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We're on a Mission from God

by Billy Berghammer - May 14, 2000, 10:24 am EDT

A massive update regarding the final day of E3.

It was the last day of E3, and I was planning on packing a multitude of things into our final moments of the big show. The final day of E3 is the shortest so we all knew we had to keep moving pretty quickly if we wanted to get everything in. I had a couple of appointments, and I wanted to talk to as many developers and companies about what they were planning to offer for Dolphin and GBA. And did I mention this was the last day to play Mario Tennis for a couple of months? Boooooooo!

E3 has two actual main sections, West and South Hall. There are also a crap load of other sub sections all over the place that have games, but these main halls are where most of the big mammoth displays were. South hall had a lot of the third party games, like Acclaim, EA, and a lot of others. West hall housed the big three, Nintendo, Sony, and Sega, and some other third party offerings. It wasn't until Friday that I finally made it over to South hall! That's how big this place is! Anyhoo, I wanted to tackle west hall for the first couple hours of the show.

There were a lot of PS2 games on display with the major third parties. One really unbelieveable thing that I saw was Unreal Tournament running on what I thought was a PS2, ended up to actually be a PC. Not good Sony not good. Steven and I were walking around and actually saw what people were talking about. Check out these two small pics that's basically proof. Note to Sony: When lying to the public at E3, make sure you KEEP THE PANELS ON THE DISPLAY!

Bad, BAD Sony. I did play or see a few titles (I mean few) that I did like. EA Had two titles that I liked. SSX was a very detailed snowboard game that looked incredible. It kind of looked like 1080 crossed with the Alpine Racer arcade game. Very slick. The John Madden title was also pretty. I never got to play any of these titles because there were usually lines. Too few monitors. Not good.

Ridge Racer and Tekken Tag were fully playable in the Namco booth. These titles were also okay, but nothing too mind blowing, and think the DC could do most of this just as easy. After all the titles I played or saw in the PS2 realm I have to say that there was nothing so mind blowing that would make me purchase a PS2. In my opinion Sega looked better at the show than Sony. More on that later.

After I got my PS2 groove going, I had an excellent interview with the Silicon Knights team. I met with the President Denis Dyack, as well as few of the designers, and Directors. These guys are very excited to be working with Nintendo as well as to be an official second party Dolphin developer.

I am saving the full story about Silicon Knights until tomorrow, but let me say this, the Dolphin Dream Team is shaping up to be a very strong force. Silicon Knights first N64 title that was previewed at E3 was nominated for best of E3. After playing this title for a good half hour I can honestly say that if you like Resident Evil type titles, and are looking for something a bit deeper, this is the game. IMO: This kicks RE's ass.

I had a few moments before I had to meet my Cousin at Noon, so I wanted to see if I could meet Brett Farve. Steven and I ran over to the Acclaim booth, and it didn't look like anything was still going on. I asked one of the PR people if Brett Farve was gone already, and she said no and Pointed to a corner where the man stood. Needless to say....

I finally got my Jersey signed. Packer Fan mission accomplished. Sweet!

We had our Official Nintendo Booth tour at 1pm with my good friend Thom Leonard. Back in the HQ days (like 3 years ago) I met him when he was on a Press Tour at my old radio station. I still had his business card in my wallet. Funny thing was that he remembered meeting me. Thom gave us the low down about all the Nintendo titles that were present at the show. Granted we all had been playing these games for a couple days now, but it was nice to ask some questions that we had. Unfortunately booth babes, albeit beautiful, don't know a whole lot about the games. Still a necessary item tho. Heh! It was fun to try to get Tom to say something about Dolphin or GBA, but of course nothing could be said. Can't shoot us for trying :)

After that we had a couple hours left, and just played games. My cousin and I hung out at the Sega booth for a while, and played one of my favorites from the show...Samba de Amigo. It's a game where you shake Maraca contollers to a pattern. Sounds weird, looks ever stranger, but trust me...it rocks. I also played Quake 3 for a bit, and was impressed. If Sega can really pull this off online, they will have a hit. And yes, they did have a keyboard/mouse set up. Nintendo, please take note of this.

Time was almost up, so of course I had to get some last minute Mario Tennis out of the way. I will honestly miss this game. Walugi still is the champ. Single or Multi-player this game is a total blast. I think Nintendo was really surprised to hear how many people loved this title. I don't think the regular Mario Tennis booth babe liked us come the third day. Heheheh. Oh well. :)

The final moments of the day was spent playing Perfect Dark with my cousin. I think it's kind of funny that I really didn't talk about this title too much. In a couple of weeks this game will be taking over America by storm. Perfect Dark is true to it's name...truely Perfect. I can't wait to get my hands on this at release.

Please leave the E3 floor

I dreaded to hear those words over the loud speaker. It was truly a sad moment. Saying goodbye to Mario Tennis, The Conker Bar, all the delicious booth babes. All of the new people we met. It could make anyone want to cry. I think we were some of the last people to leave the show floor. I think for all the things Video Game related, E3 was one of the best experiences ever. I don't think I will ever have that much fun in a long time. Well...er...until next year. I will be back next year! E3 didn't kick our asses. Granted right now I feel like I got hit by a truck, but if there was a day four I would be there right now Jammin' on some more Nintendo goodness! E3 I will return next year to kick your ass again!

We spent our final night partying, and playing games with the fine folks from Tendo Box, and Dolphin Cove. We played hard until the end. It was nice to sleep in today. I will try to update some more thoughts later today, but I am also going ot see some of the sights before I have to head back tomorrow morning. The next couple of days will be full of updates once we get home and back to our real computers. It's sad to think in 48 hours I'll be back at work....Nooooooooo! Keep an eye on us for all of the interviews, pics, and movies fresh from E3!

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