E3 2005

E3 2005: the end of the first day (and the only day I’ll be attending). Got there by carpool just after 9am and parking was no trouble. We got into one of the South Hall parking structures. $10 for the day is very cheap downtown parking between 4! Badge pickup was also quick – just a 5 minute queue. Which meant that I was there at doors open, 10am.

Overall impressions: plenty of shooters, as usual. Also there seemed to be a lot of cel-shaded anime style games: RPGs, beat-em-ups, what have you. It’s the in thing at the moment. Nintendo seems to be innovating. EA has a nice lineup with a mix of driving, action and sports. Square-Enix are still inexplicably stopping people from photographing their screens (so we just go to the Nintendo/Sony/MS stands and photo the Square-Enix games there).

My standouts of the show:
Ghost Recon 3 – for great use of HDR, decent HUD touches and just a well-polished feel.
Gameboy Micro – how small can it get? This is quite shiny.
Burnout Revenge – great fun; it’s a definite for me.
George A. Romero’s City of the Dead – probably the best blend of Havok physics & animation.

Stuff which I couldn’t be bothered to queue for:
PS3 – saw the vids. Awesome, and not just graphically better.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess – Link turns into a werewolf; has somewhat of the Ocarina of Time vibe.

General good stuff:
We Love Katamari – more of the same, new 2-player co-op mode, hope it’s still $20.
DDR Mario Mix – DDR for kids!
Nintendogs & Animal Crossing DS – DS is looking like it’s on my list now.

Disappointment of the show:
XBox 360 – half a dozen titles which look about as good as PC games can now. Hum. And what were they thinking with the white controllers?

“It should have come out already” awards to:
Geist
Battalion Wars
Odama
(all of which were at last year’s E3 and at least halfway complete then)

Japanese stuff that piqued my interest:
Shadow of the Colossus – the followup to Ico.
Ogami – very interesting brushwork-on-parchment look.
Any one of a half-dozen RPGs (mostly cel-shaded).

Best Babes: The ones in the white tops and tartan skirts were nice. As were the THQ ones.

Worst Babes: Well, I won’t say worst. But Nyko babes were scary this year. And special mention goes out to Ryl, the also-ran MMORPG tucked away in the Kentia Hall (home of wacky peripherals, retro game exhibition, media manufacturers and games that can’t make it to the other halls). I think they overcompensated a bit for the inadequacy of the game – they must have had 8 or 10 babes in skimpy medieval-type garb, who at one stage were all flaked out on the ground outside the Kentia Hall.

Photo gallery. Apologies for some of the shots. One can’t take photos of screens very well with a flash, and without a flash requires a longer exposure. After taking two dozen blurry screen photos, I decided to photo the babes instead. They are happy to pose and smile and they are much easier to get in focus (although I failed with the THQ babes).