E3 Summary: impressions & conclusions from the show

[hankwangford]

Resident Evil 4 was Game Of The Show (TM). It's such a huge departure from the original series and it's come more or less at the right time (Resi 0 was perhaps the only title too far IMO). Other eyeopeners for me are Conker, Forza Motorsport, Odama, Outrun2, Burnout 3 (WOW), Ghost Recon 2, and there are more. Oh, and Metal Gear Acid on the PSP - ZING!

Best E3 since the Saturn days.

[Adam Stone]

Metroid Prime 2, Resident Evil 4 and the revealing of Zelda were my highlights this year. Though I was really impressed with the DS also. I didn?t really care too much about it before hand, however now am desperate to get my little paws on one.

I finally got round to downloading a nice selection of game play footage of Metroid Prime 2 yesterday, as well as reading IGN?s Round Table. It looks and sounds absolutely stunning. Metroid Prime is a personal favourite of mine so i was always going to be excited about Prime 2, however wasnt quite prepared for just how impressive it is. The Light/Dark worlds will provide an incredible selection of game play abilities, a unique twist to the weapons and enemies. Also it has been mentioned there will be more cut scenes to describe the deeper story (and from what ive seen these look utterly delicious. All using the in-game engine, samus and the environments look stunning) new visors which will ?surprise? and some truly intense puzzles. My most wanted and the game of the show for me...

Resident Evil 4 still doesn?t fail to shock, amaze and enlighten with its truly unbelievable graphical goodness and its stunning twist to the franchise. The Resident Evil team clearly have gone the extra mile with RE4. There?s no doubt they are pouring their hearts and souls into this title. The new trailer has increased my anticipation dramatically. Cant wait...

and Zelda? 2005 is gonna be a long wait

Other delights were of course the DS, Paper Mario and Halo 2. Im not interested at all about the PSP sadly? meh.

Overall, a fantastic E3. But both thumbs go up for Nintendo this year.

[delb3k]

So, another E3 is done and dusted, and once again it all feels a bit flat. The show seems to have been bominated by sequel upon sequel so far with few new ideas being banded about. Dont get me wrong, games like viewtiful joe 2, burnout 3, halo 2 and so on have perked my interest but where is the standouts, the games that set themselves apart from the rest?

Added to that the fact that there was very little new news, the internet has taken quite a lot away from E3 due to its ability to get the latest information around fast. All we really saw were games that we knew of and I cant remember anything popping up in this forum that either I did not expect or came as a genuine shock.

On the plus point the demonstration of new hardware is always a good thing and the both nintendo and sony did a resonably good job in demonstrating their new machines, although it looks to me like the DS is already struggling graphics wise compared to the PSP.

Still, we shall see what the future brings, hopefully there will be more surprises that none of us know about yet!

[Geoff D]

I enjoyed it once again - some great titles on show; particularly Metroid Prime 2, VJ2 & Paper Mario 2 making me want to do a sex wee in my pants.

The advent of new handhelds will be interesting - both look reasonable, although I'll need to get hands on before being truly impressed.

Good stuff - shame there was no Nico, but I'm sure that'll surface at some point in the future.

[Jakeway]

Well for me E3 was the same as it always is. I sit in my room scanning the net and am disappointed, overjoyed and interested in a number of things? usually more disappointed but this year they were pretty equal.

Overjoyed
Games ? Zelda, Wow but I will sort of miss the CS look. Out Run 2, Yes! I just hope that it sells well.

Interested
DS ? Most people seem to think this was a let down, but with two screens a microphone and wireless technology Im sure something good is going to come out of it. Also some of the Mario64DS screens look fantastic. I don?t think it will rival the PSP very well? but was it meant to? Im sure the next GBA will do that.
PSP ? Looks great, but Im a bit worried about the 2-10 hour battery life quote, that?s a big time gap, which makes me, think that in stand by it will last for 10 hours and in game it will last for 2. With all these new portable games I wonder if I will ever complete them on Bus and Train trips.

Disappointed
Sega ? I was so hoping for Shenmue 3 or Virtua Cop 3? Oh well. Since they?ve gone third party they haven?t really had many great games.
Nintendo - Where was Mario 128?

All in all I think that Nintendo stole the show, they have a lot of great games coming up.

[rjpageuk]

but was it meant to? Im sure the next GBA will do that.

Am I alone in thinking the DS is the next GBA?

[Crispin]

No you're not alone rjpageuk. Let's see: backwards compatible, a generational leap in power (from SNES to N64), wi-fi, the indication that Nintendo are working on the Nintendo Revolution (how many consoles/handhelds can you develop at one time).

Yeah, this is the successor. It's a worthy succesor as well.

[MonkeySteve]

One of the best E3 shows for many a year imo. Some of you say there was a lack of surprises, but what do you expect when you're scanning round the internet every day hunting for little tidbits about the games that may/may not be shown? Next year, don't visit any game sites for a month before the show, and see how you feel then. Anyway, I digress....my highlights were:

Nintendo DS - Ok, so the initial games line-up may be a bit disappointing to some (not me) but the potential is most certainly there, and it's so refreshing to see a company put their balls on the line and try something a little different. The enthusiasm that Nintendo are showing for trying to re-energise the industry is a pleasure to see.

Conversely, the PSP was a big disappointment. The ability to play slimmed-down PS2 ports? Or watch a movie on a tiny screen with sub-standard sound? No thanks.

Outrun2 - The arcade version is awesome, and this looks like it's gonna be just as good.

Zelda GC - I've only seen the trailer, but that's enough to get me excited. I loved OOT, I loved Wind Waker, and I'm sure this one won't disappoint.

The Gamecube line-up as a whole really impressed tbh. Some may be sequels, but that still didn't quash my excitement. The thought of playing new Metroid, Paper Mario, Viewtiful Joe, Resident Evil, as well as Advance Wars, Geist, and Killer 7 is just great.

[Jakeway]

Am I alone in thinking the DS is the next GBA?

No, Im sure they said there will be a new GB when they make the GC successor.

[rjpageuk]

No, Im sure they said there will be a new GB when they make the GC successor.

Yeah they did, but I cant really see them releasing another handheld, can you?

The DS plays GBA games even...

[PeteJ]

E3 highlight - going

Opperation Flashpoint was there on the Xbox by the way, and it plays almost exactly the same as the PC version. The demo was a bit easy for anyone who has played through the PC one, but it brought back some great memories of what is, in my opinion, the finest war FPS ever made. Graphics are similar to the 3 year old PC version, but slightly cleaner and the animation of characters is more realistic. Movement is also improved, feeling less jerky than the PC version.

I noticed on the main menu there is support for Xbox Live and System Link, which is ace. The two demo pods were meant to be linked up but because there seemed to be no interest in the game I just tried it single player.

I'll be writing up my impressions of the show for the main site probably tomorrow (too tired today), so I don't want to go into too many details, but here are a few of my highlights:

Good.

Burnout 3:
omfg

Biohazard 4:
omfg

Killzone:
omfg

Xbox and RPG:
Finally, the Xbox is getting some top drawer RPG's. All the big names had excellent demos.

Hack 'n slash genre:
Devil May Cry fans, your time has come...

Nice people on stands:
Burnout 3, KillZone, Kingdoms Under Fire, Fable, Jade Empire, Full Spectrum Warrior, Half-life 2, every Nintendo game - your reps were incredibly helpful and had no problems in answering my questions and even asking me what I thought of the game. It was nice to talk to them since they were so pleased with what they had created, and they deserved to be.

Winning:
By the end of the show I thought I was a gaming god. I was beating demos left right and centre when others gave up early on. Muahaha.
I also got thrashed at Metroid Prime 2 in multiplayer

Bad parts

Half-Life 2:
Why did I wait an hour and half to see a 5 minute video that I could have downloaded? Oh well, I got to see the Namco girls present their Time Crisis Challenge, which was quite amusing. I got a free HL2 t-shirt though. Yay.

Driv3r:
God damnit, can't you go any faster?

Metal Slug Advance:
Worst. Game. Ever.

25 to life:
GTA clones everywhere

GT:
GT clones everywhere, so many I couldn't tell them apart.

Waiting:
90 minutes for Half-life 2 was nothing, try the DS line that wrapped around the Nintendo booth so many times it was impossible to find out where the end was. I rushed there at 9am on the second day and almost every Sony\ Nintendo game was empty (they were next to each other), but the DS line was already massive. PSP line was also big, but you could actually see the thing by standing at the side anyway - by zooming in on my camera I could read most of the bumph they had put next to it. All they had done was selotape a PSP on a wall anyway, which was a bit pathetic.
Massive lines for Splinter Cell 3 (though they had an impressive trailer running outside), Doom 3 on the PC and for the Square video also.
The MGS3 trailer was 'open plan', so all you had to do was turn up on the Konami stand on the hour to watch it. Much better planning, at least from my point of view.

Halo2:
Sob. I just wanted to play

Pain:
I left the show on the first day with the worst headache of my life. I actually felt like my brain was about to dribble out of my head.

Crap at games:
The amount of people who suck at games was staggering. I waited ten minutes watching someone struggle badly at Viewtiful Joe 2 yet refused to give up. He worked out he had to slow down time to make a platform slowdown, but god damn he couldn't even jump onto the thing. ten freaking minutes...
On the plus side so many people sucked at Outrun 2 that I got the high score on one of the xboxs. Can you say "completed on first go when taking the hard route"? I can. Wh00p.

Not very nice people on stands:
Driv3r, The Getaway 2, everyone at Codemasters - your reps were very grumpy and looked like they really didn't want to be there.

Wake up call:
Getting reminded that I do actually suck at games as I lose badly to the Nintendo girls at Metroid multiplayer, as I suck at Biohazard 4, as I suck at Second Sight, as I suck at...any game that isn't an FPS.

Did I enjoy myself at the show? Heck yea.

[Prine]

Aminion what did you think of Fable? Read reports that said it was good and bad

[PeteJ]

Fable was good and about what I had expected. It controlled well and the combat was good enough. The graphics weren't all that amazing though, to be honest. I didn't get to play it as much as I'd like though as there were so many people standing around that area (Jade Empire and Doom3 were right by it and there was very limited space).

Both Jade Empire and Doom were good by the way

[Geoff D]

Metal Slug Advance:
Worst. Game. Ever.

Sounds ominous - really that bad?

[E. Randy Dupre]

No, Im sure they said there will be a new GB when they make the GC successor.

Yeah they did, but I cant really see them releasing another handheld, can you?

The DS plays GBA games even...

My totally speculative answer, based purely on guesswork: They're not confident that the DS will compete successfully against the PSP, or even sell particularly well (weren't there comments along the lines of "we suspect the vast majority of people won't understand what we're trying to do" when the idea was first announced?), so they're covering their backs.

Nintendo live off the GameBoy series. If they brand the DS as a GB and it flops, they'll have sullied the name. So they're testing the waters - they don't want to forever damage the trademark, but they feel the need to try and see Sony off. If the DS takes off, we won't see a new GB for a good while. If it doesn't, they'll go back to the drawing board and try again.