Last day of the show means everyone is exhausted and tired. It becomes a task just to stay focused and get the job done but we had another full day on the show floor. We got a ‘behind the closed door’ look at Guitar Hero 5, DJ Hero, Modern Warfare 2 and interviewed people on those teams and I finally got some hands-on time with Guitar Hero: Van Halen which looks promising.
By now, all the big show announcements had already passed. I usually look at Thursday as the ‘clean up’ day in which I re-visit booths that I skipped along the way. One game that really looks nice was Global Agenda from Hi-Rez Studios in Atlanta. This action/third person shooter runs on the Unreal engine for PC gamers and looks smooth and fun. We played another Rock Band Beatles song today and as much as I want to love this game – am disappointed so far. Another ‘sleeper’ game I got to check out was from Warner Bros called ‘Where The Wild Things Are’. This game ties into the new film yet is a stand alone story and not an adaptation from the movie. The characters and game play elements really look charming.
Props to Aubrey, Ian, Todd and Kevin for repping COIN-OP TV by wearing their t-shirts around the show this week! Check out this video from G4tv with Aubrey sporting his COIN-OP TV shirt on camera – http://e3.g4tv.com/videos/38834/Scion-E3-Confessions/
Here’s my write up for just my first day which happens to be day 2. It is not edited as I wrote it up on Day 2 of E3. Enjoy.
I checked out many games today and took many pics of the booths and the booth babes (which I will post at a later time since I took over 100 pics today alone.)
One of the games I did get to try out was Lost Planet 2. Now you are talking to a guy that never really got into Lost Planet 1. This demo was insanely fun as myself and maybe a dozen other people were put up against this gigantic creature that just kind of walks around and stomps on things. Did I mention the thing is about 10 stories tall? Yeah…big monster. This monster is so big that it can swallow you whole and you are basically running around the inside of this thing trying to blow up its insides. If you run into some fast moving fluid it seems to pee you out. Pretty sick but awesome all at the same time. I tried twice but we failed both times.
The New Super Mario Brothers for the Nintendo Wii. My friend and I actually had a chance to play this for a good 10 minutes before we left the area. I must say I’m not really a huge Wii fan but this game was pretty fun. I played the New Super Mario Bros on the DS and was a fan of that. Hell I even beat that game. Anyway….in this new Mario game you are able to play 4 player co-op which can be a little frustrating as you are pretty much competing against each other. The reason I say this is frustrating as you are bouncing all over each other trying to get different coins and squish goombas and koopa-troopas. I died many times due to running into the other players. All in all I think this will be a solid title once it launches. While in the Nintendo booth I ran into Charles Martinet and had a little chat with him. I also ran into Miyamoto so that was really cool as he was just cruising around the booth goofing around with other gamers.
Uncharted 2. I had a chance to sit down and try this in multiplayer form against a dozen other people in team battle. This game is pretty crazy but I think the multiplayer still has some work that needs to be done in it. One of the cool things I did notice is that if you’re running through mud your character can slip a little bit. That might not be much but it was just a cool little thought. There were weapons everywhere but it seems I had more luck melee attacking people. All in all I lost lol.
EA’s Grand Slam Tennis for the Wii with new Wii Motion Control sensor. Again I’m not a fan of the Wii but this game was so much fun with the new Motion Control. You are actually able to take better strides with the game and the controls are extremely responsive. My biggest complaint about the Wii was that the wireless functionality kind of restricted you where you could go much like the infrared sensor from the days of the original NES(maybe not as bad but you get the idea.) This actually seems to give you a larger range to spread out. It also was able to respond much better about how you were holding the remote.
I also had a chance to spend some time at the THQ booth and meet John Morrison from the WWE. The big game that they were really showcasing was Red Faction: Guerrilla. I have to admit I bought this game yesterday and as a mini review I have to say the game is phenomenal. One of the best features of the game is the ability to be able to destroy well…pretty much anything in the game except the ground. Making great use of the Havok engine team Volition has really outdone themselves with a game that is longer than 10 hours easily but also a game that has fun multiplayer with the ability to destroy the buildings and anything else in the level.
I had a chance to play the F.E.A.R. 2 multiplayer beta they had on display there. Myself I was having troubles getting used to the controls at first but eventually I was able to kill a few people. I found out later my controls were a little screwed up.
I did manage to truck around the Square-Enix-Eidos and check out the videos they showed off and I must say the videos of the new Front Mission, Final Fantasy Dissidia(which is playable there which I may try tomorrow), Final Fantasy XIII, XIV and also the Advent Children Complete were simply amazing. They had a lot of toys there as well from their upcoming figure lineup.
I managed to go over to the Bethesda booth today and I got to meet Eliza Dushku who is the voice actress in the new upcoming game Wet. She was pretty cool and seems like an enjoyable person to talk to.