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Well,
this week GamesFirst! will be featuring even more E3 coverage, this time
covering the PC side of the street. Over the next several days, Ill be
listing my E3 Best Ofs,
starting today with Best Party, Booth, and Awards Presenter, and ending
this weekend with my Best Games of E3 list. In the meantime, well
continue to preview this years upcoming PC and console titles from E3. Best
Party: Sega. Everyone at E3 knows that an E3 partys not an E3 party
until the GamesFirst! crew and/or Ice-T arrive, and both of us made the
Sega soiree, which thus qualifies it as a Significant Historical Event.
Even better, it was the rare E3 party that actually had enough room to
hold everyone invitedthough I did miss last years spectacle of
locked-out press and distributors rioting in the streets, or at least
bitching a lot. Most importantly of all, there was lots of free stuff to
eat and drink, which is like The Prime Directive when dealing with the
press. I swear, if Bobby
Knight had just provided plenty of spring rolls and Corona at his press
conferences, he wouldnt be having this little PR problem now.
Dreamcasts were located around the floor, and between brews and
schmoozing everyone got in some DoA 2 action. On stage, the Sega Space
Channel Five girls more or less danced, Ice-T played a little DC, and
Filter played a little music. Even
though Segas got to be daunted by disappointing Dreamcast sales (as of
this writing, the head of Sega Japan had quit due to this) their party had
an air of exuberant decadence about it that I could only admire. Whether
this is confidence or just fiddling while Rome burns, time will tell, but
it sure was fun. Biggest Eyeroller: When
Richard Patrick, lead singer of Filter, attempted to taunt the crowd by
sneering, So you think video games are important? It was a powerful
moment, and I was forced to confront my own warped priorities. Al was just
as moved, and we both decided then and there to give up video games,
learn kung fu, go back to med school, and become monk pediatricians.
Actually, Patricks sarcasm was lost upon members of the crowd, who of
course did think games important. On the other hand, the irony of
Patricks own position--that of MTV heavy rotation band pretty boy
playing for big bucks while espousing some sort of moral superiority--was
lost on no one. Except him, probably. Best
BoothPC: GoD Games Promised Lot. Most companies E3 booths are
located in the LA Convention Center, a vast conglomeration of
air-conditioned halls that hosts probably about a billion trade shows a
year. So when Gathering of Developers decided to stress their independence
by pitching their booth in the parking lot across the street, it signaled
more than a different locationit proclaimed an entirely different
attitude. For instance, you had to be 21 to get in, and they carded you at
the gate. The ostensible reason for this was because of all the free beer
and foodagain, a genius press relations movebut it was clear that
GoD also wanted to create an atmosphere of raunchy exclusivity.
Their booth babes were really scary, too; most companies hire
models who look sexy but sort of unthreatening, even while toting RPGsthey
usually look like the girl next door, if the girl next door dressed up in
polymer alien costumes. In the
GoD lot, it was just the reversethe girls who IDed you at the gate wore
schoolgirl outfits, but they also looked and acted like theyd kick your
ass if you tried to kite a fake ID by them. Most of GoDs young ladies
were both physically impressive and full of attitudemany sported tattoos
and piercings, which you seldom see at other booths. And 3D Realms Duke
Nukem girls showed more butt than James Cameron at the Academy Awards. And
oh yeah, in direct contravention of all LA etiquette, people actually
smoked cigarettes in the Promised Lot, and instead of the ambient
mall-like atmosphere of the convention center, the lot was hot and filled
with really loud bands trying to play over the noise of traffic. Games
were demoed in cramped Airstream trailers, and it was good to see dwarves
everywheredwarves dressed up like Kiss, dwarves
dressed up like Vikings, dwarves just hanging around acting surly. And
unlike most booths, where the PR folks hustled around with earphones and
clipboards like stressed Secret Service agents, the GoD PR people seemed
utterly unfazed by the spectaclegranted, they could never find anyone
you wanted to talk to, but they had a way of laughing it off that was
pretty endearing. Overall, the GoD lot had the feel of some demented
high-tech county fair sideshow; if they took this act on the road, every
kid in Indiana would run away with them.
Nobody wants every booth at E3 to be like this, but it was nice to
have one. Console:
Sega again. I didnt get to spend a lot of time in the West Hall (where
most console games are displayed) but the time I did spend there left a
lasting impression. Unlike South Hall, where many PC companies vie for
your attention, West Hall is dominated (as is the console market) by the
big three: Nintendo, Sony, and Sega. Each booth takes up an enormous
amount of floor space, and each has a very distinct personality.
Nintendos booth emphasized their unholy alliance with Pokemon;
everywhere you went, attentive young ladies were handing out Pokemon cards
and stickers and imploring middle-aged men to try some N64 game that
featured talking to Pikachu. Eh. And Nintendos color schemebased
upon the same primary colors found on the N64 logomade the whole area
feel like some futuristic preschool. Sonys area was the most disconcertingwhile
the PSX2 was one of the big stories of E3, there just werent that many
titles on display, and many of them seemed half-finished. The color scheme
was a little off-putting as wella sort of icy white, silver, and blue.
Mostly, though, the Sony area just didnt seem to be much fun. On
the other hand, Segas area was just one non-stop party. The Space
Channel Five girls danced forever, celebrities made raucous appearances,
loud techno-pop played nonstop, and gamers crowded around DCs. It was as
if George Clinton had planned it all. And by the way, where the hell is
that long-rumored Parliament/Funkadelic RPG? I mean, if Wu-Tang Clan gets
a game . . . Best Presenter at Interactive Achievement Awards: It has to be Harry Shearer, who presented the educational game awards while doing the voice of Seymour Skinner, erstwhile school principal on The Simpsons. The Awards were held at the Biltmore this year, and again we members of the Fifth Estate were primed with free liquor and food (though, much to Brandons dismay, no beer was served after the ceremony began). The Interactive Achievement Awards are the gaming industrys Oscars, and--even though the gaming industry rakes in more money that the movie industry--theyre a lot more relaxed and unpretentious. For example, nobody cares what Bruce Shelleys wearing or who Sid Meiers dating. And, of course, they did let us in. Martin Short did a pretty good job of hosting; his initial monologue was a hoot, but a Bill Gates skit later in the show was godawful. And the less said of the shows misbegotten virtual hostess, the better. As for the awards themselves, Brandon and I (who wagered on everything all weekend) managed to pick most of them, though a few of the choices seemed really weak. We agreed that both the PC and console Sports Game of the Year picks were wrong-headed (and should have gone to High Heat Baseball and Tony Hawks Pro Skater), and were floored that the mediocre life-simulator The Simsa game in which you can hardly blow anything up--was chosen Game of the Year. Acceptance speeches were blessedly short, especially those given by our Japanese brothers. Here are two of my favorites: Very happy. Thank you, and Super Happy. Thank You. Such eloquence is precisely why the Japanese start learning English when theyre nine months old. One of the best things about most of the presenters was that they obviously had no idea why they were there or what they were giving awards for. The Moment of Truth award goes to Delroy Lindo (recently of the Cider House Rules). After dutifully reciting a dumbass joke about how the only roleplaying he did was when his wife asked him to dress up like Duke Nukem, he cracked up laughing. I dont know who that is, he said. Great stuff, and the only awards ceremony Ive ever been to that I actually had fun at. |