Breakfast at the Galaxy

Well, that's a wrap.

It's hard to believe it's already over, but E3 2006 is now but a memory. Today was a much more laid back and easy-going day. We were able to just play some things that we missed and get some additional time with some of the titles we got glimpses of earlier.

The PS3 finally impressed me with Heavenly Sword. While at heart, it's basically a gorgeous version of God of War (or, gorgeouser), the moves are incredible and surprisingly fun to pull off. Oh, and it looks amazing as well.

Resistance was also a good bit of fun, despite the fact that I felt as though I was playing Call of Duty 2 with lizard men instead of Nazis. Lizard Nazis?

But I finally find myself agreeing with a statement made by Peter Moore: why buy a PS3 when you can get a 360 and a Wii for the exact same price? Is the PS3 really going to give you that much better of a technological experience than the 360? No. But what you will do by purchasing a PS3 is support Sony in their bid to win the home movie format wars, thus making them even more filthy rich. And that's my biggest problem here. I don't think it's necessary to shell out that kind of cash. I don't think the returns will justify the investment.

Plus, I don't like the Dual Shock. But that's neither here nor there.

My fourth trip to E3 has proven to be the best. I was thrilled by a product called "Wii". I was happily assured that my investment in a 360 was worth it. And I got to eat at the Bahooka. What more could I ask for.

I hope you've been enjoying our podcasts this week. Hilden and I had a great time cooping ourselves up in our room and making them. It's also made me very fond of our little community. We started this site as three friends wanting to fuck around and have a good time. I'm happy that we've spread our circle out and made some more friends in the process.

Until next year,
John

Spicy Meatball

Two down, one to go...

We were stiffed on both of our meetings today, which pretty much blows. It's only happened once before, but for both interviews to fall through on the same day is a pain in the ass. Let me make clear that we don't seek 1-on-1 time with publishers and developers. We get a few requests each year and decide which ones we feel will be worthwhile. Obviously, some guy from Hong Kong promoting a vinyl mouse cover isn't really going to be of interest to anybody. So we usually say, "Thanks but no thanks."

This will mark the second year in a row Konami contacted us for an interview and then blew us off when we showed up to meet them. "Sorry, you're not on the schedule. Can you come back later?" Uh...no. I think you'll sell enough copies of Metal Gear Solid 4 without some shit site like ours talking about it. Thanks anyway.

But the one that really sucked was Red Octane. It's important to stress that those guys have always been really cool to us, linking us on Guitar Hero's main page, sending us a poster signed by all the developers, etc. So I'm sure this was a simple mixup by their PR firm. But when we spend a month telling listeners that we've got some big Guitar Hero 2 scoop coming up and then to get shafted...well...it sucks. We understand we're small fries in a big vat (or something - you know what I mean), but dammit, keep your shit straight.

Sorry to rant, but it's been an incredibly frustrating day.

We did get to play Guitar Hero 2, however, and like the original, it kicks some incredible ass. We played War Pigs, You Really Got Me, and Psychobilly Freakout. Strutter, for some reason, was not available as promised. All three were fantastically fun, and the new co-op mode is as good as promised.

The other big winner of the day for me was Too Human. I've been off-and-on with this game. Coming from Silicon Knights was enough to pique my interest, but seeing it in action cooled me off. However, getting to play it was enough to guarantee a purchase. I love the futuristic setting and grand scope, but the elegant control scheme is truly the selling point. Nobody has ever made the analog stick attack scheme work (see: Grabbed by the Ghoulies), but Denis Dyack has achieved brilliance.

Controlling your sword with the analog stick works wonderfully and allows for some truly spectacular visuals. By facing left and tilting the R analog stick right, your character will to a crazy backwards sword thrust that looks like something straight out of an action/sci-fi flick. Very nicely done. And mapping the dual machine guns to the R and L triggers is also a nice touch as well. I've never felt so John Woo.

Beyond that, I must echo Joe's thoughts on the PS3. I'm incredibly bored by everything I played for it. It all just feels so slapped together and barely functional. Nothing I played felt like something that will be fully fleshed out by November. Adding to that is the feeling that I've played it a million times over. I don't see anything to counter Too Human or Mass Effect at the moment. Resistance looks cool, I suppose, but that's about it. Heavenly Sword? Pretty, yes. But I need more.

I hope you enjoyed our podcast last night. If you haven't listened to it, please give it a go. We talked in great length about Wii. Tonight, we'll be posting another show with some hands on impressions of titles for PSP, PS3, 360, and whatever else we can come up with. We'll have a third show Friday and a wrap-up show on Sunday.

Thanks for hanging out.

John

2 More Days of This?

Day one is finished and I'm effing exhausted. Let's face it: I'm getting old, out of shape, and not cut out for the rigors of this shit.

We spent nearly the entire day in the Nintendo booth. But let's hold off on that for the moment.

Today, I met Mizuguchi.

I know we all love Miyamoto, Wright, and all those guys. But of the "new generation", there is no one I admire more than Mizuguchi. Between games like Rez, Space Channel 5, Lumines, and now Every Extend Extra, this guy makes games that blow my fucking mind. And today, I got to tell him that.

Hilden and I were in the Buena Vista booth, finishing up with Lumines 2 and EEE, when I turned around and saw Mizuguchi checking the booth to make sure things were set up properly.

Let's stop right there.

The guy was actually adjusting PSPs and tidying up. How often do you see a AAA game designer even walk through his booth, let alone maintain it?

Anyway, I recognized him immediately and began frantically trying to get Hilden's attention. When Hilden finally noticed me pointing feverishly at the back of Mizuguchi's head, his eyes grew wide and he immediately reached for the camera.

Mizuguchi was genuinely appreciative of our praise. When I told him that I loved what I played of EEE, he said, "Really? That's great to hear. I hope it's a success." He then mugged for the camera, shook my hand up and down, and wished us well.

It was a great moment.

Oh, I also shook hands with the Regginator earlier in the day. I was waiting to play Mario Galaxy, turned around, and he was right behind me. He said, "Hey! How ya doing?", shook my hand, and walked away. No time for a photo-op, unfortunately.

So to the games...

Wii will change everything.

Let's first discuss the graphics. They are barely above GameCube level, and in some cases less than GameCube level. So get those ideas of a next-gen powerhouse out of your head now. It ain't hap'nin.

But it's fun. Incredibly fun. Mostly.

Red Steel was the biggest letdown. I'll buy it to have a decent, arcade-style FPS/light gun title, but that's about it. The swordplay animations are less than basic, allowing only diagonal and up-and-down swipes. The gunplay is confusing at times, but I'm sure that'll be taken care of with practice. The problem is that it's simply not intuitive; to me, at least. While I enjoyed the demo, I cursed myself for waiting 45 minutes to play the damn thing.

Super Mario Galaxy is brilliant and the best game I played all day. Listen to tonight's podcast for more on that.

But what I was most struck by were the simple demos and games that belonged to the Wii Sports package. Simple, yes. The animations are incredibly simplistic, but these games aren't aimed at graphics whores. They're aimed at the people I know will enjoy them: my wife, my sister, my non-gamer friends. These people are going to fucking love this shit.

Pizza's here. More later.

Listen to the show.

John

Mixed Bag

So the Microsoft conference is over and I'm pleasantly surprised at the information. Much of it is stuff we already knew or could have guessed: Pac-Man, Frogger, Paperboy, Lumines, et al, coming to the Arcade, trailers of Gears of War, Splinter Cell, and Halo 3, etc. But there were a few pleasant surprises. Contra is coming to the arcade and a sweet trailer of the sequel to my favorite Xbox game, Fable, was debuted in glorious fashion. In addition, tons of trailers and a few demos are already available on Xbox Live.

Daddy doesn't care much for Grand Theft Auto, so when Peter Moore once again showed his "guns" the news was just as flacid as the arm it was presented on.

But what I was struck by was how all of a sudden it seems to me that the Xbox 360 has nothing to worry about regarding the PS3; at least not in the US. The games look fucking great, and tomorrow I'm sure I'll be content with how they play.

So now it's time to get ready to jump on the plane, fly for four hours, sleep for fewer, and hit the show. Thanks for checking our modest little site. We'll do our best to get the info to you as soon as possible. If you have any requests for hands-on impressions, be sure to either post them in the forums or drop us an email. In the meantime, stay tuned for our nightly podcasts.

John

The Entertainer

The Entertainer

There’s something about Miyamoto and the magic he brings to a room. Maybe it’s that ginormous smile of his, I don’t know. Today, at Nintendo’s pre-E3 conference, it was his dancing. That crazy SOB. The moment the show started I knew I was going to be entertained. Out trots Miyamoto in a tuxedo as he proceeds to conduct a virtual orchestra through a rendition of the main Zelda theme.

There was a magic about today’s presentation that reminded me that games are best when they’re fun, even whimsical creations. Rather than showing me slides and Power Point Presentations, I saw the corporate execs from Nintendo play a simple game of tennis with the Wiimote, laughing as they flailed their arms in the air. I wasn’t exactly blown away by the show, but I did leave with a sense that these people enjoy making, promoting, and hyping their games.

I’m not so naïve as to not recognize a bit of rhetoric when I hear it. But the show wasn’t dipped in a big pile of corporate marketing BS, and for that I enjoyed it.

We saw Super Mario Galaxy, which looks as though Mario will be navigating around tiny planets, similar to those levels in the Ratchet and Clank series. We saw Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, which looked like…uh…Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Not a bad thing, I suppose, but not mind-bending. We saw ExciteTruck, for which I’ll reserve comment until tomorrow when I play it. Project HAMMER and Disaster both looked intriguing and very un-Nintendo. But I have to say out of all of these, I’m most excited for Wii Sports, a simplistic-looking collection of tennis, baseball, and golf designed specifically for the Wii remote. [Ok, aside from Zelda, I’m most looking forward to Wii Sports.] Why did that one attract me? Because playing it with my wife is going to be a fucking blast, as is showing it to me family and non-gamer friends. They’re going to love it, the same way they loved Brain Age and Guitar Hero.

Surprise! Games are fun.

But the show didn’t go without its letdowns. They said they were releasing “some” of the Wii secrets, and saving others for later. What happened to “we will know everything at E3?” Most notable in their absences were the price and date of release. Although Reggie did say that Wii would provide “much more fun at much less cost”. Encouraging, I suppose.

More after MS’s conference…

John

Fantastic Innovation

Whoo, now that was hard to listen to with a straight face. Phil Harrison, my man, I commend you for whipping out that Dual Shock, demonstrating it's WarioWare: Twisted functionality, and calling it a "fantastic innovation"...twice.

I was a tad underwhelmed with Sony's conference, in general, but I'm sure that'll change once I actually get my hands on some of those games on Wednesday. Footage never does a damn thing for me, so while the cut-scenes culled from these games sure looked purdy, I want to see them in action and find out how they play firsthand. That will come Wednesday morning.

In the meantime, Hilden, Joe, and myself will be flying out to LA. Phil will be taking care of news and screenshot posting while you wait for the show to start. The podcasts will come Wed, Thurs, and Fri nights.

I hope you enjoy the week. I know we will.

John


Thursday, 6:50pm: Crackdown, Table Tennis, Prey

Some more 360 stuff here. (Interesting side note: I'm sitting on the bus next to Todd Howard of Bethesda. He's the goofy looking guy on the Making Of video, and also the guy that demonstrated it for us last year.)

Rockstar's Table Tennis: I actually preordered this one, but I'm going to cancel. The gameplay is fast and fun, but it feels really limited. It plays almost like Virtua Tennis or something, except the court is so small there isn't much room to do anything. I'm hoping I'm missing a hidden layer of depth somewhere. The graphics were certainly nice, though.

Prey: I didn't see any single player stuff, but got my hands on a 4 (only four?) player deathmatch. It plays more like Unreal Tournament than say, Halo, which is a good thing in my eyes. The action moves at a fast pace and it's very vertical. The magnetic strips all over the place allow you to walk up onto the ceiling or walls and aim at your grounded foes. The weapons all had an extra function or two, and they pretty creatively designed. There's an acid gun that behaves mostly like a shotgun, except it can also launch a grenade-style glob of the stuff. It was fun, but I think the real draw of this one will be the solo game, which I couldn't play.

Crackdown, on the other hand, has a lot of potential. The actual gameplay mechanics at this point feel kind of rough, but the gameplay is so completely open that I had fun with it regardless. I had a chance to do a co-op mission (which are all the solo game missions, with two players) with one of the developers. Our goal was to take down some crime boss, but there were several routes to take. For starters, my partner and I drove big trailer trucks through his gates and up to the buildings he was in. At this point I tried to scale the buildings with my 2 or 3 story jumps, but ended up getting blown up and fell in the water. From there I swam around the island and attacked from behind while the other guy attacked the front.

The gunplay feels sort of weak, probably because the enemies take so many hits to bring down. It's also not terribly impressive graphically, although I like the style they're going for. It's almost a comic-book kind of look, but not quite. Cel-shading with real textures, maybe? It's different, but almost looks "off" somehow. Still, I'm pretty sure this one will end up being something special.

That wraps up day 2 for me. Tomorrow I'm going to check out Gears of War and maybe wait in the Wii line again. It'd be nice to try Metroid and Zelda.

Thursday, 3:08pm: Two from Capcom

I got my hands on two of Capcom's upcoming 360 titles and came away pretty impressed by both.

Lost Planet seems like a fairly standard 3rd person shooter with some mech elements. Apparently there's a demo on Live Marketplace now, so hop online and snag it. Although the action is a little slower than I might like, control is tight and there were some mighty impressive explosion effects at work. I'm not sure if there would be enough variety to keep things fresh throughout a whole game, but for now, this is on my list to watch.

Dead Rising, on the other hand, I am completely enthralled with. The photo-taking for experience points is fun, and gives a sense of purpose to the goings-on. I didn't pay much attention to the story, as E3 isn't really the place for that kind of thing, but the action is interesting. Taking the zombies down with your gun is simple, but I ran out of ammo quickly and had to resort to other weapons. Snagging just about anything from the environment is fun, but most of the stuff I could find was kind of useless. A park bench swings really slowly and seemingly kills in one hit, but the recovery time is so long you'll get struck by another zombie by the time you can swing again. You can, however, throw anything you pick up, and that works much better. At one point I found a soccer ball and kicked it into a whole group of them, only to have the zombies get flung all over the place as the ball bounced between them. There's a lot of potential for this extremely interesting game. I do hope they take care of the dreadful loading times, though.

Thursday, 1:09pm: PlayStation3

I played and saw some PlayStation3 stuff today. I have to say that overall I wasn't too impressed. A lot of the games look like the same old crap we've been playing, but perhaps that's only because I saw Wii first. The controller felt pretty much the same as the Dual Shock 2, so it looks like business as usual over at Sony.

One PS3 game did really impress, though, and that's Resistance: Fall of Man. I played two levels - indoor and outdoor. Indoor felt like a good corridor shooter with a lot of atmosphere. Think Doom 3 or Quake 4. Outside felt like Call of Duty 2. Honestly, there wasn't anything going on that I hadn't seen before, but the visuals were great and the action was tight. This will be enough for me to get a PS3. I didn't have a chance to try multiplayer, but I'd love to see how that plays.

Also for PS3 is the seemingly impressive Final Fantasy 13. I guess there's 3 versions of it, but the video for the "main" game looked great. I'm not a Square fan by any means, but the characters look interesting and, for once, the combat does as well. It looked almost like Grandia or something. Sadly, the in-game stuff was brief, so it was hard to figure out exactly how combat works. If Square put together a Final Fantasy storyline with a Grandia-esque (ie, fun) combat engine, I'd definitely be picking that one up.


Oh, and Chulip is coming to the US this October!


Wednesday, 7:10pm: Hey! Fight! Cheer Squad!

Imagine my surprise when I discovered Oeundan, my all-time favorite DS game, was coming to the States. Only... it's not. Elite Beat Agents is, I guess, a sequel. Or, at the very least, a total remake. I asked the girl working the DS area, but she didn't know it was a Japanese game to begin with. Anyway, this bastardized version of the game features 3 singing CIA agents instead of Japanese cheerleaders.

The whole game has a Pat Boone-ish quality to it. In one level, a football player is hanging out at the house where his girlfriend is babysitting. Before they can fool around, she needs to get the kids to sleep, so the CIA busts in to help. Gameplay-wise, this is Ouendan alright, but... It just lacks all of the character that made the original so great. It would be like an American remake of Katamari Damacy, except instead of the King of all Cosmos and a katamari, it's Burt the foreman and a bulldozer. Not really the same, is it?

It was exceedingly difficult to hear the music, but all I can say is that I thought it was bad. It was definitely american (or, at least, the words were in english) and it sounded almost like a bad Ozzy cover or something.

As much as I like Oeundan, I doubt very much I'll pick up this Pat Boone version.

Wednesday, 7:01pm: We have a Wiinner!

So, I've played with Wii. I messed around with probably a dozen games for the thing. What do I think?

I think we have a winner.

I am 100% won over by Nintendo's Wii showing. The concepts of game design shown on the floor are really exciting, but what is even more exciting is what else could be coming. I felt this way with the DS, too. "What could creative developers do with this? Wow!" But with Wii, not only am I pondering the future, Nintendo made the smart move by showing some exciting games that weren't just tech demos. Mario, Zelda, Metroid... What a trio of launch games that could be, huh?

There are only a few things I don't like. The controller, both the remote and Nunchuk, feel really light and almost kind of cheap. The rumble on the remote is also pretty weak: I was hoping for some major force feedback. Wouldn't it be cool if when, say, parrying someone's sword in Red Steel, there was a single huge tremor in the remote? Maybe they can tweak that. There's also the fact that a lot of the games being shown are completely unimpressive visually. Red Steel, Wii Sports, Excite Truck and others look like GameCube games. True, some games do look really great - Mario, Zelda and Metroid. But, then again, maybe Nintendo is right that graphics don't matter anymore.

All in all, I'd say Nintendo has done something pretty damn amazing. I spent 6 hours in Nintendo's booth today. If that's not amazing, I don't know what is.

Wednesday, 6:46pm - The final batch of Wii games

Project H.A.M.M.E.R. was one of Nintendo's new franchies for the show, and even though it looks pretty dorky, it has potential. In this one, your Wiimote becomes a giant hammer. By holding A and swinging the Wiimote, you can do a few different strikes with it. Point it up, then hold it there for a few moments before crashing it down and your character does a big power slam. Or, swing it in a circle for a spin attack. The action was pretty basic, but I had a lot of fun with it. I wonder, though, if when the magic of Wii's new controller wears off a little, if games like Project H.A.M.M.E.R. will prove to be too simple. Of course, there's always the fact that it doesn't do anything that couldn't be duplicated with an analog stick. At least, that was the case in the demo.

Sonic Wild Fire surprised me. Seeing as there hasn't been a good Sonic game in so very very long, I wasn't expecting anything here. I wonder if Yuji Naka was involved in this project before leaving Sega? Could it be Naka that was destroying the Sonic franchise? Hmm. Wild Fire's single level demo shows a lot of promise, despite it being early in development. The level is almost like a race, although with no other racers. The camera is very low to the ground and helps build up an incredible sense of speed. Sonic is on rails, although you can steer him left and right on the path by tilting the Wiimote (only the A button and tilting is used). The button makes Sonic jump, and shaking the remote causes him to either dash or homing-attack an enemy. There are a fair amount of weird little issues here and there, and the control could be tightened up a notch or two, but I think this is actually one to watch.

Zelda: Twilight Princess and Metroid Prime 3 were both playable on the show floor, but the lines were truly epic. I was looking at an hour wait for each one, so I said forget it. Watching others play, they both seemed to match my expectations. I did really want to try Metroid and see how the Wii can do a shooter, but I guess my time with Red Steel has shown me that it can be done.

Super Mario Galaxy: So far, this is my game of show. It felt a lot like Mario Sunshine (minus the waterpack), but there are obviously some new control options. It's played in Nunchuk style, with the analog moving Mario and the Wiimote doing a wide variety of things. Giving the remote a quick spin causes Mario to spin, for example. You can also use it to pick up items, flip over goombas and activiate catapults. Control was tight, even though I'm still getting used to playing with Wii.

My only concern about Galaxy is the theme. In the demo level, there wasn't really a free 3D land to walk around in. Sure, it's 3D and everything, but it almost had a Windwaker Island thing going on. The level consisted of a bunch of tiny planets, and Mario would hop from one to the next. Each planet had its own gravity and such, so you'd have to find little rocket stars to blast you to the next one. That's cool and all, but I do hope the final game will feature mostly the open-world sort of levels the series is known for.

Wednesday, 11:57am: Red Steel, Tony Hawk

Red Steel is what I expected it to be: a bad game that everyone wants to play just because it's an FPS with the Wii controller. Moving with the Nunchuk and aiming with the Wiimote is pretty intuitive, and I have a feeling that with practice, it could become ideal. The sensitivity is way down on this one, so turning and aiming is really slow. In addition, I found it pretty tough to do things like circle-strafe. Instead, I mostly manuevered into a decent position and then held still while I fired. The gunplay itself is okay; if this was being played with a standard controller, I wouldn't give this game a second look. Enemies seem braindead, and the actual raw gameplay is pretty bland.

But it's on Wii, so it's worth looking at just to try the controller for an FPS.

The swordplay isn't too exciting either. At least, for the demo, players are limited to just a couple basic slashes (no stabs or anything) and a parry/block move. Admittedly, parrying with your left hand and then slashing with your right feels very immersive, and I can't wait for a developer to come along and do a proper sword-fighting game for the Wii. Or, if we're lucky, more development time will turn Red Steel into the good game that it could potentially be.

Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam: I was excited by the video of this, since it looked a bit like Wakeboarding Unleashed (a game I enjoy more than the Hawk series), but it's really just an SSX clone. I played two modes: Race and Trick(?). Race was just a simple downhill race with a big of Hawk elements thrown in. You can grind on stuff and trick to gain boost, which is activated by shaking the controller. It controls like a steering wheel, but felt kind of awkward. I'd like to spend more time with it, though; hopefully it will be an Activision's booth too.

Although, I may end up coming back to Wii on Day 3 just to play stuff I missed. There is a *lot* of stuff in the Wii booth. I've been here 3 hours already, counting the hour or so wait to get in.

Wednesday, 11:12am: Wiiiiiiii!

Wii is incredible.

It's incredible on a technology level, but more importantly, it is incredible on a gameplay level.

I've only had a chance to touch a few games so far, and some of those were just tech demos. The line for any of the big games is pretty lengthy, and the demos for some (Metroid...) seem to take a good 15 minutes to run through. I stood at Metroid for about half an hour, but just gave up and moved on. Hopefully I can get my hands on it later, but I'm not wasting 2 hours to do so.

Wii Shooting Tech Demo: This was a quick little demo based on Duck Hunt. It's pretty much Duck Hunt with the Wiimote, and it basically just shows off how sensitive the thing is. Just moving the Wiimote a couple inches shoots it all the way across the screen. It was kind of tricky to aim, but like using analog stick for the first time, I suspect it will take time to learn.

Wii Sports: Tennis: Eh... It's really simplistic. Your player moves himself and all you need to swing the remote like a racket to return the ball. I was hoping my hand motions would literally translate to my character onscreen, but instead it seemed to analyze my movements and then decide which animation/hit to use. That's too bad.

Excite Truck: I was really surprised by this one. I'm surprised it exists, but I'm even more surprised that it's fun. Holding the Wiimote as a steering wheel actually worked amazingly well, which is not what I was expecting. The game reminds me a bit of Four Wheel Thunder, if anyone remembers that one. Hitting ? icons cause a ramp to form up in front of you, and getting air is a good way to score boost. In the air, you control the pitch of your truck to land on all four wheels. I seemed okay at this, but it sometimes felt like I had no control over it. I'm sure this is a result of game design, as the tilt functions in Wario Ware and others felt perfect.

WarioWare Smooth Moves: So far, this is the coolest game I've played at the show. I ran through about 10 microgames in the demo. To lift weights, you literally hold the controller in one hand and make weight-lifting motions. In one, you have to move dentures into position in front of someone's mouth and then move the Wiimote towards the screen to insert them. Another had me put my hands at my hips, Wiimote in hand, and do the hula. More than anything else I've seen so far, WarioWare shows off all the potential for this new way of playing.

Wednesday, 9:43am: Charles Martinet

As he's done in some years past, Mr. Martinet (voice of Mario and crew) is doing some in-line entertainment via video wall. I had a quick chat with him, and he mentioned that there are 100 Wii kiosks waiting for me at the end of this epic line. Niiice.

I hope they give me enough time to really play, though.

Wednesday, 9:04am: Waiting for Wii

Well, I'm in...

And now I'm standing in line for Wii. Learning from past years, I'm doing the "Nintendo line" immediately. It looks long now, but it's only going to get longer. I passed a "1 hour wait from here" sign, but I still had to walk a long way further...

Wednesday, 8:55am: 5 minutes!

The door opens for media in just five minutes. I arrived fairly early, but there was no shortage of Mario Kart DS games, so it's been a lot of fun already.

...

And now it is time for Wii.

Tuesday, 8:51pm: Arrival in LA

Well, E3 2006 is officially here. I'm in the cab on the way to our hotel now, so I thought I'd bang out some quick thoughts on the big three press conferences. Unfortunately, the only one I was able to watch was Nintendo's, so I can only base the rest on the summaries I've read.

Sony: Motion-sensing controller, eh? That's some fantastic innovation. Well, as John pointed out on the forums, this Dual Shock 3 definitely seems pretty low tech compared to the Wiimote, at least based upon what we've all seen of both. I suppose major judgements are best left until tomorrow. As for that price tag? Well, I'm not sure why anyone ever expected otherwise. I'll buy a machine regardless, because I'm that kind of fool, but I suspect the general public might have a little trouble with that price. Time will tell.

Microsoft: There wasn't really anything here that I have much to say about, given that I couldn't see the supposedly amazing Gears of War video. I'm sort of worried that Gears of War will be the next Brute Force, so I'm glad to hear evidence to the contrary. I'm very excited about the announced arcade games, and the implementation of Live between Xbox, PC and mobile platforms is interesting (but doesn't apply to me personally in any way). The Grand Theft Auto news was certainly unexpected...

Nintendo: Is it too early to declare Nintendo the winner? Based on what I saw today, Wii is absolutely amazing. The technology at work there, and the implementation of it, is astounding. Watching the Red Steel demo, it really looked like both the player's hands were in the game. As always, Nintendo's booth will be my first stop at the show, but I can't recall a time I've ever been more excited to be there (except, perhaps, my first E3). The news of Zelda becoming a Wii (and, also, still a GameCube) title makes me very happy. Releasing it on the Cube means they keep their promise that it is indeed a Cube game, but those of us upgrading to a Wii will get the enhanced game.

If there's a complaint about Wii, it would have to be the visuals. A lot of those games would fail to impress if they were on GameCube. As I thought this, though, I realized that maybe Nintendo is right: visuals don't really matter anymore. This is about a whole new way to play video games, and for once, I'm 100% behind them. All the games they showed looked like a blast, but the thing that gets me most is I was thinking, "Hey, I bet my roommate (a nongamer) would want to try that." And my girlfriend. And my mom. Wii really could be a game system for everyone.

Lots of hands-on impressions tomorrow.


Leaving LA

It's a hard show to leave behind this year for a couple of reasons, and only one of them you care about.

The show was the best E3 by far. All new systems and developers really starting to push the envelope of what games are and what they can be. With the Wii's innovation looming large on the scene I can't help but be excited.

In fact, my wife asked me what I was most excited about and all I could really answer her was...Wii. The PS3 and 360 stuff was all very good looking but it was really the next gen of stuff we've played over and over. While the Wii wasnt' really up to graphical par, and the games were simple I still mangaed to come away very excited.

It's hard to leave that kind of energy behind. E3 is a wonderful experience simply for feeling the energy of the industry around you at every turn. It's also hard to leave some of those traditions that do every year. Breakfast at the Galaxy will have to wait for another year, but I've saved my Show Dailies in case I want to relive them.

I also want to mention and thank my brother and his wife for letting us stay with him this year. It's a true joy to be able to come home to a place that is not a hotel after a long day. And to stay with family is second to none. They were kind, gererous, open and helped make it the best E3 for Team Fremont yet. As always, it's hard to leave when you have such great family and I look forward to seeing them again. Thank, Justin and Autum! See you soon.

And the rest of you, stay tuned for more stuff from E3 that we'll be putting up after the fact. With that, I'm out. Here's to E3 2006.

-Hilden

West of Paris

So, it was the day of stars here at E3. Paris Hilton came to show off her new game Jewel Jam. And the gaming world will never be the same. We made some comments on that little news story that were neither subtle or untrue. You can see a comic about it here.

We also had the Mayor himself, Adam West, join us at the 2K booth. Let me tell you, it was a seminal event. I wish I could have been there in total, but we were busy getting a dick in the ass from the third party PR firm that set up our RedOctane booth tour. Quite a day.

This day was dedicated to taking on some of the games that we missed due to the massive amount of time we spent with the Wii. While we played a decent amount of great games, it really seemed to be a bit more of the same. I'm happy I'm seeing some better graphics on the 360. Some of those games are truly looking next gen. However, while the PS3 graphics really hit home for me, the gameplay is boring and dull for most of them. I know it's early and they haven't had dev kits that long, launch isn't that far away. Seriously, is this what we'll be getting in November? And for $600? I think I might wait a bit on this console.

I'm also pretty happy with the PSP showing this year. While I'm not all that thrilled with all the games, at least there was a solid commitment by Sony regarding their handheld. After last year they needed to give it some support at the show. So, with downloadable content, lots of games and a true section of their booth dedicated to the system, things are looking up.
However, it still doesn't top the splash the DS made last year. Guess we can't have everything.

We've talked about our show on the latest episode of TFL, so don't forget to check it out. Also, don't forget to contact us with anything you want to see on the show floor.

-Hilden

Day of the Wii

So, I'm sitting here at the late end of a very long day. Normaly, at this time, I'd be just getting over the shell shock of my first day at one of the loudest, brightest senory overload experiences of my life. However, tonight, I'm feeling focused and ready to go.

Why is that, you might ask? It's because I really didn't witness much of the senroy overload rooms this year on day 1. With all the insantiy, with all the madness, I found myself sitting in one booth almost the entire day.

Nintendo managed to hold a group of us in one spot in the middle of a whole convention center filled with new games that everyone wants to see and play. It makes in hard on the journalist when something so neat holds you at the expense of all else. I wasn't the only one. I heard more than a few captains of gaming websites yelling at their soldiers the fact that they weren't there just to cover the Wii.

And this may just be the way of things for Nintendo. Making it hard for the gaming faithful and new alike to concentrate on the fact that the high powered graphic games are out there when all they want is good gameplay. And on that Wii delivers. Well, it delivers on the potential for good gameplay. The parts are all there and it's exciting to see and touch them. But more than ever, I see that it's the game developers who will make or break this inventive system.

Maybe it's a good thing that Nintendo does most of the great games in this new age of innovation. If the brief glimpses of the rest of the party have anything to say on the subject, we'll need them at their creative best.

More on the morrow.

-Hilden

Arrogant Insanity

Ken Katarugi can go fuck himself. You heard me. A year ago, at this same time, I was all a-twitter at what potential the PS3 had. Now, I can't believe the sheer amount of arrogance that Sony is throwing around right now. Specifically out of the mouth of Katarugi.

Hey, John has his J Allard, I've got my Ken. Fuck them both.

When you price your console a good $200 above what we were all screaming about when the 360 launched, you really should temper your statments a bit and maybe help take the edge off. Instead, we get this rich bastard telling us it's too cheap and we should pay more. The same guy who tells us a defective button on a handheld is fine art. Nice job.

We also have, by the way, a lame ass attempt at ripping off the latest in controller hype and trying to shove it into a dual shock. While at the same time calling it an innovation. Twice.

Have we gone insane? Are we so crazy that we'll allow this kind of thing to go on and on? Does this new PS3 somehow fill my car with gas? Does it help pay my rent? How about heal the world of cancer? No? Well, then maybe we shouldn't price things as if it's Jesus Christ with an HDMI output. I may want some of the games, but damn it, a line has to be drawn at some point.

Maybe now's the time.

-Hilden