Rune's E3 Log

[Rune Lai]

Wednesday - 5/18/05

(I'm just going to keep everything in one topic this year and date the log entries as appropriate.)

Well, it's another year, another E3. Since people generally like to know what's going on the show floor (aside from the press coverage) this'll be my third year of writing this. And besides, I like talking about it. This post is going to wind up cross-posted across a few boards, but I don't think the audience overlaps much.

Unlike the past three years, I did not participate in setup, which was a nice change of pace. Setup is generally a lot of work getting the booth put together, but this time all I needed to do was show up the first day the exhibits opened; which was today. I showed up early at the convention center and got my almost-as-good-as-usual parking space (I was back a row from normal--didn't get out of the house early enough). We had our team meeting on the show floor before the booth opened, so and they let some of the press in early. I got to see the new Chronicles of Narnia trailer, for the movie, which was nice because once the show opened I really couldn't spare the time to watch anything other than my section of the booth.

I was in charge of managing the Kingdom Hearts II demos, which basically meant that my section of the booth was a madhouse. I knew a lot of people liked Kingdom Hearts because the sales were good, but while I was working today I met people who really LOVE Kingdom Hearts; people who'd played it three or four times from start to finish. Playing that game seriously made many people's day. So I was busy.

I had the morning shift from the start of the show until 1:30, at which point I met up with a friend of mine who works at Sega. The two of us went to get lunch but the lines were utterly terrible. It took us 30 minutes to get to the point that he could get his cheeseburger and fries. I gave up on getting a chicken wrap and bought prepackaged sushi instead, which was much better tasting than I thought it would be (being convention food). The two of us mainly talked shop, but I asked him about how Sega was doing since I know a lot of Sega fans haven't been too happy with the direction the company's been taking lately. I also asked him what he considered to be the must-see games of his booth and he recommended Condemned and Full Auto, both of which are Western-developed games (hence why some people are annoyed by Sega's diversification). I didn't take a look at those, but I will tomorrow.

After we parted ways I went to West Hall where Sony and Nintendo (and a few smaller companies) are located. My own booth is in South Hall so I kinda wanted to get away from there even though companies I wanted to see like Sega and Konami and Square are all in South Hall. I'll get to them tomorrow. I will say though that the Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow anime they had playing on the big 40' screen was close to having me drooling. I assume it's from the game, but it looks way too good to be wasted on the small screen. Konami also had the obligatory DDR and MSG4 teaser on the screen. The MSG4 teaser was really funny the first time I saw it (it's up on Gamespot), but not as funny over and over again. Konami wasn't roping in the usual crowds with it. I suspect because it's not actual gameplay footage and just something to remind people of the franchise and that part 4 is coming.

I didn't play anything today, so no game impressions yet. I just wanted to get a feel for what's out there so I can come back and visit in depth tomorrow or Friday.

In West Hall I visited the following booths:

Koei: Romance of the Three Kingdoms was on display. That's really all I know Koei for, though I think they had a new Dynasty Warriors (4?) on display too.

Bandai: Bandai was having some sort of competition at their booth. I didn't really check it out since I was looking at their games and I don't have any intention of entering anything that has a line unless I know there's a good payoff in the end. I saw a One Piece fighting game, which looked a little odd since the characters are all slightly super-deformed. It was cute, but I don't know about the child-like figures. Chibi-fighting games don't do it for me. They also had a nice anime-style fighting game called Zatch Bell which is apparently based on an anime series, but I've never heard of it. Perhaps because I don't have Cartoon Network? They also had a Ghost in the Shell game which I could have sworn I'd seen last year, but maybe it's a new one. Digimon World 4 was also on display which is the nicest looking Digimon game yet, but I can't get myself to play it.

Tecmo: You know you're at the Tecmo booth when the booth is more stage and space for standing in line than playable demos of games. I actually couldn't even find the games. I suspect the Dead or Alive girls will be there for the audience again. Not too many places have booth babes anymore, but you can always count on Tecmo. They of course had a list of show times so people could line up and see them.

Sony: Sony's booth never really does anything for me. As a first party publisher the vast majority of their games are from their third party supporters. So of course Soul Calibur III was over there, but only Mitsurugi and the new girl Tira were selectable so even that wasn't that interesting to me. The new Castlevania for the PS2 was there (its name eludes me at the moment), but I wasn't particularly impressed by it. Supposedly it's everything that Lament of Innocence wasn't, but I'm not seeing that. It's just not screaming out for me to play it. Dragon Warrior VIII was also at the Sony booth, and looking cute and DW-ish, but otherwise not particularly attention grabbing. I'll probably look at it again when I get to Square-Enix tomorrow. What did get my attention though was Shadow of the Colossus. It's by the same team that did Ico and the aesthetics on that game are amazing. I love it when a game can give you a good sense of scale without making your character the size of a dust mite, and SotC does it. Also you get to ride around on horseback which I find a plus. ^^; Realistic horsebackriding is still rather rare in games. Being that this is from the team that did Ico I'm also expecting some nifty gameplay-integrated storytelling. Oddly enough, I completely missed seeing a single PSP game in the Sony booth. They must've all been in the back half of the exhibit. I did see a heavy amount of space devoted to the Eyetoy though. I had know idea Sony would push it so much.

Nintendo: Nintendo had a gigantic line around its booth. For what? The new Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, of course. I heard they had a playable demo, which I wanted to play, but I wasn't about to stand in line for 2-3 hours to play it! (I'm just eyeballing the wait time, it could've been more or less, but that line wrapped all the way around the booth.) Nintendo had an obligatory gamut of new Mario titles as well as a new Donkey Kong Conga game. I saw Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life which I hope to take a look at before the show is done since I like the HM series and it's the first US-release HM game for console that lets players play as girls. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, for the GameCube looks really awesome. I wasn't that enthusiastic when I first heard about it, but that's now on my play list for E3. The graphics are beautiful and the interface looks good. Also on my play list for the Nintendo DS are Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Trauma Center: Under the Knife. Both of them are extremely unorthodox games so I just have to check them out. Phoenix Wright is supposed to cast the player as a lawyer solving various mysteries (lawyer and detective in one?) and is part of a successful series in Japan. I just want to see what the gameplay is like. Trauma Center I hadn't even heard about before E3, but it's a surgery game! You use the stylus and the touchpad on the DS to perform surgery and all the characters are anime-styled (though the organs are not). It's just so wacky I have to see if it works. I want to suture with a stylus. I also saw the new Game Boy Micros! They're tiny! They're thin like wafers and little more than a screen with buttons on either side. The only thing that worries me is that I think the screen may be too small to see any text. Nintendo also had this really cool hotspot where you could bring your DS and download demos to play while within wireless transmission range. Sure its kind of gimmicky, but there's no waiting in line for someone to free up a demo machine and it showcases what the DS can do (as well as giving exclusive demos).

After West Hall (I missed/forgot about Agetec which is supposed to have Wild Arms: Atler Code F and a new RPG Maker), I went out to Petree for the two booths there. Those were just Midway and Atari. I really had no motivation for checking out Midway other than it was there. They hadn't said anything about picking up the latest Shadow Hearts so unsurprisingly nothing was there (though a surprise announcement would've been nice). The only thing mildly interesting in Midway's booth was the new Gauntlet game, which didn't even look like Gauntlet anymore. I could've lived without another installment of the Suffering.

Atari was little better. I had hoped there would be something regarding Neverwinter Nights 2, but no such luck. All they had was Dungeons & Dragons Online, which looks really nice, but I don't intend on buying since I don't play MMORPGs. If Dragonshard (the D&D RTS game) was there I probably would've played it, but it wasn't. The neat thing about the Atari booth though was that the gaming displays were all retro, designed to look like arcade machines, even though they weren't. It must've been strange playing D&D Online with a keyboard while standing in front of a box that looked like it belonged in the arcade. Atari also gave me my only piece of notable swag; a Pong t-shirt. ^_^

I was ready to crash after all that walking and being on shift the first half of the day, so I took a break in my car, which instead of being 30 minutes wound up being an hour; I was just so glad to be off my feet. By the time I got back inside the convention center I had only an hour left. I'd intended on going to the Sega and Ubisoft booths (one for Phantasy Star Universe and the other to see if there was anything on Lunar Genesis), but instead I ended up walking over to Crave since I know six of the guys who work there. Crave had a break room hidden instead their booth! We didn't have one at my booth even though we're a much bigger company. So I ended up spending the last hour hanging out with my former co-workers (we all used to work at Mattel once upon a time) and talking about how things were going at our current jobs. More shop talk and industry stuff as well as the usual catching up.

I was still in their booth when the siren played to signal the end of the show for the day so I left and went back to my own booth for our post-day meeting. So that's one day down, two to go.

Tomorrow I hope to actually play some games. This time I think I'll hit up the Sega booth right away. Aside from having PSU and Shining Force Neo that I went to see, my friend has a new game that's only being show in trailer form, so I want to get in line for their theater the instant the show opens. That's pretty easy when the Sega booth is right next door to mine and I get in before the rest of the crowd.

[Alunissage]

I looked for you at BVG but didn't get there until after you had left to see the show. But if one of your coworkers tells you that someone asked for you yesterday, that was probably me. I'm not going today (since it's around 2pm that I'm posting, that's probably obvious), nor tomorrow, since we're going to Disneyland then. But I'll catch up with you another visit. ^_^

[Rune Lai]

Darn! You could've been one mroe person I'd met! At least you tried to stop by.

Well, on to the log:

Day 2 of E3 is now over and my feet are killing me. This time I had the morning off instead of the afternoon, so I ran around seeing a lot of stuff before it got terribly crowded, but despite that I didn't plan my activities as well as I should have.

I originally intended to visit the Sega theater right away, but I found out it opened an hour after the shot did, so I couldn't get in line right away in if I wanted to (well, I suppose I could have, but that would have been a waste). The reason I'm kicking myself about that now is because Sega was apparently giving away Phantasy Star Universe t-shirts and I'm incredibly annoyed that I didn't get one. I hope they'll give them away again tomorrow. I was back on shift by the time I found out so I could no longer go to the theater, but Sega's the booth right across from mine so I just I asked a nearby Sega employee (I did see my friend today) if they had any more since I wouldn't be able to see the theater until tomorrow. He was really and made a special run to ask someone if he could get me one (industry folk know how it is when we get stuck at work and can't see something ^_^), but he came back empty-handed saying that at this point even he couldn't get one for himself. I may bother my friend later though since generally there are a few shirts leftover (saved for special people who may or may not show up) and if they go unclaimed maybe he can snag me one. I'm just bummed that Phantasy Star swag exists for the first time at E3 and I couldn't get it!

And my second mistake was that once I realized Sega's theater didn't open right away, I didn't run immediately over to the Square Enix booth and grab a ticket to get in the theater to see the new trailers. I generally don't go (I hate lines), but I wanted to this year so I could see Dirge of Cerberus. What actually got me more than missing a chance to see the theater was that I couldn't get the Dragon Warrior slimes they were giving away to people who saw the show! (Yes, I chase after nifty swag, but only stuff I like and I'm not as bad as some people.)

Since I didn't see South Hall much at all yesterday, I concentrated on that for today. I'll try to keep the post a little more organized today, so I'll still break things down by booth, but also give the games their space if I talk about them for more than a sentence.

<B>Sega</B>

I played Phantasy Star Universe. The AI is MUCH smarter than in PSO. In fact, the darn varmits won't stay still. Unlike PSO, you will not home in on the enemies if you're a little off with your aim. If you want to make sure you stay on target, you need to hold one of the trigger buttons to lock on to an enemy. You have both a gun and a melee weapon equiped at the same time, so you could theoretically switch between them both on the fly and process with be seamless, but I found myself using the sword mostly. Generally by the time I got my gun up the enemy was no longer in front of me (they really don't stay still) so I'd be shooting at the air. And even the time when I had the time to leisurely aim my gun at an aerial enemy (it was the dragon boss) its range stank so it was literally useless in that fight.

I played in the offline story-mode. The voice acting was in Japanese with English subtitles, though I suspect that will change. The one mission I played had four characters. For the screaming fangirl types, there's a white-haired fellow called Hyuga who will no doubt be popular. I don't think he's been given much if any coverage yet so I don't know how he fits in. A fourth character rounded out my party; a Doctor D whose relic mission we were assisting in. Party combat was pretty good. The three NPCs flailed around with the best of them and appeared to be doing a better job and their PSO counterparts. All bets were pretty much off at the dragon fight though.

The dragon was just too hard for me. After I died twice (the demo let me continue from the instant I died, but that'll probably change in the release), I just gave up. The dragon wasn't on the ground for very long and was more dangerous than the PSO dragon when he was (that tail flails around pretty bad), and my gun couldn't reach him in the air, so I figured it would be a long drawn out battle that wasn't much fun. PSU is very much more action-oriented than its predecessor. Depending on how the leveling system eventually works, that might not be that big an issue, much like a lot of PSO could be solved by judicious leveling, but if the player can't level freely I could see this being a difficult game for the reflex-challenged. If it wasn't for the continuiation of the comboing form of attack and the hit point damage appearing on the monsters, it could very easily look like an action game.

I didn't get to Shining Force Neo today, but I hope to tomorrow. Despite the negative buzz around Shadow the Hedgehog, the game itself looks to be a good platformer. Sonic will also show up in the game (it's not completely Shadow off in his own world) if the trailer is any judge. Props go to the people who organized the big screen suspended from the ceiling. Sega's in the second row of booths back, but whoever positioned the screen managed to do it so that you can see it through the aisle between EA and the company I work for as you're walking into the hall. It's otherwise an awkward location since it's not facing any corner of the booth and it's in the middle, but it's perfect for those coming in the door.

<B>Ubisoft</B>

No Lunar Genesis, no portable anything actually. I'd forgotten that Ubisoft normally does not show anything other than their core console games at the show. For instance, they did Winnie the Pooh: Rumbly Tumbly Adventure earlier this year, but you don't hear press about that. They did have Prince of Persia 3 though. I had the opportunity to pick up a poster for it, but I already have too many posters I don't need. They also had belly dancer booth babes handing out the posters. There were also a lot of people standing in line there today because Penny Arcade was autographing a special E3 comic.

<B>Vivendi Universal</B>

Starcraft: Ghost was really the only thing that I recall. There was a World Of Warcraft something-or-other though so I'm guessing that's an expansion.

<B>Electronic Arts</B>

Once again, a gigantic behemoth with more sports titles than you can shake a stick at. About the only thing I saw were sports titles, though I also spotted Harry Potter: The Goblet of Fire and Batman Begins. There was ads for the Sims and my coworker tells me that they had Sims 2 for the consoles there (she's a big Sims fan), but I didn't get around to seeing them. That reminds me. Will Wright's Spore is supposedly at E3 this year and if it's anywhere on the show floor it's probably in EA. I may have to look again.

<B>Konami</B>

I wanted to sing soundproof booths for the Karaoke Party but they were always being used. Since Konami is also right next door I saw a lot of their games, though I didn't actually play any of them.

I want to try Lost in Blue since it appears to be a story-oriented game about a boy and a girl stranded on an island on which they have to survive until rescue comes. It's just not something I see everyday (the Nintendo DS seems to have a lot of those) so if I get the chance I'd like to play it tomorrow.

Ys VI is coming out on the PSP and this time it looks like it'll get to keep its anime intro sequences and 2D graphics!

There were also two new DDR games; new installments of Extreme and Ultramix. I can't tell the difference between them so the numbers after them are meaningless to me and I'll probably get them mixed up. One of them was a 2 and the other a 3 though. I'm sure hardcore DDR fans can match them accordingly.

Three new Metal Gear trailers this year. There was the MSG4 teaser, a MGS3: Subsistence trailer (was not entertaining as when MGS2: Substance had its trailer), and a Metal Gear Acid 2 trailer. I liked the MGA2 trailer the best, even if it's partially from the humor value of seeing a Metal Gear game promoting customizing and editing weapons via cards.

Konami also seems to have forged a crazy alliance with 4Kids Entertainment. The Yu-Gi-Oh partnership lead to a Shaman King game, and we knew that Konami had a long relationship making TMNT games even before 4Kids, but now Konami is making a Winx Club game! That's the W.I.T.C.H. knock-off running on the FoxBox on Saturday mornings and I can't believe that series is doing well enough to warrant a game. >_<

<B>Namco</B>

I played Soul Calibur III! Only Kilik was playable for the single-player experience and only in the story-oriented quest mode. I forget what this mode was called in the previous games since the name keeps changing, but this time each character will have their own storyline where they travel from place to place across a map and battle according to specific circumstances. Only now it's like a choose-your-own-adventure. SC2 just had only storyline that everybody could switch in and out of, and it was linear. Now after beating Beserker in a fight, I was given the choice; follow the strange man who attacked me, or continue to where I had last fought against Soul Edge. I wasn't that keen on SC3 before, but that offline more really good me exciting. I just think there's a lot more than can be done with this sort of fighting game/RPG hybrid. Unfortunately the demo is only three battles long in singleplayer. I fought against Talim, Berserker, and the new guy with the scythe (I can't remember his name). No one else was shown, but there are possible more if I'd gone the other paths. Only Mitsurugi and Tira (the new girl with the razor hoop) were selectable for multiplayer, which I did not try.

Namco also had We Love Katamari, the sequel to Katamari Damacy, which now features cooperative two player, though I haven't the foggiest idea how that works. As a bonus, Namco also had a life-size katamari at their booth, which people could add to by sticking things on it (I don't know how, but they advertised stopping by their booth and contributing).

<B>NCSoft</B>

Apparently gave away Lineage II t-shirts (my coworkers got a couple), which is really odd since that game's been out a while. I also saw City of Villains there, but it's hard to judge MMORPG material based off a demo.

<B>Majesco</B>

Advent Rising is still at E3 and still has not gone out the door. I'm starting to wonder if the game is just horribly bad and that's why they haven't released it yet.

<B>THQ</B>

Not much here that I was interested in, though they had their Tak and Spongebob characters available for pictures. They're also doing a new Incredibles game based off the Disney Pixar movie.

<B>Capcom</B>

More Megaman and Viewtiful Joe. Devil May Cry 4 apparently had a teaser/trailer that was showing, but I didn't stay to watch. It wasn't that prominently placed (come to think of it, Capcom didn't have a big screen this year) so perhaps it's only a teaser with no gameplay footage.

I played Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on the DS like I wanted. It's basically a text adventure, which I expected, but it's just odd for someone to bring that kind of game stateside. Phoenix is a young lawyer you just passed the bar exam and now as to defend his best friend from murder charges (conflict of interest?). The tutorial was pretty funny since the judge basically makes the player, as Phoenix, answer a lot of really silly questions, ostensibly because Phoenix has never done a case before. I didn't get far enough but Phoenix can later raise objections and all that other good court stuff in the middle of a case. I wonder about the replay value on this thing though. I'll possibly pick it up when it gets cheap. Oh, and I was able to play this game entirely with the stylus, which was actually a fun change of pace. It wasn't necessary, but I found it suited the style of gameplay very well.

<B>Natsume</B>

I somehow got here and didn't play a single Harvest Moon game at the show, probably because I don't think they translate well to the E3 experience even though I like them. I played the Harvest Toss game here and won a free t-shirt and a cow magnet. My t-shirt has Harvest Moon on the front and has a giant picture of a HM chicken on the back. If I'd been able to aim just a wee bit lower I would've gotten a plush too, but alas not this year. Last year I missed out on the cow plushes. I heard this year was a dog, but I didn't personally see anyone do well enough to win one.

<B>Sony</B>

Went back to West Hall really quite to pick up some magazines. While I was there I finally found the PSPs. Really small section. Didn't find anything interesting that wasn't at another booth (like Ys VI).

<B>Agetec</B>

Also in West Hall. Agetec doesn't even really have a booth; just a portable office with one monitor apiece for their upcoming games (so just two stations). I didn't bother going in and playing. And Wild Arms: Alter Code F is starting to look pretty dated judging by the footage reel they had running outside.

<B>Altus</B>

Ever since Atlus left West Hall they've relagated themselves to the upstairs of the convention center with all the meeting rooms, so going in their booth always feels like one's stepping into some backroom to do some shady dealing. They had Makai Kingdom as a playable and I think Samurai Western was playable too, but Magna Carta and Digital Devil Saga 2 (which was what I wanted to play) were in trailer form only. Riviera was even their. Nor Trauma Center, which is only the Nintendo booth even though Atlus is the publisher. I picked up a brochure, but otherwise I'm reminded why I haven't been by the Atlus booth in years. They make nice games, but quite frankly their E3 booths stink. Given their limited audience I'm not surprised they've chosen to have a subdued presence (fans reading a magazine can't tell if they were on the show floor or a backroom), but it's a little disappointing.

Tomorrow I have morning shift, so I'll probably miss out on seeing any theater stuff tomorrow. But I'll try to play more games!

[Rune Lai]

Friday - 5/20/05

I figured I'd be in for trouble when I woke up this morning and my feet were still sore from yesterday, but surprisingly it was not that bad. I had morning shift today so I was afraid I wouldn't get a chance to see any theater stuff today. I vanely attempted to snag tickets for a late showing at the Square Enix theater, but I could only go before the show started and Square had no employees manning the booth before the show opened so I couldn't plead sympathy for a late ticket since I had to work first shift today. Unsurprisingly there was already quite a line for the first showing of the day. Exhibitors are fans too so naturally those who didn't have to work first shift at their respective companies were already in line. (My coworkers did this at the Nintendo booth to get their Legend of Zelda t-shirts and playtime in with a bare five minute wait! Fans who got there later had to endure 2-3 hours waits!) Yes, there are benefits to working the show; getting to the choice attractions first is one of them.

Because I was on morning shift, I wasn't as tired this time, and because it's a shorter day on the last day, I didn't have to work as long. I only took one break today, though one of my coworkers was nice enough to tell me that Sega was giving away free t-shirts at just the right time so I skipped out of my booth to Sega's (just right across the way) to get a t-shirt that says GAMER on it in the Sega logo font. Alas they were completely and utterly out of PSU t-shirts. By today, pretty everybody that works with me knew I wanted one, and my friend at Sega confirmed that they ran out of the PSU t-shirts on the first day. I imagine they'll show up on ebay, but I'm not going to pay for something like that so I guess I'll just live without. It would have been a nice souvenier though.

I've been operating on little sleep these past few nights, so about half of my time off-shift today was spent passed out in my car or eating lunch (which was pre-packaged sushi yet again). I can't remember an E3 where I was so darn busy during my off time. I think it's because I'm playing games more than in previous years and also that I'm visiting people more; as I work in the industry I keep making new contacts and there's always somebody to eat lunch with or bump into and waste a half hour to an hour talking with. For instance, out of the blue today I met a fellow that works at a company we have dealings with. This company is in Maryland and I've only talked to this guy via the phone and e-mail before. And yet he pops up at E3 and I hadn't the slightest idea he would show. I don't think he knew whether I'd show either, but we killed a lot of time chatting. It's just odd getting to talk to him for so long about stuff that has nothing to do with work since you normally can't do those kinds of things when you don't have a face-to-face relationship.

I also bumped into an old coworker today, a pretty hard-driven fellow who clawed his way up from being a lead tester to a creative director at a small game publisher. He'd quit his job, which I was shocked by, since he'd always wanted to be able to make those kinds of shots, but he said he was tired of working for jerks so he's looking for employment elsewhere. It really must have been bad since he quit without having another job lined up so now he's unemployed. I still know five other people who work at that publisher, and I saw all of them at the show this year, and they seem to be okay, though they have a black sense of humor about being overworked and underpaid.

Since this was the last day I decided to make the most of it and try finishing up any attractions I could not get to before. As a result, my path today was criss-crossing all over the place and for the first time I utterly ignored Kentia Hall (the boonies as far as even moderately well known game publishers go).

<B>Nintendo</B>

No Zelda for me, and Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance proved too busy. I also figured that if I was pretty confident I would get the game anyway, I really should concentrate on the quirkier ones that I might want but wasn't sure I'd buy. With Fire Emblem I know what to expect. With Trauma Center: Under the Knife, I wasn't.

So I played the surgery game. Like Phoenix Wright, which I played yesterday, it's another modern day, text-driven game. I'm not exactly sure how the storyline will go (one increasingly complex surgery after the next?), but it was certainly different. I had a patient with a terrible tumor in his stomach, so to begin the operation I had to disinfect the surface of the skin, then make an incision. Then I had to run an ultrasound to locate the tumor, make an incision to cut it out, the patch the hole in the stomach with mesh, rub the mesh into place, etc. (I think somewhere along the line I had to inject something too. I guess my memory of this is why I'm not a real surgeon. ^_^) Each tool is a different button on the touch screen and everything is done with the stylus. Points are scored for efficiency in surgery and I thought I did well enough to do better than a C Rank though. Yes, surgeries are graded at their end. ^^; Maybe it was my crude suturing job. What I did with the stylus to suture that patient wouldn't have been allowed in the real world. My stylus made one big squigly. ^_^ Despite having played it, I'm not sure that I'll get this game. I still might, but I really have to know more of the story that fits in between the surgeries and how much the surgeries progress in complexity and diversity. This may be a pick-it-up-for-cheap title.

I also played Puyo Pop Fever, which was at the Nintendo booth despite having just come out. It was very much like earlier incarnations of itself. I remember it best as Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine on the Genesis. The gameplay is traditional Puyo Pop, though the Fever part is new to me. Now it can actually be dangerous to land combos since it filled your screen with a lot more... beans, for lack of a better name for them, as well. But your beans are in prime setup for a mega-combo to deliver even more damage to your opponent. I defeated the computer opponent handily, but I'd fear playing against another human being. That could get pretty crazy. I was thinking of getting this game since I hadn't played a puzzle game in a long time, but while I was playing it I found I was getting bored too. Maybe puzzle games just don't do it for me anymore.

Lastly I tried to play Lost in Blue, some game that my free Nintendo-power game called a survival-oriented RPG, though it didn't look like an RPG to me. I'd never heard of it before, but the game was locked up since someone had managed to force the main character into a wall so I ended up leaving without playing it.

<B>Sega</B>

Got in the theater today and watched the trailers for their new next-gen games. I saw Condemned for the Xbox 360, which I didn't like since it's not to my tastes. To be fair, it's supposed to be a unique blend of survival horror and FPS. There are no zombies or crazy monsters, but it still has the same creepy atmosphere and though it's first person it's not a trigger-happy twitch game.

Full Auto looked much better, and I'd probably play it if I was with a group of friends, but not by myself. I'm not into driving games, but this one looks like a good multi-player game, what with machine guns mounted on cars and tons of environmental destruction incidental to players shooting at each other.

I also saw my friend's game, Chrome Hounds, which I enjoyed watching even though I'll probably never play it. I love a well-designed mech, and for some reason while the regular giant robots don't always cut it for me, I have a special fondness for mech designs involving backwards-bending knees. The trailer didn't say much, but it looks like it's online squad-based mech fighting, which pretty much counts me out since if it's online it's probably heavily reflex-based and well my reflexes stink.

The rest of the trailers were from unannounced games and were mainly to highlight what's coming up in the far future. They had a tech demo of Akira and Jackie (?) from Virtua Fighter. Oddly enough, though the graphics were brilliant, they also highlighted the limitations that remain in the next-gen. Sure Akira's clothing now had actual folds and wrinkles all over the place, but when he jumped around and attacks his clothes didn't swing or rearrange themselves in reaction to his movements. I know that might be expecting a bit much, but the graphics have gotten to the point that I'm starting to expect that. After that came a jet game (probably Afterburner since Sega has no other jet franchise) that looks better than what I've seen in the latest Ace Combat, but not really stunning enough to be next-gen. The new House of the Dead looked much more gruesome though. I think if I play that at all, it may very well be the last House of the Dead I play. With the graphics being ratcheted up in the next-gen I might not be able to take playing anything even remotely horror-ish anymore. And of course the demo ended with a next-gen showing of Sonic the hedgehog, looking a little out of place in an environment more lushly rendered than he is. I suppose that may be a problem to address on the new systems. The trees and the clouds keep getting better. But when it comes to a character like Sonic, should he start having fur or continue being an oddly smooth creature with odd spikes sticking out the back of his head?

After the theater I played Shining Force Neo, just because I had to and I know people were disappointed it was an action/RPG. Really, all I did was slash, slash, slash, so it's a dungeon crawler pretty much. Maybe it's because I couldn't figure out how to get my healer friend to help me, but I really didn't feel inspired by it. PSU was better. The artwork is very nice, but that doesn't make up for lackluster gameplay.

<B>Konami</B>

By the time I had only a half hour of the show left, so I went to play the last DS game I really wanted to play, the one that was locked up at the Nintendo Booth; Lost in Blue. That's such an awkward title, and the survival RPG moniker didn't even sound right to me. I saw the trailer at the Konami booth and it looked more like an adventure game or a sim for lack of a better comparision. I really don't know what to call it at all, even after playing it.

It starts out with a boy washing up on the shore of an island after his ship is wrecked and shortly thereafter he discovers a girl also shipwrecked on the island with him. Apparently the game revolves around them having to survive on the island until they are rescued or manage to escape it on their own. But the twist is that the girl is practically blind. Her glasses are broken so she can barely see a thing. Much like in Ico, the boy has to take the girl's hand and lead her around. I assume that since she can't see well enough to fend for herself, the boy has to make sure he hunts, foragings, and milks (apparently they find a goat or some other animal later on) well enough that they both survive. The top screen is used for keeping track of their hunger, thirst, and temperature needs, and the bottom is for gameplay. I only played the first segment, but the foraging element really surprised me. I'm so used to renewable resources. After picking up a couple radishes and some raspberries the first day, I went out the second expecting that I could continue foraging in the same spots, but I couldn't. So I expect survival is really going to get harder and harder as time goes on as the boy has to go farther and farther afield to find something to eat. Apparently he can make spears, so there may be some sort of fighting too, but the demo didn't go far enough for anything of the sort.

I'm not sure where the story is supposed to go in this, but since there is dialogue between the two characters I'm sure there is a plot behind it. What little I've read about it hits at some sort of mystery being part of the story. Oddly enough neither of the two characters are named in the demo (their dialogue tags read ??? when they talk to each other) and perhaps that's some of the surprise.

In case, this odd game turned out to be the one that hooked me the most. More than anything else, this was the game I wanted to be playing when I got home today. It's the one that's sold me on DS. Fortunately, I can put off buying it until September since that's when this game's going to come out. ^^ I find it funny though that what winds up being the game I enjoyed the most happened to be the one I played last. It was fortunately timing too. Just after I finished the demo, the loudspeaker announced the end of the show.

<B>Missed Games</B>

There were several games I wanted to try, but missed the opportunity. Genji: Dawn of the Samurai looked like the action game I might have gotten for the year, but since I ddin't actually play it I probably won't now. It's based on the Tale of Genji, and being a lit-head I view that as a bonus. I also wanted to play Capcom's Okami, which I'd heard favorably about and one of my coworkers loved. And of course there was Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. I wanted to try both Castlevanias time permitting, but it didn't. I did see the Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow trailer again though while I was on break. I'm going to have to download that somewhere because I still love that anime sequence. Maybe I'm easily entertained. I also wanted to play both Harvest Moons: Another Wonderful Life and More Friends of Mineral Town, maybe even play the Harvest Toss game again for another chance at a plush, but alas.

<B>Disappointments</B>

No Dirge of Cerberus. Final Fantasy VII is not my favorite FF game, but Dirge of Cerberus looked good and I was hoping that would be the action game I would play for the year, but it wasn't playable and apparently was overwhelmed by everything else when shown in the Square Enix theater. I also found the amount of PSP games abysmal, and with barely a single RPG in sight. What games there are certain look good graphically, but I don't think the PSP is supposed to be selling itself as the N64 of the portables (good-looking games but smaller selection than the competition).

<B>Surprises</B>

Final Fantasy XII was completely missing from the show floor. Okay, I knew that ahead of time, but when there's a playable demo last year, and no demo this year, what kind of message does that send about the state of the game? It sounds like FFXII is in something deep. How could it possibly be in a state worse than the previous year? I also can't believe how much time I spent on the DS.

Well, that about wraps it up for this year. I'm tired, and tomorrow I've got to go back to work on fixing my computer.