E3 2012 Day 3 - Oops I Did It Again

Once again, I get to E3 a little late. This time, it was even worse because (a) I spent two hours in line for Metal Gear, and (b) the convention ended at 5:00 PM today instead of the usual 6:00 PM closing time. Hence I only had three hours.

So yeah, there were two exhibits that I deemed to be "must see":

• Metal Gear Rising
• XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Metal Gear Waiting

After arriving to the convention at 2:00 PM, I immediately got into line for Metal Gear Rising. And the line moved at the rate of 10 people every 10 minutes. Overall, it took me and my friends two hours to finally make it into the booth.

Inside the booth was a room with TV screens. (No pictures, of course, since they prohibited photography.)They showed a 5 minute video clip setting the background and theme for the game.

I must say that after the long wait in line, this really felt like an amusement park attraction.

After the video clip, they opened the doors to the main room where there were Playstations and XBox stations set up with the game demo. I chose a PS3 station since I'm most familiar playing the Metal Gear series on Playstations. The game itself was a lot of fun, though it felt like a departure from the "Tactical Espionage Action" theme of traditional Metal Gear games and more like a slice-em-dice-em game reminiscent of Devil May Cry. I'll go into more gameplay details in a future blog post.

The funny thing is that my friends were ushered away from their demo stations 10 minutes after they arrived, but I got to stay longer. I'm not sure why, but it may be because while I was playing the demo, I was taking notes on my iPad. The exhibit attendees might have mistaken me for a member of the press. (Press members get priority in all exhibits at E3. They don't have to wait in line, and apparently they can stay at demo stations longer than other people.) If so, that would be flattering to me, since all I've got is this personal themed blog.

(The notetaking might also have given off the impression that I was a raving fanboy, which would be something given that I'm in an entire convention chocked full of nerds.)

XCOM: Enemy Rebooted

As my friends went off to see other exhibits, I went immediately to the XCOM: Enemy Unknown line. Fortunately for me, the wait was much shorter, and in about 10 minutes, I was ushered into a mini-theater. The presenters gave a demo of the game, complete with storyline, gameplay, and cool features.

Once again, I'll go into the details of the gameplay in a future post, but suffice to say that this XCOM game will be a reboot of the classic game of the same name from the early 90's. I was a huge fan of that game, but the problem is that the game is turn-based instead of real-time. The reboot will also be turn-based, which is kind of a risk in this day and age of first-person shooters, real-time strategy and role-playing, and fast-paced action games. But after watching the demo, I'm pretty sure that old will be new again.

I mean, hey, if Civilization can still be fresh and popular today, why not XCOM?

(Inside joke time: XCOM is all about the human civilization being attacked by aliens. At one part of the demo, they showed one of the good guys in the game and introduced him this way, "Who better to save civilization than the creator of Civilization himself, Sid Meier?" Sure enough, the character had Sid Meier's portrait.)

Indie Game Jones and the Temple of 'Cade

Next stop was IndieCade, which was an exhibit of independent game developers and the games they wrote. Some of the games looked halfway decent, and some looked like several low-resolution pixels chasing each other on a white field.

But I'm very interested in this, since I'm kind of an aspiring independent game developer. (On a related note, I saw an ad for Dos Equis on the way from the parking garage to the convention. It showed a portrait of the Dos Equis man, and it said, "He was never an 'aspiring' anything." Something I should take to heart.)

One odd thing was that IndieCade wasn't just about video games, but games in general. One such game was being played right there. It had something to do with pinning a clothes pin on the collar of someone else's trench coat:

Aargh, what do you mean "closed"?

Unfortunately, when I got to the West Hall to spend the rest of the convention at the Nintendo and Sony exhibits, that was when everything started to close down. Like I said before, it was 5:00 PM, but I thought I had a full hour left. Turns out closing time was not 6:00 PM as it was in the prior two days.

I was hoping to experience more Wii U games, especially Mario and Wii U Fit. I was also hoping to play some PS3 games. They even had Street Fighter X Tekken stations up, but at least that game is already released and I can just go buy a copy for myself.

 

But at least I did get to play Foosball on the Sony PS Vita:

Final thoughts and pictures

Overall, there was much more to do at E3 than I expected. If I go next time, I will definitely arrive early every day and not waste it sleeping in because I felt like hanging out with friends late during the night prior.

I would also try and find new and creative ways to pretend to be (or actually become) a member of the gaming press. That way, I don't have to wait in lines, and I'll get even more inside information on new and upcoming games and gaming technologies.

In the end, though, this was quite an experience for me. Sooooooo many games, and no way can I play them all, so I'll just focus on a few genres that I like. They might not be the games that garner the most attention, such as Call of Duty, Resident Evil, or Halo, but they will be the games that most easily ignite my passion to play and win.

In closing, I'll just share a few more miscellaneous photos, starting with me and Sonic the Hedgehog:

Booth babes striking a pose:

Finally, a model representing a game in the Starship Trooper franchise:

E3 2012 Day 2 - Wii Love Celebrities and Dancing

Day 2 was kind of short for me since I got a late start, but it was still filled with notable experiences.

First up, the celebrities. Adam West of Batman fame was there. He was promoting Family Guy Online. I didn't know this, but he plays himself on that cartoon series as the mayor:

I also got to see James Mardsen. He is probably best known for playing Cyclops on the X-Men movie trilogy. He was also in the movie Enchanted playing Prince Edward:

(Of course, I had to point out that even in E3, sometimes they can't spell ... I mean, come on, "Singning"?)

Next up, Nintendo, which has an awesome exhibit with lots of stations where you can play Wii and Wii U games:

Just a word about the Wii U. It's Nintendo's next generation game console. The most striking feature is their controller, which is actually a tablet with a full display. They have a lot of ideas that they will implement using the new controller, but I'll highlight one idea that is less related to gaming and more related to making people go "gee whiz":

Wii U Panorama View

In a nutshell, you can use the tablet controller to aim a camera in any direction you want: left, right, behind, up, down. It's hard to describe with words or even with pictures, but there should be videos up on the web. But since all I have are words and photos, here I go.

The demo they had was of a moving tour through one of four different locations. I chose Kyoto because I once visited that beautiful city, but the demo will have me go through the city when the cherry blossom trees are blooming. Once the demo started, I found my virtual presence on a cart being pulled by a man down a street in Kyoto. Next to me on the cart was a geisha, whom I can see by rotating my body and holding the controller to the right of me. To the left of me were houses, to the right was a canal, and all around me were cherry blossoms. Hopefully these pictures convey the general idea:

Now I can see how Nintendo could use this idea in some of their game franchises. For example, you could be a gunner in some tank game where you rotate the turret you're in using the controller. Or you could recreate the scene from Star Wars Episode IV where Luke and Han are blasting away at Tie Fighters in the Millenium Falcon:

But really, I think just the full panoramic tour through different tourist attractions is enough to make house guests go "Oooooooh ... Ahhhhhh ..."

Like I said, it was a short day, so I couldn't visit much more, but just a few words on the Microsoft XBox exhibit, where their biggest draw of course was Halo:

I didn't have time to go into the Halo demo booth, of course, but I did have some time to try out the upcoming Kinect game Dance Central 3. No photos yet, but my friend did take a video of me playing the game. I'll post that as soon as it's online.

OK I have to run off to Day 3. Stay tuned!

E3 2012 - Photos of Day 1

At long last, I can now post photos of my first day at E3.

Here was the exterior of the LA Convention Center:

Some of you may be familiar with the smartphone/tablet game Cut The Rope. (If not, just know that it's almost as good as Angry Birds.) This wall was covered with Post-It notes:

EA exhibit, including SimCity:

4-player Pac-Man:

Square-Enix, the publishers of Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy:

Square-Enix is also developing the upcoming Hong Kong gangster game, Sleeping Dogs. (By the way, I think the protagonist in the game, who is in the 2nd picture, kind of looks like me, but not as good-looking.) ;-)

Tekken Tag Tournament 2, along with some booth babes for the game:

Where's My Water, a fun game from Disney Interactive for smartphones and tablets:

Metal Gear Rising by Konami and XCOM by Firaxis, two games I'm looking forward to:

The Gree exhibit along with one of their games, Wacky Motors, which is a Mario Kart clone for the iPad. I got to play against the booth babe, and unfortunately, she beat me by a mere cart length:

And finally the dancing artists painting a scene from the upcoming Disney game Epic Mickey 2. I've also uploaded a video I took of the performance:

E3 2012 - Impressions of a First-Timer

This blog entry is coming very late because I stayed up all night with friends discussing gaming stuff, like Starcraft II strategies, Diablo III class balance, and other nerd stuff. And yet I'm still wide awake, thanks in part to the delicious sea salt ice coffee I always get whenever I visit Irvine, CA.

However, I can't really post photos yet due to my laptop not yet having the photo processing software that I need. (Basically I need a program that will shrink my photo files from my digital SLR camera before I upload them.) So instead this entry will be a complete narrative without pictures.

Anyway, onto E3. This is the first time I have ever attended E3 (Electronics Entertainment Expo), even though it takes place in Los Angeles every year and I used to live in Southern California for seven years.

My first impression I got when I arrived at the L.A. Convention Center is that this event is probably the biggest gaming convention I have ever seen. Huge murals for upcoming games decorated the walls of the convention center and were visible to traffic all around the area.

After parking my car and waiting in line for an hour to get my badge reprinted (by mistake, I left my original badge at home), I walked into the exhibit hall. Immediately I was facing the EA (Electronic Arts) booth, and they were featuring well known games like Need for Speed, Madden, FIFA, Battlefield 3, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. But what really caught my eye was the SimCity booth. More on that later.

So I got into line for Need for Speed, but after waiting a freakin' half hour without the line moving much, I gave up. Later, I noticed that this was the norm for most of the game demos there. You have to wait like a very long time for certain popular games. Since this was my first day at E3, I decided not to waste too much time in lines so that I can explore the whole place completely.

Turned out to be a good decision, since I spent the whole day only exploring the South Hall, and there's also a Concourse and a West Hall that I need to explore in later days.

Anyway, there were so many video games and game developers exhibiting their stuff. (The notable exception was Blizzard, but they really don't need to show off their stuff at E3, plus they do their own BlizzCon anyway.) I'm just going to go down the list of game developers with memorable exhibits, in no particular order:

• EA - As I mentioned above, I was most interested in SimCity, so I waited in line to get into a demo booth where they showed off the game. And I must say, it looks like it's going to be really good, especially since it's now fully 3D, fully simulated, and multiplayer as well!
• Square Enix - They had Kingdom Hearts 3D for the Nintendo 3DS, a Final Fantasy rhythm game, and some iPad games including a Final Fantasy made exclusively for the smartphone and tablet market. But what was most interesting was an upcoming game called Sleeping Dogs, which is a Hong Kong gangster game. I got to play it a bit, and it was REALLY fun.
• Disney Interactive Studios - Makers of Where's My Water and Epic Mickey 2. For Epic Mickey, they had a professional painting duo who were dancing to music and painting a scene from the game at the same time. I got a good video of it, but I'll have to upload it later to YouTube.
• Namco - Featuring Tekken Tag Tournament 2. For you fighting game enthusiasts, 'nuff said.
• Konami - I was interested in their next major game in the Metal Gear series called Metal Gear Rising. This game features Raiden, the bad-ass uber-ninja from Metal Gear Solid 4, and it looks to be kind of a prequel to that game. I. Must. Get. This. Game. When it comes out early next year, of course.
• Gree - This is a game developer that I have never heard of, but they had quite a huge exhibit at E3. They look like a social gaming company specializing in games for mobile devices, much like Zynga for smartphones and tablets. A lot of the games they demoed look like clones of other popular games, but I hear that Gree is actually a developer of a gaming platform, not necessarily the games themselves.

There were many more games and game developers that I wanted to visit but didn't have time to. They include:

• Capcom - I wanted to play Street Fighter X Tekken, which is already out but I haven't played it yet.
• Call of Duty - Again, 'nuff said.
• Assassin's Creed - A very popular game series which I never had a chance to play.
• XCOM - Enemy Unknown - I was a huge fan of the original XCOM game from my college years, and Firaxis is doing a "reboot" of this game.
• The Elder Scrolls - Skyrim - A hugely popular RPG game, but once again I never had a chance to play.

And of course much more. But hey, I've already spent too long typing up this huge wall of text, and I didn't even get a chance to upload photos. I'll do that tomorrow. Until then, it's time for some sleep.

Prelude to E3

Time for me to restart this blog, just a day before E3 (Electronics Entertainment Expo) 2012. I'm chilling right now in my very nice hotel room at the Fairmont Newport Beach. Unfortunately, that means I have to drive 30-45 minutes each way to the L.A. Convention Center.

I'm also here in Orange County because MLG (Major League Gaming) is having their Anaheim tournament right after E3. I will be there as a spectator, watching professional gamers play various games, especially Starcraft II.

I've got my camera and my iPad ready to capture all of the details of both events. It will be tough to update this blog every night, but I'm determined to do so.

As for the blog itself, I've got a lot of subjects that I would like to catch up on, including:

• BlizzCon 2011 (this is overdue)
• Diablo III, which was released just a few weeks ago.
• Starcraft II, which used to be the game I played a lot before Diablo III.
• Bejeweled Blitz, a very addictive version of the popular puzzle game.
• Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, a PSP game.
• Plants vs. Zombies

But that can come later. Right now, I'm focused on E3 and MLG! I sure can't wait!

Blizzcon approaches, no costume for me

I haven't updated this blog in a while, but in short, I've bailed out on the costume. Too much procrastination, too much other stuff going on in my life ... and then three weeks until Blizzcon, I realize that only 20% of the costume was done.

But I don't see it as a complete waste. I still have the Pandaren Death Knight idea and the partially-done costume, and barring anyone doing the same thing this year, I could still do the costume next year.

One thing I've noticed, but I've kind of known for a long time, is that the quality of costumes at Blizzcon has been going up every year. I don't know if I really wanted to do one if my costume looked shoddy compared to the rest. I mean, take a look at this sexy costume from 2010 (a girl dressed up as a demon hunter from Diablo III):

(More from the Blizzcon site and the Blizzcon Facebook gallery.)

Might be easier to just take photos and see what all the other cosplayers are doing. I will definitely be posting photos of my Blizzcon trip on my Facebook account (http://www.facebook.com/allenkim96) as well as this blog.

So what do I have planned for Blizzcon? A lot, actually. This is the first time I'll be going with coworkers of mine from Intel Corp. (Yes, I'm a computer engineer working there.) We plan to meet up on the first day and try to coordinate what we want to do for the rest of the convention.

Also, this year is the year when Starcraft II eSports is taking off. There are some YouTube channels I subscribe to revolving around SC2, including one which has reached over 500K subscribers (http://www.youtube.com/user/HuskyStarcraft). This guy will be at Blizzcon along with several other SC2 YouTube casters and professional players. More than in previous years, this Blizzcon will be the most interactive and the most exciting in terms of eSports. All thanks to Starcraft II, which is just over a year old now.

Of course, there are the usual Blizzard presentations, like on World of Warcraft, Diablo III, the next SC2 installment called Heart of the Swarm. Then there're the usual contests, including the costume contest of course. Foo Fighters will be performing there. And so on and so forth.

Plus this will be the first time I'll be headed to a Blizzcon afterparty. This one is hosted by an SC2 gaming clan called Liquid, and it will be held at the Marriot near the site of Blizzcon (Anaheim convention center).

Talk about a very jam-packed two days. I sure can't wait.