E3 Day 2, 2004

E3 Virgins, by Matthew
‘BreakmanX’ Nyquist

Ever since hearing about it, E3 has been little more than a
pipe dream to me. Something I dreamed of going to. The same way I dream about
visiting Hyrule, Coruscant, and the X Mansion. This year that dream came true.
Now that I am in a position where I can go to E3, I want to show you all the
things I always wanted to see before.

I just kind of stood there and pointed at it for awhile.. with
a goofy grin on my face.

Richie did his own way of pointing, as I still couldn’t take
my eyes off of it. (BTW, sports fans, the Staples center right next to it
is where the L.A. Lakers play.)

Shadow joined in with a goofy grin of his own.

Looking up before entering this mammoth building, my adrenaline
began to pump and excitement filled me from head to tow. I immediately forgot
about my lack of sleep…

And how could I with that big bottle of Mountain Dew that the
Nintendo booth babes decided to hang around.

The first thing you see when you walk into E3 is this big room
that directs you to the different parts of the buildings. Interestingly enough,
industry veteren and EGM editor-in-chief Dan Hsu walked in right behind me.
An odd feeling for me, but one I got used to as the day wore on.

After we checked in, I headed towards the Media Center to attempt
to upload all of the video we had accumulated from Microsoft and Nintendo’s
press conferances. As had happened in the hotel room, the bandwidth just wasn’t
there to get them up. I’m going to keep trying with this, but it might have
to wait till I can get back to a more stable internet connection. Either way,
the DVD will have everything on it anyway. Besides me you can see Shadow showing
off his E3 badge.

After leaving the E3 media booth our first stop was with Chris Lucich of
bam!entertainment who is producing Bujingai. We got a rather extensive interview
with him on the subject, and he guided us through the important points of
the game. This was a surprise for me, and a rather pleasant one at that. After
playing it for a good 20 minutes or so the inevitable Ninja Gaiden comparisons
starting coming to me. Comparing first 20 minutes of both games, I did enjoy
Bujingai a lot more. Yes, I liked this game better than Ninja Gaiden,
deal with it. Combining martial arts moves from just about every movie, star
studded development team (Cowboy Bebop team members, the produces we interviewed
worked on Shenmue and Panzer Dragoon,) some of the most cinematic gameplay
I’ve ever seen, the best Ps2 graphics I’ve seen, and the ability to have the
game create a trailer of what you’ve done at the end of the leves just makes
this game a must play. Really guys, you’ll like it. Richie was quoted as saying,
“I don’t give a shit about Ninja games, and I liked
this game. That says something.

After this private meeting, we took off for the main show floor. Where a
familiar big red sign caught my attention. I stared in amazement at all the
games I wanted to play. Interestingly enough, the booth babes actually know
about what they are standing by (the games not me) which really surprised
me.

I immediately wanted to take a look at the Ds…

Richie holding the DS stylist.

As you can see from the above shots, it is an extremely interesting system.
I shot video of us playing some multiplayer Metroid with the gamespot guys,
and you really have to see it in action to understand the full magnitude of
motherfucking-rockitivity we are dealing with here. I love it, and it is my
most anticipated thing from this E3.

Below are some people playing some of the new Pokemon game at the Pokemon
booth.

Donkey Konga is this hip rythm game by Nintendo that was one of the most
fun things at the show. Think guitar freaks with bongos.

Metroid Prime 2.. Dark Samus.. YAY!

Mega Man Command Mission for GameCube. Playing this Mega Man RPG gave me
a slight feel as to how this game will play. The move system is interesting
and is determined by a combination of buttons you can hit to change your move.
Hopefully, this can breathe some new life into the aging Mega
Man series.

Star Fox multiplayer was as fun as it was on the N64 except excellently adapted
for this generation. I was worried about this one, but all my fears were lead
to rest when I played it. It fucking rocked.

Yet another game to make my eyes eide.

As we walked away Richie got a nice show of the other part of the Nintendo
booth.

Killzone display…

Killzone crashing right as I got there.. you can even see me laughing in
the TV reflection. As well as the poor Sony guy trying to fix it right below
the TV.