The most excited moment in the Nintendo Press conference was the showing of ever-more footage from Conker's Bad Fur Day. All those sweet games with the puffy looking cartoony characters leaping about, this takes that game model (the 3D platformer) and literally perverts it. Busty babes, enormous balls, profanity, Conker the squirrel is shown pissing broad yellow streams onto fiery demon foes.
During Q&A I asked the bespectacled Peter Main, who used to manage the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in Canada "Evangelism with skewed numbers" - somehow according Metal Gear Solid 2 was the early favourite for "blow your mind" game footage. It looked like a Tom Clancy novel writ large on a twelve foot screen, a movie being generated by a video game engine, where you might have a chance to get in there and act decidedly less smooth, in 2001 when the game might come out for PlayStation 2. After people had been excited about that for a while, a few other favourites from behind closed doors: Munch's Odeseyee I didn't see it - I heard it was an incredibly expansive project that if it is completed will be a fantastically deep game. If it is completed as planned. Alice Graphics so creepy and twisted as to make you feel a little bit off your own rocker. Integrating the narcotic mumblings of an 19th century poet with hype-3d graphics and a first-person shooting mentality makes for a very unsettling title. Mostly E3 made me wonder if this isn't the generation that wants to be stimulated at all costs - violence, sex, it's all just show and who's got the loudest and most brazen astonishing spectacle? okay. next! and on and on and on. Deus Ex stood out as a fantastic looking game my panel I was on a panel "Online Gaming: More than Checkers?" - we were trying to figure out how casual gamers would approach online gaming sites. The most remarkable participant of the panel was hands down Stephen Kane, founder of GamesVille. When we were discussing privacy interviews PS2 seemed the clear winner, coming into E3. The Sony promotions machine, the years of success for the first PlayStation, the recent ravenous crowds in Japan eager to lay their hands on the box, the DVD movie option - the PlayStation 2 seemed really unstoppable. Until you wandered around through the games, not really stopping to play any. Sure there was some graphical beauty - Onimusha was Resident Evil, police zombie hunting, except with Samurais. There were racing games - drive a pretty realistic looking car through mostly empty streets. And sports games. at the last minute Zack and I spot interviewed random people from the E3 crowd. Many young men requested more boobies and more booty. Most reflected some dismay at the sorry state of PS2 gaming. Sega was the clear booth winner - presenting certifiably unusual gaming titles like Samba de Amigo players grasp plastic maracas wired into the Dreamcast and shake the maracas in time with on screen cues to salsa-ish music. Very Lively! Jet Grind Radio/Jet Set Radio Players rollerblade through big cities "tagging" spraypainting and graffiting. Total urban style.