So we managed to survive Day 2 of E3, and now we were back again for the last day. E3 was beginning to wind down and judging by everybodys look on his or her faces there, it seemed that they were just as tired as we were. Everybody seemed to be moving about a slower pace and the mood appeared to be somewhat muted as well. We took a deep breath and set ourselves to the task of braving E3. I was amazed that there was still so much more to look at. There was still most of the West Hall area waiting to be explored, and a few things in other halls that we havent examined yet. Since my main goal for E3 was to see PC games, I didnt really have much to see in terms of console gaming but Allan was trying to decide on what system to get so we turned to West Hall first.
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West Hall appeared to be almost as big as South Hall. Nintendo dominated maybe about a third to a quarter of the floor space there, with a huge line-up out front. Apparently Nintendo was giving out free GameBoy Advances to one in every fourteen people who participated in their little skit/game. Needless to say the estimated time for the line-up was between 2-4 hours since there were so many people and the fact that each skit/game session lasted for quite a long time. A cynical friend of mine said that Nintendo was smart because every minute someone spent in the Nintendo line-up would be a minute away from Microsofts X-Box or Sonys PS2 areas. Actually Nintendos strategy may have not worked as well as planned, because people like me got turned off at the line-up, thinking it was the line-up to get into the Nintendo area itself (it wasnt too clear what the line-up was for unless you asked around) and wandered over to the Sony area instead. But anyway, once you get into the Nintendo area youd notice that it was filled to the brim with demos of their upcoming games for the GameCube. I freely admit that I have the bias that Nintendo games were made for younger players. However, that does not necessarily mean that I think grown-ups cannot play them too. Thus, although I would picture players of the Pokémon age playing a lot of the stuff in there I could picture myself playing them as well since the games shown were strangely appealing. What stole the show in the Nintendo area was its Rogue Squadron II for the GameCube. There was a huge crowd of people surrounding the consoles showing it, and the one in the back near the merchandise area was used so much it was broken. RSII actually did play like you were in the movies, thanks to the immersion due to the excellent graphics and sound. For me, RSII would be one very good reason to get the GameCube. Luigis Mansion however, disappointed me a bit. I remember being quite impressed by the LM trailer that showed Luigi being chased around by a few ghosts, but upon seeing the actual gameplay I had to reconsider. It was all rather simple, to put it mildly. Basically you went around sucking up ghosts and coins and
That was basically it. The perspective in the game never changes and despite the fact that whatever is in the game really does look very good; you never get the sense that the game was really pushing the GameCube. The GameBoy Advance displays were out near the back of the area, and there were many games to test out on them. On the whole, they were pretty fun, and there was one strategy game that I liked (I cant for the life of me remember the name) but there wasnt anything that really grabbed my attention. The GBAs were pretty easy to handle although the screens were a bit too dark for my taste. I can see how some people would have trouble looking at the screen since it didnt seem to feature a backlit display.
Anyway from here we could see the Gran Turismo 3 demo area just beyond the Nintendo GBA line-up on the Sony side and Allan crossed over to give it a try. The display was set up so that 4 players could race each other at a time (although there were around 5-6 seats) in arcade style consoles complete with steering wheels. Although Allan did not compete against other people (they were already four people racing at the time), he did manage to take a test drive as I looked on. The graphics seemed to be a lot more improved over the original although control seemed to be a bit of an issue. All in all, we didnt get to see too much else of it as there was a small crowd waiting to play it as well so we left pretty quickly. Somehow we stumbled up on the Final Fantasy X area where droves of people eagerly lined up to play the latest instalment of the FF series from Square. Needless to say I quickly joined up and before I knew it I was playing the demo. Gameplay was pretty much the same as any other FF game actually, and the graphics seemed to be a bit more improved. The version I played was all in Japanese and had some really nice Japanese voice acting. Luckily they had a guy on the floor that could translate what was going on so you wouldnt get lost as to what to do. Combat-wise, you get your usual summons (complete with long animation times that you cant stop) and the usual MP and HP gauges, items, etc. Although my console had only Titus/Tidus as a playable character, the other consoles featured some of the other characters (there were different demos available for playing). I had mixed feelings after playing it, as I had the impression that I was playing yet another Squall/Cloud character. I guess its because the same character designer for FFVII is on board for this one but personally I think he could have done better and made the male lead character look something other than Squalls little beach-bum brother. Furthermore the new female lead, Yuna looks like Rinoas younger sister.
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