E3: Day 1

Oh, the wonders of E3 – the Electronic Entertainment Expo started for the masses today. The games industry holds its big show every year in May at the remarkably huge Los Angeles Convention Center. The show lasts three days – May 18-May 20, and it’s a smorgasboard of media hype and free tchotchkes. I was stuck in line for four hours Wednesday morning and afternoon, because the convention center lost power and the computers which were registering members of the press went down – so everyone had to wait outside to be registered manually. Once I got in with my shiny purple media badge, though, it was like stepping into an alternate universe where everything was either flashing lights, loud noises, or a delectable blend of them both. Here’s a quick look at what I saw today.

Burnout Revenge: I felt that Revenge was less impressive than its predecessor, Burnout 3: Takedown. The control and art direction feels too arcadey - the stunning sense of speed that the series is known for just doesn’t feel as powerful as in Takedown. Hopefully it’s just not polished yet – the traffic checks have potential, but the slowmo carnage cam isn’t as cool. Overall, I’ll just say that Revenge has a lot of potential, and hopefully it’ll realize that potential by the time we see it released.

F.E.A.R.: This game will scare you and won’t let go. Everything is unbelievably polished, and Monolith has used ambient sound, subtle music cues, and atmospheric dread to keep gamers on the edge of their seat. Not only that, but the game looks great and plays great too. There’s a limited bullet-time effect which is an absolute joy to use; it’s not as extensive as Max Payne’s original introduction of the technology, but it doesn’t feel tacked on, either. Look for this game to make a BIG splash this holiday season, unless Monolith feels it needs more polish.

Full Auto: One of the few games being shown for next-gen systems (in this case, the Xbox 360), the best way to describe Full Auto would be “Burnout with guns.” In a freakish twist of racing and mayhem, you get to race around in fully armed sports cars, blasting everything in your way, whether it be traffic, competitor, or building. The game has extremely destructible environments and pretty visuals – nothing extremely mind-blowing, but the real kicker is even running on alpha 360 hardware, which is being said to be running at as little as a third of the power of the final Xbox 360. The game has six months or so til it ships, so it will probably be quite impressive by the next time we seet it.

Those were the three titles that really stuck out on Wednesday, for me at least. I also got to check out the new multiplayer maps for Halo 2, but those will be left for another post.