The Convention Center was not nearly as packed as I’d imagined it would be. There was a fair showing that afternoon, with people of every size and description milling about. I went to the badge check-in to pick up credentials. The man at the counter asked for a confirmation number, driver’s license, blood sample and proof of lineage back six generations. Yes, security was tight at the show; no nonsense was to be put up with from anyone. Chris arrived in a slight panic with Tony, Mike and Steve. For some reason, Mike was totally without a badge or confirmation number. I saw for a moment a future where no one went into the show for fear of alienating one of our own. Fortunately, it didn’t come to that. Through some quick thinking, Rich was able to scam a second badge from the ID counter. The one he was carrying belonged to someone from his office, and he simply registered in his own name. As for the all-important badge holder, Chris got in line at the opposite side of the station from which he’d registered, so as not to be recognized by the staff, and claimed that he’d misplaced his holder. Badges, it seems, were highly valued commodities, as there was talk of kids snatching them from people outside and darting off. We breathed a collective sigh of relief and made our way in to the main floor…
The show had the appearance of a bizarre professional wrestling tournament. There was a dark, weird ambience with flashing primary color spotlights circling the carpet. Uniformed cops patrolled the floor, looking more like male strippers than defenders of Justice. The InfoGames booth boasted a massive Survivor display, the theme music bursting out of hidden speakers. Our gang split up so as to allow everyone to see what he wanted; I followed Tony, having no clue as to where to begin. I trailed quickly behind, jotting illegibly into my pocket journal all the sights and wonders around me. Tony moved like a man on a mission, and, looking back on the notes, it’s as if I’d been doodling Richter scale readouts all afternoon…
We passed through Disney’s booth, taking note of their Monsters, Inc. and Atlantis games. The display was impressive enough, with large hairy creatures holding up monitors on which colorful fluid animations played out.
On our way through the maze of booths, we passed through a crowd of barking, grabbing men in front of the Logitech stand. A group of attractive young girls threw out grab bags and giveaways to the anxious, horny number. I got the distinct impression that the prizes were secondary to the people handing them out. The level of testosterone was a palpable, real thing. In the spirit of this sick display, Tony began yelling, “Take it off!” Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, no one heard him.
Tony was interested specifically in the Microsoft, Sony, and Sega areas, so we marched directly for them. The Microsoft booth was cast in an eerie green light. Their centerpiece this year was the much-awaited X-Box, a huge black monolith that has the appearance and mass of a VCR from the late seventies. Its controllers looked bulky with a radioactive-green circular display in the middle. If there was ever an argument for back engineering gone wrong, this was surely it. A “merchandise room” sat beneath a fortified meeting room. Admission was “by appointment only before 3PM”, so we were out of luck for at least another hour. There wasn’t a whole lot that struck either of us as promising, aside from The Simpsons: Road Rage, a kind of over-the-top version of Crazy Taxi. So we decided to check out the other companies and return later. Or not…
Our next stop was the Sega area. The first thing we noticed was the large number of people on the floor, watching the many flat-screen monitors that paneled the booth. I wondered if this was some kind of bizarre sit-in, or if, by coincidence, everyone had decided that Sega was the Official Rest Area of the convention. I followed Tony to the entrance of the booth, where a bouncer met us. Yes, a bouncer. He said that the inside was an “appointments-only” scene, and we weren’t on the list. Tony asked if there would be general admission at any point during the day. There wouldn’t be. I could see past the guard into the room, though not very well. There appeared to be couches on which people lounged with drinks as others circled the room, camcording a series of upright game stations. Tony and I lingered outside for a bit, settling for watching the demos for NBA 2K2, Toe Jam & Earl 3, and 18 Wheeler American Pro-Trucker before finally moving on…
The Sony area struck me as kind of scattered. The highlight for me was Final Fantasy X; although the people at the game stations seemed to be doing a lot of watching, rather than participating. I wondered why they were even handling their controllers. Most disturbing of all the games there was Barbie Explorer, or, as I like to call it Tomb Raider: Starring Mary Poppins. Tom & Jerry: War of the Whiskers provides an interesting take on fighting games with its 3-D characters partaking in the ultimate catfight. Sorry…
Nintendo’s booth was by far the most impressive and congested. I had to take mental notes on what I saw, as there was not even elbow room in there. Glowing blue cubes spun above the crowd of eager players who lined up to check out a dazzling array of new games. The Gameboy Advance looks to be the sure winner of the line; there were several stations where one could play the handheld unit and see a blown-up display on large monitors in front of them. I checked out Mario Advance, which is a nice throwback to Super Mario Brothers 2, only with slightly better graphics. Spyro: Season of Ice was equally impressive and fun, though it was a tad disorienting having to play a perspective-heavy game on such a small scale. To give some indication, Gameboy Advance reminds me of the Tiger handheld games from ten years ago, only more compact. The actual game cartridges are about a third of a credit card in length and almost as thin. A Star Wars: Rogue Leader demo decorated a large screen at the back of the booth. From what I could tell, this game is as close to playing a George Lucas movie as is humanly possible (with the benefit of an absence of mumble-mouthed alien sidekicks). The highlight of the booth was the debut of Luigi’s Mansion for the Game Cube. This Ghostbusters-style adventure is fun and funny and has some of the best 3-D cartoon graphics I’ve ever seen. The designers and artists skipped no detail in putting this gem together; from the accuracy of varying shadows on the walls to the way the “camera” transitions through different rooms of the haunted house. One even has the option of switching the functions of the controller to allow for easier, more efficient playability.
The game cube itself is nice and compact. Its design is simple, as opposed to the X-Box. Granted, the X-Box features DVD capability as well as some other nifty bonuses, but the inconspicuous design of the Game Cube makes it more of an attractive unit.
We stopped our browsing for a while and settled down in the food court. We were accosted by a pack of rabid thieves who stole five bucks from each of us, leaving only a small cup of soda and a muffin in their wake. During this sojourn in Rip-off Land, we talked about the show. Tony, who has been to E3 in the past, said that things just weren’t measuring up. There seemed to be no absolute standouts around which a “buzz” could be heard. Also, there was a dearth of literature at each of the companies. Whereas it used to be that flyers and magazines and deluxe brochures were tossed about everywhere, we had a miniscule collection, mostly from smaller companies. While people watching during this discussion, I saw more folks with camcorders videotaping game screens and monitors. To me this seemed like an impatient, pointless activity; like taking a Polaroid of a sitcom on TV. At one point we spotted a man going into the food court who appeared to be smuggling several hundred Game Cubes in his pants. As it turns out, he was simply a die-hard couch potato…
Back on the floor, we encountered the Take 2 Interactive booth. I cannot remember a time when my jaw has been as firmly rooted to the ground as when I saw State of Emergency. The game features a gang of disenchanted black youths running around a city, beating, looting and gunning down tons of innocent people. The brochure for the bloodbath claims that the main characters are simply trying to “incite the public to revolt” against “a single oppressive regime” that has taken over the world (it seems to me that the regime is the new Bush administration, but, back to the Facts…). It turns out that Take 2 specializes in this kind of Down With The Establishment “entertainment”, with games such has Grand Theft Auto 3, Mafia, and Max Payne. I left the place with a bad taste in my mouth, likely a gut reaction to the bad taste on the screens before me…
On the way back to the Sega booth, my friend and I wandered into the middle of a photo shoot where six gorgeous women in black dresses were getting down on their knees for some reason. We quickly stepped out of the way, relishing briefly what can only be described as a Robert Palmer Moment…
The last leg of our E3 odyssey involved revisiting the Sega fort. Tony was determined to get a look at whatever was so top-secret about their games. We staked out the area, keeping a close eye on the people coming out of the back door. The idea was to approach a friendly-enough couple of people and ask if we could borrow their Special Credentials for a few minutes. The pickings were indeed slim. The suit-and-tie set was risky due to our fear of being ratted-out; the larger groups of gang-banger types seemed downright unapproachable; and everyone else moved too fast. Finally, we settled on a couple of bespectacled tech-heads. Tony made the initial move as I followed uncertainly behind. Both guys refused to help us with the scam and seemed to take much joy in holding over our heads the fact that they had something that we wanted. Their taunting snobbery made my blood boil, but neither Tony nor I pressed the issue too much. In the end, we decided that a quiet departure was the order of the day…
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