First, a brief preface. I’m writing this entire report based only on my memories of the past several days, as I took no notes, very few pictures and tried to collect as few press releases as humanly possible (you have no idea how much a solid stack of press releases weighs). For this, my third trip out to E3 in as many years, I wanted to focus on playing as many games as I could, seeing as many games as possible and really submerging myself in them (Hideo Kojima would appreciate that). I will run through my thoughts and impressions of many games, and it’s important here that you keep in mind that many of these games are still very early in development and may change significantly before release, so take all opinions offered here with that in mind.

Ara Shirinian and I arrived at the L.A. convention center at 8:45, and we were due for a private meeting to look at Ratchet & Clank with the game’s producers at 9:00. As we approached the entrance to the building, we saw a huge crowd of people lined up. We walked to the front of the line to find the cause of this holdup – post-9/11 security measures were in place, and a troupe of beleaguered staffers were holding their ground against the throngs, doggedly searching all bags and packs being brought into the convention center. Ara decided that we had no time to waste on such things and we brazenly cut into line directly at the front. Much to my surprise – and the annoyance of the people still in line behind us – our bags were promptly searched, tagged, and we were on our way into the main hall before the mob behind us could figure out what had happened.

In the West Hall, home to Sony, Sega and Nintendo, along with a slew of other ‘big name’ publishers, we found armed guards standing at intervals along the edges of Sony’s property. After some amount of hassle, we got through the barricade and were hustled into a back room where we met the producers of Ratchet & Clank, Sony’s next 3D platformer. After a short wait, Mark Cerny (he of Spyro the Dragon fame) entered the room, was introduced as a consultant on the game, and the demonstration got rolling.

Ratchet & Clank is a 3D action-platformer that people who normally don’t like 3D action-platformers might enjoy. I say this because I am not a fan of the genre, and yet I saw that many common issues were being addressed by the design team, and the game looked highly polished and fun to play. Ratchet is some sort of feline animal, and Clank is a runty little robot carried around on Ratchet’s back. Together they travel from planet to planet to fight back the invading hordes of some kind of robotic army. On each new planet Ratchet can purchase new items and weapons to keep things fresh. He’s also got a big wrench that can be used as a weapon or to manipulate the environment. I’m not good at explaining why you should try out a game of this type, except to say that you should really try it when it comes out (Q4 2002) and decide for yourselves.

And that about does it for Sony. I’ve got plenty of coverage of other PS2 games throughout this report, but Ratchet & Clank was the only first-party game that made an impression on me.

Sega gets my pick for ‘Best of Show’ this year. If anybody still thinks that Sega’s decision to go third party was a bad thing after they see what’s coming their way this year, I’ll be very surprised.

Let’s start with a little gem I hadn’t heard anything about prior to walking up to a display at Sega’s booth and picking up the GameCube controller – Beach Spikers: Virtua Beach Volleyball. Now, I know that you’re aware that Tecmo is also working on a beach volleyball game featuring the ladies of DoA3, but Tecmo also didn’t have their game playable at E3. Sega’s game, also featuring nothing but teams of beautiful women in bikinis, on the other hand, is all but complete and looking forward to a July release date. This game is the pinnacle of simplicity – analog control moves your player and A (also known as ‘the big green button) does the rest. If you want to get tricky and use an underhand hit you can press B (the little red button), but that’s not really necessary. Beach Spikers is 2-on-2 with full 4 player support, and the ease of play (you can learn in a minute) will make this a perfect party game. The visuals are great, and I honestly can’t imagine Tecmo topping this one in terms of gameplay.

Panzer Dragoon Orta. This is classic Panzer Dragoon, complete with the 360 degree spinning, dragon lock-on, and shooting action you remember, but beefed up with Xbox graphics. It plays great on the Xbox S controller (incidentally, ALL Xbox units at E3 had the smaller, much better S controllers attached) because the game really uses only one face button (for attacking) and the L and R buttons to rotate your viewpoint. Another button is used to transform your dragon on the fly (a new feature to the series), but other than that, this is probably going to be the best of the Panzer Dragoon action games. Really, it looks amazing, and it’s going to induce fits of nostalgia in fans of the series.

Toejam & Earl III. Sega has returned to the classic gameplay of TJ&E in this Xbox-only sequel. 3D graphics replace the original’s 2D, but the co-op multiplayer and the split-screen/single-screen display are in place. You still collect presents, deal with pesky earthlings and look for the way into the next randomly generated level. The only thing I don’t like about this game is the inclusion of ‘Latisha,’ a hip-hop stylin’ female alien who has joined Toejam and Earl as a third playable character. Why bring ethnicity into a game about aliens? This move screams political correctness and the character just doesn’t fit into the series at all.

Gungrave. This is a stylish, anime-inspired action game with a protagonist who wields dual handguns and a giant tombstone/rocket launcher as weapons. It’s pure arcade action with a load of style, and the main character is going to give Dante a run for his ‘broodingly cool action hero’ money. Graphics are good, but not great by PS2 standards, and the game may get repetitive fast.

Shinobi. This is where it’s at, folks. Shinobi is best described as a 3D Strider. I heard that phrase used over and over again by people looking at or playing the game, and it’s fitting. Screenshots do no justice to this game. Shinobi will blow your mind with its simple-yet-dead-on controls, it’s extreme coolness factor (slash at enemies and watch them slide apart in pieces) and the new abilities they’ve given Joe Higashi (if indeed this new version of the action series hero is the same man – he has certainly undergone a major design tranformation). Shinobi can run along walls, dash so fast that he teleports to his destination, lock onto enemies and wield his sword with razor-sharp precision. He’s also got his throwing knives (and the ‘death blossom’ knife trick from ‘Revenge of Shinobi’). If I were an elite gamer I would tell that Shinobi ‘RoXoRs’! Oh yeah – it’s for PS2.

Super Monkey Ball 2. More Monkey Ball action. More Monkey Mini-Games. Better backgrounds. Yeah, this GameCube sequel will make fans of the first game do little monkey dances of happiness. There’s also a GBA Monkey Ball game coming out this year (courtesy of publisher THQ).

And yeah, Sega had new versions of all of their popular sports game at the show, but I’m not particularly interested in any of them. I will say, though, that Sega Tennis and NBA 2K3 looked especially good. Sega was also much more crowd-friendly this year – all of their games were on the floor, open to play by the general attendees. They still had their enclosed area for appointments, and this was nice since it was much less crowded in there and I got to play through the entire demo versions of Shinobi and Gungrave, as well as play through the Arcade mode of Beach Striker a couple of times.

This is going to be short. I only played two games in Nintendo’s booth, and they only really had two games as far as most people were concerned. Zelda looks nice, but you’re either going to love or hate the new 6-year-old looking Link. I thought the game looked very good, it has the same context-sensitive button action from ‘Ocarina’ and there were some impressive demo levels on display, including one boss battle that looked very intense and very cool.

Super Mario Sunshine. Think ‘Mario 64’ with a new water gun contraption attached to Mario’s back, and gameplay geared around the device, and you’ve got the gist of this new title. It looks good, plays good, but the whole water gun-centric gameplay left me a bit cold. It just doesn’t feel ‘Mario,’ you know. Someone mentioned that Miyamoto is in a rut – Luigi wields a vacuum in ‘Luigi’s Mansion,’ and now Mario has a sort of anti-vacuum device in ‘Sunshine.’ I had a Miyamoto sighting again this year – this time on an escalator. He was going up, and I was going down. I resisted the urge to attempt a high five as we passed each other.

Eternal Darkness and Starfox Adventures – not impressed. Basically, GameCube has the two instant blockbusters (Mario and Zelda) and a few third party games that showed promise, and that’s all. I completely ignored their GBA section. Sorry, GBA fans. There’s some GBA coverage later on in the third party stuff.

Bandai was at the top of my E3 hit list this year for two reasons – I had heard that the Capcom-developed arcade action game Mobile Suit Gundam: Federation vs. Zeon was going to make an appearance in PS2 form, and I had also learned that the PSone was getting a sequel to the excellent Gundam Battle Assault.

PS2 game first. Mobile Suit Gundam: Federation vs. Zeon. This is Gundam the way the fans have been asking for it for years. All action, easy controls, cinematic camera angles. You choose to fight for either the Federation or the Principality of Zeon and choose a Mobile Suit and main weapon and then get dropped into battle. Auto-targeting and simple controls for main weapon and melee weapon make gameplay fun and easy, and the objective is always the same – destroy more of the enemy than they can of your forces. This game looks great, plays great – in short, this is the best ‘next-generation’ Gundam game that we’ve gotten yet.

Gundam Battle Assault 2. Wing Gundam. Heavy Arms. Death Scythe. Epyon. Sandrock. G Gundam. Tallgeese. 30 Mobile Suits in all, from 3 different series, using the same 2D engine and gameplay from last years title. I was loving this game, and I found myself drawn back to Bandai’s booth to play it again and again during the show. Of course, it didn’t hurt that ‘Federation vs. Zeon’ was right there as well. This has got to be one of the last great PSone games that we’re going to see here, so if you’re any kind of Gundam fan, or fighting game fan, you should look for this in July.

Unfortunately, there were no new and exciting Capcom fighting games on the show floor this year. Bafflingly, they are porting Capcom vs. SNK 2 to the GameCube, the system I would vote least likely to ever become fighting game friendly.

Auto Modellista looks nice, though. It seems like a serious racing sim for the car aficionados among us, but has a very cool anime-inspired graphic design. When you build speed you even get speed lines on the screen, an effect that can’t be properly conveyed through screenshots.

On the GBA front, Capcom has Street Fighter Alpha 3 coming out. It’s been announced for a long time, I played it and was mildly impressed in the same way that I was mildly impressed by SSFII Revival – it looks great, but I don’t want to play it with the GBA’s button config. On the other hand, Mega Man Zero looks great and has a much more GBA-friendly control scheme. You get to play as Zero for this entire game, and there’s a sort of home base area that you return to between missions and can run around in and talk to people. Capcom also had Mega Man Battle Network 2, and it looks exactly like the first game. Can you say ‘cash run’? I thought you could.

Moving right along, Capcom of course had Onimusha 2 on the floor, since the game is already out in Japan and ready for release here anytime now. It’s good, in that ‘more of the same’ way. The big surprise at Capcom was Red Dead Revolver. This third person action shooter set in the old west couldn’t help but remind me of the old Capcom arcade game ‘Gun.Smoke.’ Not that Red Dead has anything to do with that game aside from the old west theme, but still, I have to believe that Capcom is returning to the past for this one. Red Dead has you shooting it out with outlaw types and the gameplay is fast-paced and highly kinetic. Capcom is doing some things in this game that I haven’t seen before. The graphics are gritty and very realistic, and there’s a sort of motion blur effect when you draw your six-shooters and spin to face and lock onto an enemy that’s impressive. This game was hands down my favorite in Capcom’s booth, since they had no playable Devil May Cry 2 on the floor (although there was video footage from the game running on their omnipresent big screen).

I think that Konami wanted their big announcement at the show to be Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance. It wasn’t. I could have told them that the game required more substance after I beat it in a few days last year. Seems that maybe some higher-ups at Konami agreed with me, because this rehash, coming first to the Xbox this fall, adds 200 VR missions, a handful of Solid Snake ‘mini-missions’ called Snake Tales, the ability to play through the game as Snake, Ninja or Raiden and, bizarrely, a Solid Snake skateboarding game. This tidbit segues nicely into another Konami title, Evolution Skateboarding, which also features the MGS2 hero riding a skateboard. Too bad the gameplay kind of stinks and can’t compare to the THPS series.

For me, Konami this year was all about the Contra. The PS2 game is a welcome return to the old-school gameplay, although the game still uses a 3D engine and rotates around so you’re moving ‘into’ the screen too often. But the gameplay seemed to be on the right track, and that’s a relief after the last couple of PSone Contra disasters. Konami also has a port of Contra III (originally seen on the SNES) coming to GBA.

I’m not going to lie to you and say that I was interested in anything but one single game at Activision this year – Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4. I went, I saw, I left in awe. Graphics are pushed up a notch, Career mode is all new and features in-game goals handed out by people you talk to while boarding around the expansive levels. There are lots of new moves, and the flatland tricks are given higher priority since you can bust them out of a simple manual now instead of having to perform a special move to link into them. You can also grab onto the backs of cars and let them pull you along – fans of EA’s long-forgotten Genesis game ‘Skitchin’ might enjoy this feature. It’s all good, but Neversoft is winding down with this series – there’s nothing revolutionary this time. Now we’ll see how long they can coast on sequels. I’m betting for another few games at least.

Activision also had a PS2 X-Men fighting game, that looked okay but not PS2-worthy. Their Wolverine game pretty much sucked, and I can’t remember anything else that they had.

Not surprisingly, Rockstar is cruising on the immense success of GTA III. They had prominent displays of the PC port, which is the same as the PS2 game but looks sharper. They also have hands down the best FPS for GBA I’ve seen with a new Duke Nukem title. It moves smoothly, looks as good as possible, and plays well too. They’ve also got another Smuggler’s Run game coming out but since that series didn’t do much for me I didn’t pay much attention to it.

Of course, Rockstar’s big news is the next GTA title – Grand Theft Auto Vice City. This is not an expansion or add-on to GTA III, but rather a whole new game. Nothing was shown at E3 except for the package art design, which is very similar to GTA III. The only bits of information they were letting out of the bag were that the game is set in the 80s and centers around power and corruption. I asked if the game uses the GTA III engine but they said they couldn’t answer any questions. I have to assume that it will, however, since the game is going to be officially unveiled for PS2 in July and ready to hit stores in October. I guess now I need to hurry up and finish playing GTA III…

Of all the THPS knock-offs I saw at the show (and there were plenty of them), Acclaim has the best one with Chris Edward’s Aggressive In-Line. The game looks great and has great control, what more do you want? It’s coming for all 3 current consoles.

Since WarCraft III has been out in beta form for some time, getting near the game this year wasn’t as life-threatening as it has been at the past 2 E3 shows. The game was pretty much 100% finished, and it looks great, plays great, it’s going to be the PC game to get this year. And then there’s Blizzard’s other title, World of WarCraft. Although early, the demos running for this game were amazing. It’s the best looking online game I’ve seen yet, looks to have an easy and intuitive control system and should give Star Wars Galaxies a run sometime next year.

As always, LucasArts maintained their ‘behind closed doors by appointment only’ status at E3. They have a couple of non-Star Wars games this year. The first is RTX Red Rock. Frankly, it looks like a very average 3^rd person actioner. The other game might fare better. Gladius is a turn-based strategy game set in the world of gladiatorial arena combat. For each battle you’ll take your group of gladiators against the enemy warriors. Controls are simple and the game looks good. This one is coming for all 3 current consoles.

On the Star Wars front, Bounty Hunter for PS2 looks good. Control could be a little better but this is one of the better 3^rd person action games I saw at the show. Clone Wars is this years obligatory vehicle action game, in the same vein as Rogue Leader, Battle for Naboo and Rogue Squadron. This time most of your vehicles are ground-based, with the one exception being the Republic gunships. The game looks good, plays good, and should satisfy fans of the series.

The big news in LucasArts booth came in the form of their two upcoming Star Wars RPGs. The first is Knights of the Old Republic, set 1000 years before the prequel trilogy. The galaxy is full of Jedi Knights and Sith Lords, and they are struggling for supremacy. You take the role of a Jedi. The game is fully 3D and looks very good. It’s got a great lightsaber combat model that makes duels look realistic and exciting. Very little of the game was actually shown, but what I saw got me excited for it. This one is due for PC and Xbox late this year. Star Wars Galaxies looks great, but nothing more than a few characters walking around some of the game environments was being shown. This is the MMORPG EverQuest-style that has all of the internet fanboys buzzing. It’s going to be huge, no doubt.

Crave has two games coming out, one that is still in the extremely early stages and one that is finished and prepping for release. Daredevil is based on the popular Marvel comic hero and should be ready in time for the movie next year. The team responsible for this game seems to be on the right track, as they had copies of Frank Miller’s Daredevil books in the conference room and seemed adamant about staying true to the character. Gameplay was almost nonexistent, though, so it’s hard to judge how the final game will turn out. They are working on an interesting ‘radar sense’ view that will allow Daredevil to dodge bullets and perform other superhuman feats, and they assure me that he’ll also be able to swing around the city in the final game (although it won’t be like Siper-Man’s webslinging ability – Daredevil will be able to swing from a single point, but then he’ll have to look around for another swing point to continue moving).

Dragon’s Lair 3D looks amazing. The team behind this one is getting loads of help from Don Bluth Studios and it shows. They got the original background artist from the 80s laserdisc game to paint textures for them, they got Don Bluth himself to personally supervise the all-new animated opening and ending, and they have the original voice of hero Dirk the Daring. While Dirk is a man of very few words, fans of the game know that his yelps, yells and screams of terror just couldn’t be reproduced by anyone else. They did have to get a new voice for Princess Daphne, however, as the original voice actor is now in her forties and can’t convincingly sound like a 20-something any longer. However, the new talent does an amazing job, sounding almost exactly like the original Daphne, and that’s a good thing, because Daphne talks to Dirk throughout the entire game, dropping hints or telling him about upcoming danger. The game revisits pretty much every scene from the original game, and it looks exactly like the original game, except that now it’s in 3D and you have much more control over Dirk. There are loads of new areas in the game as well, and they fit into the theme of the old areas beautifully. The game even manages to reproduce the death/rebirth animation exactly from the laserdisc. In fact, it does so many things so perfectly that fans of the series (like me) are going to have fits of nostalgia constantly while playing this game. The best part of Crave working on a new Dragon’s Lair game? They had an original arcade cabinet set up and I was able to play the actual laserdisc game, something I haven’t done in probably well over a decade.

As usual, and although I tried hard to cut down on it this year, I returned with a load of the free crap handed out by companies at the show. Here’s a picture of the best of the crap I got this year:

Working Designs had the best of the swag this year – a stuffed Goemon to promote their upcoming Goemon RPG for PS2. Following closely behind is a statuette of Momo from Namco’s upcoming Xenosaga. Inetract and Sammy both handed out free bags, and Sammy’s bag included a full color Guilty Gear X mousepad. EA handed out metal bookmarks with a replica of the One Ring to promote their variety of LoTR games. Rockstar got my vote for quantity of swag – they were handing out packs of stickers and buttons, as well as a variety of stickers featuring the some of the more notorious GTA III businesses. They also had T-Shirts with various GTA III business logos. Finally, Sony gave everyone free playable demo discs of their two 3D action games, Ratchet & Clank and Sly Cooper. Free playable demos are always nice.

If I were a better photographer I would have snapped this picture a few seconds earlier, when Tony Hawk was actually doing something impressive. But I didn’t. Hawk was joined by Bob Burnquist on the Activision half-pipe this year, as well as a slew of other upcoming amateur and professional skaters. Also spotted by me at the show – Gary Coleman (I see him EVERY year, usually just walking the booths and checking out the games), Mr. T, Carmen Electra, and Bruce Campbell. Gaming industry people I saw this year – Shiguru Miyamoto, Richard Garriot, and the Dead or Alive designer (can’t think of his name).

Just one booth babe for you this year, but she’s worth it. This girl is dressed as Bloodrayne, a vampire from the upcoming game of the same name. You can’t see them very well in this shot, but she’s got fangs, and also giant metal blades attached to her forearms. Right after I took this picture she kicked me in the head.