Cloral
05-23-2005, 11:58 PM
Here as promised are the pictures I took at e3. I'm sorry for the poor quality of many of them, but the low light levels did make it pretty hard to get them to look good. Plus, I suck at taking photos. Anyway...
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/001.JPG
A general ambient shot. Unfortunately with the darkness all the distant details are not visible. Still, it gives a general sense of the level of croudedness of the show. From the look of the infrastructure, I think this was EA's booth.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/002.JPG
A view of the 2K booth. Nearby you can see the stations for MLB 2K5 and NBA 2K6. Off to the right you can also make out Serious Sam 2 and Elder Scrolls 4 - Oblivion.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/003.JPG
Square's booth. The big screen in the middle of the picture would open up to let people go behind to view the movie they had made up for FF12 and other upcoming titles. On the right is Dragon Quest 8, which I didn't like too much. Probably the best playable game they had was Full Metal Alchemist 2, which in itself wasn't that great.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/004.JPG
One of my co-workers playing The Bible Game - GBA edition. This was easily the worst game I saw at the show. The graphics were crap, and it was full of glitches. In this instance, the character was stuck about 6 feet in the air, able to walk around but totally unable to interact with anything. Other glitches included being drawn behind walls and walking over an underground entrance with absolutely no effect. I really wonder why they showed this game at all - it would have been better to not show it instead of giving this bad of an impression.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/005.JPG
Capcom booth where they were screening the Devil May Cry 4 trailer. This is the trailer I mentioned before that showed absolutely nothing, yet they had a countdown to show it. As you can see it worked, as there was a decent sized crowd gathered to watch it.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/006.JPG
An exhibit titled 'Into the Pixel'. It consisted of artwork inspired by video games. I really didn't find it all that interesting.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/007.JPG
I wonder whose booth this is? Nintendo and Sony had the 2 biggest booths at the show, and were located right next to each other. There was a lot to see here. And though the picture doesn't really give you the sense too well, that screen was probably about 20-30 feet across. That should give you a sense of the size of this booth.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/008.JPG
Atari's booth, where they were showing the new Matrix game. Though you can't see much in this picture. The part of the game I saw was the scene from the first movie where Neo and Trinity infultrate the government building and they have the big fight in the room with all the pillars. In the game it was scene-for-scene the same as the movie.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/009.JPG
A shot of the outside walkway connecting the 2 sides of the convention center (which is bisected by a road). Some people were selling food there, but it was very expensive - you could get a plate of 3 small tacos for $7. On the other hand, you could go just outside the convention center and get much better prices. Personally though, I just brought sandwiches from home.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/010.JPG
A shot of the poker tournament they had at our booth. The guy in the red shirt is an artist at Kush, though he wasn't one of the 2 from Kush who made the final table.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/011.JPG
The 'public service announcement' they ran for Civilization 4 they ran every hour at our booth. Pictured is George W. Bush proclaiming his love for the religious aspects of the game. "Did you know they spoke Latin back then? It was like this whole other language that they had." (the pixelation BTW was part of the video, probably to hide the fact that the actor didn't look like Bush)
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/012.JPG
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/013.JPG
Here is Namco advertising Soul Calibur 3 by having actors re-create a fight. It was actually pretty impressive, but I couldn't get a good shot with the size of the crowd there. At least in the first one the image on the video screen came out pretty well.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/014.JPG
I *think* I took this picture to show how much stuff this guy was carrying, but it really didn't show in the picture.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/015.JPG
The final table at the poker tournament. Two guys from Kush made it (the one in the Kush shirt and the one 2 seats to his left in the black hat), but neither won.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/016.JPG
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/017.JPG
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/019.JPG
It seemed like this band was playing non-stop. This was NCSoft's booth, advertising their new Driving MMO 'Auto Assault'. I'm not a fan of MMOs so I really didn't look into it. NCSoft BTW is responsible for City of Heroes and Guild Wars.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/018.JPG
Sony's booth. Sadly the baseball game being shown is their game and not ours. Although really, that is what you would expect.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/020.JPG
In the entryway (where there was actually light), Lucasarts had a big videoscreen where they were advertising a new Star Wars game as well as a game based on the Indiana Jones move that hasn't come out yet.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/021.JPG
Some guys dressed in armor. There were actually a lot of guys dressed up weirdly like this. One was dressed up as a zombie to advertise for some game. He came up to us, and my friend told him "Sorry, I don't have any change"
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/022.JPG
The lines for Zelda and to see Sony's PS3 presentation. Both were very long, but since it was dark you can't see the people in the distance. Zelda's line at its longest was well over 4 hours.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/023.JPG
6 XBox 360s with various faceplates. There were actually quite a few of these things since the XBox 360 games they showed were running on the actual hardware and not an alpha system.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/024.JPG
The Windows gaming booth. As you can see they had an upstairs, which was actually the case on a number of booths. The amount of infrastructure set up at these booths was astounding when you consider the fact that they are only used this one time.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/025.JPG
A girl dressed up like a cat at the Square booth.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/026.JPG
Someone playing MLB 2K5. What was surprising is this was about 30 minutes before the show was over. You'd think in the last few minutes people wouldn't spend time playing games that are already out, but this guy did.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/027.JPG
This picture wasn't from e3. This is the shopping center across from my apartment. This guy must really like Kobe...
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/001.JPG
A general ambient shot. Unfortunately with the darkness all the distant details are not visible. Still, it gives a general sense of the level of croudedness of the show. From the look of the infrastructure, I think this was EA's booth.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/002.JPG
A view of the 2K booth. Nearby you can see the stations for MLB 2K5 and NBA 2K6. Off to the right you can also make out Serious Sam 2 and Elder Scrolls 4 - Oblivion.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/003.JPG
Square's booth. The big screen in the middle of the picture would open up to let people go behind to view the movie they had made up for FF12 and other upcoming titles. On the right is Dragon Quest 8, which I didn't like too much. Probably the best playable game they had was Full Metal Alchemist 2, which in itself wasn't that great.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/004.JPG
One of my co-workers playing The Bible Game - GBA edition. This was easily the worst game I saw at the show. The graphics were crap, and it was full of glitches. In this instance, the character was stuck about 6 feet in the air, able to walk around but totally unable to interact with anything. Other glitches included being drawn behind walls and walking over an underground entrance with absolutely no effect. I really wonder why they showed this game at all - it would have been better to not show it instead of giving this bad of an impression.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/005.JPG
Capcom booth where they were screening the Devil May Cry 4 trailer. This is the trailer I mentioned before that showed absolutely nothing, yet they had a countdown to show it. As you can see it worked, as there was a decent sized crowd gathered to watch it.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/006.JPG
An exhibit titled 'Into the Pixel'. It consisted of artwork inspired by video games. I really didn't find it all that interesting.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/007.JPG
I wonder whose booth this is? Nintendo and Sony had the 2 biggest booths at the show, and were located right next to each other. There was a lot to see here. And though the picture doesn't really give you the sense too well, that screen was probably about 20-30 feet across. That should give you a sense of the size of this booth.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/008.JPG
Atari's booth, where they were showing the new Matrix game. Though you can't see much in this picture. The part of the game I saw was the scene from the first movie where Neo and Trinity infultrate the government building and they have the big fight in the room with all the pillars. In the game it was scene-for-scene the same as the movie.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/009.JPG
A shot of the outside walkway connecting the 2 sides of the convention center (which is bisected by a road). Some people were selling food there, but it was very expensive - you could get a plate of 3 small tacos for $7. On the other hand, you could go just outside the convention center and get much better prices. Personally though, I just brought sandwiches from home.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/010.JPG
A shot of the poker tournament they had at our booth. The guy in the red shirt is an artist at Kush, though he wasn't one of the 2 from Kush who made the final table.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/011.JPG
The 'public service announcement' they ran for Civilization 4 they ran every hour at our booth. Pictured is George W. Bush proclaiming his love for the religious aspects of the game. "Did you know they spoke Latin back then? It was like this whole other language that they had." (the pixelation BTW was part of the video, probably to hide the fact that the actor didn't look like Bush)
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/012.JPG
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/013.JPG
Here is Namco advertising Soul Calibur 3 by having actors re-create a fight. It was actually pretty impressive, but I couldn't get a good shot with the size of the crowd there. At least in the first one the image on the video screen came out pretty well.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/014.JPG
I *think* I took this picture to show how much stuff this guy was carrying, but it really didn't show in the picture.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/015.JPG
The final table at the poker tournament. Two guys from Kush made it (the one in the Kush shirt and the one 2 seats to his left in the black hat), but neither won.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/016.JPG
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/017.JPG
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/019.JPG
It seemed like this band was playing non-stop. This was NCSoft's booth, advertising their new Driving MMO 'Auto Assault'. I'm not a fan of MMOs so I really didn't look into it. NCSoft BTW is responsible for City of Heroes and Guild Wars.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/018.JPG
Sony's booth. Sadly the baseball game being shown is their game and not ours. Although really, that is what you would expect.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/020.JPG
In the entryway (where there was actually light), Lucasarts had a big videoscreen where they were advertising a new Star Wars game as well as a game based on the Indiana Jones move that hasn't come out yet.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/021.JPG
Some guys dressed in armor. There were actually a lot of guys dressed up weirdly like this. One was dressed up as a zombie to advertise for some game. He came up to us, and my friend told him "Sorry, I don't have any change"
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/022.JPG
The lines for Zelda and to see Sony's PS3 presentation. Both were very long, but since it was dark you can't see the people in the distance. Zelda's line at its longest was well over 4 hours.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/023.JPG
6 XBox 360s with various faceplates. There were actually quite a few of these things since the XBox 360 games they showed were running on the actual hardware and not an alpha system.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/024.JPG
The Windows gaming booth. As you can see they had an upstairs, which was actually the case on a number of booths. The amount of infrastructure set up at these booths was astounding when you consider the fact that they are only used this one time.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/025.JPG
A girl dressed up like a cat at the Square booth.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/026.JPG
Someone playing MLB 2K5. What was surprising is this was about 30 minutes before the show was over. You'd think in the last few minutes people wouldn't spend time playing games that are already out, but this guy did.
http://cloral.homestead.com/files/027.JPG
This picture wasn't from e3. This is the shopping center across from my apartment. This guy must really like Kobe...