Team Fremont.com-E3 2005 Wrapup Review

E3 2005 Wrapup

This is it. Our last E3 feature for the year. We promise! But how could we let E3 go by without picking our highlights and lowlights?

There's no science to this process. As is the case every year, we've kept these "awards" informal and loose. Enjoy!

John

Game of Show (Other Than Zelda): If you people knew how long I’ve spent agonizing over this decision, you’d never believe it. I’ve actually lost sleep thinking about this. I say “Other Than Zelda” simply because that game seems like a given. In fact, it was really the only “blockbuster” game to be shown at E3, and what we played didn’t showcase the game very well. I was left with four titles. Bethesda let us in for a special screening of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, running on a PC. Doing so, they demonstrated just how real this next generation hype is. The lighting, the physics, the incredible schedules of the NPCs all proved to me that the time is upon us to upgrade our equipment. However, we were not able to actually play the game, and I’ve decided that only playable games are eligible for my pick.

Next up was the so-called “New Super Mario Bros.” for the DS. The game was great fun, and looked fantastic running on the DS. I played through three complete levels and all displayed the same fun I’ve come to expect from a Mario game. But while it presented many new additions to the series, it was still a Mario game, and therefore not revolutionary.

Capcom’s Okami sure is a brilliant title and I’m sure it’ll be high on my list of top games of 2005. From the Wind Waker-esque visuals, to the cool twist of being a dog, it certainly impressed the hell out of me. But the demo I played didn’t have a lot of meat to it. There were certainly cool elements, but much of it was spent running around, charging into things with my doggy snout. Again, the end product will no doubt be brilliant, but Okami just didn’t have “it” for me.

Which brings me to my final choice. There was one game at E3 that left me with a feeling of awe and provided an almost new and unique experience. The moment I began climbing up a mountain-sized giant, I knew the creators of Ico had done it again with Shadow of the Colossus. The game shares many of the same visual elements as Ico, but the Colossi certainly add an incredible sense of wonder. After playing the demo and defeating the beast, I watched the teaser trailer that followed and caught a glimpse of a few of the other monstrosities that I would encounter later in the game. So with that, my choice is Shadow of the Colossus for the PlayStation 2.

Disappointment(s): No doubt, the biggest disappointment was getting to E3 and discovering that The Big Cheese was nowhere to be found. You’ve probably heard of this legendary grilled cheese stand that resided both in Kentia Hall and just outside the convention center. We searched high and low this year, but had no luck finding our favorite food stand of the show. Instead, we were forced to eat overpriced burgers and pizzas from the convention center’s jam-packed cafeterias.

Beyond that, I was mostly disappointed in the lack of real next generation substance. Microsoft was the only company who showed anything beyond smoke and mirrors, and honestly, what they showed was somewhat lacking. Shovelware Xbox titles dominated their booth, while 360 games were demonstrated by Microsoft reps. To get any hands-on time with the 360, you had to head on over to a third party booth to find one of their kiosks. Oh, and Perfect Dark Zero was only shown behind closed doors. Nice.

Sony’s presentation was great and all, and I’m really excited to see if they can deliver on what they’re promising. But after going through the “emotion engine” era, I’m not going to get too excited. Furthermore, the one game that looked to be shown as in-game footage (the Ubisoft shooter) was revealed to be pre-rendered. And that controller…what the hell? Furthermore, their lack of PSP support, and failure to even mention it at their press conference beyond how it will interact with the PS3 was a little disconcerting.

And then there was Nintendo’s Revolution. Wow, that sure is a nice, shiny black box you’ve got there. So what can it do? You can’t tell us? Oh, ok. Then shut up. You’re wasting our time.

Finally, as I mentioned above, there was no real standout title at this year’s E3 that made me take notice. There’s usually one or two blockbuster, must-have, genre-defining games, and this year saw a lot of solid titles, but nothing spectacular.

Console of Show: With all the next generation hype and hoopla, I find myself more surprised than anyone to be saying that the Nintendo DS had the best showing out of all the consoles, home or handheld, of E3. It really was no contest. Between Viewtiful Joe, New Super Mario, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, Electroplankton, Nintendogs, Meteos, and Lost in Blue, I dare you to find a better lineup of games. Again, I’m probably more than surprised as anyone since I had to blow off an inch of dust from my DS before taking it to E3. In fact, I’ve still got my DS in sleep mode so I can enjoy my downloaded level of Electroplankton. Why not? I don’t have anything else for it worth playing!

Best Booth (Third Party): I generally don’t give this award to first parties because their’s are so bloated and monstrous, and usually contain scads of third party games anyway. So of all the booths I visited, Capcom’s truly blew me away. They’ve actually made a good, solid, enjoyable brawler with Final Fight: Streetwise, Okami looks to be a masterpiece when it’s released, and games like Darkwatch and the aforementioned Viewtiful Joe DS are great. I gave this award to SquareEnix last year, but found them to be virtually useless this year. They didn’t even have playable units of Final Fantasy XII, which blew me away last year. UbiSoft, which is usually one of the stronger third parties at the show, barely made an impression on me with their giant King Kong display (showing off a single screenshot) and little else. And can somebody tell me why Tecmo even has a booth? Instead of playable games, they just run footage behind a stage full of booth babes.

Most Pathetic Display: Poor, poor Nokia. The electronics giant just looks sad at E3. It wouldn’t be so bad if their booth wasn’t so huge. I mean, if they could shrink it down, it wouldn’t look like a barren wasteland with only a handful of people strolling around. The stench of desperation could be smelled all the way from Microsoft’s booth. Nokia reps were like bad carnival workers and their booth babes were less than on par. This picture I snapped from a distance pretty much says it all.

Winner!: This one is a tough call, until you look at the games. Of the first parties, I was really expecting the most out of Microsoft. I wanted to love the Xbox 360 and I’m sure I will with time. But what I wanted to do at E3 was to get my hands on a handful of the games, get a feel for what they’d be like, and convince myself that the next generation is now! But they really let me down quickly. In fact, I didn’t even venture into their booth after the first day.

However, Nintendo with the DS and Sony with the PS2 really had some great games on their hands. However, I have to give the edge to Sony who not only had a number of great titles lined up for the PS2, but also divulged a great deal of information about the PS3. Nintendo, on the other hand, felt like their GameCube was running on fumes, with only Zelda and a handful of random Mario-branded titles to keep them busy. Furthermore, we know only slightly more now about the Revolution than we did before E3. And as ugly as I think that PS3 is (and boy do I think it’s ugly), at least we had some sort of idea of what maybe, possibly, kinda, sorta, could be done with it. And like I said, their PS2 lineup was solid and exciting. From Okami to Shadow of the Colossus to Final Fight to Genji, and yes, to Chulip, I can’t wait to get my hands on these games. So yes, of the three big first parties, my choice goes to Sony.

Hilden

Game of Show I hate to do this to you, but as far as I'm concerned, there is no game of show. Nothing that stood out from the rest in a way the blew my mind. Nothing that I will be talking about for months and years the way I did with the first Prince of Persia or a Viewtiful Joe.

So, I will pick the best games I played from each of the big three and let that stand as my testiment to the great games I played at E3. These are ranked in no particular order.

Best Nintendo Game: I'm going with the obvious choice of Zelda here. Not because what I got my hands on was anything revolutionary. Granted, the graphics are great and the more 'adult' nature of the game is nice. However, it's still feels like the same game I've been playing since Ocarina only with more graphical polish and horse combat. I'm not complaining, as I love each and every Zelda game. And that's why it get's best Nintendo game. Because I know that when I pop it into my dusty GameCube, it'll have some of the best moments I've ever had on that system, much like Wind Waker before it.

Best Sony Game: Shadow of Colossus gets my vote. Although it had some very strong competion in games such as Getting Up, Soul Calibur 3 and Castlevania: Curse of Darkeness.

However, the look, feel and scope of Shadow really makes you feel as though you're there. When you climb over a hill and you see the collosus in the misty valley, you'll feel a sense of awe. I haven't felt that in a long, long time with a game. The look, feel and control of this game is really a gaming fans delight. The only thing keeping it from being Game of Show is the fact that the gameplay is pretty much the same throughout with very little variation.

Best Microsoft Game: This one was tough. There were plenty of fantastic games that I looked at, but they were all being demonstrated by some Microsoft employee. What I really wanted to do was get my hands on some of them. Such was not the case. While Call of Duty 2 was a great looking next gen title on the 360, it didn't differ in the gameplay enough to be considered best game.

What I did get to play, however, was Starcraft: Ghost. Yeah, I know. It's been at the show three times already and each year it's different. Well, this year, it's the most solid it's been in years and I loved it. Great looking, great to control and best of all, focused. No more of this 'almost a stealth game, almost an action game' feeling. Now, it's all pure action with some great multiplayer thrown in for good measure.

In a year where Microsoft was in-between consoles, this game made you happy you own an Xbox and did a good job of making you forget the next gen was ever on its way.

Biggest Dissapointment: Yeah, I'm going to echo John on the lack of Grilled Cheese this year. Or missing out on my first day breakfast at the Galaxy due to power outage. I'm also disappointed I didn't get to see Sonny Uppal thrown out on his ear.

I know I should be disappointed in the lack of next generation titles on the show floor, but the cynical side of me knew we wouldn't really be playing them this year anyway.

The biggest downer of all, for me, was the complete lack of PSP support shown by Sony. Sure, you had a few good games like SOCOM and Burnout: Legends. Even Medievil was good. But there was nothing that screamed that this was the system to beat in the next year. Nothing huge or exciting, nothing revolutionary or even creavtive. Just a bunch of console clones that I really wasn't that interested in.

Where is my downloadable content? Where is my commitment to WiFi? How about a web-browser or even a hint that it exists? Over at Nintendo, those DS folks were downloading complete demos of GAMES and trailers of upcoming games. What did I get when I popped on the WiFi switch on my PSP? Nothing. And that seems like it's exactly what I'll be getting for the next year. Very disappointing.

Loudest Booth: Those bastards at the Guild War booth had some damn band that sounded like a truck drove through the convention center and started raping the cement floor. Yeah, the pyro and flaming hands thing was nice, but for crying out loud. I like my hearing and standing in line next to that crap is enough to make a non postal worker reach for the rifle and a tower.

Console of Show: John nailed it with the DS. I was in shock at the demonstration of commitment Nintendo brought to the show. They are completely focused on making creative, innovative new games on a platform that can deliver just that. With online support not just shown, but demonstrated, the DS had a banner show.

Let's now forget all the great games we'll be playing in Super Mario Bros., Animal Crossing DS, Mario Kart DS and Viewtiful Joe DS. A great time for a great system and all my fears about Nintendo's crazy ideas have been laid to rest. Well...most of them.

Best Booth: I've given this to UbiSoft for the last two years and I desperatly wanted to give it to them again. Alas, I cannot. They didn't have anything that blew me away this year. Even their booth babes weren't up to their ususal standards. Must have been a tight year after the purchase of the King Kong license.

However, Capcom really made a strong showing with a host of great games and innovative titles. Okami alone was one of the most unique games of the show. Add Viewtiful Joe DS to the mix and you have some awesome, interesting, creative games that I can't wait to play. Capcom is really commited to somthing good and they showed us that this year. Kudos to you. Now get some hot babes and you'll seal the deal every year.

Biggest Geek Moment: Seeing and getting an autograph from comic author Brian Michael Bendis. Yeah, so I like Daredevil. What's your point?

Booth That Left Me Cold (Other Than Nokia): A couple of them fit the bill here. Square Enix. While you did give us another Dragons Quest, you had NOTHING with the Final Fantasy name on it. What the hell? It was at last years show and we could use an update. Also, Microsoft. I love that you're the first to launch a next gen system, but when you do, let us in on it. Four next gen games isn't enough to usher in the next generation and some of your best games were behind closed doors. Thanks for that, but you're not giving us the impression you know what you're doing or that the timeline you've set for yourself is feasable.

Most Arrogant Booth: Without a doubt, Rockstar Games. No one was allowed into their booth that didn't have an appointment. The whole damn booth was enclosed in a fence/gate. It's called an Expo, guys. It's where you show off your shit. If you're going to have a gigantic booth with six full size BUSES as your rooms than you may want to let the world in to see your stuff. But, instead you went and made it all exclusive therefore giving us the impression that you're all arrogant wankers. Leave the EA crap to the idiots at EA.

Winner!: I really want to give it to Sony, but I just can't. The PS3 was big news, but only a concept as far as I saw. The PS2 had a fantastic collection of new games that made me hungry for the system again. But the complete lack of PSP support was a serious blow for me and I just can't get passed it. It just seems like they're missing the boat.

I have to give this one to Nintendo. Not just solid DS support but INCREDIBLE DS support. Online commitment, killer titles and for the first time a fully fleshed out demonstration of what the handheld can do.

Add to that a great lineup of Cube titles in Zelda, Geist and Killer 7. Add Mario Soccer and Mario Baseball and it's a great year for Nintendo fans. It's easy to overlook these Cube games as we played them all on the Road to E3 tour, but you can't deny that Nintendo is coming on strong this year, revolution or no.

Phil

So I wasn’t physically there at the E3 show this year so I won’t be giving an opinion on playable stuff which may mean that my view of things is somewhat different to that of the other guys. So this was supposedly THE big E3, the one where all the new consoles would be there gloves off and brining on the start of the Next-Gen wars. This was supposed to be one of those E3 shows that only happens every 5 or so years, but for some reason it just wasn’t close to the hype. I think Microsoft truly blew their load before the show with the whole MTV unveiling and with various “leaks” leading up to the show. As a result the only thing they could really do to try and keep Xbox 360 ahead of the competition would have been to have loads of playable demo’s out there so the press could get a chance to really get to see what the new console is all about and way before the competition could even hope to catch up. For some reason, even though 360 will apparently launch in November this year, they don’t have finalised chipsets that are even close to the spec of the final console… which just seems very wrong to me. If they still only have alpha units running at 30% then I guess they are really struggling to meet the timescale for that magical pre-Christmas release date. More importantly, there should have been no reason what-so ever at this point that the console wasn’t fully playable at the show especially when the PS3 is launching much later and Sony are giving us just as much info about it.

To add to Microsoft’s lack of 360 support, I’d also like to comment on the lack of Perfect Dark and Kameo at the show. To me this is crazy as I know that Perfect Dark was at the show behind closed doors and apparently amazing and not like the crappy screens, but if that’s the case, show it off let us all see it and certainly don’t hide it. If they want the console to garner support Microsoft need to show confidence in the console and games. I mean come on, they let a bunch of so called “celebs” play the game so why not the actual gaming press? And Kameo has no excuse, it has been playable on various formats every year for the last five shows. Again this suggests to me a great lack of confidence on Microsoft’s part. One final round of bitching on Microsoft’s part; crap booth, only Xbox shovelware left and I never want to listen to or see J Allard at a press conference ever again.

On the other hand we have Sony who despite the most boring first hour of a press conference ever finally got around to showing us the PS3 rather than just telling us every conceivable number relating to it and what was shown blew me away. The console itself looks pretty awful and the controller is just plain wrong. I’ve always said that it annoys me how Sony never change the design of their controllers, but if this is the result I couldn’t care less if the PS6 has a Dual Shock… The demo’s for PS3 were sweet and whilst many of them weren’t realtime they did do a stunning job of wowing people myself included. Yeah it’s not running on actual PS3’s but I’d rather see what the next consoles may be able to do, not see what the alpha units at 30% power can do. Microsoft need to take note of this approach. Other than the PS3 though, Sony did a bad job with their press conference and show by not really even mentioning PSP or PS2. Infact, due to the very poor support for the PSP I have decided I won’t be picking one up for a very long time. Sorry Sony, don’t expect to launch a console and then not support it, that doesn’t wash with me. Of course, Sony had a great showing for the PS2 at the show with some decent third party support and Okami looks very sweet.

Nintendo again were a mixed bag this year. I expected like everyone else that they would release far more info about Revolution this E3 and I also figured we’d see many more DS titles and even maybe Mario 128 on whatever format it now lives. However, in spite of this they managed to have what I felt was by far the stronger press conference, actually focusing on and showcasing games and even letting us know how much better than PSP the DS is currently doing. Iwata and Reggie showed off a confidence rarely seen in a press conference with a balance of humour and figures which kept the conference interesting where Sony and Microsoft’s was almost painful to sit through. Of course the highlight had to be the new Zelda trailer shown at the back end of the conference, pure magic.

So overall, the best press conference has to go to Nintendo followed by Sony and with Microsoft trailing far behind in main due to J Allard being a smug twat. As for the best console? I’m going to go with the DS as it had a truly unique and first-class line-up of games, more so than any other console at the show. Viewtiful Joe, Super Mario Bros, Advance Wars, Nintendogs, Electroplankton, Meteos and so much more. I think the PSP was totally walked over by the DS at this show and it definitely more than held its own against the consoles. Game of the show just has to go to Zelda. I don’t care if it is more of the same, there is just something about this game that is just right. This is the Zelda that was always meant to be and I simply can’t wait to get my hands on the full game later this year.
Article By: Phil, John, and Hilden