by: Dr. Boogie and -RoG-

As part of our joint coverage of E3, I went a day later than -RoG- to make sure that I-Mockery's huge presence at the event did not overshadow the event itself. Going in, I was a bit concerned that I would have to stand in long lines to try out the demos that were setup, but luckily, most of the attendees were industry types who didn't really care all that much about playing the games. More for me, my friends. More for me.

The very first one I came across was the new 3D Samurai Showdown game, Edge of Destiny. It seemed to me that they were following in the footsteps of Capcom with Street Fighter IV. When I actually got into it, however, I was disappointed. SF IV managed to go 3D without losing the feel of the original 2D games. By comparison, Edge of Destiny felt like just a generic fighting game that just happened to have the Samurai Showdown characters rendered in 3D. RoG is a better judge of the series than I, and he wasn't too impressed by the series' transition to 3D either. The demo they had also sported some pretty ridiculous load times, too. Maybe they'll have that fixed by release. I guess there's always the Live Arcade ports of the original games.

Next up was Muramasa: The Demon Blade, a 2D platformer by Vanillaware, the people who brought us Odin Sphere, Grim Grimoire, and a host of other games in glorious 2D. Those of you who played Odin Sphere (there's got to be at least one of you out there) will be pleasantly surprised to see that your character in Muramasa takes up a much smaller portion of the screen, making it much easier to move around and fight without running into any enemies attacking you from off-camera. The combat was performed with combination of button mashing and hitting directions while holding the attack button, with a few magical attacks thrown in for good measure. It was pretty easy to get a handle on it, though at times, I seemed to be flipping out of control, but hey, at least I wasn't getting hit!

The only problem I had with it was during the boss encounter. Bosses have a huge health bar, along with a smaller health bar that indicates roughly how many times that huge health bar will be refilled once you drain it. Maybe it didn't take that long to kill the guy, but he must've refilled his health at least five times. And he's the first boss of the game!

Elsewhere at the Atlus booth, I had a chance to try their new action RPG, Demon's Souls. I'm not sure what the actual premise is for the game, but it has you stepping into the plate boots of a knight and fighting off all manner of things. I was intrigued by the game's medieval Europe setting, as Atlus typically turns out games that, if they aren't specifically Japanese, at least bear some anime sensibilities (giant swords being swung around like nothing at all, teenagers in brightly-colored clothing, Jack Frost, etc). In fact, combat had your character performing the kind of sword swing/thrusting you'd expect from a real swordsman.

The other side of that, unfortunately, is that the stronger attacks take some real timing to pull off without getting reamed. The guy in charge of the demo assured me that later, your character can use the souls he steals from dead enemies to buy new skills, and get lighter armor so he doesn't move around like such a slowpoke. Still, it was funny watching him try to roll in full platemail: the "roll" consisted of him jumping forward, landing on his back two feet away, and then slowly getting to his feet.

There was one DC game I was looking forward to trying, but DC Universe was on display, too. I didn't get to this one, but it seems like they're trying to make a console version of the City of Heroes MMORPG, only set in the DC universe. You can't actually be the DC characters, but you could make your own hero and send him off to push around generic thugs. Suffice to say, I remain skeptical.

I stopped to check out this poster for a game that wasn't actually at the show because I thought it was for a new Punisher game using the Ray Stephenson version of the character. But no, they just happened to make a poster with a remarkably similar guy:

The Rogue Warrior does have a beard, and no skull on his black shirt. Maybe that'll be a fun game.
(A reader has informed us that the game will be based off of real-life Navy SEAL Richard Marcinko and some of the books he's written. So
if you're reading this, Mr. Marcinko, know that the comparison with the Punisher was meant to be a favorable one... please don't kill us!)

Lost Planet 2 was on display over at the Capcom booth. The first game was a solid shooter with a nice giant robot component to it, so why not build off of that for the sequel? The demo showed off the new focus on teamwork in bringing down especially troublesome enemies, with some players being able to setup defensive positions with special devices they carried around. That's all well and good, but having to rely on your teammates too often can be problematic, especially if the AI is no good. When I tried the game, there were a handful of other people working with me, and we just managed to get through it. Hopefully, the AI for the single player game will be helpful enough, or at the very least far enough out of the way.

Activision had a super big display setup that was just noisy as hell. It drew in a fair amount of people, but they didn't have any demos setup. Pretty weenie, if you ask me. I got out of there before all the explosions and car crashes made me deaf.

One modest display had the upcoming WiiWare version of Cave Story. This version will include some new music and character designs, along with the option to revert back the originals if you like. First off, if you've never played Cave Story, go do that right now. It's an awesome game, and it doesn't cost a penny. And that's why I'm wondering how well this version will do. It's worth saying again that the PC version of the game is available for free, but then again, that fact didn't hurt sales of N+ when it was released on Live Arcade. In any case, I'm just glad to see the game's designer, "Pixel," getting more recognition for his work. Awesome game.

There was some new version of Dance Dance Revolution that was up for display, too. Or maybe it was an old version that was up so fans could do something when they got tired of playing real games. I kid, though. It's a great game. I just don't enjoy the smells that linger around the DDR machines at my local arcade.

Another Silent Hill game was up for show, this time for the Wii. As you can guess from the huge banner, ice seems to play a part in how the scares come at you this time. I guess you could make a case for that being kind of scary, but meh. The last Silent Hill just didn't work because it abandoned most of what made the original games so scary, such the monsters being manifestations of facets of the protagonist's psyche, in favor of heedlessly throwing the more iconic monsters together in one game. Maybe things will be different with Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, but things have been going downhill for the series ever since The Room.

As you can imagine, the new Saw game uses puzzle-solving elements in addition to survival horror. More importantly, though, what's with the banner? Look, I get that Jigsaw uses this dummy whenever he communicates to his victims, but come on. The dummy by itself is not that scary. My prediction: some naive parent buys this game, thinking it will be a cute children's game, then we all have to endure another month of video game-induced moral panic. Stay tuned, folks.

I couldn't put my finger on it, but something was off about this banner. I had to give it a try. It turns out that Miami Law is a new DS game that happens to play a lot like the old Konami game, Snatcher: an adventure game with some shooting and action sequences sandwiched in between investigation portions. The male character is named "Law Martin", so I can only assume the blonde chick is named "Miami" something.

Another poster, this time for a Brazilian MMO called "Taikodom". There's nothing really compelling about this, except that the guy in the poster reminded me of the bad guy from The Fifth Element:

I'll bet his name in Portuguese means "Zorg".

In one of the far off parts of the event was a huge video wall setup for professional gamer, "Fatal1ty", and his new line of computer parts and accessories. The man himself might have been there, too, but I have I no idea what he looks like. I assume he was one of the two guys in the deathmatch being displayed on the wall. At one point, an announcer guy was tossing out t-shirts, but then he picked up a hefty Fatal1ty-brand computer power supply. I didn't want a two-pound metal box catching me in the dome, so I decided to leave.

Among the better demos running at the show was the one for Batman: Arkham Asylum. The Joker gets sent to Gotham City's number one jail for criminals and supervillains, and wouldn't you know it, he gets out and gets the other prisoners to help out. You've got to wonder how many times something like this can happen before Batman will finally decide that maybe he should start killing at least some of big names in his rogue's gallery. Anyway, the game looks great. There's an impressive amount of detail put into the all the characters, not just the ones with the trademarked names. I was initially skeptical about the game because good stealth games tend to focus on avoiding direct combat. On trying the demo, however, it did seem like the developers had managed to pull off a decent stealth system, relying largely on hiding atop the myriad gargoyle heads built into the walls of Arkham, and coupled it with a decent combat system without shortchanging either one. There's also a "detective mode", wherein Batman's cowl can be used to highlight enemies and useful environmental objects, but I didn't get the chance to see much of it in the demo.

Even so, I'm optimistic about the game's August release. Here's hoping it doesn't get pushed back again.

Remember when the Wii first came out, and everyone was going crazy about how the wiimote simulated actual movement? Remember how the most obvious use of this was to make a game where your character has a sword that you fully control? Remember how Red Steel almost nailed this concept? That's where Ubisoft is hoping to pick things up with Red Steel 2. This time, you're some sort of sword-wielding cowboy in a futuristic old west town, and everything is cel-shaded. Maybe there's more to the story, maybe not. The point is that you have a sword in one hand and a gun in the other. Aiming the guns doesn't seem to have changed all that much. The problem is that all the enemies in the demo wore steel faceplates so that headshots were even less effective that torso shots. I guess they don't want you using the guns?

One of the big complaints in the original was the actual turning. You did seem to turn slightly faster in RS2, but I didn't see much of this in combat because most of the enemies appeared and attacked directly in front of you. I still had to drag the aiming reticule to the edge of the screen to drag the view around, but whenever someone hit me, the view would shift to that person, assuming I wasn't already locked onto something. It's hard to say without trying it in more varied scenarios.

The one thing that seemed odd about the demo was how hard your character was on his nice katana. You would occasionally fight enemies in heavy armor, but rather than looking for a weak point, the secret to defeating them was to wind up and hammer them with your sword until their armor fell off. On a weirder note, I came across a sliding metal door I needed to open. Instead of grabbing the handle and pulling it open, your character pushes the door open by hammering the edge with his sword until the door is pushed all the way to one side. That's certainly how the cavemen samurai did it. Maybe that's the big reveal at the end of the game: your character is a time-traveling Neanderthal samurai. Sounds cool.

For once, the blurring on screen images were not the result of my crappy camera. The display with the running demo of Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao, was also showing the game in 3D, complete with a handful of glasses for the curious. The 3D effect was a nice bonus, but I was more interested in the game itself. It's a 2D brawler wherein you control a martial arts master who fights off hordes of soldiers, ninjas, sumos, and more in a setting right out of an old kung fu movie. Certain environmental objects like flowerpots and low-hanging branches can be worked into your fights as well. Plus, it's a 2D platformer, and I'm a sucker for just about anything 2D. I wanted to give this one a shot, but the guy running the demo didn't seem ready to share. I was with a group of other curious game dorks who wanted to play, but after ten minutes or so, we all gave up on getting our shot. And all without saying anything to the guy, because we're pusses.

One of the larger displays with an actual demo tied to it was for Bayonetta, Sega's upcoming title from the creator of the Devil May Cry series. I didn't think it was possible to make a game more over-the-top and ridiculously stylized as some of the later Devil May Cry games, but damned if Bayonetta didn't surpass it. You control the titular (innuendo intended) Bayonetta, a witch who fights her enemies with, among other things, a sword, a pair of pistols, a second pair of pistols attached to her ankles, and a whole host of other weapons that can be stolen from the many enemies you encounter.

The old adage "sex sells" was definitely being put into effect for the game, with both the presence of a booth babe in an uncomfortable-looking Bayonetta costume:

And in the demo's odd subtitle:

Even so, the gameplay was surprisingly fun. There was the presence of some of that infamous Devil May Cry difficulty, but it was overshadowed by the sheer amount of stuff going on in each scene. I'd have taken some pictures, but I was having a hard enough time keeping track of all the different things popping up during the demo. Add to that a little blurriness from my old camera, and you have an indistinct, brightly-colored rectangle to look at. Just take my word for it: it was fun.

Memorable moments from the demo include:

- Stealing a giant trumpet from an angel and using it to blow up another angel.
- Killing enemies with a combo that summons a giant magical boot.
- Gaining magical power by creating an iron maiden and then throwing an enemy into it.
- Fighting a giant monster, and ending the fight with Bayonetta's hair turning into an even larger monster that then eats the smaller monster.

The other thing I noticed about halfway through the demo was that as you performed longer combos, Bayonetta's outfit would quickly start to disintegrate. It's a genius move on the part of the developers, particularly because you only need to have one hand on the controller to perform said combos!

Last but not least, at the end of the day I just happened to catch a trailer for the new next gen Castlevania game, Lords of Shadow. If you want to know anything about me, know that Castlevania is by far my favorite game series. That said, when I hear there's a new 2D Metroid-vania game coming out, I rejoice. On the other hand, when I hear there's a new 3D game coming out, I am considerably less optimistic. The two 3D games for the Nintendo 64 didn't start things off well, but Lament of Innocence for the PS2 did regain some ground. Curse of Darkness went a little more in the right direction, too, but then Judgment came out for the Wii, and everything went in the crapper. Will this new one follow suit and give the 3D Castlevanias a final flush?

There are three big reasons that lead me to believe so:

1. The game didn't originally have anything to do with Castlevania. At one point, the game was simply "Lords of Shadow". The Castlevania bit just happened to come about later, and I have to wonder about the game's current connection to the Castlevania universe. Sure, it has a medieval Europe setting, and the main character Gabriel wields curiously whip-like "combat cross", but if that's all they have to connect it with Castlevania, why not just keep it an independent title?

2. Mercurysteam, one of the developers of the game, has two other titles under their belt. I didn't play much of Scrapland, but I did play through Clive Barker's Jericho. On the one hand, the ability to instantly resurrect all your AI-controlled friends almost made up for the terrible AI in the game. On the other hand, the game was boring, the characters were lame, and there was so much use of the colors red and black you'd swear it was a title for the Virtual Boy. But maybe they'll have things figured out come 2010.

3. The other developer attached to the game is Kojima Productions, the development studio of Metal Gear series creator, Hideo Kojima. Don't get me wrong, the guy did some great work with the Metal Gear series. I just wonder if it's a good idea to take the game away from Koji Igarashi, the guy who helped make Symphony of the Night arguably the best game on the original Playstation, and who actually cobbled together a coherent timeline from the myriad Castlevania games. Sure, he's made some bad decisions, like periodically ditching the series' most well-known character designer in favor of people who can barely draw, and Castlevania Judgment as a whole, but still. Here's a fun fact: when Konami sent out pre-release copies of Metal Gear Solid 4 to reviewers, the company actually had to forbid reviewers from mentioning the ratio of cutscenes to actual gameplay (I believe it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 1). With Kojima at the helm, Lords of Shadow might cease to be a game, and instead wind up being that Castlevania movie we thought was canceled.

So I nerded out a little there, but hey, E3 huh? Pretty nifty overall. Got a handful of titles to look forward to in the near future, and at least as many to pass on. Ah, video games.

I now turn you over to -RoG- as he shares with you his extensive photo gallery of the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo:

There's still more to see from
I-Mockery's coverage of E3 2009!
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