Right from the start, I need to get a few things off my chest here… I had never gone to E3 before, but for years I’d been reading about how fantastic it is in all the gaming magazines. So, based on all the E3 reports I’d read over the years, I felt as though I knew what to expect once I got to the show. Man, was I dead wrong. It’s one thing to sit down, turn a page, and see all the pretty colorful pictures of game studios’ booths, and read about the new games. But the reality of E3 is entirely different. I was completely blown away by all the things I saw, by the atmosphere and energy of the expo. And I just can’t wait to get back there for next year.

Another thing I have to say, before getting into this report, is I didn’t manage to get around to everything in the show. I could only spare two out of the three days because of my crappy travel arrangements. But not only that, the show was so much bigger than I ever expected it to be. All told, I probably only saw half of the show. I never made it into the Lucasarts booth, nor did I wait in the four-hour-long line for Half Life 2. I didn’t see much in the way of Xbox because I don’t own one. (But, what I did see of Microsoft’s mean green machine is gradually convincing me to buy one.)

So let’s get into it:

Show Trends

Even though I was an E3 virgin (or “newbie” as we gamers say), I quickly picked up on the trends. Doug (Gameculture Editor-in-Chief) made a pretty good observation after the first day: there was a crapload of FPS-war games being showcased this year. There was Socom II. Men of Valor, set in Vietnam. Rainbow Six 3, while not exactly “war,” it falls somewhere in between that and stealth. The new Medal of Honor game, Rising Sun, was unfortunately one of the several games I couldn’t get around to seeing. And tons more just like these. Fortunately, Doug spent more time on these games than I did, so I’m sure he’ll have a lot more to say about ‘em. But, I made an observation of my own: action/stealth games have totally blown up into a huge genre. The most obvious title being Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (more on this one in a minute). Starcraft: Ghost. Psy Girls. Syphon Filter: Omega Strain. Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness. Rogue Ops. The list goes on and on. Most of these titles blew my mind, and some just blew.

Console Battles and Shortcomings

Now I gotta mention a word or two about what I didn’t get to see at the show. Since I don’t own an X-box, I pretty much steered clear of the Microsoft booth (that, and they wouldn’t give me any T-Shirts! Curse them!). However, when meandering around games that were multi-platform, sometimes the X-box controller would be the only one available at the time. I can definitely say that after the show was over, X-box had made a believer out of me. The graphical difference between the box, the cube, and PS2 is a big myth. If a game looks good, it’s because of the game, and hardware will make a small difference, if any difference at all. But, what is true about the box’s hardware is that it runs games “smoother.” The Midnight Club II X-box port at the Rockstar booth was the nail in the coffin. The city flew by so much smoother on the box, and everything just seemed more animated than in the PS2 version. Now don’t get me wrong, a game is a game, and since Sony has the most third-party designers, I like the fact that I usually don’t have to drop $150+ dollars on a new system to play something new. But, that cannot help the fact that PS2 is starting to show its age, even when we’re three or four years deep into the next generation.

The third major contending console, Gamecube, was a bit of a letdown for me. There were hardly any third party titles for the cube, and about half of them were horrible. For instance, P.N.0.3 (Product Number 3, by Capcom) struck me as being a complete waste of time. (Look for more details in my “top 5 worst games” section). And, the titles that Nintendo developed in their own studios were pretty damn mediocre. You’d figure that a game made about five years after Mario 64 would have a lot more gameplay features, moves, and graphical overhaul -- but, such is not the case with Wario World. I was even bold enough to ask the attractive Nintendo-babe showing me the game, “this game isn’t done yet, right?” She shook her head and I put down the controller… But, all is not yet lost. There were two definitely pleasant surprises to be found on the cube: Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, and Legend of Zelda: Tetra’s Trackers (a GBA linkable party game) looked incredibly fun. This year, Nintendo’s lackluster booth was definitely unexpected, considering how well their show was last year with titles like Wind Waker and Metroid Fusion leading the pack (or so I am told). Another one of their long-dead franchises, F-Zero, is being brought back from its grave in the coming year. This game really didn’t impress me too much, since the controls were jerky and all of the tracks I raced on were basically a series of straightaways with little or no serious thought thrown into their design.

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