[Author: John Emmer jjustice@cs.bsu.edu]

Originally posted 6-23-97

Well, here we go with my third E3 report. I've tried to provide you all with adequate coverage of the event each year, and the response has been quite positive to my reports, so I'm doing another this year. Since you probably don't know me, I'll just point out that I'm an avid gamer who owns just about every system from 8-bit up, though not yet a Nintendo 64. Anyway, since I have just about everything, I think I'm less inclined to be biased towards any one system, though I must admit a bit of personal favoritism towards Sega products. And I'm sure some of you will think I have it in for Nintendo, but I'm not the only one who hasn't been impressed with their E3 showings over the years. I will eventually own a Nintendo 64, since I like to have all the systems, but so far there aren't enough good games, and what's there is too expensive, so I've been putting my dollars elsewhere. Since last year, however, I have increased my commitment to gaming by enrolling in a graduate program in Computer Science and purchasing a Yaroze so that I can learn to make console games and have something to show when it comes time for me to find a job. If you're interested (or even if you're not), I'll be putting this report up with my reports from the last two E3's on a web page, so you can check them all out for a little historical perspective from the eyes of John Emmer. On to the show!

First off, the keynote speakers - this is something that E3 has not gotten right since the first year. The first year we heard presidents of Sega, Sony, and Nintendo each give their perspective on the gaming industry and their company's place in it. That was interesting. Last year, there were no keynote speakers, the was disappointing. This year they had Tom Brokaw (what?) and Andrew Grove (President and CEO of Intel) (what?). That was stupid. They were better off with no keynote speakers. What do either of these guys know or have to say about games? You got it: nothing. I must admit that I didn't go to hear Grove's talk - it was given while the exhibit floor was open, and I had other priorities. Brokaw's talk, however, was given before the exhibit floor opened, so I dragged my friends to see if he had anything to say. Let me apologize to them now - we should have slept in. He had nothing of relevance to say to anyone at the show, and his talk was boring in its own right. So I won't bother you with any of the boring details. Now to the games!

First, my overall impression of the show's winners and losers. Big indisputable winners: Sony and 3Dfx. Biggest disappointments: Nintendo and "Invitation Only" booths. Sony had tons more software than Sega and Nintendo combined, and it just looked better than almost everything at either of the other booths. Sega had more and better titles than Nintendo, but was pretty much completely overshadowed by the towering giant Sony. Nintendo had nothing. A few Mario clones, a few racers that didn't look or play as well as their PlayStation competition, and very little else. I'll go into detail about all this in a minute. But first let me also say that probably the single most impressive thing at the show was the power of the 3Dfx-based video cards for the PC. I have never before seen such beautifully detailed and smooth graphics, let alone on a PC. Now don't get me wrong. PC's are not taking over the console market anytime soon. They're still too inconvenient and expensive to replace a good console. However, I will definitely be buying a 3Dfx card and several of the titles that I saw for it, and I will be delaying purchase of a Nintendo 64 until they get some games. The other big disappointment was the number of closed booths which were "Invitation Only". Booths that I could not visit included Virgin, MicroProse, Interplay, LucasArts, Crystal Dynamics, Ocean, and Mindscape. That's a big chunk of major publishers who were not letting everyone see their stuff! Mind you, one of my friends did manage to talk his way into a few of these booths since his tag had the name of a major retailer for which he works on it (although he's just a store-level salesperson, so not really the kind of person who they wanted to let into these things), but since I went as a "Purchasing Consultant" for a small independant store, I was nobody to these people. Oh wait, let me earn my title: Hey Manny - read this report and buy everything that I say is great!

Another highlight of the show for me, which however has nothing really to do with gaming, as there were no games at the booth, was the Mixx Publications booth. They are bringing over some translated Manga, and to promote this, had dancers dressed up as the Sailor Scouts. Well, who can resist Sailor Scouts, eh? Unfortuately, none of these women really knew anything about Sailor Moon etc., but there were cute, and good dancers, and it was fun to see them. I probably shouldn't go into this in too much detail though, or you will all feel very sorry for me. ;)

Before I go on to the individual titles, let me also mention an element of E3 that I enjoyed in the past but missed this year. That is the E3 Internet gathering. No, we don't chop each other's heads off, it's just a chance to meet some of the people who frequent the newsgroups and IRC. But this year it was held the night before the first day of the show, so I was unable to attend as I was just arriving in Atlanta at that time. However, I'm sure Marty will have something about it on his Video Source page if you're interested in how it went. As it was, my freinds and I did find other entertainment though, as our hotel turned out to be right next to the Tattletale Lounge, but that's a post for a very different newsgroup... The fact that I was in a Hotel this year also explains why I was unable to get these reports out any earlier. In the past, I have tried to get my E3 reports out on a daily basis, but this year I had no computer access until I got home today. So, I'll just try to get as much done tonight as I can (I have classes again tomorrow) and maybe finish up tomorrow.

Other people I missed this year were: Jeff Minter, who I'm always interested in seeing what he's up to, the gang from 4-play (particularly Scott and Stephanie), who are always fun to talk to and get the latest Battlesphere update, and Teh Kao, who I have enjoyed meeting and sharing enthusiasm for Sega with at the past shows. I don't know if any of these people were there or not, but I didn't see them. Perhaps they just decided not to make the long trip out from the West Coast this year, whereas in the past, E3 was in LA and a lot closer to them. Anyway, "hello" to all past E3 acquaintances, and I hope all is going well on your latest endeavors.

OK, enough of all that, I know what you really want to hear is what games were there and what they were like, so here goes. I will 'visit' the booths in order of increasing impressiveness, which means Nintendo first (least impressive), then Sega (only somewhat impressive), and finally Sony (definitely very impressive). Then I will throw in a few observations about some of the PC games that I took some time to investigate. Ever since the demise of the Amiga, I am generally more of a console gamer, but there are a few PC games that I was very interested in seeing, and took the time to check out in detail.

First off, Nintendo. I must say, the _only_ thing that really impressed me here was STARFOX 64. I loved the original StarFox for SNES, and this seems a truly worthy successor to that title. I was also able to experience the Rumble Pack which I thought was pretty cool, but not excessively so. It was neat to feel a little vibration when getting shot or crashing into things, and it was definitely better than the piece of crap that Microsoft is trying to foist on PC users, but I don't think it's going to usher in a new era of gaming. DARK RIFT was present and looked pretty good, though not really top-calibre. HEXEN looked absolutely awful, with way too much bilinear filtering making the game look like someone was making you wear their prescription glasses instead of your own. MACE looks like a very nice fighting game, however, it looked better on the 3Dfx-equipped PCs at the show than it did on N64. Now there's something I never thought I would see - a fighting game that I liked better on PC than a on a console! TETRISPHERE will be enjoyed by those who enjoy such games, but I've had an aversion to Tetris-like games ever since that game got way too popular and everyone would assume that it was what I was talking about when I would say that I liked video games. It did however, appear to be a good puzzler. GOLDEN EYE 007 looked like pretty much just another first-person game, nothing special. OK, the big secret title that Nintendo wants everyone to get excited about: MARIO BEAR, oh no, I mean MARIO SQUIRREL, oh whoops, I got it wrong again. In all seriousness, however, the much hyped BANJO AND KAZOOOIE was Mario 64 with a bear instead of Mario and CONKER'S QUEST was the same game again, but this time with a squirrel. Now, for those of you who like Mario 64, that may be a very good thing, but what makes one the best thing since sliced bread and the other hardly worth a mention I have no idea. Both of these games were pretty much the same thing, and either could equally be touted and Mario's successor. Why Nintendo picked Banjo and ignored Conker is anyone's guess. They do both look like nice games. Next, having once owned an original arcade Aerofighters machine (I had to sell some of my full-sized arcadee machines when I moved), I was interested to see AEROFIGHTER'S ASSAULT, which also supported the rumble pack, and looked a lot like Namco's Air Combat. Personally, I liked Sega's Sky Target better (see below). DUAL HEROES, a Power Ranger look alike fighting game, did not seem particularly impressive. BOMBERMAN, however, was indeed still lots of fun in 3D. Some people had worried that it would loose its focus and intensity, but I thought it still provided a good gaming experience, and the updated graphics were looking good.

Originally posted 6-25-97:

Well, it took me longer to get to this second part of my report than I hoped, but that's what happens when you're a graduate student in computer science taking intense summer classes in math to make up for the fact that you majored in philosophy as an undergraduate, and haven't studied any math in ten years...

Anyway, there were two other titles for the Nintendo 64 that I forgot to mention in the first part of my report. These were not on the display floor, and though I usually don't manage to get into any closed door sessions, they were visible through the windows of some of the closed meeting rooms at the back of Nintendo's booths. One I never saw a title screen for, but it was very much like the myriad of overhead racing games where much or all of the track is visible at once and the players drive their cars around on small, windy tracks that cross each other. This one was not directly top-down, but from an angle, however, it looked to be directly descended from these other similar titles. Hard to tell without playing it, but it could be a particularly good multiplayer experience. The other title was behind Hudson's area in Nintendo's booth, and was a Nintendo 64 version of SOLDIER BLADE. Now, I'm as much a fan of Hudson's shooters for the Turbo systems as anyone, but after having played RayStorm on the PlayStation, this title just didn't excite me. Don't get me wrong, it looked competent, and I'm sure it's a good, fun, shooter, but hardly '64-bit' - whatever that is.

Well, let's move on to Sega's area of the show. This is actually where I went first, since I am a big Sega fan, and was hoping to see what they had done with VF3 for Saturn, how the Working Designs titles were coming, what the Panzer Dragoon RPG looked like, whether there was any talk of upgrades or new systems, and generally what Sega was planning to do about its lagging position in the console wars. Unfortunately, I was disappointed on many of these fronts. VF3 was not there, nor were any upgrades or new systems, and Working Designs had been obscured behind the meeting rooms, where they could only be found if one asked for their location or happened to be back that way looking for a restroom or something. However, having said all that, I must say that Sega was still not as disappointing as Nintendo. Even given the fact that they've pretty much given up on taking over the world with the Saturn, there was still more quality software and more variety to be found on the Saturn than on N64. On to the games:

The first thing one saw when approaching the Sega booth was the incredible looking SONIC R. Take the 3D environment that you've seen in pictures of Sonic Jam, smooth out all the textures so that they look too good to be on Saturn, keep the framerate silky smooth, add in some beautiful water effects with reflections, keep the fog away at all times, and you've got an idea of Sonic R. It is a racing game with the Sonic characters running on the track with typical Sonic elements such as loops and bridges. My only complaint was that it was very hard to stay on the track, and took a long time to get back on the track once you went off. However, as the title is only 20% complete, I'm sure Sega will address these shortcomings as development progresses. Although I had seen it before, this was my first chance to try out SONIC JAM, and my only complaint here is that they didn't go ahead and make a whole Sonic title with that engine. It's just so cool to see the traditional Sonic environment rendered in 3D with full freedom of movement around the game world. Next, I turned my head and was amazed again at the sight of the new Jurassic Park game: THE LOST WORLD. It's a '2 1/2D' action title, but with incredible environments and dinosaurs that move so smoothly and with such detailed articulation that I think everyone will be impressed with this title. Like earlier Jurassic Park titles, the game offers the opportunity to play both as a human fighting dinosaurs, or as a dinosaur eating humans for lunch. The latter was enough to make this a worthy title in itself. (This title will also be available, and looked much the same, on the PS.)

From this my eye was irresistibly drawn to the sight of one of the titles I was most anticipating seeing at E3: PANZER DRAGOON SAGA. The dragon itself is, if anything, even more beautiful than the dragons from the other games, and there is a stat screen where you can adjust the dragon's strengths to suit whatever danger you are anticipating. Unfortunately, the text was all still in Japanese, so I couldn't tell what I was doing, but the dragon morphed into different shapes depending on how you set the power bars. (I assume they were things like speed, strength, attack, defense, etc.) One way that one can judge the appeal of a game at E3 is by how many people are standing there waiting to play it, and how long the people playing it stay at the demo station. Well, I was unable to play the game on a few occasions when I stopped by to see it - people were just playing it too long! Now some of this is surely due to the fact that it took most of us a while to figure out the interface, but a good deal must also be attributed to the game's beauty. The Panzer Dragoon series remains in my eyes the most beautiful game series on earth, and this game will definitely continue that tradition. It was however, a little disconcerting after having the sensation of free flight to be thrown into a turn based combat system, where one could only rotate around the enemy during certain turn segments. Again, being in Japanese, it was hard to tell what was going on, and I couldn't tell what my general goals were, so I can't really judge the game yet as an RPG, but the Panzer Dragoon name and image will be enough to get me to buy this game as soon as it's released.

LAST BRONX was looking good. Better looking than FMM, I would say. I saw no evidence of slowdown (though I didn't play it for long), and this looks to be another feather in the fine fighting game cap of Sega. CROC was what I might expect if one mixed Mario 64, Gex, and Crash Bandicoot, and showed that the Saturn (and PS) are just as capable of providing a 3D free-roaming romp as that N-system. MASS DESTRUCTION was a worthy derivative of Return Fire/Fire Power, with a much more detailed environment and a much improved single-player experience. I particularly liked the rain of debris when things were destroyed and the look of the flamethrower. Any game that has little soldiers running away in flames gets extra points in my book. They also get extra points for populating the high score board with famous philosophers. (Although I hope Kant had just been knocked off the bottom - if he was missing, I will be severely disappointed!) I didn't see this one on the PS this year, though I know that at last year's E3, it was in development for both. Perhaps Sega snared this one as an exclusive. I do know that the developers told me last year that they liked the Saturn version better, though they were called away to talk to someone more important before they could tell me why.

ENEMY ZERO was being hyped too much, in my opinion, for a game that will probably have limited appeal to console gamers. It appeared to be a mix of fmv and corridor gaming, but I didn't really stay with it long enough to figure out what was up. TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP was another in Sega's line of fine racing games. In my opinion, no one does fighting or racing games as well as Sega. This one was like a mix of Daytona and Sega Rally; looked and played excellent. BOMBERMAN was also on display for Saturn, and though not much has changed here, it will therefore also retain the appeal of earlier incarnations. SKY TARGET might as well have been called Afterburner III (unless there already was one that I've forgotten, in which case make this Afterburner IV, or whatever...) It had essentially the same gameplay as the Afterburner series, but with graphics on par with games like Air Combat. If you're a fan of the Afterburner games, you'll definitely want to check this one out. Beyond the Samurai Shodown and other SNK games, I'm not much of a 2D fighting game player, so I'm not the one to judge MARVEL SUPER HEROES, but I did note that it was using the RAM cart, and had long loading times for the battles. MAXIMUM FORCE was a chunky light gun shooter. I really prefer the Virtua Cop style to these chunky digitized characters. RESIDENT EVIL and WARCRAFT II are also in my notes, but as they've been around so long, they don't need much comment. QUAKE and DUKE NUKEM 3D were also both on display, and looking better than anyone would have thought possible on the Saturn.

As for RPGs, besides the Panzer Dragoon title, Sega was showing SHINING THE HOLY ARK which looked fun, but couldn't really compete with the likes of Final Fantasy VII. However, I'm a big fan of the Shining series, and this will still be a must have for anyone else who is as well. Hmm... RPGs on Saturn - what does that make you think of? Well, Working Designs of course. Funny though, one couldn't find them anywhere. I looked in my show directory again to be sure, and yes, they were listed _in the addendum_ as being present in Sega's booth. So I went to the desk and asked where they were and was pointed towards the meeting rooms "just on the other side there"... OK, walk around the meeting rooms, there's this empty space isolated from the rest of the booth, as if the layout had been purposefully designed to leave this section free but inaccessible from the rest. And there in a corner of this space was one of the best reasons to own a Sega product. Working Designs was showing versions of ALBERT ODYSSEY, MAGIC KNIGHT RAYEARTH, and LUNAR: SILVER STAR STORY, as well as the SEGA AGES collection. All looked great. Unfortunately, I can never sit still long enough at a show like this to really appreciate an RPG, but everything seemed to be coming along well, and I'm really looking forward to buying and playing all of these when they're released. I asked what was up with the placement of their exhibit, whether this was Sega's retaliation for RayStorm, and while they couldn't confirm it, that seemed to be the impression that Working Designs had as well. This is really unfortunate and petty if it's the case, and it really lowers my impression of Sega. Oh well, I guess everyone makes stupid decisions now and then.

There were some arcade games and Genesis/Game Gear stuff there too, but I was really only interested in the Saturn stuff at this time, so I didn't check them out much. A large portion of Sega's booth was also taken up with their SegaSoft product and their new HEAT online service. They made the big error, however, of demoing all their PC games on little 13" or 15" monitors, whereas everything else at the show was on much larger screens. This had the effect of making their games almost invisible when surrounded by the pull of much more impressive displays. The best thing about this section, however, was the HEAT boxes that they were giving out for people to put all the literature that they picked up into for mailing home or checking through on their return flight. These boxes were very convenient (I filled two) and so were _everywhere_, greatly increasing the presence of HEAT as something to check out. Whoever thought of this gimmick will probably get a promotion, and I'm sure it will be imitated by several companies next year. However, I wasn't really interested in the SegaSoft stuff or HEAT, so I won't go into them here. In fact, this part of the report is getting pretty long, so I should probably break and post this. Hopefully, I'll get the Sony and PC reports out tonight or tomorrow as well. In the meantime, let me sum up this section by saying that, although at the show they were really overshadowed by Sony, Sega nonetheless has several good titles that should keep Saturn owners happy for a while. The talk at the show was that they were working hard on the next system, and it is generally thought that the next system, whatever it's called, has a good chance of being a big success. So, though this definitely wasn't their best show, we haven't heard the last of Sega yet.

Originally posted 6-25-97:

Well, so far I haven't gotten any feedback on these reports, so I don't even know if anyone is reading them, but even if no one else does, they do serve as reminders for me in the years to come of what I saw and what I thought about it. When I finish, I'll put this report together with the two others that I've written this year, and put that up along with my reports from the previous two years' E3s on a web page at http://www.iquest.net/~jjustice/ No one else may care, but I get a kick out of reading what I wrote in the past and comparing it to what's going on now. It's interesting to see how things change and how they stay the same as technologies and companies come and go, rise and fall. Anyway, I think so, and you can check out the web site if you're interested as well. Also, feel free to email me at jjustice@cs.bsu.edu if you have any questions about E3.

The only place we haven't been yet in these reports is Sony's booth. I've been saving the best for last, just to get everything else out of the way. Sony's booth is definitely where all the excitement was as far as consoles were concerned this year. There was just so much more to see and a good bit of it looked damn good as well. Other companies may claim to have 'quality over quantity' but Sony could fairly claim to have 'quality in quantity', as they rocked in any category you care to pick. In other words, whatever your gaming preference (well, except maybe flying dragons or foxes...) Sony's got you covered with at least one top quality product in that category. And if you don't like what you see, you can even buy a Yaroze and make your own!

First, one of the few disappointments at Sony's booth: BLASTO. OK, it's nice that they wrote their own libraries and 3D engine and all, but the game just doesn't look or play like a quantum leap over anything else on the PlayStation. I really don't get all the hype. Perhaps other levels are more fun, but what I played just really didn't inspire me. This is not a game that I'm looking forward to buying. There were just too many other, cooler things at Sony's booth - and elsewhere. Which leads me to another point about Sony's dominance. In the past, third party developers were always showing lots of stuff for both Saturn and PS in their booths. This year, it was almost exclusively PS software in the other booths. If you wanted to see Saturn or Nintendo 64 titles, you pretty much had to go to Sega or Nintendo's booths. Anyway, let's get back to Sony's booth and take a look around.

In no particular order, here are some of the titles that I saw: BRAVO AIRRACE - take Wing Arms and cross it with a pretty typical driving game, and you've got the idea behind Bravo Airrace. I actually liked this one, since I like driving games and I like old planes. It played well and moved well, so it gets a thumbs up from me, though not a must buy. TOMB RAIDER 2 will, of course, be a must buy, but for me it will be the PC version, not the PS version. I'm too spoiled by my 3D accelerator running Tomb Raider in his res to go back. But PS owners will be very happy to get this next installment of what is undoubtedly one of the greatest games of all time. I had to play COOL BOARDERS 2 in order to win the 'happy prize' at Sony's booth, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered. This was a snowboarding game with too many menus for my taste and gaming interface that was not immediately intuitive to me. Since I'm not really into snowboarding, I didn't bother to stay around long enough to figure it out. NIGHTMARE CREATURES was like Die Hard Arcade meets Tomb Raider with a Gothic theme and weapons. The textures were kind of grainy, but it looks to have promise. MEDIEVAL was an overhead action game with nice graphics, but something was going wrong with the analog pad that was hooked up to this when I tried it, and I got drawn away to the next game before I could figure it out. It had potential, but not a blockbuster.

Right next to this, however, were two of my favorite games in the Sony booth. RAPID RACER and PORSCHE CHALLENGE. Rapid Racer was a really excellent motorboat racing game. The developers have done just a knock-out job of modeling the feel of driving a speedboat - the boat bounces off waves and follows trenches in the water with a very convincing feel and superb control. This will be a must have for racing fans looking for something slightly different. Porsche Challenge had perhaps the best graphics of any console driving game that I saw at the show. Especially in the way that the cars themselves were rendered, and for the fact that the drivers were fully articulated figures that move about in their cars - waving, moving their heads, etc. as you drive. It also controlled very well with the dual analog pad. Let me take a break from the games here to mention just how much I liked Sony's dual analog pad. This is the best pad I have ever used. The actual analog sticks themselves have a much better feel than the little thingy on the Nintendo pad, and the placement and dual nature of the analog controls beats even Sega's contender. If I had to pick a peripheral of the show, I'd give it to Sony's dual analog pad.

Next up is STEEL REIGN, an 'over the shoulder' (if you will) tank combat game, which seemed pretty cool. CARDINAL SIN was a fighting game with weapons, which is usually a good thing to me, but in this one the characters were just to 'thick' for my tastes. I like sleek characters, and these just didn't appeal to me. The gameplay neither grabbed me nor turned me away. EXODUS, which I have seen described elsewhere as a 'shooter', is not in the style of classic shooters like Thunder Force, but rather another over shoulder game, which also sported some flying sequences. But the main game seemed to focus on corridors and rooms. It was indeed two player, with the two players apparently tethered together to keep them from getting too far apart to be represented on one screen. It will be interesting to see how well this works, or if it is merely annoying. But it looked nice, and I put a plus sign next to it in my notes, which means I was more impressed with it or saw more promise there than in most titles. BEASTORIZER was a smooth 3D fighter in the style of Fighting Vipers (i.e. rings that could be broken through) but with beast characters. I didn't actually play it, so I can't comment on the control. JET MOTO 2 just looked blocky to me after seeing the other racing games on display, but if you liked the first one, you'll probably enjoy this one too (still, I'd vote for Rapid Racer instead).

Now, I've been waiting to see more of KOWLOON'S GATE since before I had a PlayStation and saw incredible video footage of this one that just blew me away. While I'm not generally into adventure games, let alone fmv adventures, this one may just have the style to overcome the limitations of the genre and become a hit. Absolutely gorgeous, but _still_ on video only... Another title I'm anxiously awaiting is BUSHIDO BLADE. I really like the idea that someone decided to add more depth to a swordfighting game. What I hadn't caught onto before, however, was that this game can be linked. I was playing away and realized that I was fighting the guy at the station next to me - cool! Get it! While we're looking at Square stuff, I might as well say "get it all" - but you already know that. I can't wait for FINAL FANTASY TACTICS. The only Square title that didn't immediately impress me was SAGA FRONTIER, showing on video only, and looking very derivative of much of Square's previous work, whereas FINAL FANTASY VII is without a doubt one of the most beautiful creations ever to grace a computer or console. I was even more impressed when I got home and had a chance to try the playable demo that was on the second volume of PlayStation Underground. If you haven't subscribed to this service yet, do yourself a favor and get it. There's nothing like actually _playing_ some of a game to tell you whether you want to buy it or not. And for the price of a rental, you get to _keep_ the demo!

My friends and I made a point of being at the Konami booth to see the world premiere of METAL GEAR SOLID, and at least one of us thought it was definitely game of the show. While we couldn't play it, what was shown was nothing short of absolutely incredible. The president of Konami of America, Ken Dirnberger, was there to introduce Kojima Hideo and the rest of the Metal Gear Solid development team. Kojima was the designer of the original Metal Gear on MSX, as well as the designer of favorites like Snatcher and Policenauts. OK, here's a few things I noticed about the game from the video: your character leaves footprints in the snow as he moves about in what is perhaps the most believable 3D environment ever presented in a game, he can zoom in on enemies with a cool viewfinder with HUD, the textures were smoother than those in games sporting much less detailed environments, your character has a stealth mode like the Predator - that is, like the predator in the movie, it's third person, so you see the Predator warp-effect, not like the first-person distortion in Jaguar AvP (which is not to say that the latter isn't cool also) - there were nicely implemented spotlights, your character can set laser tripwire traps, and everything just looks so damn cool you want to _be there_ (except then you'd probably get killed...) After the video, an interpreter was used to allow the audience to ask questions of the developers. Kojima said no versions for Saturn or Nintendo are currently planned, but if people demand them, they will be made - a few people clapped. He also said that if people demand, the game could be out in the US as early as later this year - resounding applause! There are no disguises like in the previous game; there are vehicles, but none that the player can drive; if you see the video and notice a female character, she's not playable, but rather shows up once in a while to help the player character. Afterwards, I asked Ken about the prospects for a Policenauts port, since they were obviously very proud of this game (Kojima called it "the ultimate adventure game"). His response, and remember, this is straight from the mouth of the president of Konami of America, was that, the only reason they hadn't done the port yet was because Kojima's team was busy with Metal Gear Solid, but as soon as they finish that, they _will_ be doing the port of Policenauts!

Over at the Psygnosis booth they had some of what I thought were the most impressive titles at the show. If you've seen pictures of COLONY WARS or SHADOW MASTER in the magazines, you probably thought, as did I, "Oh, another space sim and another Doom game..." But when you actually see these titles in action, they're incredible! Colony Wars will definitely be a must buy for me. When I first saw this, I thought it was running on a high-end PC - but no, it was the PlayStation version! Gorgeous! One thing that is extremely important to me in a space sim is that the radar be well-implemented. I never understood why Elite-style radar wasn't used in every game since. Anyway, Colony Wars doesn't quite use the Elite radar, but it does have an effective 3D display that shows right where you and all your enemies are in relation to each other. And it plays so smooth and controls so well! Get it! Then go get Shadow Master. Yes, it's "another Doom game" - but like Colony Wars, it just controls and moves so well. The twist here is that you're in a buggy with momentum and all the enemies are cool insect/Alien looking things. Even better, if you have a 3Dfx board, get all the Psygnosis stuff that you can get your hands on! Another top-notch title here was G-POLICE, with another nicely implemented 3D radar, this time a little more similar to Elite's. Here you fly a futuristic helicopter in domed city blocks with civilians that should not be killed. This was particularly gorgeous on the 3Dfx. As a change of pace from all these shooters, but staying with Psygnosis, you could try a cute pirate action game called OVERBOARD. Your little pirate ship has to maneuver various courses looking for map pieces to find the treasure, meanwhile shooting the baddies and solving the action-puzzles. This will be a fun one. Psygnosis also had their entry into the 3D character action game, RASCAL. This was still early, with odd control and the main character is a kid that didn't really appeal to me. I'll wait and see how it comes along before passing judgment. Unfortunately, they weren't publicly showing their new ELRIC game, though from the brochure it looked a little cutesy for how I would imagine an Elric game should be. Still Elric is one of my all-time favorite characters, so I'll be looking forward to seeing how this one turns out.

Elsewhere, ARMORED CORE was showing. This might be described as an over-the-shoulder Target Earth. You can build/modify your mech between rounds, and then take it out on various missions to earn money for further upgrades. It looked promising, but I couldn't figure out the controls well enough to be any good at it. SPAWN was showing on video only. This was like adding a decent fighting engine to Tomb Raider, and may be quite good whenever it's ready. CROC was already mentioned in the Sega part of this report, but was here also, showing that everybody can do cute 3D character adventures. HERCULES had side-scrolling areas that reminded me of Guardian Heroes in their use of parallax, which is a complement considering that title is on the 2D-geared Saturn and this is on the PS. Hercules aslo had sections where you run into the screen, reminiscent of certain parts of Crash Bandicoot. STAR WARS MASTERS was a fighting game with the indicated license, but it didn't do anything for me. Perhaps when it's further along and has some more characters to play. LOST WORLD was also described in the Sega section of this report. RUNNING WILD was a cute racing game with running characters instead of driving, but if that's the genre you're looking for, I'd recommend Sonic R over this one. FORSAKEN looks a lot like Descent, and looks a lot better on a 3Dfx board, but will still be a good title for fans of Descent who only have the PS and not a 3Dfx. Very nice lighting effects.

Well, I'm getting tired and I still have several titles left to discuss and some things I want to say about the PC stuff I saw etc. So I'm going to sign off for now, put this on the newsgroups and web, and hopefully finish off tomorrow.

I hope someone's reading all this...

Originally posted 6-26-97:

First off, thanks to all those who emailed or posted and said that they were in fact reading my posts and appreciated them. I was beginning to feel like I was writing in a vacuum, but it feels better now to know that all my work is appreciated by a few people out there. Second, somehow an extra slash got into the URL that I posted yesterday for the page where I've put all my E3 reports. If you missed any of my other reports from this year, or are interested in reading what I wrote about the past two E3s, you can check it all out at: http://www.iquest.net/~jjustice/

As for those who said they had trouble emailing me, I don't know what's up with that. The jjustice@cs.bsu.edu address should be working. At least messages do seem to be getting through now. So if you had a question, feel free to email me or go ahead and post it. I will be watching for any followups to my reports, and will try my best to answer anything that I can.

Before I get back to the Sony games, let me mention a few other things about the show. As others have reported, M2 was nowhere to be seen on the show floor (though I've heard it may have been seen elsewhere.) I was just reading over my old E3 reports from the past two years, and I find it funny that we seem to be getting _less_ information about M2 each year! The Panasonic booth was, of course, no help, since that's the software division. In fact, a somewhat clueless woman at the desk there told me that "Oh no, they wouldn't be showing M2 here - that would be at a _hardware_ show." Oh, OK. The other system that was noticeably absent was SNK's Neo-Geo and Neo-Geo 64 (or whatever the new system will be). The Samurai Shodown series is one of my favorites, and I was really looking forward to seeing the new 64-bit version, for which the screen shots have been fantastic. SNK is also one of the companies known for having people dress up as game characters, which I think is a lot of fun. I don't get a chance to see too many Neo-Geo games in the arcades around here, so I count on E3 to help me decide which ones to buy for my home system. Oh well.

One more thing. I was checking out the PlayStation Underground disks that I got at the show today, and I really encourage everyone to subscribe to this service. The disks are very well produced, with a fair amount of CG done just for this purpose; you get several playable demos, interviews with developers, movies of other games, etc. Vol. 2, which I think was available for the first time at the show, has a whole disk of stuff from SquareSoft, including playable demos of FFVII and Bushido Blade. It also has a playable demo of Porsche Challenge which, if you remember from yesterday's report, was one of my favorite driving games at the show. This is really the best way possible to see if you like a game. Get 'em!

OK, there are still a few games for the PlayStation that need mentioning: An updated version of FROGGER was there. It includes both classic style levels, and much larger levels, where you can ride logs and turtles from island to island searching for I forget what. But this seemed like a natural and appropriate extension of the gameplay from the original, and I think this will be a fun game that will appeal to both fans of the original and newcomers alike. DYNASTY WARRIORS was a promising 3D fighter from Koei of all people. I really liked the way the characters moved and handled their weapons. I wasn't as wowed by it as I have been by Soul Edge/Blade, but I will definitely be checking this one out further for possible purchase (it's another one that's available as a playable demo on one of the Underground disks.) Capcom had both a traditional MEGA MAN X4 and an updated 3D MEGA MAN NEO. The former looked to be more of the same that they've been cranking out for some time now, so if you've still been enjoying this series lately, you'll probably like this one too. Mega Man Neo, was indeed new for Mega Man, though it did share a lot with many of the other 3D action games on display. However, this one has the Mega Man 'look and feel'. I must admit that I've never played much Mega Man myself, so I can't really say how these compare to the old ones other than these comments I've made on their general style. The DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS COLLECTION was one title I was looking forward to seeing, but it was not on the floor, though a representative told me that it was indeed scheduled for a first quarter '98 release. Over at the Acclaim booth, I encountered perhaps the best looking game character I've ever seen - the Batman character in their upcoming BATMAN AND ROBIN game is just so damn beautiful. His cape flows magnificently, his body is well articulated and moves well. It's another over-the-shoulder affair, and I'll really be watching to see how this comes out. The scene in the Batcave was a little too dark for me - I couldn't see where the floor was, so I kept running into things and falling into pits. And I actually couldn't manage to do much in the rest of the game either, but part of that is just not knowing the controls and the fact that it's incomplete. It will be a _real_ shame if they don't manage to build a really excellent game around that character.

We sat in a little theater for a demonstration of ODDWORLD: ABE'S ODDYSEE. Put Flashback on the PlayStation with excellent graphics, clever level design, let the main character have a limited vocabulary and psychic powers, both of which can be used to give orders to other game characters, and you've got something like Oddworld. This will definitely shoot right to the top of anyone's list of the best side-scrolling action adventures. (It's also another one with a demo on the Underground.) PITFALL 3D, which you would expect these days would be a Tomb Raider clone, is instead an overhead action adventure in a 3D environment, and should be a good one. Among all the new 3D action games, one that really stood out to me was the new GEX game. It looks as good or better than the others, and adds the innovation from the previous game of allowing your character to stick to the walls. Now think for a bit about what you could do with that in a 3D action game. (Though arguably it's already been done in Spider, but we'll see how free-roaming the Gex environment is.) APOCALYPSE was yet another over-the-shoulder action game and had a nice look to it, but was still a little slow. Hopefully they'll get that sorted out before release. AIR COMBAT 2 looked only a little better than the first one, as far as I saw. But since I really liked the first one, that's OK with me. I was happy to get to play XEVIOUS 3D/G, as they say in their blurb "A must for all Xevious fans." I liked the mixture of old and new in this one - 'traditional' Xevious sound effects, style, and gameplay, but in a 3D environment. Cool! MACHINE HUNTER was one of a few Loaded clones, which for some reason didn't really catch my attention this year.

Working Designs wound up with a less than fantastic spot for their game RAYSTORM in the Sony booth as well. I had to ask where it was, as I didn't realize that they would put games up on the overhead walkways that weren't also on display down on the floor. However, it was worth the effort - this is simply one of the most amazing shooters that had ever been created. If you have any liking at all for shooters - and personally, I love 'em - you _must_ buy this game when it comes out! Classic shooter gameplay with incredibly gorgeous 3D enemies - I'm there dude! While I'm feeling enthusiastic, let me also mention another title that makes me giddy: CASTLEVANIA!! The Castlevania series represents the absolute pinnacle of 2D platform gaming, and this game will not disappoint any previous fans. The graphics, level design, gameplay, mood - everything about this title is top-notch. Another must-have for the PlayStation. I haven't mentioned CRASH BANDICOOT 2 yet, not because it's not a good game, but just because it was mostly more of the same, and thus didn't catch my attention. It does add some new gameplay elements, with a jet pack that you wear to fly into the screen, but for the most part, it looks and plays like the previous title. Now, since the previous title was excellent, that's saying a good thing. Another top title for PS would have to be PARAPPA THE RAPPER. This game is just irresistible. Everyone should be familiar with what this is by now, so I won't go into it, but I will say that, if you think it just sounds too weird, give it a try, and I think you'll be surprised how catchy it is.

BUG RIDER was one that I was looking forward to, since the theme was attractive to me. But the developers have decided to go with an 'intelligent insect' concept here, which means for the player that the bug often seems more in control than you do. The bug basically flys around the track by itself, while you try to adjust its speed and alter its position to get it to take the optimal path at top speed. For me, it was disconcerting, but perhaps it would work after I got used to it. FIGHTING FORCE was coming along nicely, although this is another one that looked even better on a 3Dfx card. GHOST IN THE SHELL is a really cool movie, but what's up with that little crab-looking character? I don't know, this one just didn't appeal to me. I got to try out the PS 'RPG controller' on OGRE BATTLE, though since I didn't know the interface to that game, I couldn't make optimal use of it. However, the prospect of being able to play one-handed is enticing, and I'll definitely give it another try when it's released. I saw video only of WILD 9, but it looked like Shiny was doing a bang-up job of getting back to its platformer roots. This will be a title to watch for. And the Strike series continues to deliver with the latest NUCLEAR STRIKE looking and playing fantastic. There will be a dozen different vehicles for the player to pilot in this one, including three ground craft and a hovercraft that can also go over water.

Well, that's about all I have on PlayStation games. Like I said before, it was just an incredible show for Sony. But the other big winner of the show would have to be the PC, specifically, a PC enhanced with a 3Dfx board. This is the first time I've really been inpressed that an action game could look and play as well or better on a PC than on a console. If you haven't seen this card in action, you owe it to yourself to find a way to try one out. Get to a shop with one on display, or find a friend and see it for yourself. Then you will know - if you have a PC, you must have a 3Dfx card. The brochure that 3Dfx gave out lists _70_ games enhanced for the card - and I don't just mean Direct3D games like all the other card manufacturers list - I mean 3Dfx enhanced games. You will have a hard time deciding which of these to buy, since they all look so damn good! Even Nintendo's supposed 3D king it easily toppled when you see the 3Dfx version of Shadows of the Empire or Turok.

Some other stuff that I took note of for the PC: I'77 was basically new missions for the same game engine as I'76. But I'76 is one of my favorite games, so that's OK by me. The new title should ship with Direct3D. QUAKE II and HEXEN II both looked fabulous, and were both running on 3Dfx, of course. Your character's hand/weapon in Quake II were stunningly rendered and articulated. You could actually see all the fingers on the hand moving separately as the character manipulated the weapon. But the PC games that I most wanted to see were the ones at Bullfrog. DUNGEON KEEPER is looking much better this year than it did last year. I will definitely want this one. I particularly liked the hand-of-god interface that they've implemented, where your pointer is an animated hand that you use to pick up and move creatures or slap them to motivate them to work and so on. Multiplayer will now be handled in terms of Keeper vs. Keeper, instead of Keeper vs. Adventurers, as had been planned earlier. The PC game I was most excited to see, however, was POPULOUS III. I spent so much time playing the first two on my Amiga that, for a while, every time I would see certain kinds of patterns in the real world, I would reflexively imagine myself smoothing them out. One of the developers told me that they had noted this kind of behavior in themselves and others as well. They figured that flattening the land must have some kind of therapeutic effect that leads to a kind of trance for many people. Anyway, the new game looks fantastic. The world is now a 3D globe, though when you zoom in the perspective is much the same as in the earlier titles. Now, however, rather than being a God who can strike anywhere, all of your magic must be cast through your Shaman. Each level has a set population which starts out neutral. You then attempt to impress the locals with burning bushes and such. Once they have converted to your cause, you can give them orders to build buildings of your choice or perform other tasks. The world itself is rendered with textures that are manipulated with a fractal routine so that it doesn't have that tiled look of so many games. And as your population runs around, they actually wear paths into the grass. You can use this feature to track down the origin of invading enemies by following the paths that they left as they approached. Then there are, of course, all the standard Populous tricks, like casting fire, creating volcanoes, causing earthquakes, and so on, that you can use against the enemy shamans and their followers. Everyone should buy this game!

Well, I guess that's about it. This year's report was longer than ever. I'm already excited to go back next year! If you've never been to an E3, definitely make an effort to go. Find or create a company that you can represent in some believably relevant capacity, and get your ass to Mecca. The pilgrimage is, you know, an obligation if you want to get into video game heaven when you die.

See you there next year!