After taking the year off from E3 back in 2003, I decided it was high time I scrape together any money I could, and make the treck out to L.A. for the 2004 convention. This year, we saved a little money by figuring out how to get in for free. I'm not going to say how we did it, but let's just say there's always a loop-hole around the fine print. And we know a guy who knows a guy... that sort of thing.

Anyways, instead of flying, someone came up with the brilliantly retarded idea of driving 3000 miles to California. We rented a van, which ate up any money we saved on the free E3 tickets, and started our trip on the Saturday before the convention, and had to be in L.A. on Monday to claim our hotel reservation. We made hella time, and could've gotten into L.A. Sunday night, but decided to to take our time, sleep at a rest area, and drive the rest of the way Monday morning.

But enough with the boring crap (I won't mention the car chase we saw, or the abandoned mine shaft we found. Both true actually), onto E3 itself. This year, everyone was abuzz about the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP. This buzz was mostly created by the companies themselves because there was a horrendous line to see both on the first day of the convention. If you waited in line for the DS, you got a t-shirt, a light-up stylus pen, and a pokemon doll. If you waited for the PSP, you got nothing. Except a sneak preview of the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children trailer, which played beautifully on the PSP's screen. Another cool thing about the DS line, was that the presentation was given by the voice of Mario himself, Charles Martinet. Seemed like a nice guy. Funny too.

So, which one did I like better? Well, the PSP's design can't be beat, and the screen is amazingly large. The features it has are also quite astounding. Doesn't just play games, it's a little multimedia device. Not sure if I like the idea of playing movies on it. For one, it uses those small universal discs or whatever. How many movies do you honestly see being released for the PSP? Not many I'm sure. Unless it's a Sony picture, so Spider-Man's in.

The DS, on the other hand, has 2 screens.... Ok, so it may sound a little gimmicky, but it seems like they're targeting this device for the gamer on the go. The older, more businessy gamer on the go I should say. The promotional commercial showed a bunch of 40 year old office workers secretly enjoying the DS. They say it has wireless capabilities, but who knows how well that'll work. I doubt you'll be able to get online with it, and if you can, it ain't gonna be a free service. But who knows, we'll wait and see. The release for the DS is this fall, with the PSP coming next April I believe. And I guarantee the DS will be at least $100 cheaper.

So, onto the games. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. I don't play these games, so I'll skip over it. They gave out a free CD with some song from MGS3 on it, so that was nice. Trailer looked good and all, but I didn't pay much attention. I probably had the most fun playing Donkey Konga. For those unfamiliar, Konga is like Dance Dance Revolution, but with Conga drums. You play along with songs, and then you can also play with your friends. Plays better than it sounds. I had a blast playing it, and I didn't think I would. I don't really like DDR, but I guarantee that I'm buying this game. They're also releasing another Donkey Kong game that uses Konga controller. It was fun, but not much more than an excuse to make you use the controller more.

Also at the Nintendo booth: Paper Mario 2, Metroid Prime 2, Star Fox, Pikmin 2, a GC Advance Wars game, A GC Fire Emblem game, some other stuff I can't remember.... and a kick ass Zelda trailer. The cell shading is gone (which I liked), and they went back to the more releastic graphics of Ocarina and Majora's Mask. Looks cool, and I'm sure will be more complete next year. Overall, the Nintendo booth was good, but it was missing a big name game, like Zelda or Mario. Metroid is a close third, but in my opinion, can't get you excited like a Mario or Zelda game can.

Sony had a bunch of stuff. I was really impressed with their upcoming games. In 2002, I thought they did ok, but this next year is bringing several must have games. A big one, of course, Final Fantasy XII. I don't know much about the story, but I did play the demo, and it reminded me of Chrono Trigger, in that the enemies are already on the map, and the turn-based battle system is in real time. I liked it a lot, and of course I'll own it the day it comes out. SquareEnix also had an extended trailer for Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and it looks good. Damn good. It would look even better if they played the trailer for Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within right next to it. That movie sucked...

Another one of my favorites was Destroy All Humans! The premise: you're an alien that came to earth to dominate it. In order to do this, you have infiltrate higher and higher levels of the government by using mind control, telekinesis, and an arsenal of space weapons, including your spaceship. It was similar to Grand Theft Auto in that you could freely roam, and manipulate anything you wanted. It was fun, goofy, and awesome. All at the same time!

Another game that's gaining some positive fame as a GTA-type game, is a little game a friend of mine's been working on called Mercenaries. In 2002, I mentioned that he had been working on a helicopter shooter for Pandemic Studios. Well, that game apparantly evolved into a new game, that'll probably make them more money. You play as a special-ops mercenary, hired by different groups to take out certain targets and complete various missions. You can control a team, highjack vehicles (including helicopters), and blow shit up with awesome weapons. This'll be the first game released that my friend's worked on, so look for Mark Domowicz in the credits.

I also strolled over to the Natume booth to see what they have to offer. They had their current Harvest Moon titles playing, as well as a little game called Chu Lip. You play as a poor boy who moves into a new town, and falls in love with a little rich girl. Only problem is, you're young and naive, and need to gain experience in the ways of love by completing missions for people and kissing them. Sound ridiculous? It is. In a good way? Absolutely. Very much in the style of Harvest Moon and a teen-angst comedy anime, this little title is one to look for. You'll probably have to order it online, or reserve it at Gamestop or EBGames, because I'm guessing it will not get a very big release. It's also listed as being $15 at its release.

Pretty much every higly anticipated game looked good. Halo 2 looked good, Fable looked good, Kingdom Hearts 2 looked good... The list could go on and on, but overall, a lot of good games are on the way. Some surprising titles are Playboy Mansion, a The Sims type game that puts you in charge of building up a bunny grotto. Leisure Suit Larry is back in his eighth game, and I'm still undecided about the quality. It looked funny, but I didn't get a chance to play because some bitch running the booth kicked me off to let some guy from the press play.

Which brings me to my only complaint about E3, the egos that these companies have been growing over the past few years. Now that video games are becoming more and more mainstream, these companies suddenly think they're hot shit. For the more popular games and booths, like Everquest II, SquareEnix, Nintendo, MGS3, and several others, you were REQUIRED to either wait in line, or sign up to view their displays. The Square booth forbade photographs of gameplay! It pissed me off over and over, and they better get off their high clouds or else I'm gonna.... well, do nothing really, except hold resentment towards them.

All in all, a good E3 show. I got tons of free shit, but not as much as I did the first time. The booths were better this year, the ladies were hotter, and the games looked damn good as well. The year up until next E3, will be filled with some gauranteed classics, but I'm sure the games next year will be even better. Or worse... hard to tell. I'm not psychic. Anyways, the rest o' the pics: