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As I'm not planning to copy-and-paste everything that I wrote down, I'll paraphrase myself. I've got two steno notepads here that have a total of about 20-30 pages of writing, musings, and rants. I'll go through the major points.
Monday
I left around 11ish to get to a 1:50 flight, went (nervously) through customs without trouble (I should've said I was going for Business, when in actuality I wasn't working, so it really was Pleasure), and had a totally uneventful flight into Los Angeles.
I grabbed a Shuttle to my hotel (the Ramada Limited) and discovered that Dave had felt extremely sick, so he wasn't around to meet me there, and Erin was at the Microsoft Booth. As I had nothing to do for a few hours and it was like 6:35pm (3 hours difference from Toronto time), I walked around the area to get my bearings. I discovered the area to be slightly scummy. The Hotel was great, however. ;) I picked up some snacks and postcards, stunned myself by discovering the local convenience stores and drug markets sell liquor beside all the other drinks (!), and headed back to the hotel and chilled for a while.
Erin eventually showed up, and due to it being dark, we decided against going out for a dinner. It was a bit scary, admittedly. Our dinner was chips. :P
Tuesday
These were my first Press Conferences! I went to both Sony, Nintendo and Nokia's today.
Sony's presentation was very business-oriented and displayed a ton of numbers outlining that they were outperforming their competitors. They also displayed the PSP (Playstation Portable) - which looks very shiny.
Gran Turismo looks even more realistic than GT3 did, if that's possible. I like how they've got people populating the tracks now, photographers ducking out of the way and all that. XD
A couple of the games I noted they were developing for the PSP were another MediEvil (!) and Sticky Ballz, which used to be a free game on Zed Two, but I've just discovered that Zed Two's been closed. :( (That link goes to a place I found it, tho.)
The Nintendo conference wasn't as business-oriented. Nintendo knows it has a dedicated fanbase, and they know that it's the games that keep people coming back - so they showcased their new offerings - Metroid Prime 2, Pikmin 2, a new (?) Starfox, Resident Evil 4... their lineup looks very strong.
They also showed off their DS, as well as announcing a couple of games would be playable on the show floor - such as Super Mario 64x4, and Metroid Prime: Hunters. They also spoke of all the features in it, such as a built-in microphone, Bluetooth technology for wireless connections... and Wi-Fi, so you can play against a friend, say, oh, across the continent. This was a pleasant surprise. :D Release is supposed to be this year, as well! -but as someone said, that means 2005, right? :P
The final video that Nintendo showed us has the room in silence for a short while, but quickly became a burst of energy as people started to recognize the visuals and sounds of The Legend of Zelda. A new episode, where Link has grown up. This Zelda game looks to be much darker than all the other Zelda games, and stands to be incredible. As well, Miyamoto stepped out on-stage wielding Link's sword and shield. :D I must say that this little Nintendo fanboy was pleased. XD
Nokia's party was different. I didn't know what to expect, but they talked about how they have been listening to the feedback and making adjustments to their hardware and software - and thus the N-Gage QD was released. ("QD"? "Cutie"?) They showed off a couple of games (including a heavily-researched wargame, "Pathway to Glory" that looked a bit like Warcraft, a racing(?) game, I think? "Glimmerati", and one based on "Rifts"), but there wasn't much there either. I think they said they wanted to have 50 games in development by year's end. I'm intruiged by "Rifts" as I remember seeing "Rifts" when I was in camp.
Wednesday
I tried out a slew of games today - here's my thoughts:
Geist (GCN): It still looks rough, but the concept is neat. Didn't Shiny do this with "Messiah" in that you possess animals and humans to achieve objectives? In any case, the "scaring people" aspect is fun. :D
Donkey Konga (GCN): Awesome fun. I hurt my hands, I think I hit/clapped too hard. :P I'm impressed that the songs are American bands. I never got to try Jungle Beat, and that used the Konga controller too. But people say that's better than the Music game. Hmmm...
NintendoDS: I'm impressed! I like the dual-screen, however, I didn't find myself looking at the second screen at all. I think I'm too used to one screen. That could always change. I liked how WarioWare DS used the stylus for different games, like slicing, dragging, or erasing. I didn't get to try Super Mario 64x4 or Metroid Prime: Hunters as it was lucky pick, but they looked impressive. Someone suggested to include Pac-Pix (draw Pac-man and he'll eat ghosts) as a Pac-in (hah) so people can get used to the stylus. It's by far the best tech demo in there.
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes: I actually didn't try the One-player game, but I played Multiplayer. Heehee, that's FUN. There's a random-item generator that gives you strange abilities like "Death Ball". They need to up the resolution a bit tho... it was really blocky. The controls and look are exactly the same as MP1 - if it ain't broken, why change it? :)
I then went over to the PSP line, which oddly moved much faster than the DS line. I know why - all they had were looping trailers and game demos - nothing playable. It was kinda disappointing, and the fact that Sony's developed another format (The Universal Media Disc) for the PSP makes me wonder if it'll be accepted.
GBA Video Cartridges allow a person to play 2 episodes of Pokemon or Spongebob Squarepants on their GBA. It's cool, but it's not a new technology, and it's firm in the cartridges - you can't upload new episodes like they can in Japan. The footage was grainy MPEG and was rather choppy, even for animation.
Silent Hill 4: The Room: I have yet to play the first 3 Silent Hill games. (I really shouldn't play these sequels until I get around to playing the first games...) I didn't "get" this one, but hey, it looks really creepy.
Pikmin 2: They only had Challenge Mode available, but even so, it's more of the same, and you can have 2 players play simultaneously. You have to share the Pikmin, too. In one-player mode I don't understand why Louie (the second player) is there. Maybe in case Olimar gets hurt? In any case I'll get it - I liked the first and this looks to expand upon the original concept.
At this point I went and grabbed this cool swag "ball" from Mu Online. It was a clear beach ball with "Mu Online" written on a piece of flexible plastic inside the ball - when it's blown up it looks like the material inside is made of a hard plastic, not flexible. It's awesome. :D
I visited the Atari booth to see what this trouble was all about - their giant logo was covered in grafitti at the convention. I was led to a hallway where I was shown footage of Mark Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, which looked cel-shaded, and appeared to have a spraying-grafitti ability (maybe?), hip-hop music, and a revolution.
Other quick notes:
Katamari Damacy was playable on the floor, as was Karaoke Revolution 2 and Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude. The LSL game looks to be fun, but appears to be a console game ported to the PC rather than the other way around.
We had stupid Taxi drivers for the majority of the time there - and after we stiffed a driver of half his pay for driving us the wrong way, it went smoothly from there. XD I guess our attitude changed once we realized that we weren't going to put up with any more stupid drivers.
Ah, I see someone noticed Fullmetal Alchemist being licensed by Funimation at the Square-Enix booth at E3. Good. I don't need to say. ^_^ This also coincides with Square-Enix releasing the Fullmetal Alchemist game for the PS2, which occurs between episodes 8 and 9 of the TV series. (I figured that if the game was coming over, no doubt someone had the license, and lo and behold, there it was in print at Square-Enix's booth.)
Thursday
Namco has a game I'm very interested in - Baten Kaitos. It's a GameCube exclusive - makes me happy that I have one. ^_^
I saw the Phantom today - their layout of their booth was very cool - small little "living rooms" each with a Phantom in each one. It's a nice ability, and although Apextreme is doing the same kinda thing - PC games playable on your TV - I'm not that thrilled with the idea. Maybe more active PC gamers would be.
At NVidia's booth, they had the Henson Digital Performance Studio set up there. It allows real-time CG rendering with voice and motion, while an actor works machinery in the back to create the motions. I spent a good 10 minutes talking with a fairy about where I came from, and about the HDPS technology. What was awesome was that she could follow me due to a camera, and so her head would turn in my direction if I moved off-center. It was very impressive, and they're trying to make a CG version of Muppet Babies. I'd watch that. :D
I got my picture taken with a Yeti from Yetisports. ^_^ He didn't bite my head, as he was with others tho... :P
In Kentia Hall (the lesser-known company hall) there was a couple of awesome things - a Video Game Museum from the Classic Gaming Expo (including Space Ace, Dragon's Lair, Pac-Man, Galage, etc... all the classics!) and - get this - a Tango game. XTango is a game where you have a "Lead" and a "Follow", and the Lead inputs a set of controller instructions, and the Follower repeats the motions. The concept is brilliant! They don't have a publisher yet, but I'm confident that they'll get one soon enough. It's games like this one that amaze me - out of nowhere comes a small company with these beautiful character models and a unique game that hasn't been done yet. As Kyle said, it's a game that makes you go "I wish I thought of that". (Or was that Erin?)
Also to note that the bag from BinaryCraft (makers of XTango) changes colour in the sunlight. XD Thumbs up. :D
I visited the NVidia booth again for their raffle, and SCORE! I won a BenQ Keyboard and the DVD version of Unreal Tournament 2004, signed by 6 people (I guess from the development team). I guess I need a DVD-ROM player now! (And perhaps a better computer :P)
Friday
Today was my day of relaxation. I had pretty much seen everything in the past 2 days, and so I picked out stuff I wanted to do on Friday again. I didn't really do much aside from check on raffles and play a couple more games, such as Playboy: The Mansion (a guilty pleasure, I know!) and Dog's Life (which, despite its kid's rating, was great fun! Smellovision is a wonderful idea. :) )
I saw the Half-Life 2 demo today - it was still pretty impressive - The horror scene actually had my heart racing - and I know for a fact that my computer cannot handle it. XD
I also saw the Metal Gear Solid 3 trailer... and although it looks nice, I have to say that it hasn't grabbed my attention. And the fact that they had 4 "false endings" on the trailer had me saying "is it over yet?" which is never a good sign.
I met the Art Director for Sly Cooper 2 while I was playing it! :D He was extremely friendly and showed off a couple of the neat parts of the game. It looks incredible. Again with the sequel stuff - I need to play the first!
I saw Tycho and Gabe at the Ubisoft booth - Tycho is a bald, 35-something round guy with glasses... Gabe is a tall, shaved, doppleganger of Tycho. *blinks* I was warned...
I saw some in-game demos of Splinter Cell 3. The game looks awesome. Maybe I should find the first one (again with the sequelitis!). I also saw a preview for Myst 4 (still looks neat) and Prince of Persia 2 (yes, the Sands of TIme returns!)
Throughout my entire time there, I never really felt like I was in LA - it was strange. It might've been becuase I didn't do much wandering around. At one point, I was in a parking lot, and looked at one car's license plate and immediately thought "Hey, Cool, California"... >,>
I took about 100 pictures! I should get them developed ASAP.
I was askd if I enjoyed E3 and if I'd come back next year. While I had a totally wonderful time while I was here and it was incredibly memorable, I've not decided if I'm coming back next year. It all depends on what I plan to do next year, I suppose. But at least I can say "Yes, I've been to E3". :D
And that's my whole week, in a nutshell. ^_^ I think that's taken about 2 hours to write. Y'know, I should'a brought more swag back for my friends... >,>
One last thing - there was mention of a fanfic of "Scooby-Doo" and "Cthulhu" during one of the trips. I shudder to think what that could possibly be about. O.o
Wholy .... I have 75 LJ entries to read. And considering my state of mind (tired), I might not make it through all of them...
Which Wolf's Rain Character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
Damn... ;) :DD
Monday
I left around 11ish to get to a 1:50 flight, went (nervously) through customs without trouble (I should've said I was going for Business, when in actuality I wasn't working, so it really was Pleasure), and had a totally uneventful flight into Los Angeles.
I grabbed a Shuttle to my hotel (the Ramada Limited) and discovered that Dave had felt extremely sick, so he wasn't around to meet me there, and Erin was at the Microsoft Booth. As I had nothing to do for a few hours and it was like 6:35pm (3 hours difference from Toronto time), I walked around the area to get my bearings. I discovered the area to be slightly scummy. The Hotel was great, however. ;) I picked up some snacks and postcards, stunned myself by discovering the local convenience stores and drug markets sell liquor beside all the other drinks (!), and headed back to the hotel and chilled for a while.
Erin eventually showed up, and due to it being dark, we decided against going out for a dinner. It was a bit scary, admittedly. Our dinner was chips. :P
Tuesday
These were my first Press Conferences! I went to both Sony, Nintendo and Nokia's today.
Sony's presentation was very business-oriented and displayed a ton of numbers outlining that they were outperforming their competitors. They also displayed the PSP (Playstation Portable) - which looks very shiny.
Gran Turismo looks even more realistic than GT3 did, if that's possible. I like how they've got people populating the tracks now, photographers ducking out of the way and all that. XD
A couple of the games I noted they were developing for the PSP were another MediEvil (!) and Sticky Ballz, which used to be a free game on Zed Two, but I've just discovered that Zed Two's been closed. :( (That link goes to a place I found it, tho.)
The Nintendo conference wasn't as business-oriented. Nintendo knows it has a dedicated fanbase, and they know that it's the games that keep people coming back - so they showcased their new offerings - Metroid Prime 2, Pikmin 2, a new (?) Starfox, Resident Evil 4... their lineup looks very strong.
They also showed off their DS, as well as announcing a couple of games would be playable on the show floor - such as Super Mario 64x4, and Metroid Prime: Hunters. They also spoke of all the features in it, such as a built-in microphone, Bluetooth technology for wireless connections... and Wi-Fi, so you can play against a friend, say, oh, across the continent. This was a pleasant surprise. :D Release is supposed to be this year, as well! -but as someone said, that means 2005, right? :P
The final video that Nintendo showed us has the room in silence for a short while, but quickly became a burst of energy as people started to recognize the visuals and sounds of The Legend of Zelda. A new episode, where Link has grown up. This Zelda game looks to be much darker than all the other Zelda games, and stands to be incredible. As well, Miyamoto stepped out on-stage wielding Link's sword and shield. :D I must say that this little Nintendo fanboy was pleased. XD
Nokia's party was different. I didn't know what to expect, but they talked about how they have been listening to the feedback and making adjustments to their hardware and software - and thus the N-Gage QD was released. ("QD"? "Cutie"?) They showed off a couple of games (including a heavily-researched wargame, "Pathway to Glory" that looked a bit like Warcraft, a racing(?) game, I think? "Glimmerati", and one based on "Rifts"), but there wasn't much there either. I think they said they wanted to have 50 games in development by year's end. I'm intruiged by "Rifts" as I remember seeing "Rifts" when I was in camp.
Wednesday
I tried out a slew of games today - here's my thoughts:
Geist (GCN): It still looks rough, but the concept is neat. Didn't Shiny do this with "Messiah" in that you possess animals and humans to achieve objectives? In any case, the "scaring people" aspect is fun. :D
Donkey Konga (GCN): Awesome fun. I hurt my hands, I think I hit/clapped too hard. :P I'm impressed that the songs are American bands. I never got to try Jungle Beat, and that used the Konga controller too. But people say that's better than the Music game. Hmmm...
NintendoDS: I'm impressed! I like the dual-screen, however, I didn't find myself looking at the second screen at all. I think I'm too used to one screen. That could always change. I liked how WarioWare DS used the stylus for different games, like slicing, dragging, or erasing. I didn't get to try Super Mario 64x4 or Metroid Prime: Hunters as it was lucky pick, but they looked impressive. Someone suggested to include Pac-Pix (draw Pac-man and he'll eat ghosts) as a Pac-in (hah) so people can get used to the stylus. It's by far the best tech demo in there.
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes: I actually didn't try the One-player game, but I played Multiplayer. Heehee, that's FUN. There's a random-item generator that gives you strange abilities like "Death Ball". They need to up the resolution a bit tho... it was really blocky. The controls and look are exactly the same as MP1 - if it ain't broken, why change it? :)
I then went over to the PSP line, which oddly moved much faster than the DS line. I know why - all they had were looping trailers and game demos - nothing playable. It was kinda disappointing, and the fact that Sony's developed another format (The Universal Media Disc) for the PSP makes me wonder if it'll be accepted.
GBA Video Cartridges allow a person to play 2 episodes of Pokemon or Spongebob Squarepants on their GBA. It's cool, but it's not a new technology, and it's firm in the cartridges - you can't upload new episodes like they can in Japan. The footage was grainy MPEG and was rather choppy, even for animation.
Silent Hill 4: The Room: I have yet to play the first 3 Silent Hill games. (I really shouldn't play these sequels until I get around to playing the first games...) I didn't "get" this one, but hey, it looks really creepy.
Pikmin 2: They only had Challenge Mode available, but even so, it's more of the same, and you can have 2 players play simultaneously. You have to share the Pikmin, too. In one-player mode I don't understand why Louie (the second player) is there. Maybe in case Olimar gets hurt? In any case I'll get it - I liked the first and this looks to expand upon the original concept.
At this point I went and grabbed this cool swag "ball" from Mu Online. It was a clear beach ball with "Mu Online" written on a piece of flexible plastic inside the ball - when it's blown up it looks like the material inside is made of a hard plastic, not flexible. It's awesome. :D
I visited the Atari booth to see what this trouble was all about - their giant logo was covered in grafitti at the convention. I was led to a hallway where I was shown footage of Mark Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, which looked cel-shaded, and appeared to have a spraying-grafitti ability (maybe?), hip-hop music, and a revolution.
Other quick notes:
Katamari Damacy was playable on the floor, as was Karaoke Revolution 2 and Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude. The LSL game looks to be fun, but appears to be a console game ported to the PC rather than the other way around.
We had stupid Taxi drivers for the majority of the time there - and after we stiffed a driver of half his pay for driving us the wrong way, it went smoothly from there. XD I guess our attitude changed once we realized that we weren't going to put up with any more stupid drivers.
Ah, I see someone noticed Fullmetal Alchemist being licensed by Funimation at the Square-Enix booth at E3. Good. I don't need to say. ^_^ This also coincides with Square-Enix releasing the Fullmetal Alchemist game for the PS2, which occurs between episodes 8 and 9 of the TV series. (I figured that if the game was coming over, no doubt someone had the license, and lo and behold, there it was in print at Square-Enix's booth.)
Thursday
Namco has a game I'm very interested in - Baten Kaitos. It's a GameCube exclusive - makes me happy that I have one. ^_^
I saw the Phantom today - their layout of their booth was very cool - small little "living rooms" each with a Phantom in each one. It's a nice ability, and although Apextreme is doing the same kinda thing - PC games playable on your TV - I'm not that thrilled with the idea. Maybe more active PC gamers would be.
At NVidia's booth, they had the Henson Digital Performance Studio set up there. It allows real-time CG rendering with voice and motion, while an actor works machinery in the back to create the motions. I spent a good 10 minutes talking with a fairy about where I came from, and about the HDPS technology. What was awesome was that she could follow me due to a camera, and so her head would turn in my direction if I moved off-center. It was very impressive, and they're trying to make a CG version of Muppet Babies. I'd watch that. :D
I got my picture taken with a Yeti from Yetisports. ^_^ He didn't bite my head, as he was with others tho... :P
In Kentia Hall (the lesser-known company hall) there was a couple of awesome things - a Video Game Museum from the Classic Gaming Expo (including Space Ace, Dragon's Lair, Pac-Man, Galage, etc... all the classics!) and - get this - a Tango game. XTango is a game where you have a "Lead" and a "Follow", and the Lead inputs a set of controller instructions, and the Follower repeats the motions. The concept is brilliant! They don't have a publisher yet, but I'm confident that they'll get one soon enough. It's games like this one that amaze me - out of nowhere comes a small company with these beautiful character models and a unique game that hasn't been done yet. As Kyle said, it's a game that makes you go "I wish I thought of that". (Or was that Erin?)
Also to note that the bag from BinaryCraft (makers of XTango) changes colour in the sunlight. XD Thumbs up. :D
I visited the NVidia booth again for their raffle, and SCORE! I won a BenQ Keyboard and the DVD version of Unreal Tournament 2004, signed by 6 people (I guess from the development team). I guess I need a DVD-ROM player now! (And perhaps a better computer :P)
Friday
Today was my day of relaxation. I had pretty much seen everything in the past 2 days, and so I picked out stuff I wanted to do on Friday again. I didn't really do much aside from check on raffles and play a couple more games, such as Playboy: The Mansion (a guilty pleasure, I know!) and Dog's Life (which, despite its kid's rating, was great fun! Smellovision is a wonderful idea. :) )
I saw the Half-Life 2 demo today - it was still pretty impressive - The horror scene actually had my heart racing - and I know for a fact that my computer cannot handle it. XD
I also saw the Metal Gear Solid 3 trailer... and although it looks nice, I have to say that it hasn't grabbed my attention. And the fact that they had 4 "false endings" on the trailer had me saying "is it over yet?" which is never a good sign.
I met the Art Director for Sly Cooper 2 while I was playing it! :D He was extremely friendly and showed off a couple of the neat parts of the game. It looks incredible. Again with the sequel stuff - I need to play the first!
I saw Tycho and Gabe at the Ubisoft booth - Tycho is a bald, 35-something round guy with glasses... Gabe is a tall, shaved, doppleganger of Tycho. *blinks* I was warned...
I saw some in-game demos of Splinter Cell 3. The game looks awesome. Maybe I should find the first one (again with the sequelitis!). I also saw a preview for Myst 4 (still looks neat) and Prince of Persia 2 (yes, the Sands of TIme returns!)
Throughout my entire time there, I never really felt like I was in LA - it was strange. It might've been becuase I didn't do much wandering around. At one point, I was in a parking lot, and looked at one car's license plate and immediately thought "Hey, Cool, California"... >,>
I took about 100 pictures! I should get them developed ASAP.
I was askd if I enjoyed E3 and if I'd come back next year. While I had a totally wonderful time while I was here and it was incredibly memorable, I've not decided if I'm coming back next year. It all depends on what I plan to do next year, I suppose. But at least I can say "Yes, I've been to E3". :D
And that's my whole week, in a nutshell. ^_^ I think that's taken about 2 hours to write. Y'know, I should'a brought more swag back for my friends... >,>
One last thing - there was mention of a fanfic of "Scooby-Doo" and "Cthulhu" during one of the trips. I shudder to think what that could possibly be about. O.o
Wholy .... I have 75 LJ entries to read. And considering my state of mind (tired), I might not make it through all of them...
Which Wolf's Rain Character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
Damn... ;) :DD
no subject
Playboy: the mansion... Hee... heee >:) I liked to see it from the inside in MTV's cribs, it was fun ;) How hugh hefner is in his blonde period, hehe ;)
I'm glad you had a good time :DD And I'm glad to see you back ;)
no subject
Resident Evil swag?
no subject
But let me see what I can drum up for ya.
I really should've taken more stuff :P
no subject
no subject