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Games Entertainment

E3 Wrapup Documented 258

Posted by michael from the till-next-year dept.
mindless4210 writes "The new Nokia N-Gage, shown at E3, looks promising, but Nokia better be prepared to compete with Sony and Nintendo. Nokia is betting the N-Gage's wireless communication abilities will set it apart and allow multiplayer gaming to move away from computers and living-room consoles and into consumers' pockets." Reader harikiri writes "According to the BBC, the much-maligned Infinium Labs has showcased their Phantom console at E3. Apparently Infinium have made agreements with AMD and Nvidia to provide the processor and graphics controller. The specs seem very respectable: a 2.5GHz AMD processor, 256MB RAM and a 40GB HDD." Reader Ipingforpong writes "E3, probably the most well known video game trade show was assaulted by the U.S. Army in a promotion for America's Army. Soldiers rappelled out of a real Blackhawk helicopter with real rifles and rushed the show."
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E3 Wrapup Documented More

E3 Wrapup Documented

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  • The degeneration of E3 (Score:4, Interesting)

    by jaani ( 525877 ) on Saturday May 15, 2004 @08:07PM (#9163976) Homepage
    Each year the amount of glitz and frivolous (ie, non-gaming related) material seem to increase quite significantly. Between Army antics and PR fluff, fewer and fewer titles of substance are actually playable, and the attention of the gaming press has become less focused on the games than their promotion.

    Is this to compensate for the decreasing number and quality of the games that are showcased, or does it simply reflect the fact that the Western games industry is increasingly mainstream?

    • Re:The degeneration of E3 (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Jameth ( 664111 ) on Saturday May 15, 2004 @08:25PM (#9164067)
      It's kinda both.

      Anything mainstream in the US gets glitz like you just don't want. That Army stunt is a great promo, more cool than most, but it is still just a promo.

      However, the issue with game quality isn't so much that it is decreasing, as that it isn't increasing. The problem is, games are replayable. If a game this year is the same as a game from last year, plus arm-hair on the models, nobody cares. The game is As Good, but not better.

      It's the same problem a lot of industries run into: all the best stuff comes out quick. The first video game was revolutionary, even if it had nothing. For a long while, everything moved in leaps and bounds. Now, most of the leaping and bounding is done, and at the same time there is tons more attention from those who are not technologically adept.

      As such, they resort to glitz and psuedo-fraud.
      • I have little interest in gaming news, but every year when Slashdot runs these daily summaries, there are usually several things that catch my interest a little.

        Now I see this posting "from the till-next-year dept" and realized that there was not a single thing in any of the daily stories that called for more reading. Just incrementally more insanely fast hardware and sequels to games that didn't super excite me in the first place.

      • From what I've seen of Half Life 2 in the movies that have come out... it seems to be leaping and bounding quite a bit. I went downstairs to show my mom how the models moved... and I was at a loss, becuase they just move like PEOPLE. It's nuts what the Source engine can do.
    • "Is this to compensate for the decreasing number and quality of the games that are showcased, or does it simply reflect the fact that the Western games industry is increasingly mainstream? "

      When was the games industy 'underground'? exactly?

      This stuff sounds like typical tradeshow biz to me.

  • Why is Nokia still trying? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Vthornheart ( 745224 ) on Saturday May 15, 2004 @08:07PM (#9163980)
    Does anyone have any sales figures on the original N-Gage? I can't imagine that the sales were decent enough that they felt they could give it another shot. Perhaps they just have a lot of extra money that they don't want to be burdened with. Money is a rather cumbersome thing for some people, I guess.
    • I don't think anyone had a problem with the idea of combining a cell phone with a gaming system. Convergence of electronics is certainly nothing new, and for handheld electronics, where portability is a big issue, there's an even bigger convergence push. People just didn't like it because it was a BAD gaming system (remove batteries to change games) combined with a WORSE phone (Sidetalkin', anyone?). These are problems which can be fixed with a hardware redesign.
    • Keeping at it is probably damn cheap. During the first run, they found out about a million stupid bugs, worked out most of the hardware and interface ideas, got a team into full swing working on it, and covered any other such one-time charges. It even has a recognized name--yes, even a scorned name is better than no name. The second edition is just an update on what they've already got. Why not release it?
    • When I was in Bangkok and Singapore earlier this year, N-Gage's were available in shops everywhere and people seemed to be buying them. It might be that some of their success comes from the Asian market, and that trying again in the US/Europe is made easier by the fact that it's profitable to sell a revised model elsewhere?
      • I'm in Thailand and the N-Gage are sold out almost everywhere. In Thailand, phones are not subsidized to the carriers, so N-Gage selling at 9,600 Baht (approx. US$240) with three games included is an incredibly good deal.

        N-Gage is not introduced in China, and it seems that it could be a huge hit there too, as the interest for the N-Gage is high in China, plus phones in China are expensive too.

        Or maybe us Asians don't know what tacos are...

  • E3 is not just about games.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by andr0meda ( 167375 ) on Saturday May 15, 2004 @08:08PM (#9163984) Journal

    There's also the yearly return of ever delicious boothbabes [slashdot.org].

    And since my company PlayLogicGames also exhibited it's line-up on the show, thought I'd say hi.

  • It's been exhausting covering it, especially when you get slashdotted half way through!

    Still, at least I get a rest from E3 action until e3 2005, which is scheduled [gamerseurope.com]for May 18-20 2005

  • E3 Extravaganza (Score:5, Informative)

    by Trent Polack ( 622919 ) on Saturday May 15, 2004 @08:11PM (#9163998) Homepage
    I'm a writer for FileFront.com [filefront.com], and let me tell you, this year's E3 was great. There are a ton of great games coming out in the next year, and although you hear day-after-day about all the new MMORPGs coming out, make sure you keep an eye out on the great FPSs (Half-Life 2 and Doom 3), 3rd-person action/adventure (Fable and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.) and RTSs (Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War) coming out this year as well.

    Check out all of the coverage that my coworkers and I put together at our E3 2004 Coverage Page [filefront.com]. Lot's of great stuff there.

  • If you're going to fight, clash! (Score:5, Funny)

    by nick_davison ( 217681 ) on Saturday May 15, 2004 @08:13PM (#9164014)
    E3, probably the most well known video game trade show was assaulted by the U.S. Army in a promotion for America's Army. Soldiers rappelled out of a real Blackhawk helicopter with real rifles and rushed the show.

    They performed the same stunt, last year, right as I was about to cross the street to walk in. A guy in full green camoflage, green and black facepaint and carrying a machine gun walked up to me and told me to please stand back for a few minutes. Applying my rule of never arguing with people holding real machineguns, I did as he asked.

    Sadly, given my never argue rule, I never did get to ask why the in God's name the US Army thought it was intelligent to wear GREEN camoflage in Los Angeles of all places. Concrete gray mixed with a dirty smog brown, perhaps. Green though...?

    I guess the Army finally listened to Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam:
    We've got a special man in the audience today right now. Its Mr. Leo. He's a fashion consultant for the Army. 'Why thank you Adrian. I'm just very happy to be here. I want to tell you something. You know, this whole camoflague thing for me doesn't work very well.' Why is that? 'Well you...because you go into the jungle I can't see you. You know, its like wearing stripes and plaid. For me, I want to do something different. If you go into the jungle, make a statement. If you're going to fight, clash.
    • Applying my rule of never arguing with people holding real machineguns

      What are you, a coward?

      Sadly, given my never argue rule, I never did get to ask why the in God's name the US Army thought it was intelligent to wear GREEN camoflage in Los Angeles of all places.

      I'm surprised they picked a Los Angeles convention center to assault in the first place. The average LA resident would probably return fire when they saw them coming.

  • Nokia N-Gage (Score:5, Interesting)

    by haggar ( 72771 ) on Saturday May 15, 2004 @08:14PM (#9164016) Homepage Journal
    I am used to read a lot of bad press about the Ngage, including Slashdot. You might have the impression that such a bad and unpopular phone/console would be cheap to snatch up on eBay and similar places.

    When I decided I wanted an MP3 player built into a phone, and that I would try to getthat combo by buying a second-hand Ngage, I was very disappointed: Ngage are auctioned off at very respectable prices. High enough that I am made to wonder if I would rather buy a separate MP3 player after all.

    So, the only logical conclusion I can draw is: Ngage customers seem to be very satisfied with it. There just isn't enough people parting with their Ngage, to have the prices drop.

  • Phantom vs. Xbox (Score:4, Insightful)

    by News for nerds ( 448130 ) on Saturday May 15, 2004 @08:14PM (#9164018) Homepage
    Though everyone mocks Phantom and Infinium Labs's aggressive attitude toward internet users, if Infinium Labs can persuade some notable PC developers to join in its camp, it may be nice competition to Xbox, as "better Xbox without Live". Or is it supposed to have reasonable network support? If it has network multiplay, it's almost like Xbox 1.5.

  • The future, Conan? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Throtex ( 708974 ) on Saturday May 15, 2004 @08:15PM (#9164025)
    Innovation: How long before someone releases yet another PC-in-a-home-theater-acceptable-box that can combine the functionality of all the other boxes?

    All we need is a single damned box that can work as a DVR, play games on a Microsoft OS, purchase new games over the Internet, and play against other people over the Internet as well.

    Whoever can come up with ONE SINGLE DEVICE that can do all these things will be rich! Perhaps we can call it the "Plethora of Consoles" (PC). It'll be like nothing else!

  • A handheld year (Score:5, Interesting)

    by typobox43 ( 677545 ) <typobox43@gmail.com> on Saturday May 15, 2004 @08:16PM (#9164032) Homepage
    While the focus on recent years' E3 seems to have been on consoles, handhelds seem to have been the primary focus, with the DS, PSP, and N-Gage 2 all seeing the light of day. In this age of ever-shrinking technology, is there any chance that this could be the direction that the video game industry is headed? Could consoles go the way of the dodo ten years down the line? At least two of the handheld offerings this year seem very strong, and with their wireless connectivity abilities and graphics similar to those of home consoles, the handheld system may begin to be seen as little more than a cheaper alternative to a console system.

    • Re:A handheld year (Score:5, Interesting)

      by bravehamster ( 44836 ) on Saturday May 15, 2004 @08:31PM (#9164095) Homepage Journal
      Interesting point. Here's how I see things heading regarding handhelds vs. consoles:

      You handheld becomes your controller when in the living room. The console is replaced by a reciever that can coordinate the action between multiple handhelds and display it to the screen. This way you can have many more people playing, no cords necessary if you throw some bluetooth or similar tech into the handheld.

      I believe Nintendo already did something similar to this with the Crystal Chronicles for Gameboy Adv. Watch for more of this to happen as handhelds catch up graphically with the consoles.

    • Not sure... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by nobodyman ( 90587 )
      You're right: handhelds definitely had the spotlight this year. One odd exception was mobile phone based gaming -- even with NGage 2 it seemed like it was a hotter topic last year than now.

      Personally I doubt consoles are going away any time soon -- I think there's a lot to be said for playing a game on a big screen on your couch. That said, I do think that the PC market will continue to decline -- mobile devices will cater to the solitaire/minesweeper type gamer, while consoles (with their increasing

  • Ofcourse (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dark Lord Seth ( 584963 ) on Saturday May 15, 2004 @08:20PM (#9164052) Journal
    E3, probably the most well known video game trade show was assaulted by the U.S. Army in a promotion for America's Army. Soldiers rappelled out of a real Blackhawk helicopter with real rifles and rushed the show.

    Emphasis mine. No sane army in the world would use real weapons with real live ammo in a non-combat situation. Doing so pretty much breaches every protocol, regulation and whatever else there is regarding safety. Maybe they used training rifles ( You know, often seen on Discovery... M16 variants with tiny orange thingy at the end of the barrel ) that fired blanks, perhaps. I doubt that in a non-combat situation even blanks would be allowed, loaded in rifles.

    So less hype and more common sense, please.

    • Re:Ofcourse (Score:3, Insightful)

      by typobox43 ( 677545 )
      Nowhere was it said that they were loaded. :)

    • Re:Ofcourse (Score:5, Informative)

      by MrNixon ( 28945 ) <aguite@gFORTRANmail.com minus language> on Saturday May 15, 2004 @08:46PM (#9164154)
      I'm in the military, so perhaps I can provide some insight here.

      Though I wasn't there, I would say that the soldiers were carrying real weapons, though I can pretty much assure you that they were not loaded with any kind of ammunition.

      Those 'training rifles' you speak of? They're the soldier's personal weapon with what is called a Blank Firing Attatchment (BFA) fitted to the end.

      That is a real weapon, and all the BFA does is provide a seal for the gases to recock and reload the weapon (so that the semiautomatic and automatic fire functions of the weapon will work).

      Basically, the barrel of a gas-operated weapon (like an M-16 or just about any machine gun) has a little hole near the end of it that allows the gases that are propelling the bullet to travel down a gas tube and force the bolt of the weapon backwards to extract the casing in the chamber and put another round in.

      When you fire blanks, there's no bullet to provide a seal and force the gas back down the tube. That's what the 'tiny orange thingy' (BFA) is for.

      That said, replicas do exist for training purposes. They're made of solid rubber, and they're actually heavier than the service rifles!
    • Untrue. The Marines are training in and around my town, right now, some with live ammo, and with many very real helicopters and other war-type toys. Many are not pleased.

      Here is an article [dominionpost.com] about it in the local paper.

    • Re:Ofcourse (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Reducer2001 ( 197985 )
      The American military seems a little light on discretion these days....
    • Who said they were using live ammo?

      They were, likely, real rifles (M-16s probably), but just as likely, unloaded.

      Sure, they may have had a mag inserted, but the chances of there being ANY ammunition in the weapon whatsoever is slim to none. If there was any, they were blanks, but there would be no point.

      You're right, though, they would NEVER bring live rounds to any sort of demo.

      The BlackHawk was a nice touch, though.
    • Actually, the training weapons are usually "real" rifles outfitted with the red blank ejector guard on the muzzle and lazer tag-type attachments that tell the other guy when he's been "shot".
      So, in all truth, they were probably "real rifles", but were certainly not "ready to fire".

      So less speculation and more background research, please. :)

  • Multiplayer? What's that? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by despik ( 691728 ) on Saturday May 15, 2004 @08:30PM (#9164087) Homepage
    Max Hoberman, multiplayer lead developer at Bungie Studios, told BBC News Online: "When we made Halo we never realised that the multiplayer element of the game would be so popular.

    Now this is, ladies and gentlemen, what I call a silly tit. Who would have guessed? Multiplayer? Popular? And this is supposed to be a spokesman of Bungie, of all companies -- apparently he hasn't noticed how wildly successful their previous multiplayer games were, from Minotaur (with no singleplayer option!) to Marathon to Myth.
    • It's a console game, and MP hasn't been as big with consoles as with PCs historically. So it's not very strange at all that they didn't foresee the large MP rush.
    • Two things to take into account here:
      • Multiplayer mode is not nearly as popular as multiplayer game players think it is. There are a vast number of Halo, Myth, and Marathon players who have never tried MP and may not be aware that it exists. Gamers who are active on the Internet remain an extremely vocal minority.
      • The rise of Xbox tunnelling programs like XBConnect. This made Halo's multiplayer accessible to a vastly greater number of people than it would be if it really was limited to LAN play only. These

  • E3 - Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (Score:3, Interesting)

    by pheph ( 234655 ) on Saturday May 15, 2004 @08:30PM (#9164088) Homepage
    One of the biggest surprises at E3 was Rockstar's publication of info and screenshots of Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas. There was much speculation that there would be no releases until much later (it is, after all, a late October release). For info/screenshots, check GTA-SA.com [gta-sa.com]. They're f*#$ing brilliant.

  • Phantom at E3 (Score:4, Interesting)

    by enditallnow ( 177040 ) on Saturday May 15, 2004 @08:34PM (#9164109)
    I submitted an article on this subject but it didnt make the cut, ce la vie.

    I think its worth pointing out that the mouse and keyboard combo looks like an interestingly designed piece of technology. Its shaped so that the entire thing can sit on your lap comfortably. The keyboard appears to be adjustible and the thing itself acts as the mouse mat. I would be slightly concerned that the mouse mat area is too close to the keyboard so perhaps that limits its use. IGN has a CGI mockup of it here [ign.com] and a real once can be seen in the BBC article linked too in the story.

    Hardware aside I haven't actually seen any reports of software that runs on the thing. Did anyone who attend E3 get the chance to playtest one? As far as I can tell it was only the box on display and it may of only had a basic running demo.

    The last thing I want to mention is about their distribution model. They claim they want to make software downloadable via broadband internet connections. Thats all fair and well but does anyone out there remember The Sega Channel? Long story short it was a cable channel that allowed you to download Genesis games directly onto your console. I don't believe it faired to well but given the popularity of XBox live and PS2 Online it shows that there is more of a likely uptake.

    BTW, anyone interested in the Sega channel should have a look here [dslreports.com] and here [vt.edu].

    -- Enditallnow

  • I'd love to see it in video. Did anyone record it?

  • Americas Army is the model for next gen online FPS (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nerdb0t ( 712755 ) on Saturday May 15, 2004 @08:58PM (#9164202)
    AAO has nailed it. it's all about the "Honor" system that they created - it's an implicit anti-idiot feature which all but eliminates the morons that show up online when you are playing.

    BF1942 would be a great game, if it weren't for all the tards that show up. they need the honor system - AFAIK AAO is the first and only online game that uses it. here is why this is important. [acmqueue.com]

    the gaming industry is HUGE - it is bigger than the theaterical movie theater industry (ie. revenue from ALL movies in ALL theaters in the US doesn't even come close to touching the revenue from GAMES.)

    in fact, if you combine all the money made by LOTR it's about the same as Madden Football (and that game didnt cost a zillion dollars to make)

    anyway - so dis the US army all you want, but they are paving the way for serious anti-idiot game play.

    w00t.

  • Where's mention of Myst IV? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by GaelDesign ( 561391 ) <jwhiteNO@SPAMgaeldesign.com> on Saturday May 15, 2004 @09:05PM (#9164235) Homepage Journal
    There's only one thing out of the entire E3 news that interests me: Myst IV. They were demoing it at E3 and even Rand Miller showed up a couple of times and was mobbed by a few rabid Myst fans! :)

    Myst IV looks like it will be fantastic, possibly the best title in the Myst series yet. Check out the developer's blog at:
    http://revelatione3team.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]

    Cheers,

    Jared

  • I don't understand the Army's interest in this (Score:4, Insightful)

    by harlows_monkeys ( 106428 ) on Saturday May 15, 2004 @09:12PM (#9164265) Homepage
    The army is basically using first person shooters to promote recruitment.

    Yet, think about it. Play these games, have a lot of fun, then realize "Hey...if that had been real, I wouldn't have been able to respawn those 20 times I died...do I really want to do that kind of thing in real life???" and then run at warp 10 away from the recruiter. That's what I'd do, anyway.

    Doesn't seem like it should be a good recruiting tool at all.

    • "Hey...if that had been real, I wouldn't have been able to respawn those 20 times I died"

      If you had actually played AAO you would've known that there is no respawn.
    • I personally think it may work for those guys who are just about to finish high school or have been out for a year with nothing to do but play online games. I'd like to see some hard data on it though, if they even ask people if they played AAO when they sign up. It's atleast your tax dollars spent better then more TV ads I think. Atleast you get to play the game instead of a dumb commercial. I wouldn't doubt it at all if some people have signed up after saying, "Holy shit, you mean I can use this same wea

  • nice (Score:5, Insightful)

    by focitrixilous P ( 690813 ) on Saturday May 15, 2004 @09:23PM (#9164301) Journal
    Good to see the phantom is a real company after all. but...
    a 2.5GHz AMD processor, 256MB RAM and a 40GB HDD. and It comes free only if customers sign up for a two-year subscription - it costs $199 without a subscription.
    That's a lot of system for $199. How long until it gets hacked and turned into a l33t gaming box. I can't imagine making a profit on the system with a price scheme like that, so watch for Phantom related DMCA lawsuits about a month after launch. If it can be done on an Xbox, which was nice at 300, it will be done twice as fast on this 200 dollar system. Also, a few of these will most likely end up at garage sales for 20 bucks once the suburban kids want the next gamer-toy, which is a nice price for just the RAM.
  • i got them terminated off ibm's hosting service about 9 months ago. Here are the spams they've sent. [google.com]

    Phantom is a complete bunch of assholes that deserves to be ignored and blacklisted.

  • Stop Me If I'm Wrong.... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Tsali ( 594389 ) on Saturday May 15, 2004 @09:41PM (#9164387)
    ... and I don't know if anyone mentioned this, but doesn't the Phantom console look like the Deluxe George Foreman grill?

    If it grills my hot dogs while I'm fragging people, well, then the only thing left is a cupholder in the lap pad.

    Maybe they had the right idea all along....

    [Dennis Leary]Naaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!![/Dennis Leary]

    T.

  • Hot vs. Not. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by nobodyman ( 90587 ) on Saturday May 15, 2004 @09:45PM (#9164410) Homepage
    I'm curious as to what people thought were some of the more notable surprises / letdowns. I didn't spend a lot of time at the show, but here's some random thoughts:

    PSP: Clearly this was shown only because of the Nintendo DS. Someone told me that Nothing shown on the PSP looked even remotely close to being complete. I heard some analyst predicting March 05 but I think even December 05 would be optimistic. That said, I think that it has potential -- it's just too soon to tell.

    Nintendo DS: For me, this was the biggest surprise of the show. I had low expectations, and had serious doubts as to how dual screens or a touch screen could add much to gameplay. Boy was I wrong. The games they were showing were amazing. It turns out that the stylus makes FPS gaming on a handheld quite workable. For the Metroid game, you move/strafe with d-pad, and pivot/shoot by moving your stylus on the touch-pad... genious!! Even the chat program was a blast. If this thing sells for less than $150 I think it will do quite well. Very curious to see the pricetag.

    Half-Life 2: Still impressive, but you can tell that the community good-will is fading. At the demo I attended, when Gabe Newell said the release date would be sometime this summer, some guy got a few laughs by blurting out "For real this time??". Gabe was not amused.

    Doom 3 (X-Box): While I'm sure the PC version will be quite awesome, I was unimpressed by the X-box version. Obviously it can't look as good as the PC version, but it didn't even seem to set a high-water mark for XBox. Didn't seem very fun to play. Still, I'll reserve judgement for the final product.

    Chronicles of Riddick: Much like Vin Diesel's performance in Knockaround Guys, this game was surprisingly good. This could have easily been shovelware, but this is a game that could stand on its own without any licensing. Seemed like it had some innovative ideas for an FPS. It's hard to explain, but the viewpoint is more immersive. For example, you could look down and see your feet, your character casts his shadow on the wall, and a lot of little touches that gave you the environmental "perspective" of a third-person shooter.

    NGage 2: Doomed. Booth had very little foot traffic. There were always more kiosks than people (a bad sign at e3), and half the people there were Nokia staff. New form factor is better, but the hardware is the same (still underpowered) and it still feels awkward both as a phone or a portable gaming device. What is Nokia thinking?

    Nintendo showing (not including DS): Impressive, just like last year (though the konga game seems a bit silly).
    XBox Showing: Impressive, unlike last year.
    Sony showing: generally a disappointment.

    Lots of other little things (maybe I'll add to this thread later), but those are the standouts. What did you guys think was neat / lame?

    • More on DS, phantom, and N-Gage (Score:4, Interesting)

      by LordZardoz ( 155141 ) on Sunday May 16, 2004 @12:36AM (#9165081)
      I was at E3 for the first two days, and I pretty much agree with your points.

      I tried the N-Gage 2 (the Q-Deck, as they call it). What will ultimately kill that thing is that playing games on it just sucks. The buttons are too close together to press individually.

      I also chose to wait in line for the DS showing. And happily, I also got to play the thing. Metroid Hunters looks pretty good, especially for a 3d game on that small of a screen (the 2nd screen is just an overhead wire frame map). Playing with the stylus is very strange though.

      Pictures of the DS exist so I wont bother describing the appearance. What it does have is 6 buttons (a, b, x, y, l, and r) plus start and select. The lower screen is pressure sensitive, and is intended to be used with a stylus. It will have wirelss communication, and will be WiFi enabled (801.11 compatible), so it will have some internet functionality. The games I tried on it were remarkably complete looking, and there were a decent number of them.

      I spent alot of time in and near the Nintendo area. Aside from the flagship games, I think that Odama (RTS Pinball, yes, thats right, RTS Pinball) will turn out to be a pretty damn good game.

      I also stopped by the Phantom booth. The damn thing does exist, and it does use a controller. The downsides is that the version they displayed had exactly 1 controller port. While network play is a good thing, they should realize that people actually do tend to have friends come over and visit once in a while. The controller is basically decent, but un-impressive. Basically a better version of the 6 button Sega Genesis controller.

      Also, as far as PC games go, one that looked pretty good was Pariah, a FPS game with vehicles. While the gameplay may be revolutionary, it does look pretty damn nice.

      END COMMUNICATION

    • Doom 3 (X-Box): While I'm sure the PC version will be quite awesome, I was unimpressed by the X-box version. Obviously it can't look as good as the PC version, but it didn't even seem to set a high-water mark for XBox. Didn't seem very fun to play. Still, I'll reserve judgement for the final product.

      It looked like they have dynamic lighting and a decent framerate, as well as the usual quality of textures.... what were you looking for? It looked mightily impressive in the videos I saw of it.

  • Did anybody else give theGuild Wars [guildwars.com] "E3 For Everyone" promotion a try? If so, what'd you think of the game?
    • I was in it. A Elementalist/Ranger by the name of EagleR Jansen. I enjoyed it. The missions and PvP were good, and the solo area was a nice touch. The end of the event party in Town district 28 was great fun.

  • 2.5GHz (Score:4, Informative)

    by ImpTech ( 549794 ) on Saturday May 15, 2004 @10:45PM (#9164662)
    Apparently Infinium have made agreements with AMD and Nvidia to provide the processor and graphics controller. The specs seem very respectable: a 2.5GHz AMD processor, 256MB RAM and a 40GB HDD.

    I'm sure something got lost in translation here. We all know AMD doesn't have any 2.5GHz processors. Possibly they meant a 2500+, I dunno.

    Regardless, looks like the Phantom is actually just a PC under the hood with some interface for downloading games off the web. Not too terribly different from the ApeXtreme when all is said and done. Except of course that they want you to pay $30/month, which I guess isn't bad if they have a large selection of quality games with no ugly restrictions on play. That being the case, it might compare well in terms of cost/benefit to conventional systems, but I wouldn't bet money on it...

  • I thought it was the video games that were violent!
  • Is anyone else disturbed by the fact that the US Army can be hired out for publicity stunts like some over-priced birthday clown?

    Aren't government agencies forbidden from private endorsement/advertising?

    What's next? Navy Seals advertising Old Navy pullovers?

    Maybe the Green Berets are available for that special corporate event?

    Lord knows the military needs the money :p
  • Before you get your mod panties all twisted up, understand that this is simply my opinion.. not intending to troll or start a flamewar here.

    It's safe to say, based on sales for the past 7 or so years, that Sony is the dominant leader in the gaming industry. Nintendo would just LOVE to reclaim this spot, but they made yet another mistake, and this time it's very similar to the one that did Sega in: they're competing against the top dog with a technologically sub-par piece of equipment.

    I'm talking about the
    • I would say it is because Nintendo is aware that people play different sorts of games on a hand held then they do on a Console (though some overlap certaintly exists).

      You dont play Warcraft 3 on a Console.
      You dont play Mario type games on a PC.
      You dont play 'long' games on a handheld.

      People use handheld games when they are waiting, such as on a Bus / Subway, or waiting at a doctors. If you intend to play for 4 hours at a time, your first choice is not going to be a hand held.

      Also, developers of handheld
      • You dont play 'long' games on a handheld.

        That's about to change. IMO, games will *eventually* evolve to the point where you don't need a TV to play anymore. Multiplayer is at the point where it's getting awkward on a TV. Split screen sucks.

        Not saying it'll happen soon, but as handhelds get more powerful and technology becomes better AND smaller... things are bound to change.

        People use handheld games when they are waiting, such as on a Bus / Subway, or waiting at a doctors. If you intend to play for 4 h
    • I played around with the PSP a bit at E3, and I was initially very impressed with it. The screen is especially nice and the movies playing on it looked incredible. The performance for the games really varied in quality from barely PS1 quality to almost PS2 quality.

      However, after thinking about it a while, I realized that there are some big problems with it.

      1. It's a little bit too big to be truly portable. You can't really put it in your pocket, nor is there the built in screen protection that the S

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