So I was lucky enough to make it again to E3 (The Electronic Entertainment Expo) another year in a row. If you don't know, basically E3 is a conviontion for Video Game companies, creators, writers, etc, etc... It's the first chance (and sometimes 2nd and third chance for games that are really late like Tomb Raider: Angel Of Darkness and others) for companies to show what they are working on to "the public" (although "the public" isn't really allowed to attend this convention as it is only for people affiliated with those companies or the press). It all boils down to a gigantic free arcade that takes up three buildings. I'm about to get REALLY nerdy here so please only read on if you are really into video games.

So the first thing we saw when Holly-Tron and I got inside the main building was a giant "life-size" statue of The Hulk. It wasn't until I saw him up close and in person that I realized how really really gay The Hulk is. C'mon...walking around in purple cut-offs without a shirt...goes by the name "The Hulk". Anyway "The Hulk" has a new video game which is actually a sequel to the new movie its based on. There will be features in the game that you'll only figure out if you've seen the movie so that's pretty cool. The main villain in the game is The Leader, but I didn't see any skinny green guys with long heads so I'm guessing the bad guy with bad teeth and grey skin (see picture) is just some random "boss" character...or some random comic book character that I've just never seen before.

Anyway, making a sharp right from The Hulk's lusting eyes, we walked up a ramp to the booth featuring a two level demo of the new Simpsons Road Rage sequel. There were a lot of bugs (getting stuck inside of things, walking through things you shouldn't be able to walk through), but it actually looked pretty good and reminded me more of a cross between Crazy Taxi and Driver. The graphics were more 3-D than the first Road Rage (which used more flat colors), but I think the final version will be much better.

I got excited when I saw the sign for Starcraft: Ghost. Probably too excited as I has to excuse myself for about 7 minutes. I like the original Starcraft and it's sequel/add-on The Brood War and I knew that this new sequel would be different as you are only controlling one person...a woman who is a special futuristic commando called a ghost (because of their cloaking devices which makes them invisible). The graphics were REALLY good and the controls were a little more complicated than your average game, but overall they would be easy to get used to after about 15 minutes. The "Ghost" herself reminded me of a cross between G.I. Joe's Snake Eyes and Tron. I'm definitely going to pick up a copy when it comes out (in December accoring to the guy showing me through the game).

We then played the new Disney Skateboarding game which uses the Tony Hawk Pro Skater engine. It looked good, but was WAYYY too easy. I barely had to fiddle with the buttons to make a wide array of tricks. Then I rolled up a ramp and balanced at the top for about a minute and then ended it with a rail grind...both of which gave me way more points than they should have. The girl at the booth asked me what I thought of the simplified controls. I asked her if you would be able to toggle between the "kiddy" controls and more Tony Hawk-like and I think she said something to the effect that they would. Holly played the game as Simba who rode around on an African shield. I played as some Toy Story guy riding a hoverboard. The final version of the game will let you "create a skater" just like in Tony Hawk only you can create a little kid version of yourself (or your friends). Across from that booth was the area for the Tony Hawk games and this year they were promoting Tony Hawk Underground (or T.H.U.G. for short). They did not have a playable demo, but they gave out free tee-shirts and played a video of short clips from the upcoming game which includes the same skaters from past games and more. I didn't know exactly what was going on in the video, but it looks like it's an online massive multiplayer game set in various cities where you skate (or drive around crazy in cars) with people all over the world.

I really should have taken a picture of this, but we passed by some half dressed girls holding hand written signs stating "Vampires And Boobies This Way! --->" It was for a game called Vampire: The Masquarade. They had the coolest "real" sign of all the signs at E3. It was bright red, but then you realize the red in the sign is red liquid as it empties out of the sign leaving red residue inside the sign. So cool that I didn't take a picture for some reason (sorry). The game itself looked boring so...we went to the special Halo 2 demonstration. We actually had to wait in line for this one. Some of my friends and I like to shoot each other's faces off in Halo matches so I was really looking forward to this and it was GOOOOOD. There are new ape-faced aliens that jump onto vehicles and smack people in the head. You an actually fire the guns in the Warthog jeeps iin this one while moving since the marines in this one can drive now.

Eventually we ended up at the Haunted Mansion video game booth which was actually a mini Haunted Mansion that you could walk into and watch a short film about the Haunted Mansion movie (starring Eddie Murphy...ugh) which ties in somewhat to the game. There will be games for all systems and for the Gameboy Advance (which has a different game than the other systems). Oh, and there were Pirates Of The Caribean games too.

After much searching we found the Nintendo / Gamecube area and there were playable demos for Rogue Squadron III and a whole new slew of Mario Games (Mario Cart, Mario Tennis, Wario World, etc...). Mario Cart: Double Dash looked good, but it was so busy, we didn't get a chance to try it out. You play as two characters in 1 cart this time around and you can switch them back and forth from driver to gunner. After checking out the games in this area, I was confronted by this big bird thing. We had a moment and I felt compelled to walk away as far from it as I could. I'll have to play the new Rogue Squadron when it comes out.

So other highlights from E3 were Silent Hill 3 (A series which I LOOOOVE for its gritty horror and gory gameplay), XIII (A PS2 first person shooter based on a famous french comic book, and P.N.03 (A styley 3rd person shooter). Silent Hill 3's demo was nice but showed very little. Actually it was really lame since I didn't come across any enemies and the camera control was terrible. Still I think that is an issue that they'll fix before it is released later this year. In the game itself, you play a thirteen year old girl who finds herself trapped in a mall when things start to change all around you. I didn't get to try out XIII, but it looked good and was different from other 1st person shooters with its comic book style graphics and gameplay. P.N.03 is a different looking game, but it is actually sorta' standard gameplay. You play a gymnastic space girl who shoots people in a Space Channel 5-esque sort of way. It's white on white against white graphics are pretty cool.

Thie big suprise for most everyone was the trailer for Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater for the PS2. To sum it up, Ol' Snake is seen stalking some soldiers in the jungle. He picks them off one by one in various ways. Eventually he confronts a guy on a motorcycle who informs him that he is not in a Grand Theft Auto game. What follows is a montage of jungle warfare with clips of Snake actually eating a snake with his bare hands (and a big fish too). What I guess this is telling us is that we have to feed Snake (and sometimes feed snakes to Snake) to keep him healthy. Another cool related suprise is that they are releasing an updated version of Metal Gear Solid 1. I'm happy about that, but it'll be weird to play on the Gamecube's funky controller.

I could go on forever about all the games we saw there. There was a preview of an upcoming Nightmare Before Christmas game, a cool looking skating game called Go! Go! Hypergrind which utilized graffiti art inspired characters, a cool looking Spawn game for the X-Box. A golf-like Japanes game for the Playstation 1 called Kero Kero King where you knock Frogs into diamond pits (?!?), and a fun little game based on a Japanese computer animated cartoon called Gregory Horror Show (which we saw when we went to Japan a couple years ago. Oh, and how can I forget Resident Evil: Outbreak which is an 8 player online game where you and 7 other players try to work together to survive. If you die during the game, you become one of the zombies and try to eat the people you were just trying to help.

Hey where was the next Grand Theft Auto game? Nothing nada nope. Maybe next year. Anyway, we ended up staying the entire day at this year's E3 convention and it was one giant free fun arcade. Maybe most of the games are only halfway finished, but it was a good way to see what to ask Japanese Santa to leave in my stocking before returning to his home on the moon. What were my favorites? Well, Halo 2 had the strongest showing with it's super graphics and just the fact that you can now smack people in the face while they drive. Silent Hill 3 is a given because I love the other two games and it seems like this'll be more of the same...in a good way. And Metal Gear Solid 3 looked pretty good, but it had a big Rambo look to it and I'm not a fan of the Rambo films at all...nor am I a fan of the American Ninja films nor the Ernest films, but that really has nothing to do with anything. Now if they would only make a 1st person WWII game where you play either as director Ed Wood storming the beach of Normandy (and don't forget that big shopping trip at the lingerie shop first) or as director Russ Meyer in the film corps defending himself from nazis while trying to find the perfect pair of hills to shoot from. Ahhhh, now THAT would be a game!

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