Thursday, 19 May 2005
Our first day at E3 was hectic, but also interesting. We arrived early, but within a short period of time the convention center was buzzing with activity and swarms of people moving in every direction. The first thing that strikes you is the sheer volume of displays on the convention hall floors. The larger exhibitors like Sony, Microsoft, and Take2 have displays that sprawl over huge areas and come in every conceivable shape, size, and design. It also becomes instantly obvious that many of these exhibitors spent some serious cash on these displays as most are very flashy and sport state-of-the art displays. Many have also had custom platforms built so that press members and other visitors can sit down and play the games on display in style. Some went so far as to have head-to-head and LAN systems set up. Massive numbers of people wait in long lines (3 hours or more) to take the more eagerly awaited titles for a spin.
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| U.S. Navy Seals battle against gamers from the audience in SOCOM3: US Navy Seals |
The main hall is buzzing with activity as thousands of gamers check out the latest offerings |
Much of E3 is about flash and style. The exhibitors obviously want to catch the attention of the press members and they spare no expense to do exactly that. In fact, there is so much going on and so much activity on the convention hall floor that the whole experience can be a bit of a sensory overload after a few hours. The sights and sounds of thousands of gamers playing every conceivable game together in one place is quite unique.
One of the first things that struck us was just how many war-themed shooters were being displayed at this year’s event. It seems like everyone has decided to create a WWII or modern FPS. In fact, there were so many new titles of this kind to preview it can be a little bit difficult to keep track of what is what.
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| Armchair General publisher Eric Weider poses beside a WWII bunker complex |
The folks from GameSpot were very visible and had a first class setup on the convention hall floor |
After a brief stop at the cafe court and a much needed shot of caffeine, we continued our fearless exploration into the depths of the gaming industry.
GameSpot certainly had one of the most impressive displays from the press side of the house. They had an entire team of folks updating and writing material while GameSpot personnel interviewed selected individuals from various game development teams. It was a very professional setup and shows just how far a game website can really go if the people running it have the drive and innovation to keep going.
We met a number of key people from various organizations like CDV’s Mario Kroll and the team from The Wargamer. The folks at NovaLogic were very kind to us and gave us an in-depth preview of some interesting new material from Delta Force: Black Hawk Down. The gameplay was fast and furious, but the AI opponent seemed to use its troops somewhat recklessly, which may not be entirely incorrect given the subject matter. This one is not quite finished yet, so there may be significant changes prior to the release of the final version.
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| Brian King was temporarily captured by some of the natives, but was eventually liberated |
Press agents were asked not to take photos of Call of Duty 2, but here is a shot of game display |
That wraps up our E3 2005 coverage for today. We’ll be back tomorrow with more specific information from individual games and developers from a variety of different genres.
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