G-pinions

E3 is a fairly bizarre experience. On the one hand, it tries it's hardest to be taken seriously, with media relations booths and press kits everywhere. On the other, everyone who has ever seen a video game is allowed into the show, and the most knowledgeable person within earshot of a game is the accompanying booth babe. The 'appointments' that we had at the show were great though, and getting a demonstration of a game by someone who is actually working on it is an entirely different experience. Even the folks at EA were nice as can be, putting all of their black little hearts into convincing us that Godfather will be a good game. Oh, and we met Those Damned Machines. Good guys.

Another highlight for me were the conferences I attended; the first was "Think different and (still) succeed: Finding success with games that fall outside the familiar", with Ted Price (CEO of Insomniac - Ratchet & Clank) moderating and Jack Emmert (Cryptic Studios - City of Heroes), Tom Fulp (The Behemoth - Alien Hominid), Atsushi Inaba (Clover Studios - Viewtiful Joe, Okami), and Peter Molyneux (Lionhead Studios - Black & White, Fable) on the panel. Just seeing these guys in person was cool enough, but they were really informative and hilarious as well. The conference started out with Jack (wearing a cape) saying to Peter: "So, there wasn't really anything original in Fable, was there?". Hilarious, and Peter took it really well. I also enjoyed when Tom told us that a publisher had refused Alien Hominid because of it's "irresponsible" art style.

The second one was "Genre blending: Careening beyond the status quo toward new levels of innovation", moderated by Richard Rouse III (Surreal Software - The Suffering), with Lorne Lanning (Oddworld - Oddworld games), Yoot Saito (Vivarium - Seaman, Odama), Alex Ward (Criterion - Burnout), and Greg Zeschuk (Bioware - KOTOR, Jade Empire) on the panel. Alex was obviously really passionate about the games that Criterion makes, and spent a good ten minutes explaining why they're basing the new Burnout on golf, whereas the last one was based on bowling. He's also about as charming as Brits get, which kept the crowd (or at least Tom and I) quite entertained. When Richard asked the audience who knew what Odama was before asking Yoot a question, literally only Tom and I raised out hands, having played it earlier that day and the day before. Turns out said military pinball game is based on something that happened in Japan decades ago: a bunch of criminals holed themselves up in a mountain and barricaded the door, so the police ended up having to borrow a wrecking ball from the nearest construction yard to bash it in. The conference was more entertaining then educational, but it was definitely a nice break from the exhaustive floor, and seeing gaming celebrities is always fun.

Before I forget, the best moment of the entire show:

(I'm near the Insomniac booth, talking to Ted Price, CEO of the company that has created some of my favorite platformers ever, and is big shit)

Me: "So, did the Ratchet & Clank series influence the development of I-8 (PS3 exclusive) at all?"

Ted: "No, but.." (interrupted by Tom walking up)

Tom (to Me); "So guess who won the Jak X tournament?" (looks at Ted, deadpan) "Hey." (looks back at me smiling)

Ted: *starts walking away*

Suffice it to say, Tom doesn't know most gaming folk by what they look like, and apparently didn't question why the man I was talking to was wearing a suit. Hilarious.

Tune in tomorrow for my impressions of every game I played at the show. For now, the completed Katamari: