Stay up-to-date via RSS!

I never thought I would attend this event before I was in the industry developing games, but there I was.
Two weeks earlier I didn’t realize I even had a chance, but thanks to some amazing people, the opportunity was presented to me.
(And here I thought my summer wouldn’t be very eventful.)

- View more photos here! -

Walking in, I was blown away by it alln -huge screens, crazy lighting, and giant logos proclaiming the presence of the many different developers and publishers I’ve come to know over the years. An artist whipped up art inspired by Epic Mickey for the growing crowd entranced by his speed and skill. I wish this game would be brought over to Xbox 360 and PS3 so players could experience the darkly beautiful world in HD. Just adjacent to this performance was the Ubisoft area featuring a private booth, as well as large area showing off their new fitness game that utilizes the X360’s Kinect called Your Shape. More exciting to me, however, was the display of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood which looked very slick. In this iteration, you have to blend in with the crowd, take out your target, then continue on going unnoticed which makes your role as an assassin feel more genuine.

Shortly after, I touched upon some consoles with Dead Rising 2 loaded up, and while it was entertaining, from the demo, nothing really blew me away. The Two Worlds II demo also seemed lacking, and I wasn’t thrilled with the combat. When executing, say a whirlwind attack, combat fragments. The camera shifts to a different angle, and while I guess this is to allow a up close and personal view of the havoc you’re wreaking, the cut away takes too long and makes for a sluggish experience. I hope they instill more fluidity into the system by the time it reaches launch.

My posse and I headed over to the Warner Bros. area and checked out the setup for Lego Harry Potter. There we saw an impressive construction of Harry Potter and the gang made entirely out of Legos. Poor Hagrid couldn’t fit into our group photo. There was also a station with various Lego character pieces to mix and match and take home as a souvenir.
I ended up with a frightened nurse lady and how that relates to Harry Potter, I don’t know, but it’s Legos! What’s cooler than that?

Apparently, the extremely crowded Nintendo floor. The lines for virtually everything there snaked around as everyone waited to get their hands on the 3DS and upcoming games such as The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Kirby’s Epic Yarn. We hopped into the line for the 3DS hands on experience and luckily babes with the devices tethered to them, made their way down it to give us a look at basic demo. The first part of it showed videos of real life footage, such as ripple effects, a party popper, and a baby chick.
Yer, I thought the last one was strange, too.
The next part of the demo included all of our Nintendo characters and allowed camera movement with the analog stick. This is where the 3D shined. Link’s sword appeared pop to out of the screen and there was great depth to it all – as long as the 3DS was positioned correctly. Unfortunately, turning it askew even slightly made the effect disappear and to some a little sick. It was still much more impressive than I expected, and was much better in and to my eyes than the solution Sony delivered.

Everyone has seen from the products being pushed and developed that Sony is putting its all on the 3D bandwagon. Their area at E3 reflected this through the dozens of 3D capable TV’s and games ready for our testing. Steven and I stepped up to try it out and on our screen, a racing game (who’s name was not worth remembering) was loaded up. With the 3D glasses off, the image was bright with brilliant colors, but on the game went dark. The 3D effect was nothing incredible and made my eyes hurt more than anything. For some reason, I was able to sit through Avatar in 3D with no problems, but this was a nuisance.

My god, summing up my one afternoon there is taking much longer than expected.
Part 2 coming soon.