A Good E3 Review

May 20, 2005 – The show is over. Four words never sounded so sweet. The Electronics Entertainment Expo 2005 was – as we could have predicted – an explosion of news, unveilings and playable software. It’s a virtual Disneyland for the videogame fan, yes, but hard work and late hours for those of us striving to write about all these developments.

Tens of thousands of attendees from all walks of the industry swarmed the Los Angeles Convention Center for a chance to see the latest soft and hardware from publishers and manufacturers. And with big next-generation unveilings from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony, let me tell you, the floors were packed. But I’m getting ahead of myself. In traditional form, the Big Three held pre-show press conferences to announce big games. Microsoft and Sony unveiled Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on Monday respectively and Nintendo showed off Revolution the next day.

I think most of the IGN editors would agree with me that Microsoft’s show was slightly weaker than expected. It was weird how that happened. I guess this is the result of over-promising and under-delivering. Leading up to the event, Microsoft was practically shouting from the rooftops that Xbox 360 would be the best thing ever created. It seemed to make all the right moves, from seeding leaked images of the machine into the games community to launching a worldwide infomercial to promote it on MTV. (Never mind that the MTV special was perhaps the single worst piece of contrived, forced entertainment to ever grace a television set.) But when Microsoft’s pre-show finally came, there weren’t too many major revelations and as a result some fans felt cheated.

Maybe I’m being dramatic. I’m not suggesting that Microsoft had a bad show because I really don’t believe that to be true. In fact, I was privy to a behind-closed-doors viewing of Perfect Dark Zero and I can safely state that despite the underwhelming quality of the officially released screens for the game, it looks pretty damned promising in motion. No, really. The prequel was running on single-core machines at roughly thirty percent capacity, according to Rare, and it already looked good to this self-proclaimed graphics tart. And, of course, Gears of War from Epic Games, which runs on the Unreal 3 Engine, was gorgeous. Meanwhile, Microsoft soft-announced that Silicon Knights is developing a Too Human trilogy for Xbox 360. I think people are going to be happy with where the developer is taking the series. I have every intention of buying Microsoft’s new system.

It’s not that Microsoft had a bad show. It’s that Sony had a pretty good one. And Sony had a distinct advantage, which is that didn’t create any pre-hype for its next-generation console and therefore it had nothing to live up to. For months Sony went quiet. And then shortly before E3 began, we started to notice PlayStation 3-branded posters and billboards all over the Convention Center. In fact, they were all over Los Angeles. I traveled to Hollywood a couple of times for Nintendo events and hell, they were there too. It was an amazing display of marketing power. I felt like Sony invaded Southern California.

And then Sony came out and did exactly what Nintendo didn’t and went directly after Microsoft. It showed off a bunch of gorgeous demos. It touted some impressive technical specs. It announced and displayed first-generation PlayStation 3 software. And it showed the console. It dedicated the majority of its pre-show to PlayStation 3, leaving the current-generation stuff on the show floor. Nobody saw that coming. Sony seemed to almost gloat over the fact that its next-generation machine outputs dual-1080p signals over Microsoft’s 1080i and 720p high-definition. I can imagine company executives smirking when it announced that the machine would feature a detachable hard drive. There’s no doubt in my mind that Sony was intent on putting an end to Microsoft’s momentum before it became unstoppable.

But did it succeed? Partly. In hindsight, some of the PlayStation 3 software displays don’t seem as impressive as they did when we all thought they were running in real-time on the hardware; we learned shortly after its conference that many of its presentations were rendered by a variety of computer graphics studios. That doesn’t mean these visually impressive demos won’t eventually be running in real-time on Sony’s hardware. The thing is a beast and I expect that they will. But still, I’ve seen this song and dance before and until I’m playing them, I won’t believe it. I don’t think I’m alone in this attitude.

I think Sony’s console is the ugliest of the three next-generation systems, which is something that really surprises me. This is a company known for its style, but I’m just not feeling the PS3 Grill. The Batarang-designed controller is even worse. What the hell is that thing? I think Nintendo’s Revolution design is the slickest of the three, but I’ll get to that in a minute. And I’m really pleased with the shape and look of Xbox 360. On a side note, I played Need for Speed Most Wanted 360 this afternoon. It was my first chance to use the 360 controller. Having done so, I can honestly write that it’s my favorite pad ever. Better than Wave Bird, even, which is a huge accomplishment. Wait until you try it.

If you’re strictly a Nintendo fan and you’ve read this far, I’m sorry for making you go through all that. There’s a chance that some of you just don’t care about the competition and I realize that’s the case, but I wanted to create some context in my report.

I was interviewing Nintendo of America’s vice president of corporate affairs, Perrin Kaplan, Thursday, and she said, “I know you’re probably really frustrated, but this is the path Nintendo has chosen.” I realized then that I really wasn’t frustrated and to be honest that was kind of an epiphany. Going into E3 2005, I had like everyone else expected that Revolution would be Nintendo’s answer to the competition. But sometime shortly after the company’s pre-show I concluded that the Big N simply isn’t interested in doing that regardless of how much the die-hard Nintendo fans might want it to. Revolution is not going to be as powerful as PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360. But it will be able to do something new and uniquely interesting. Nintendo is betting and hoping that will be enough.

So, depending on what camp you come from, Nintendo either had a decent show, or it got totally owned. If you’re like me, you probably fall in the first group. I’m speaking about the people who can afford to buy multiple consoles. I’m going to get all of my graphics-heavy, high-tech games on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, just as I expect I’ll get some truly innovative new pieces of software on Revolution. There’s room for all three platforms in my household. Nintendo chose this year’s E3 to clarify that position, and that’s okay. On the other hand, if you can’t afford all three consoles, then Nintendo’s show probably sucked and sucked pretty badly for you. This is because the company forced you to make a choice: truly cutting-edge power or some still-unrevealed kind of new hardware interface which may or may not change and enhance the gameplay experience.

I think Nintendo did some things right and wrong. As I stated, the design of the Revolution console itself is everything I could have hoped for. It’s ultra sleek and slick, and extremely high-tech modern, too. (Of course, the possible downside to that is that it could accidentally be sending mixed signals there; people may take a look at the machine and think it’s all about technology, when in fact Nintendo seems to be downplaying this particular element.) Even so, it’s gorgeous. It’s small. It’s going to have a special place in my entertainment center.

I’m also very excited by the company’s newfound commitment to online gaming. Revolution is of course Wi-Fi enabled out of the box. But at E3, we learned that Nintendo would launch the machine with a Wi-Fi-enhanced Super Smash Bros. sequel, which is just about the best thing ever for Nintendo fans. Nintendo execs have indicated that the online plan is at the core of the model for Revolution. As further proof, Nintendo announced that the machine would be supported by a new download service by which gamers could buy loads of Nintendo-created NES, Super-NES and Nintendo 64 games. Given that Revolution is backward compatible with GameCube, this news makes it the ultimate platform for die-hard Nintendo fans, which is fantastic news.

Don’t forget that Nintendo made some pretty major game announcements, too. We now know that there are Mario and Zelda titles in development for Revolution. We also know that Metroid Prime 3 is coming. That another Final Fantasy title is underway. And that a new IP will launch with the system, too. Plus, Nintendo has dropped hints that an Animal Crossing sequel could be in development. That’s a magnificent lineup already and the console is a year off.

But in light of all the information released by Microsoft and Sony, I think Nintendo failed to wow fans with just as many details. Company officials naturally said that Nintendo was not there to compete with Microsoft and Sony, but to outline its calendar business year. That’s all good and fine, but it doesn’t change the fact that the Big N’s competitors said a lot and showed more while Nintendo went relatively quiet. As a result, I think a lot of people fell victim to the impression, whether true or misguided, that the company was simply not prepared to wage a battle against its challengers – and any way you slice it, that looks bad, especially for a publisher already perceived as a distant third in the console race.

There’s a light at the end of the tunnel here: Nintendo says it will release many more details about Revolution before the end of the year. But nevertheless, I think some damage has been done.

On the GameCube front, Nintendo had Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess. The officially released trailer is absolutely awesome. I probably watched it fifteen times shortly after we got it and showed it to just as many editors. If you haven’t downloaded it already, I suggest heading over to our video section for the game immediately. We also have 30-plus minutes of direct-feed for you. It’s clear that the new adventure is going to be pretty fantastic.

I’ll be up front, though: Twilight Princess is not my Game of the Show. I thought about it for a good while before I finally decided to go with my gut and select another title. If you’re a die-hard Zelda fan, you’ve probably already stopped reading and instead opened your e-mail program to write me an angry letter. But if you have, you’ll be preaching to the choir. I am the biggest Zelda fan and I have no doubt that Twilight Princess will ultimately be my selection for Game of the Year, let alone Game of the Show. So why didn’t I choose it? The answer is that Nintendo’s playable demo of the game didn’t spotlight any of the additions so spectacularly displayed in the official trailer. Instead, attendees caught a glimpse of a game that was more or less a far prettier build of Ocarina of Time. Still great, but not innovative enough to win my pick. I was much more dazzled by the stylized and original action title Okami from Capcom, which received my vote. Incidentally, several other editors also voted for the PlayStation 2 title.

The rest of the GameCube lineup was something of a mixed bag, as far as I’m concerned. Games like Battalion Wars, Mario Baseball, Fire Emblem and to some extent Pokemon played and look great. I actually found myself enjoying the quirky title Chibi Robo, too, which unfortunately hasn’t been cleared for a stateside release yet. Come on, Nintendo. In contrast, though, I wasn’t particularly impressed with titles like Odama and unlike any other booth, Nintendo had a saturation of kid-centric games like SpongeBob SquarePants that were of very little interest to me. All in all, not a bad showing, but not mind-blowing either. Take Zelda out of the equation and it looks a lot worse.

I actually think Nintendo had the best E3 booth due primarily to its Zelda presence. You may not be aware of this, but the company chose to section off its Zelda kiosks behind closed doors. It created a virtual Hyrule of sorts do this and it was incredibly cool. There was a perpetual hour-long wait to get into the Zelda booth, but once you were in, you didn’t want to leave. The kiosks were set up in giant, darkened rooms with purple hues, fog, and tree-like walls. In one corner, you could walk on this weirdly projected image and it changed with your movement. It was a bridge over water — right out of a Zelda game, actually – and when you crossed it, the water splashed and pieces of the bridge dunked beneath it. I spent several minutes jumping up and down on the thing and probably looked mentally disabled. To enter the next room I had to traverse a moody hallway with windows that played images from the new Zelda. And along the way I saw a Stalfos Knight imprisoned behind bars. It must have been nine-feet tall. The classic enemy started to bang against the bars and actually made me jump. Nintendo pulled this off with a combination of puppetry and animatronics. In the final room, a robotically operated wolf, which looked exactly like Link in Twilight Princess. It was kind of like Disneyland in there.

Everything said and done, I’m walking away from E3 with mixed feelings. These monumental shows only come along once every four or five years. I’m speaking about the unveilings of new consoles, of course. Historically, they are the best events to attend. But despite bold claims by Microsoft, an unexpected showing from Sony and the anticipated showing of Revolution by Nintendo, there was no single piece of software that was so mind-blowingly perfect that it swept the show – at least, not for me.