E3 2000: General Impressions

We’ll start with Gaming Age:

A very tiring 1st day of the E3 has passed, and despite some aggravating server problems, the show was great. There were not a whole lot of surprises, outside of Sonic Adventure 2 and Metal Gear Solid 2, but it wasn’t too difficult to get a sense of how the big 3 were doing.

The start of the show, the Sony booth was indeed packed. Of course people who have never seen a PS2 in real life were clamoring to get their hands on a Dual Shock 2 and test out those games. The Sony booth, in all actuality, seemed pretty sterile, and much different than usual. Usually it is loud and exciting, with a lot going on. This year, there was a large screen, a ton of kiosks, and not much else. People seemed very disappointed at what Sony had on display. There was really not much substance at all. In fact, I can’t think of a single game that stood out and wowed people, graphically or otherwise. EA had a ton of titles, most of which looked great, and the Metal Gear Solid 2 trailer was absolutely THE single most amazing thing we have all ever seen, but that was really it.

Soon after everyone got their fill of the Sony booth, the Sega booth became packed. Sega, for their first year ever, had a real lot going on in their booth. First of all, it was huge, and took up more floor space than last year. Secondly they had a huge stage, with live shows/competitions of some kind nearly every hour. The Jet Grind Radio demo included real skaters who performed sets of tricks on the mini ramps and rails built into the stage. There were also platform built into the side wall of the booth where multiple Ulala’s danced for showgoers through the day. Besides the shows Sega just had a lot of stylish and “cool” games, something for the first time Sony was very much lacking.

Jet Grind Radio, Space Channel 5, Samba De Amigo, Shenmue and Seaman all drew large crowds, as did the amazing new NFL, NBA and World Series Baseball 2K1 games. Online games took up a huge portion of the booth, and there were more of those games coming out, then anybody even expected. Even 18 Wheeler American Trucker is coming out with online play! There are too many to list right now, but we will be sure to bring you more info on them soon.

Nintendo was extremely predictable, with only a few games worth checking out. Dinosaur Planet, Zelda:MoM, Perfect Dark, Banjo-Tooie and Conker’s Bad Fur Day were pretty much the cream of the crop. Of course a bunch of Pokemon related games were there, such as the quirky and cool “Hey You Pikachu”.

Overall, the first day was very exciting. I would have to say that Sega definitely stole the show, and I don’t see that opinion changing all that much after Days 2 and 3.

We now go to ChumsGum from the DC Tech Pages:

Before I begin with the details, I’d like to say that I came into this E3 unbiased and was really looking forward to being impressed with PS2. I was looking forward to seeing a new PS2 Spyro, a Naughty Dog PS2 game, Gameday 2001 PS2, and some other Sony surprises. Well, Sony showed nothing and what they did show was really sad except for maybe Omnimusha from Capcom (although it seemed to be pre-rendered).

Oni from Bungie, Gunslinger, Street Lethal, Rayman 2 1/2, Tekken TT, RRV, Unreal Tournament, and rest of the PS2 lineup was really disappointing. Chop, chop, jaggy, jaggy! Generation leap over DC? I think not, PS2 has a hard time leaping over PSX from what I saw and played. The overall consensus with Sony’s show was that of disappointment. I overheard people saying that playing PS2 on those WEGAs really caused some of them to get dizzy and sick.

Yes Madden was shown and did look good, but not as good as NFL2K1. The motion captures in Madden looked like last year’s PSX game, but in 60 frames for PS2. As a side note, no Gameday for PS2. This has got to because of some deal EA made with Sony. Sony must of game EA exclusive rights to NFL for PS2 in exchange for EA’s loyalty.

What about SEGA? Well, their entire booth was filled with excitement. While Sony showed drab, unoriginal titles, SEGA’s booth was filled with exciting, new, and fresh titles. Samba de Amigo, Space Channel 5, and Jet Grind Radio were the most popular in SEGA’s booth. Samba was huge, drew a crowd throughout the day and was a big hit with the females. SC5 and Jet Grind were showcased with impressive stage shows. Ulala and friends (the hottest of E3) battled Moraliens to some cool tunes while inline skaters performed stunts on stage for the Jet Grind show. If that wasn’t enough, SEGA even had Mixmaster Mike from the Beastie Boys spinning the vinyl. SEGA’s “cool” factor went through the roof.

SEGANET was in full force showcasing tons of new online games. NFL2K1, NBA2K1, Outriggers, Quake III Arena, 4×4 Evolution, KIIS Psycho Circus, Armada 2, Game Room, 18 Wheeler, Railroad Tycoon 2, and probably others I forgot about. Sonic Shuffle and F355 were there with online functions in their option menus.

Dreamcall, SEGA’s new phone service was on hand and worked well. I dialed my cel phone and the call came in quite clear. SEGA also showed their first “Arcade vs Home” game, Alien Front which used Inno Media Dreamcall technology. People playing Alien Front for Naomi and for the Dreamcast can battle over the internet with voice transfer.

SEGA’s little theater showed off an english Shenmue, Black & White, Phantasy Star Online, and Sonic Adventure 2. SA2 is basically a fast, all-action, more polygon, Sonic and Knunckles only, Sonic Adventure. (Ed Note: I’ll try and see if SA2 is indeed an Sonic and Knuckles only title…)

And then there was Bleemcast. I saw it with my own eyes. Gran Turismo 2 on Bleemcast, believe it or not, is comparable to GT 2000 on PS2. Bleemcast aint no joke, the darn thing emulates PSX games far better than the PS2 can. The crowd was really amazed at what Bleem pulled off. June 15 is the date the first Bleempak will be released.

Then there’s Toothfairy:

For starters, my total fav, Jet Set… ack, Jet Grind Radio. Way cool. Control is ultra simple, but it seems there’s a lot of depth to it. It should take quite some practice to pull off the stunts shown in the demos. The only problem I had with the game was the bad camera. It was easy to get stuck in bad angles, and the changes were often so abrupt that I would loose my orientation. The music though, much to my delight, was awesomely perfect. I’m absolutely exstatic they stuck with the one they had in DCIGN’s monstrous video.

F355 Challenge was playable, and it is the arcade version. While I can see some minor loss of track detail, everything else is spot on. Too bad they didn’t have the sound on. Folks, whoever doubted that DC could do Naomi ports, this is the proof it can. This is another must buy – even if it is just so that I can practice at home and show off in the arcade. By the way, F355 will be published by Akklaim, but it is inherently a Sega game.

Ecco the Dolphin was there as well, and I finally got some playing time. While it is easy to get disoriented (I’m pretty sure I swam upside down for quite a while), it is gorgeous, and brings back memories of the original. Ahhhhh….. I actually stopped playing it ‘cuz I want all the surprise when I pop it into my DC at home.

Seaman will join my collection as well. While it was difficult to test it out (partially because it was constantly occupied), the sheer weirdness of the title compels me to buy it. One quote by Seaman that stuck with me: “[garbled by background noise], but I’m sure your wife will.” Gotta have this.

Quake3:Arena was part of the party, and it is a very competent port. While there is less detail in the architecture, there are more lighting effects and transparencies. All in all, no surprises. It didn’t run quite as fast as some high-end PCs, but certainly fast enough for some good ol’ fragging. Note for those who are curious about control mechanism: Sega had everything there. There was the standard joypad, then there was a keyboard/ mouse combo (complete with mousewheel), and an interesting trackball/joystick combination, which didn’t work at all for me. It’s might interesting though, and at a proposed $50, it could be a good buy.

Weird title of the moment goes to Deer Hunter: Avenger. It seems you control a deer bent on avenging the slaughter of its friends by human hunters.

Quick note on PS2 UT and other games: UT looks pretty much identical to the PC version. Q3 on DC looks very similar as well. Different color scheme, different architecture, but nothing really that warrants calling PS2 “the future of entertainment”. And folks: a 640 by 210 resolution is ugly on a crisp, high-quality TV. My eyes hurt after watching Kessen, Onimusha and TTT. It’s a very disturbing effect, which is exhibited by a number of games…. End of PS2 rant.

And finally, SegaWeb had some choice words to say:

With high-energy pumping music, groovy stage shows, and a veritable wealth of triple-A titles, Sega has stolen this year’s E3 show. Following up on their successful TGS show (Tokyo Game Show), Sega continues their domination of the next-generation market.

Many people are leaving Sony sections saying “I’m not too impressed,” while crowds continued to gather all day at Sega’s main stage. With games such as such Jet Grind Radio, Shenmue, Quake III Arena, the 2K1 games, Space Channel 5, Samba de Amigo, and more, Sega is well-prepared to stave off the eventual PS2 rush.