Photos

As I write this entry, I feel like a lifeless corpse. Going to a bunch of E3 after-parties sounds great on paper (especially when one party promises thousands of tacos). But it also leads to incredible fatigue. Last night, I went to the Teknoglorious after-party, which was held in a factory in Chinatown. They had go-go dancers, an open bar, and a secret VIP lounge for people with wristbands. Nobody in my crew had wristbands, so we ran a diversion campaign and managed to sneak in. Of course, the only difference between the VIP lounge and the rest of the factory was a few boxes of pizza and some minor YouTube celebrities who seemed dazed and confused. Speaking of the go-go dancers, I thought they were the hottest thing since sliced bread. But the next morning, I checked the photos and actually felt kind of repulsed. Beer goggles is not a myth.

I spent the rest of today trying to stay awake. Coffee would have helped, but I neglected to get any because I had to go from one meeting to another. Thankfully, I was able to rest for a bit in the Target lounge. I have to give Target a lot of credit for setting up a booth solely to refuel people like me with free food and water. These two nice young ladies also helped clean my mobile phone and laptop in-between client meetings.

Below are the last batch of photos I took. They’re a bit random, I admit. Goodbye, E3. Perhaps we’ll meet again next year!

I’m posing with the Scarecrow from Arkham Asylum outside one of the exhibit halls.

Here’s a picture of some guys playing the new Goldeneye remake. In the new version, Oddjob can throw his hat for an instant kill.

I managed to get a better picture today of the Nintendo 3DS. Want.

Today, I was defeated by some guy who managed to pick Dante, Deadpool, and Wolverine: the three cheapest characters in the game. The demo doesn’t allow you to do ‘mirror matches’ so I got stuck with Captain America, Ryu, and Morrigan.

Some more MvC3 in the Sony presentation area.

Here’s the Capcom booth. Just like last year, Capcom’s booth was invite-only. So elitist.

Here’s a better shot of that zombie cosplayer I mentioned on Tuesday. I wonder how much he was paid to basically stand around in a cage and drool for three whole days.

Paul’s new favorite game is Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. There’s a multiplayer mode where you can stalk and stab each other while trying to dodge your pursuers. It’s like the college game ‘assassins.’

New Vegas was closed off to non-VIPs. But the Bethesda girls were nice enough to let me take a picture of them. Also, they gave me postcards. Anyone want one?

The dudes I work with: Michael and Paul. Now you have seen our faces.

A hot booth babe for Shogun 2.

Referees. Instant replay, please!

Another shot of the babe promoting Rift: Plains of Telara.

Hands down the hottest girl at E3 this year. But look at all the guys ignoring her in the back.

The girls promoting Forsaken World at the Perfect World booth. I think it’s interesting that the company has one game called Perfect World and another called Forsaken World. Perhaps their next game can be Ordinary World.

This girl was promoting the new free to play version of Company of Heroes.

Scary orc creature from Warhammer 20K.

Don’t mess with the Big Daddy from Bioshock.

A life-sized statue of the Little Sister.

Marvel vs. Capcom 3
I finally got a chance to play the game at the Microsoft booth today. It feels exactly like MvC2. Also, Dante is horribly overpowered. I know this because I was able all defeat all three of my opponent’s characters by spamming QCF and QCB attacks. I think fans will be very happy when they get their hands on it.

Epic Mickey
The camera still needs some work. But the use of the shoulder buttons to erase and paint levels is very cool. Something I noticed is that Mickey has a ‘dripping’ effect where he looks to be slowly dissolving.

Lara Croft
I got the chance to play the new Lara Croft game by Square Enix. The game feels like Gauntlet, and that’s not a bad thing at all. There’s something extremely fluid about the isometric perspective. I grabbed the controller and felt like a pro. I think a lot of the naysayers are going to be surprised.

OnLive
One word: excellent.

To promote Dead Rising 2, Capcom hired zombies to stand in cages and antagonize attendees. There were two zombies: a guy who really hammed it up (snarling, drooling, etc.) and a girl with a really hot body but acted very sleepy.

This shrine was outside the Koei Tecmo booth.

A Cylon at the BigPoint booth.

This hot ‘resistance member’ from THQ’s Homefront. When North Korea invades, all of us will be fighting back in bikinis.

THQ definitely had the most ornate displays. Here’s a marine from their Warhammer 40,000 games.

Here’s the same guy walking around.

These bikes are from Tron. But I only know this because I used to watch Family Guy.

These girls basically held up number signs while an audience watched the game’s trailer. Yawn. Later, some UFC stars signed autographs.

A girl wearing ornate armor at the Trion booth

A giant Pac-Man!

Hot girl at the SOE booth.

Yay, E3! This year is more crowded than last year. I noticed a lot more kids running around (with fake press passes) and a bunch of students from ITT Tech. I guess the definition of ‘industry’ is loose.

Nintendo 3DS
To my surprise, the 3D handheld code named ‘Nintendo 3DS’ ended up being called ‘Nintendo 3DS.’ The logo basically looks the same as the one for the DS, but with a red colored ’3.’ Oh well.

The device sports a clamshell design and basically looks like a classic DS when closed. The top screen is wider and displays 3D effects. The bottom screen is touch-enabled, but smaller. Another new addition is an analog stick that’s located above the directional pad. The line was way too long (1-2 hours) and I had meetings to attend. But I’ll hopefully test drive it in the next few days.

Castlevanias
I tested both of the upcoming Castlevania games: Lords of Shadow and Harmony of Despair. The former plays a lot like God of War. The demo starts in a village where you dispatch wolves. Later, you jump on a horse and fight creatures riding on wolves. I’d say this was the most wolf-filled demo I’ve ever played at E3.

The latter game is a multiplayer platformer that recycles old 2D sprites and weaves classic maps into a gigantic tapestry. It looks pretty great in motion. Up to 6 players can tackle the map together or compete for points. Considering Symphony of the Night would grind to a halt whenever Alucard so much as turned into mist, it was pretty amazing to see how smooth the gameplay of Harmony was, even with the map completely zoomed out.

Side story. After I finished Harmony, I turned around and saw that James the Angry Video Game Nerd was standing behind me with a camera. Every second of my game performance had undoubtedly been scrutinized.

Nintendo Games
Of course, I’m talking about Zelda: Skyward Sword and Metroid: Other M. The new Zelda game combines the more realistic Link seen in Twilight Princess with the cel-shaded style of Wind Waker. I haven’t seen too much of the game beyond the trailer. So I won’t pass judgment yet. As for Metroid: Other M, the gameplay is pretty great. The fear that the game would be an ‘on-rails’ shooter is rather unfounded. It looks and plays like Super Metroid, but with the ability to move along the y-axis.

Vindictus
I visited Nexon’s booth and played a little bit of Vindictus, which is known as Mabinogi Heroes outside of North America. The game looks great and features real time combat. In other words, this is an MMO where you don’t simply click on a monster and sit back for your character to do all the work.

Tera
This game was similar to Vindictus but had better dodging. The guy demoing the game claimed that their goal was to ‘eliminate the grind.’ Good luck.

Marvel vs. Capcom 3
I watched others play the game. It basically plays like Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, but with more buttons. Getting to play as Dante and Deadpool is pretty neat though.

Epic Mickey
The game world’s art style hasn’t changed much from the screenshots that were released a few months ago. But Mickey’s character model has been redesigned to make him look more modern and friendly. Namely, Mickey’s scowl is gone and his head is less bulbous.

4 Warriors of Light
This game is cute and classic. It also has a fast battle system. Essentially, it’s what the FFIII remake should have been. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the castle and so couldn’t enter the cave. I ended up wandering the country side battling imps until I got bored.

Goldeneye
I played a match against my colleagues in the Nintendo booth area. The game feels like the original N64 game, but easier to control. My character (Oddjob) can throw his hat for an instant kill. Also, Bond’s character model now resembles Daniel Craig. I asked the guy manning the booth whether players whether the single player campaign will remain intact, but with Daniel Craig. He told me that the story has been tweaked to better suit the new Bond’s more physical nature. For example, you can play the first level (which is the dam) but jump in a vehicle and mow down guards with a gun.

Disappointments
No news yet on the new Silent Hill game. Perhaps tomorrow. No news on Mistwalker’s The Last Story and Civ V. I think 2K Games was showing Civ V to VIPs only.