Publications on and off the Internet hand out “Best of E3″ awards every year, but the Game Critics award is the definitive one. Comprising journalists from major gaming publications, the Game Critics awards the best playable games on the show floor. This year’s Best of Show award was won by Nintendo’s Wii, which also picked up the Best Hardware award, among others.
Full list after the jump.
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Conducting meaningful relationships with various publications, including catering to the thousands (if not millions) of games sites out there can be a daunting task for any PR guy. However, that does not necessarily mean they can ignore most publications and get away with it, expecting the ignored ones to offer coverage for their products.
GameMethod’s Managing Editor Tracy Erickson takes a look at all the mismanagement that happened during E3 2006, noting that most companies really don’t seem to care about your average gaming site, or any other publication other than the big three (IGN, Gamespy and Gamespot).
If I was the only editor to have experienced this treatment, I wouldn’t have published this article; unfortunately, my words represent numerous complaints from fellow journalists who are tired of dealing with uncooperative public relations staff. As journalists, we do not have an obligation to cover a company’s games; rather, companies should actively seek coverage, not the other way around. It is the responsibility of public relations staff to disseminate information and work with press to facilitate coverage. Why is it that some companies fail to address these responsibilities?Before the exposition even starts, evidence of substandard public relations work is evident. Companies like Koei and Capcom provide perfect examples this year of the challenge in setting appointments for E3. Two and a half weeks before the show, I sent e-mails to several companies requesting an appointment to preview their games, Koei and Capcom were included. Two weeks later, both companies replied denying our request for an appointment. Since when has delaying media requests two weeks become an acceptable practice? Perhaps if both companies had responded to our requests in a timely, professional manner, they wouldn’t have denied our request for an appointment. At least these companies replied. Square Enix representatives never responded to our multiple requests to attend their press conference. Similarly, a 2K Games representative was wonderful in connecting us with an outside firm to schedule an appointment; too bad we were never contacted after that.
However, there are always exceptions, and Sony, CDV and Microsoft were all applauded for their great work. I agree with him from personal experience, and believe that publishers should expect the sort of coverage that they can bestow upon us.
E3 2006 saw a variety of announcements, one of which was from Microsoft who offered all features of Xbox Live for free during the week of the event. Now that it is done and over with, the company has announced that over 1.5 million gamers connected to the network last week and downloaded exclusive content, including the latest HD trailers of Halo 3, Fable 2 and Gears of War, as well as game add-on content and demos of Lost Planet. Game With Fame multiplayer sessions were also held during the week.
Consuming more than 600 terabytes of data, the traffic on both Xbox Live and xbox.com double during the week. Microsoft released a list of the most popular content downloaded during the last week, and the results aren’t very surprising:
- Halo 3 Game Trailer (Microsoft Game Studios)
- Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Free Playable Demo (Capcom)
- Test Drive® Unlimited Free Playable Demo (Atari)
- MotoGP ‘06 Free Playable Demo (THQ)
- X-MenTM: The Last Stand Pack (20th Century Fox)
- Gears of War GameTrailer (Microsoft Game Studios)
- Call of Duty ®2: Skirmish Map Pack (Activision)
- Spiderman 3 Game Trailer (Activision)
- Fable 2 Trailer (Microsoft Game Studios)
- Uno® Xbox Live Arcade Game (Microsoft Game Studios)
E3 2006 saw the unveiling of quite a few big titles: Halo 3, GTA 4, Wii games, Assassin’s Creed and many others. But it also saw the absence of many notables of the past year. Gamespot has an article up that details the games absent, including Killzone PS3, Devil May Cry 4 and, most noticeably, Resident Evil 5.
They forgot to include Duke Nukem Forever! Never mind…
One post for it all…
- ActionTrip, TeleFragged, Guru3D, Hot Hardware, Gaming Nexus, SimHQ (day two), Seriously! and GotFrag (day two) all offer coverage of the first two days.
- Booth babes can be found on FiringSquad (more), FutureLooks (part two and part three), Virtual-Hideout Seriously! and PCApex
- CNET compares the booth babes of yesteryears with this year’s ones.
- Adam West, well known for his role as Batman in the classic TV series, was at E3. So was Paris Hilton, who couldn’t even say the name of her game properly.
Lara CroftKarima Adebibe, the “real-life” Lara Croft, was at E3 – CNN’s resident gamer offers insight on her first expo experience. GamersInfo has an interview with her up too.
- Coverage for the third and final day can be found on TeleFragged, ActionTrip (more), SimHQ, GameMethod, FiringSquad, GotFrag and GameBrink.
- Images from the event – PlanetQuake4, Thankeeka and Futurelooks.
Through this Gamespot article comes word of a videogame adaptation of Heat, the cult-favorite movie by Michael Mann released back in 1995. It featured Al Pacino, Val Kilmer and Robert de Niro in a “hardcore” bank heist.
Announced by Titan, Heat will be a prequel or sequel to the movie and will be released on next-gen platforms sometime next year. Titan has reached a deal with Regency Entertainment, which holds the rights to the movie, for the game that will reportedly feature the voices and likenesses of the aforementioned actors.
Also, according to the announcement, Mann is in talks with Gearbox to oversee the game’s development. The studio is well known for its PC port of Halo and its Brothers in Arms franchise.
Further details are expected soon.
Quantic Dream, the studio behind the awesomely-excellent Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy, has revealed its next-gen project through private viewings at E3. Dubbed “Heavy Rain,” the video shown was a tech demo run on the PS3 which showed off “The Casting” of a young actress for the lead role of the game. It features the virtual actor expressing emotions and crying in real-time 3D; Aurelie Brancilhon was the chosen actress.
“Our objective was to recreate not only the likeness of a living actor, but its complete acting performance, in particular in its emotional dimension” says David Cage, the founder of Quantic Dream and director of Heavy Rain. “At Quantic Dream, we believe that emotion will be a key component of Next Gen games and we are heavily investing in technologies to create Virtual Actors since several years. By expanding the range of emotions video games have to offer, they will be able to reach a far wider audience. This demo is just the beginning of what can be achieved, but I hope it already shows the fascinating new possibilities this media will offer in the coming years”.
“The Casting” featured full body and facial motion capture, including eyes, pupils, fingers and tongue; real-time tears, wrinkles on the face; advanced skin shades; and advanced rendering features.
Heavy Rain is being developed as a new franchise for the PC and next-gen consoles, and will make use of emotion and innovative gameplay mechanics.
The tech demo shown at the event was created in collaboration with AGEIA (physics engine), VICON PEAK (motion capture) and with the support of SCE. A high-resolution 720p video can be downloaded here (direct link).
E3 is unforgivably a loud, noisy affair. But what is this? NCSoft, creator of Auto Assault, Lineage and Tabula Rasa, has been fined $5,000 for making too much noise by the organizers!
As Mutaytor finished its set with fire-swallowing and dragon dancing, the audience was implored to get as loud as it could, and the booth shook with reverberations from the music.Once the band wrapped up, NCsoft vice president of strategic development Fred Schmidt took the stage and addressed the fine. He blasted Sega (which inhabited a neighboring booth during the show), saying they had three people with decibel readers monitoring NCsoft’s booth for the slightest infractions. Schmidt said the company made every effort to keep the noise within five decibels of the restricted limit, and for the most part did that successfully.
Schmidt then turned his attention to the ESA, essentially saying this whole experience has the company reconsidering its annual E3 presence.
“We’re not sure we’re on the same plane with this organization… We have been harassed for three days straight, and I’m not sure we’re coming back here, but we are going to have a party next year–real near here–and we hope you all will come.”
How can one company be harassed like this when all of them are making so much noise? And what’s with NCSoft’s hatred against Sega?
During E3 NVidia announced that Hellgate: London, Flagship Studios’ debut title, will include support for Havok FX physics and Microsoft’s ShaderModel 3.0, making it one of the industry’s first DirectX 10 games.
Hellgate: London combines the action of FPS games with the infinite replayability of dynamically generated levels, items, enemies and events. Players create a heroic character, completes quests and battles through hordes of demons (gates to hell have been opened… again) to advanced through experience levels and branching skill paths.
Namco Bandai will be publishing the game when it’s done.
Shown last year in video form and absent at this year’s E3, Namco Bandai has quietly announced that Frame City Killer has been cancelled.
The Unreal Engine-powered game was looking very lackluster when compared to other titles using the same engine – that could’ve been the reason behind the cancellation, but none was provided. Frame City Killer, an Xbox 360-exclusive, was destined for release this Spring.
Namco’s announcement indicated that new titles for the console are in development, replacing Frame City Killer. Further information is likely to be released soon.
Yes, a new Need for Speed is headed your way. In Sony’s pre-E3 conference, a trailer for NFS: Carbon was shown, revealing that the title is headed for the PS3, but knowing EA, Carbon may very well be released on every platform known to man.
The trailer begins in the dark, with white lights flickering upward. After a brief EA logo, the headlights of three cars turn on, revealing misty air, and then the cars drive toward the camera. Text then flashes across the screen–Need for Speed Carbon.
No official announcement from EA was made, so no details are available.
The financially-troubled Atari has announced its GamersFirst program which will see almost all of the company’s games prices cut to $20.
Starting June 1, all of Atari’s existing, PS2, Xbox, Gamecube and handheld games will carry a price tag of $20, as part of the GF program. PC titles from the company are also included in the program, except the recently released Dungeons & Dragons Online MMORPG. The PC titles will be available for download at the new price from Valve’s Steam and Direct2Drive.
Tecmo’s handheld project Tokobot will be making its way to the PS2. The company has announced Tokobot Plus: Mysteries of the Karakuri, a completely new Tokobot adventure for the aging console.
The game is said to offer a “totally enhanced and upgraded Karakuri experience” with graphical enhancements, as well as other new elements over the handheld version. It will feature ten new stages, thirty different types of enemies and a time-attack mode.
Tokobot Plus: Mysteries of the Karakuri will be available during Q3 2006.
In a chat with Gamespot, Blizzard’s COO Paul Sams revealed that the company has “multiple games” in development that haven’t been announced yet.
His statement was later expanded on by a PR rep, who explained that these games were being considered for release on “multiple platforms”. The spokesperson said that the company is looking into next-gen consoles – the PS3 and Xbox 360 especially – but no specific platform choices have been made yet.
It is expected that Blizzard will reveal their future projects sometime soon. Until then, hang tight!
Through a comedic blurb on a catalog for Studio Kojima’s upcoming games lineup, Hideo Kojima announced a surprise: a live-action Metal Gear Solid movie is in the works!
Thankfully, Uwe Boll, revered by many as the “worst director”, is not attached to the project, but that a “Class-A” contract has been secured. Here’s quote from Kojima himself:
I have received many offers to adapt Metal Gear Solid. It has taken a long time, but we have finally settled on an arrangement,” said the revered designer. “False facts aside, a movie project is underway. I have finalized a Class-A contract with a party in Hollywood.
The party’s name wasn’t mention, or the release date or potential directors. Further details are expected to surface soon.
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