What I Did on My E3 Vacation or I Was an E3 Virgin
What I Did on My E3 Vacation
or I Was an E3 Virgin
As you might have guessed from the subtitle, this was my very first time at the E3. The first word that comes to mind is “wow,” and the second word is “ow.” My feet still hurt from all of the walking and standing.
This trip also marks the first time I have ever met JA staff members in person: Cindy KM, Ray Ivey, and Randy Sluganski. A strange juxtaposition–it was like meeting old friends and making new friends all at the same time. It proved to me that you really can get to know people online. Everyone was just like I expected.
The Los Angeles Convention Center comprises two main exhibit buildings with a half-mile hallway between the two. The primary hall, of course, was completely given over to the console displays–those being the companies with the big bucks to spend on prime floor space (and big bucks they did spend).
The secondary hall had two floors. The upper floor was where all of the big daddies of PC games were set up (Eidos, Infogrames, Acclaim, et al.), and the lower floor was home to the smaller companies (DreamCatcher, Cryo–the adventure gamers’ favorites were all downstairs). Then there are zillions of smaller private rooms used by the big-but-not-as-flashy companies (Mattel, LucasArts, Interplay …).
Chiseled features and camouflage … ooh baby
(Click the pictures to view the big ‘uns)
Just plain camouflage–Randy Sluganski looking sinister
And then Gathering of Developers was set up in a bunch of big motor homes in the parking lot across the street (with gigantic Kiss character balloons looming from the rooftops above). Why outside, I don’t know–it was too hot and too loud. They were having a display of fancy skateboarding, but inside there was a display of fancy bike-riding, so that’s not the reason. I suspect it was because they were hosting a beer bash and so many people need to smoke when they drink.
We went over to GOD to look at two of the three upcoming Blair Witch games, which were not my cup of tea but will certainly appeal to anyone who liked Nocturne. We were also interested in a game called Max Payne because a writer for another web site, Dave Fisher of Gone Gold, had told me the developers described it to him as being patterned after the Tex Murphy games. I had to leave before we saw it, but the press materials made it sound like a shooter with a plot, so I have serious doubts as to whether adventure gamers will like it.
Although we were not much interested in the consoles, Cindy KM and I took a tour through the main hall to scam some goodies for our children. On Thursday, I was able to get a couple of holographic Pokemon cards for my sons, but when we went back the next day to get some for Cindy’s daughters, they were out (geez, I hope her daughters don’t read this). We got some Nintendo 64 pens and some Zelda pins to promote an upcoming Legend of Zelda game for Game Boy Color, but my kids were not very excited by those things.
This one is for my children
My older son is a fanatical reader of the Animorphs books, so I went by Infogrames, which is publishing an Animorphs game sometime soon. They were really stingy with their goodies–they just had some leftover happy meal toys from Kentucky Fried Chicken. Luckily, my son didn’t clue in to that. I don’t know why, but it would have made a difference. Go figure.
Cindy and I took a look at the Mattel children’s games display, and we hit paydirt in terms of toys. We got some plush Sesame Street characters, some Rock’em Sock’em Robots, Scooby Doo pins, and a new Pokemon (Poke-ROM) game on a teeny CD (gotta collect ’em all–at eight bucks a pop). Mattel actually had a very nice lineup of children’s games, most of them based on Nickelodeon or PBS television shows.
The Mattel room was also home to the two new Myst games, Myst Dimensions (a 3D rendition of the original Myst with the addition of a new age) and Myst III: Exile. (I am not going to write anything about these games; I just wanted to whet your appetite. Pretty mean, huh?) (Just kidding … we had a very nice chat with one of the founders of Presto Studios, and Ray and/or Cindy will give you the lowdown within the next few days.)
Randy and I toured the hall o’small companies in search of games nobody’s ever heard of. We did find several foreign titles, but sometimes the company representatives spoke little or no English, so we had a hard time communicating. We also met one really scary guy (I’m not naming any names or saying which company it was out of fear of being hunted down and subjected to prolonged torture and a slow death) with the eyes of a psychopath. I swear he looked at us like we were the dog doo he had just stepped in, or bugs he wanted to pull the wings off and then squash like a, well, bug. (I hope I didn’t make a mistake by even saying what hall he was in.) (I hope he doesn’t see himself in these words … nah, he probably never reads the site … ?)
We all got separated on Saturday morning, so I went off by myself to try to get a look at the upcoming Monkey Island game from LucasArts (by appointment only, they said, but they were actually very accommodating). Even though the game will be in 3D (using the Grim Fandango interface) and the writers are different, it looks like it will be true to the originals. I will write up a full preview when I finish looking at all of the materials. Randy and Ray showed up in the middle of the demo (Cindy had to go home early Saturday morning). Ray and I then went next door to the Lucas Learning room and previewed a couple of nice educational titles for kids based on Star Wars characters, unfortunately not adventure games, though.
Pictures from the South Hall (where the big PC game companies were)
The barging-in and pretty-pleasing technique did not work so well over at Electronic Arts. They were showing all of their games out in the open except for one … the abominable American McGee’s Alice. Both Randy and I tried, on two separate occasions, to sweet-talk our way into the secret hidden room under the stairs, armed guard at the black door (hyperbole? only a little bit), where they were previewing it, but no go. I asked “why all the secrecy? what are you so afraid of?” and was given some song-and-dance about how only the international press got to see it at the E3 and we Americans just had to wait. Ironic, no? Especially considering the name of the developer of this travesty. Oops … I wonder if the real reason they wouldn’t show it to us is that we keep using words like “travesty” and “abomination” when we talk about the game on the site. (It just slipped out, I swear. I couldn’t help it.)
Out of the thousands of games being shown, there were only two that really excited me. (Remember, though, that I am the adventure purist in the lot. Randy, Cindy, and Ray all saw oodles of games that looked great to them, and I’m sure they will tell you about them in detail.) The first was Dracula Resurrection, being published in North America by DreamCatcher, and the second was Stupid Invaders, to be published by Ubi Soft.
Myst III: Exile, Monkey Island 4, and the new Nancy Drew game also looked very promising for the adventure purist, and I will play them and enjoy them when they come out, but I was slightly less excited because they all fall into the category of “more of the same.”
This is only a small portion of what we saw and did. All in all, the E3 was a feast for the eyes, hard on the ears, murder on the feet, just like Las Vegas. On the plus side, there was no smoking in the Convention Center; on the minus side, no slot machines to smoke at. On the plus side, plenty of games; on the minus side, not many I wanted to play. On the plus side, free; on the minus side, no money for hitting the jackpot. The best part for me was meeting my colleagues and spending time with them, the worst part was the gigantic Charlie horse I got in one of my legs.
I look forward to next year.
