rendered using the Metal Gear Solid 3 engine, so it looked dated (the real game will be on the ps3 and will look a bunch better). It was also funny in a way that only video game nerds would find funny. Which was okay because everyone there was a video game nerd.
At this point I saw Tony Hawk signing autographs to promote his new Xbox 360 game.
I got burnt out at that point and went to the media flop room. Unluckily, I missed the free lunch. Luckily, the Wayans brothers were still in their press conference promoting their collectable cardgame/cell phone game based on "Yo Momma" jokes. They seemed very disinterested in the entire ordeal. The developer on the other hand was unnaturally enthusiastic. Note, not only were Marlon and Damon there, but Keenan Ivory was there as well.
After seeing the Wayans I ventured back onto the show floor and saw the Buena Vista booth. They were promoting the Narnia game, which seems like a total rip off of the Lord of the Rings. From what I've seen of the film I think that is a fair assessment.
Escaping from the hall once again, I went to the E3 merchandise stand, which lead to this, the only properly exposed photo of the day:
After the merch tent I was on a gaming rampage, sampling as many games as I could find.
After supping more games than I can count, I decided to bite the bullet and move on to the giant line that had formed outside of Nindendo's booth. You could tell it was Nintendo's by the monstersized logos and super-mushroom sized Mario standing tall over everyone:
Now you see, I was entering this line mostly on faith. I guessed we were going to be ushered into the back of Nintendo's area to play the new Zelda (officially titled The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess), but I wasn't sure. It wasn't marked anywhere, and the people in front and behind me in line were about as sure as I was. A Nintendo lackey came over to us and said "we might get it before closing time" and we all decided to stick it out. After being corralled into the back we found we were indeed playing the new Zelda and after the ten or so minutes I spent on it I can definitively say that is definitely Zelda, with the same basic engine that has powered the last three games, only with cooler looking graphics.
After that I left E3 and went back to the hotel, ate for the first time today and half napped/half watched Riddick on HBO.
