Whew, been a busy month.  Sorry for the lack of updates but not only has E3-related stuff eaten a lot of my time, but lots of exciting things at work have kept me busy (alas, I still cannot say more than that... for now).

E3 2005 was just as crazy chaotic and sensory-overload as always.  Actually it seemed a hair quieter this year, but that could simply be that I am going deaf rather than the far less likely possibility of E3 being quieter.

I expected E3 to be a giant 3-way wrestling match for next gen console dominance, but it appears that I will have to wait until 2006 for that particular showdown.  Revolution was completely absent from the show floor as far as I could tell, and the only thing PS3 was at the end of a two-hour line to see the same footage as was in the Sony press conference.  Only the Xbox 360 was actually present on the show floor visibly, much less playably. 

Don't get me wrong, I saw plenty of opportunities missed in the Microsoft's presentation... hiding the X360 stuff in the back of the Xbox area, not making it as clear as possible what was 360 vs plain Xbox stuff, and probably worst, bringing actual running software to what was clearly a demo-fight in the battle of the press conferences.  But when all is said and done there were some great looking X360 games on the floor and the other consoles are still vapor-hard-ware.  If PS3 hits in Spring 2006 it will certainly be a *very* interesting year for the hardware wars...

We were also showing a game ourselves on the floor this year, Age of Empires 3.   We were off in the Games For Windows booth, and a little hidden on a top floor, but the place was still pretty packed every time I was there.  The Age 3 team did a fantastic job with the E3 demo, and it really paid off.  In fact I think we won a few "Best of E3" awards, which is always nice. 

I didn't have too much responsibility for giving demos this year, so mostly I was able to cruise the show and scope out the other games.  As always, it was a blast to see everything that I'm so looking forward to playing in the next year (or years...).

A few games that caught my eye:

-- Saint's Row. Basically a next-generation GTA style game for the X360.  I'm glad to see devs starting to get a better concept of what makes GTA tick, and Saint's Row certainly looked like it has all the makings of a big success.

-- Need For Speed: Most Wanted.  Easily the best looking X360 game on the floor.  The detail in the world and the cars was amazing.  I'm a sucker for a good looking racing game, and this was the king of that category.

-- Battlefield 2.  Another one in the EA booth.  The original Battlefield 1942 was a watershed game for the industry, IMO, really showing what was possible with an online action combat game.  I was somewhat unimpressed with Battlefield: Vietnam, but the new modern combat setting and more significant gameplay changes (like persistence!) make it a winner in my book.

-- Destroy All Humans.  Ok, so this made my 2004 E3 list as welll, but it still looks great.  I was able to get my hands on the controls this time and it plays wonderfully with a sharp sense of humor.  I think this one will actually be out in the next few months and I'm looking forward to logging some serious alien time with it.

-- Sly Cooper 3.  Sucker Punch is one of my favorite devs, and Sly Cooper 3 seems to be continuing nicely in the tradition of the first two.  I'm not totally sold on the gimmicky 3D-glasses thing or the multiplayer, but if the core Cooper gameplay is there, this will easily top the platformers of 2005 just as I thought Sly 2 did last year.

-- Gothic 3.  Ok, it was little more than an outdoor rendering tech demo, but I'm still very excited about it.  As a sign of how good their games have been in the past, and how horrible their interfaces, one of the Gothic 3 features I'm most excited about?  Using the mouse for inventory selection (I'm not kidding).

Some games I would have loved to have seen but weren't showing to us non-media plebes...

-- GTA: Liberty City Stories.  GTA on the PSP?  Sign me up.  I just hope it's better than the mediocre-at-best GTA for the Gameboy.

-- Oblivion.  Next generation Elder Scrolls game.  From what I hear through the grapevine they're addressing most if not all of my complaints from Morrowind (a game I really wanted to love but couldn't get past some of the design decisions).  Plus, it looks visually incredible.

-- Civilization 4.  The grand savior of turn based strategy games.  It was a very thin show for non-RTS strategy games and Civ has always been the grand-daddy of the field.  I expect to lose many hours on this one, and if the multiplayer is actually playable this time it could be a wonderful thing.

-- Zelda: Twilight Princess.  The Zelda games haven't let me down so far (well, setting aside the CD-i games), and Twilight Princess looks fantastic from what I've seen on the internet.  But I wasn't about to wait 3 hours in line to see it live at the show.

There was a ton of other great stuff at the show that piqued my interest... Shadow of the Colossus, Final Fantasy XII (not playable this year, strangely), Company of Heroes, The Suffering: Ties That Bind, Ratchet: Deadlocked, Daxter, Hellgate: London, Rise of Legends, Dungeon Siege 2, Auto Assault, City of Villains, Mario & Luigi 2, Incredible Hulk, True Crime 2005, Call of Duty 2... the list goes on and on.

I love E3.  :)


I finished Resident Evil 4 this week.  Fantastic game.  I'm a sucker for the whole RE series (well, except for Outbreak, which was basically unplayable it seemed).  I spent a while reading through a plot FAQ for the whole series after I finished and it's just amazing to me the body of lore that is out there from the games.  It's no "War and Peace" but I love the byzantine plots and timelines the horror epic series has created.  Bring on RE5.  :)

I'm actually trying to clear out my active games list a little bit before the release of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for the PC next week.  As readers of this blog know, I am an uber-geek for GTA stuff, and I'm incredibly excited about the PC version of San Andreas.  The short draw distance was probably my #1 complaint about the classic PS2 version and mouselook + custom soundtrack is enough to make it the definitive version of the game.  I'll be going for a 100% playthrough on the PC, which is an epic endeavor...