Godzillarex

We went to E3 this year and it was amazing. I personally could have not been happier with how our coverage turned out and I’m so glad we had the opportunity to go.Things started off really bright and early, as we were all required to wait in line for Nintendo’s press conference. It wasn’t too bad since as soon as it was 7:30 the line started moving and we were briskly given our wristbands for the conference. We got  a great seat up front neat the side and Chad promptly began to film the conference. Several new games were announced, and you can catch the entire press conference if you would like on our E3 playlist, but perhaps the biggest announcement was their new console. The funnily dubbed “Wii-U.” According to the Satoro, this emphasizes that this new model of the Wii, capable of HD graphics, is made for everybody including “U”, the hardcore gamer, or the casual gamer, or anybody really. Here is our video of that announcement: 

After the conference finished, we promptly divided up into our teams and proceeded to divide and conquer the conference. I stayed with Brett and Cliff and we had a bit of hands on time with the new Nintendo 3DS titles that were announced, including Luigi’s Mansion and Star Fox 64. I really enjoyed Mario Kart, as driving in the water and in the air is a completely seamless and fun experience. If you would like to check out some more impressions, take a look at the video below:

Once we moved on from Nintendo’s Booth we decided to head on over to the main building and become acquainted with the media hospitality room. We got settled and then proceeded to wait in line for the doors to open. A massive crowd had already gathered and as soon as the doors open, hundreds of people were trying to go in to the conference. We had Sony Online Entertainment scheduled first, so we headed on over to that direction. I interviewed several developers, including the director of DC Online Universe, and the senior producer of Clone Wars Adventures, but the one which most caught my attention, both for his personality and his game, was Ulf Andersson. He is developing a game which tasks you with robbing a bank with a couple of your buddies. The build I played was very enjoyable and I can’t wait to see how this PSN downloadble title turns out. Check out the interview right here:

After Sony we headed on over to THQ where Cliff took over hosting and got some awesome stuff with the developer of the recently released Red Faction game and Saints Row The Third. I was lucky enough to sit in on the demonstration of Saints Row and couldn’t be more excited with how it is looking. From punching pedestrians in the most insane ways possible to hijacking a plane capable of launching a missile strike, this looks to be so much more than a simple GTA clone. A definite improvement over its previous installments. Check out Cliff’s interview with Saints Row right here.

Brett meanwhile managed to score an interview with the legendary UFC fighter, Royce Gracie.

As the day went on the rest of the team was also busy conducting their interviews and hustling to get even more interviews than the ones I had scheduled. They did an awesome job as we managed to score impromptu interviews with countless AAA caliber games, such as Deus Ex, Uncharted 3 , and many many more. I also really need to tip my hat to everyone who edited while in the conference as they had the insanely tough task of taking all the copious amount of footage we were getting and turn it into entertaining videos.

Another cool event some of the guys got to go to was the Battlefield 3 Demo, and the Tomb Raider demo. Sohinki even got a chance to play the new build of Kotor, while Brett interviewed the lead art designer of Tomb Raider. I recently got into Tomb Raider and am almost through the relaunch of the first installment, and the thing which I was most curious about was whether this was going to be as puzzle heavy as the first one, or if it was going to be more action oriented like the Uncharted series. By the looks of it, they are very focused on the action part, although the demo sadly doesn’t reveal much about the combat, and they are also not talking about the combat either. But the whole look of the game, and the survival theme are definitely intriguing and I am definitely going to be buying this game. Check out the interview below: 

I got a chance to interview the director of Need For Speed The Run, and though I did not enjoy the controls of the car very much, I do like that they are actually bothering to include some sort of story in this game. Matty Mac, Cliff and I worked the Konami booth and I got to get some hands on time with some of Konami’s upcoming titles including NeverDead. I am still a little skeptical of this game as I am not a fan of the dual shooting system as it feels a little wonky to me stumbling around the stage looking for my arms. But who knows, it may end up working out. Skullgirls was actually pretty fun, and I can see people playing it quite a bit. The characters are very very different to control. And the designer of the game is very confident that it will be competition worthy.

I finally got some hands on time with both Peace Walker HD and MGS 3DS, and cannot wait for the final build of the game to come out. Everything is as smooth as it should be and I had no problem adjusting to the new controls. I might end up playing the 3DS version with the 3D effect turned off though, as you really need to be holding the thing in an exact angle in order to make it work.

The highlight of the event for me was interviewing Yoshikazu Matsuhana. He is the creative producer behind the upcoming Metal Gear Solid title on the 3DS and I was honored to be able to be in the same room as him. It wasn’t a long interview, but I was able to ask questions which I genuinely did want to know about being a huge Metal Gear fan. It was a strange experience for me as well because I would ask him a question, then his translator would do his job, then Yoshikazu would reply directly to me and even though I did not understand a word he was saying, except “eetto” which means “um” in english. Despite all this, I felt like we were actually having a conversation. Below is the recap of the interview:

By the end of the conference I was absolutely exhausted and shocked. E3 was an amazing experience for me and I could have not gone with a better team. Every single member performed to the best of their ability in either tracking down an interview, hosting it, filming it, recording it, editing it, or even writing about it. We took the event seriously and I think the evidence of our hard work is in our videos and the response we have had so far from our fans.

And before you go though, please make sure to check out this hilarious video about E3. Phil is truly is a talented actor, as is the rest of the Mahalo team. I have seen it multiple times already and it get’s funnier every time.

See you guys next week!