My first E3 has come and gone. Another item on my bucket list has been crossed off. I hope it isn't the only one I'll be able to attend, but I won't lose sleep if it that's the case. So here's the question that I'm sure a lot of people have: is E3 really the end and be all show of video games? Here's the recap of my one and only day to help answer the question.
"Whoa, I get to walk into E3 for the first time with Shoe."
It's not really a sentence you expect to read when you're checking out somebody's first impressions of E3; but there I was, a longtime fan of EGM, stepping into the gaming mecca with arguably its most well-known journalist. Of course, I had to make sure it was him first, so I go with the, "excuse me, are you Dan Hsu" line and hope to God he doesn't think I'm some stalker nerd, like say, Evil Garnett Lee. Thankfully it was Shoe, and he couldn't be a cooler guy, letting me walk with him as he was eating what looked like a parfait while rushing to a Nintendo appointment. After that brief brush with gaming royalty, which included getting him to sign a copy of EGM (yes, I did bring one just in case I did run into ex-EGMers; more on that later), and talking about Bitmob and old E3s, we parted ways at the West Hall entrance. For Shoe, it was the fourth and final day of what I'm sure has been an exhausting week for him; but for me, it was a smack in the face realization that I was finally "in," and damn if it didn't feel good. Bring on the crappy swag... or not.
"Line to play Uncharted 2 is pretty big. Oh, and I just got a free beta key."
That was a common theme for the show: freakishly long lines just to play games. Some were even hours long, like the God of War 3 demo. Since this was my first and only day of E3 2009, I had a list of goals in order to make my short time worthwhile, not to mention a few ground rules to make every second count. With the massive load of games at the show floor worth checking out, I knew some titles were going to be sacrificed, so with the exception of The Beatles: Rock Band, I steered clear of any games that had lines longer than 15 minutes, meaning no Uncharted 2, Brutal Legend, and Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for me. I'm going to buy those games within the next few months anyway, so I didn't see the point in playing them now when I could be trying new stuff. And somehow, I didn't feel too bad about missing out on Tony Hawk Ride or any of the Activision retreads out on the floor. First game I got my hands on? Tatsunoko Vs Capcom, and that lasted all of a minute and a half as my team of Ryu and random Tatsunoko guy was soundly beaten. I asked the nearest Capcom rep if one of the new characters in the game was JJ or Apple from Zillion, and she gave me the same look most of the booth babes had whenever they heard the words, "can I get a picture?"
"Oh damn, snap, you got shot, son."
If you happened to pass by Microsoft or Ubisoft's demo stations for Splinter Cell: Conviction and overheard comments like that, don't feel bad thinking it was some 16 year-old kid on Xbox Live with the headset turned up. The trash talk came courtesy of the game's hype men, who were the best performers of the show, sounding like they came out of Rucker Park. And that's why I didn't even bother playing it, last thing I need is some guy yelling at me because I didn't follow the onscreen instructions. But I did get a chance to really explore some of the under the radar games of the show. Here are some games that I know I'll be picking up as a result of some short playtime with them.
- The PSP GO! still looks like a Mylo/Sidekick ripoff, but it feels good to control, especially when I tried out LittleBigPlanet. Now if Sony would only listen to my idea for a theme song...
- As soon as I found the Scribblenauts booth, I immediately hooked myself to a station and didn't let go for a good 20 minutes. When you make a game that lets you enter everything from "God" to "submarine" in order to solve a jumping puzzle, you're doing something good.
- Split-Second, the racing game that looks like one long Michael Bay driving sequence, is a showpiece title for friends coming over. It might ultimately be a little shallow, but then again, that's where the substance of Forza 3 and their amazing three-LCD screen set up comes in.
- Based on the huge smiles people had when they finished the Sin and Punishment 2 demo, I think Nintendo should start promoting this game more.
- And if Murasama doesn't become a victim of vicious slowdown like previous Vanillaware games, I'll definitely be picking one up. The combat worked well with the Wii controls and the art style is gorgeous.
- Because there was a group that was one person short, I managed cut the line (sorry) to get in on a 10 minute session of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Like most of the people who came away from that demo, I got a feeling that it was more like the original Mario Bros. because of the straddling of the competition/cooperation aspect.
- Xbox Live Arcade might be heavily promoting their "Summer of Arcade," but the upcoming slate of Playstation Network titles, which I almost missed on if not for Fat Princess being flashed on the big screen at the Sony area, is no slouch either. Games like Critter Crunch, Pixel Junk: Shooter, and Fat Princess were all playable at the lounge, and they all looked almost done and good to go. I still have no idea what you're supposed to do in the Pixel Junk game, though, so I let go of the controller before I got even more embarrassed.
"DJ Hero mixing Bon Jovi and Daft Punk. Hmmmmm"
For all the crap that EA has gotten over the years for being the top third-party publisher who lacked original games, you have to admit, at least they were never on the level of pure shill that Activision is currently in. Maybe it was the huge dark and dank Activision booth, but the area gave off such a corporate vibe, being littered with IPs that either lacked originality (what was that racing game they had?) or was just the victim of pure overkill (watching people demo Tony Hawk Ride after seeing Project Natal was just sad). That being said, the Modern Warfare 2 looked pretty damn good, but for how long can Activision continue down this road? Is it our fault as consumers for not taking chances with the games we buy? I really don't want to come back next year and see the same games again but with a different number attached to them.
"Uhhh, sure, you can come up and take a picture, but only if you let me put this band-aid sticker on you"
Here's my hard and fast rule when it comes to booth babes: if you're going to take pictures with them, make sure you're the first one that day. It's kind of like strippers in that sense, because by going first, you're not left wondering who or what has been there today. This was especially true of the model who was supposed to be Bayonetta. I bet if you shined a blacklight on that leather suit of hers, you'll see finger prints in places where there probably shouldn't be any.
"Some guy just brought by a GameSpite hardcover edition. I actually hadn't seen one yet, but thankfully the cover art came out perfectly."
This is what 1UP editor Jeremy Parish put up on his twitter after signing my copy of GameSpite Quarterly, a collection of articles from his personal website. Thanks, man...
"Cool, let's recreate the ending to the Street Fighter movie."
Shane Bettenhausen was born for this. As I was making my last rounds, I see Ignition Entertainment's Director of New Business (I think that's his title) talking to some King Of Fighters XII fans. I thought to myself, "I started the day meeting Shoe, so what better way to end the day than with his supposed rival?" As someone who has only heard and seen Shane from podcasts and videos, it's amazing to see that except for the "Sony fanboy " persona he adopted during his press days, he is who we think he is (channeling my inner Denny Green). His passion for gaming just comes through when you talk to him, like when he was telling/selling me on how awesome Murasama was (I happen to agree) and how KOFXII was going to kick ass at retail (again, I agree). It was a novel concept, really. Instead of hiring suits who know nothing about games beyond licensed crap, Ignition got somebody who knows what makes a game both a critical and financial success. And he actually asked for my business card, the only person the whole day who did.
Then, as E3's doors were closing and the kiosks were being shut down for the last time, Greg Ford and Andrew Fitch of EGM/Bitmob pop up, just as Shane was signing the same magazine Shoe had earlier. And with that, a small EGM reunion ensued. After I talked to Greg about Bitmob, he and Fitch were great about signing the magazine (Fitch even wrote something in Japanese; it could be dating advice, I'm not sure). Seeing this as a unique opportunity, I ask them all to gather for a picture, which explains the Shane quote above. So yeah, E3? Good times.
Oh, and I went to Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Pretty good day, huh?
