The Gameodactyl at E3: Part 2 of 2

Alright, I’ve had plenty of time to rest and recuperate. Time to get some things off my chest.

First of all, E3 this year was a decent size. It wasn’t overblown, open-to-everyone-and-their-mom, aisles-crowded-with-breasts-for-hire like in 2005. It also wasn’t the meet-in-airport-hangars-and-hotel-lobbies fiasco of 2007. As I believe I said in the podcast, this year’s E3 was Goldilocks-style “just right.” I hope that future E3 expos stay at roughly this size. Maybe a LITTLE more third party publishing action, and bringing back Kentia Hall, I could go for that. Just for laughs.

What really bummed me out about E3 this year was the lack of anything that “wowed” me. To be honest, the most exciting things I saw on the floor were things we’d known about for some time now: MASS EFFECT 2, ALPHA PROTOCOL, and ASSASSIN’S CREED 2 all looked decent to me. But they weren’t shockers. The most shocking announcement was probably FINAL FANTASY XIV, but the details are so sparse, that again, I didn’t have much to get pumped about.

I spent some time at the back of South Hall to check out the Indiecade finalists. Among the games there, the two that wowed me most were CLOSURE (a puzzle game) and PAPERMINT (a social MMO). The former won me over because it was a great, addictive, deceptively-simple puzzle game; the latter won me over primarily for its art style.

Trying to represent three different web publications while at E3 is also a very difficult balancing act. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, though I found out while I was there that many of my acquaintances were doing the exact same thing. Something about the economy and taking whatever you can get…

I have a lot of hope for Harmonix’s upcoming games, THE BEATLES: ROCK BAND and ROCK BAND UNPLUGGED. I also think the new Batman game, BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM, has a lot of potential. The playable demo on the show floor was lengthy, and it didn’t take long for the difficulty to ramp up big-time. Short, simple, satisfying beat-em-up mechanics are blended with the need to hide and play stealth really well. Being able to grapple-hook to virtually anything above you helps with this, but if they spot you in the sky, you may as well come down. I got shot to death while hanging out on a gargoyle statue. Whoops.

Lots and lots of upcoming MMOs out there. The most exciting ones on the radar, in my opinion, are JUMPGATE: EVOLUTION and CHAMPIONS ONLINE. Publisher “Perfect World” tried to get a lot of attention at this year’s show, and I wish them well, but I’m not really drawn in by most of their games. ETHER SAGA might be fun, but it’s still too cookie-cutter-cute for my tastes (says the Tarutaru in FINAL FANTASY XI).

Other than that? I guess I’ll let the pictures do the talking. I finally registered a flickr account, just for this occasion! Click this link to check out 40+ pictures from the show, taken by yours truly.

Gameodactyl, signing off.