G-pinions

It took until a mere 90 minutes was left of my 24 hour E3 experience, but I am finally updating live from the show floor. I had to do some pretty shady things to acquire both a computer and the ability to connect to my readers through the wonders of the internet, so you better be mighty appreciative of my efforts.

Though I was planning on writing about my entire E3 experience, including what the show is actually like (believe me, whatever you're picturing right now is wrong) as well as impressions of every single game I got my hands/eyes on, after spending the last two days at the show I was feeling disheartening, to say the least. I realized, after listening to the marketing pitch every company is dishing out and seeing what I will be playing, potentially, during the next year, that I am just a tiny segment of the video game market. My tastes are so streamlined at this point that I am even less a factor in the industry than the lame gamers who only play EA Sports titles and the latest GTA clone. Of the hundreds of games I saw on the showfloor only a handful were worth a second look and, of those, only a few are games I'm actually going to buy.

While I try to diversify my gaming interests by owning all the consoles and trying to play every game I can, I really can't shake my love of Nintendo. If you take away the tasty upcoming games for the Gamecube and Nintendo DS (sadly, the GBA had nothing of interest showing) there are only four games on the showfloor I actually want. On the Sony side there is We Love Katamari. I mentioned this in my previous posts but have no qualms pimping it again. It's the same game as lasts year's classic, but, since the first game was so short, I will gladly shell out $20 for more levels and songs. The co-op mode is most likely completely useless. Unless you are 100% in tune with the person you're playing with you're likely to get frustrated in a hurry. Nothing ruins the flow of Katamari more than wanting to pick up a row of hats, saying you want to pick them up, and still watch as your Katamari rolls right on by. The single player is just as quirky as ever, though, so I will happily preorder this one again and pick it up day one.



The other non-Nintendo games I want are all made by Rare. Disappointing that neither Sony nor Microsoft was able to deliver any other games worth my money, but that seems to be the case. I'm obviously going to buy Conker next month. I only played about 10 minutes of the game the last few days - five minutes in single player and five more in multiplayer - so I didn't actually learn anything new about the title. I did learn that, despite some weird control choices such as hitting L2 to jump in multiplayer, the game feels perfect. The biggest problem with the original was the sometimes imprecise controls. With those fixed along with amazing graphics (second best this generation behind Zelda) and a more in-depth multiplayer mode (with bots!) this should keep me occupied for quite some time.

The other two Rare games that I want I didn't actually get a chance to play. I watched a few demos of Kameo and, even though it's not that innovative, it still looks like a lot of fun. Plus it has a co-op mode. I figured it would work like Jet Force Gemini or Sonic 2 where the first player controls just about everything while the second player merely tags along. Thankfully, Rare is dishing out real co-op. Two Kameos playable at one time, complete with Toejam and Earl style split screen. Should be fantastic.

Despite Perfect Dark Zero being a complete no show I still desperately want it. Enough to buy the system on launch day? Probably not, especially with Zelda coming out right around that time. But I will need to buy an Xbox 360 just to play these two games, along with Halo 3 and whatever else Rare comes out with. Man, life was so much easier when Nintendo owned Rare. Then I didn't have to worry about these other consoles with only a handful of games I care about. I really thought Microsoft would try to diversify their lineup with the next generation, but, at least according to the games announced, they are making the same frickin' games again. Aside from their sports lineup, Kameo is the only title that doesn't feature brutal killings and a lot of death. Do they really think they'll grow by only offering WWII sims and first person shooters? Do they simply not want women to buy their consoles? Are they trying to create an army of maladjusted sociopaths who will wage war against all who oppose MS?

I'm not going to bore you with my take on must-own Nintendo games. You can guess the list (Zelda, Mario Kart, Mario and Luigi 2, New Mario Bros, Odama and Nintendogs) and I think all of their names carry enough weight that anyone who cares can immediately understand why I will be buying them all the second they come out and desperately need a Nintendo DS. What I will tell you is how I spent my day today. Just like always, Nick and I planned on getting to the convention center a little before the show actually started (9am) so we could avoid the long lines popular attractions always accumulate. But we were late (my fault I assume. Damn contact lenses) and showed up a few minutes after 9am. Big mistake. I don't know where Nick disappeared to, but I ran off to the Nintendo booth to get in line to see Zelda. Even though the game is completely playable to everyone who attends the show, without even needing to make an appointment, you have to wait in a huge line to get the pleasure of playing what will surely be the best game of the year. How long of a line you ask? Well, I got in my spot at 9:05 and actually entered the Zelda room at 12:50. That's right, 3 hours and 45 minutes in line and not one regret. The game is that good.

And, I was able to stay in that world for an hour. About twenty minutes of that was spent playing the game, with the rest spent waiting in smaller lines to play them and simply staring in awe at their setup.


It's like walking through the forest temple


You could actually interact with this light display on the ground


A knight runs through the crowd


What's this? A jail cell?


A figure emerges


Ah! It's a Stalfos Knight!


And he's moving!


How beautiful. A full moon and a wolf on a wall.


AHHHHHH!

Best booth ever. And easily the best game I played at the show. I spent 10 minutes riding a horse, trying to wrangle goats into a barn and it was more fun than anything else at the show. Just a fantastic experience.

One more note about games and then I have to show you my prized photographs. Nintendogs is the cutest thing ever. Maybe literally. I only played it for five minutes but I was audibly "aw"-ing at the adorable virtual dogs on screen. If the plethora of interesting titles didn't already sell me on this portable, I would gladly buy a NDS just for this game. It's that good.

Now, the real reason I'm updating.


Tom and Link become best friends


I love you too Ty

Not only that but I have a Polaroid with each character as well. My life is complete.