E3, or the Electronic Entertainment Expo, is heaven on earth for video game nerds the world round. After all, what more could you ask for than a chance to play the newest, hottest, unreleased games, have your picture taken with unattainable, attractive, scantily clad models and see Lance Bass from *NSYNC all in one place?
The heart of E3 is really the games, and this year there was no shortage of jaw-dropping titles. Being a member of the media, I was granted access to attend Microsoft’s pre-E3 press event, where they debuted the first-ever playable footage of “”Halo 2,”” eliciting a response said best by Neo in “”The Matrix””: “”Whoa.”” By now the “”Halo 2″” video should be on your favorite gaming news Web site, so stop whatever you’re doing right now and download it. From dual-wielding assault rifles to hijacking enemy vehicles, “”Halo 2″” will have something for everyone, and when you factor in Xbox Live! support, who really needs the models?
Speaking of the models, the most enjoyable show of models came from Tecmo Inc., creators of “”Dead or Alive 3,”” a popular fighting game and “”Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball.”” Their booth was home to what they termed a “”live-action fashion show,”” which consisted first of the models appearing in their “”DOA 3″” fighting costumes and performing some cursory kung fu action. Next the ladies returned in their DOA volleyball outfits (red bikinis) and threw out volleyballs complete with lipstick kisses to the crowd. While the plot was a little shallow, the graphics were highly realistic, earning the DOA Live Fashion Show a perfect 10.
Back to the games though. Other titles that looked to have high potential included all of Blizzard’s offerings: “”Starcraft Ghost,”” “”World of Warcraft”” and “”Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.”” Nintendo had a very large booth pushing its newest games, of which “”Mario Kart Double Dash”” for the GameCube looked most promising. Sony’s booth was a little subdued, but they had a strong lineup of games from the Final Fantasy universe on display, including “”Final Fantasy X-2,”” “”Final Fantasy XI”” and “”Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced.”” In addition, Sony announced they will be producing a new handheld to compete with the Game Boy, but it won’t be available until next year.
“”Doom III”” received a brief showing at Microsoft’s press event, which featured a few snippets of in-game footage, but the overall demo was disappointingly short for a game with so much hype and a release date only six months away. EA was showing off all its newest sports titles from NFL to NBA to MLB, as well as a couple of games featuring college sports and some more obscure sports like rugby.
One of the more suspect titles at the show was a new version of Pac-Man from Nintendo that allows four people to split roles between being Pac-Man and the ghosts; this game would have been revolutionary in 1985, but what exactly is Nintendo thinking in 2003?
In another surprising move, Microsoft unveiled their new Xbox Music Mixer, a product that comes with a microphone and software which allows your Xbox to function as a karaoke machine, store pictures and perform a few other digital media tasks. It seems that a very small minority of self-respecting hardcore gamers are really thinking, “”You know what I wish my Xbox could do? Let me sing karaoke!”” The popularity of this product is very suspect.
E3 was great, and there is a lot of exciting news for gamers from price drops on consoles to an absolute plethora of new and amazing looking games being developed for all platforms.
