E3 is Finished

[B-Ri]

sorry to bump this but i didnt feel like posting a new thread.

Anyone going to E for All? I am debating because tickets are still available. That MGS4 demo is screaming come and play me.

[Frogacuda]

I have a pass but I decided not to go because the vendor turnout sucked and I could stand to save the money.

[B-Ri]

I have a pass but I decided not to go because the vendor turnout sucked and I could stand to save the money.

pass that pass to me and I'll get The coverage for ya? Haha

[Frogacuda]

It's got my name on it. We just lined up like 47 appointments for our new editor, so she'll get us the coverage (or pass out trying).

[B-Ri]

It's got my name on it. We just lined up like 47 appointments for our new editor, so she'll get us the coverage (or pass out trying).

i canhelp?

[Super-Eggroll]

I'll be there Friday. Bought the tickets last year, and pretty much forgot about it until I got my badge and dogtags in the mail last week.

[Super-Eggroll]

Weak. The show was about 1/4th the size of E3. Nintendo had a decent booth, but Sony and Microsoft didn't even show up.

Microsoft didn't have to, though, as pretty much every other booth had Halo 3 or the new Guitar Hero for demonstration.

Here's a run down of what I remember:

EA - Booth was scaled down considerably from what they usually had. They had about 20 displays with Team Fortress 2 (360 Version) playing which was fun, but it's something I could've played at home. The usual smattering of sports games and such. The Simpson's Game looked good. Not much else.

Konami - Mainly showed off their new PSP games (Castlevania, Contra, and Silent Hill:Origins) while half their booth was reserved for MGS4. After waiting in line for 2 hours to play it for 15 min, I was pretty unexcited. The demo itself was decent, but definitely not worth waiting that long for. I think this came through on my follow-up interview on "Gamepro TV" which they probably didn't use. They were also selling t-shirts, soundtrack CD's, and a bunch of DDR crap (wristbands, pads, etc.) for outrageous prices.

THQ - Was all about the CONAN demo and Sam and Max (which they had for sale as well). They had a few other games, but nothing as eye-catching as the Conan game. Looked like God of War III.

NAMCO - Booth was entirely made up of cell-phone games and a vendor stand for T-shirts and stuffed Pac-Men and Ghosts. The shotglasses looked cool, but not $30 cool.

Nintendo - Dominated the show with Super Mario Galaxy and a huge arena to play Smash Bros. Brawl. Not too interested in the Brawl game myself, but the new Mario will definitely make me breakdown and buy a Wii finally.

HP - Hewlett-Packard showed off their new gaming PC, The Blackbird. Beast of a system with an awesome upgradeable case. The thing was huge. The PMS Girls were there showing it off, and were VERY talkative and knew their shit. A huge difference between them and the other random booth-babes. Cool chicks.

MLG - Major League Gaming took up a majority of the show floor. They had Halo 1 (?), Halo 3, and Guitar Hero tournaments. I missed out on signing up for Halo 3 because I was stuck waiting in line for MGS4.

The rest of the show was mainly Guitar Hero/Rock Band accessories and oddball software companies. One company was developing a vest and helmet that used a compressor to make you feel like you were getting hit or shot at. I told them they needed to ramp up the power, as I felt like I was sitting in a massage chair.

Overall, I basically saw what I needed too see in the first couple hours. Not too many new games, but just enough to make it slightly worth coming to. I felt really bad for the guy waiting in line with me at Konami's booth. He had driven from the NY area and bought the 4-DAY PASS, thinking the show was going to be E3 sized. He was pissed.

[Schlep]

Was EA not showing Crysis, Warhammer Online, Spore, or Left 4 Dead? Was Atari there with The Witcher? Did THQ show S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky?

[Super-Eggroll]

Didn't see Crysis, but they did have Warhammer Online. I played it for a few minutes while I waited for a spot playing Team Fortress 2. Looked good for what it was - wasn't that impressed. But I'm probably not the best source for impressions as I'm not into those types of games anyway.

If Atari had a booth, I didn't see it - and I walked around that place 50 times looking for new stuff.

No S.T.A.L.K.E.R. that I saw on the floor. They had a few newer games (Blob, Smackdown vs Raw 2008) and a bunch of DS titles I didn't look at.

I did forget to mention the new Civilization:Revolutions game. It's still in progress, so it was a tad buggy. I assume it gets tougher and more complex as you go, but the demo on display was fairly easy to breeze through.

[Frogacuda]

So glad I didn't go. I had been thinking this was going to be bigger and more relevant than the downsized E3, but it just didn't pan out, and it was obvious to see that from the vendor list.

I want to go to one of the big shows next year. Maybe I'll just go to E3 even with it's smallness. I don't think I'd be able to justify a flight to Leipzig, so it's not like there's a lot of options.