Goodnight, sweet prince!
As our shuttle left the LA Convention Center for the last time, I noticed that a small horde of people had appeared on its rooftops. They gathered at the edge and leaned over to dismantle the giant advertisements adorning the walls. Before my very eyes, the Battlefield 4 banner slipped from its confines and fluttered down to the roof below, never to be seen again.
I was amazed at their efficiency with disassembling the decorations. Inside, I imagined that there must have been a similar scene–dozens of employees pulling down the display screens, the lights, the company logos. Another team would be tearing down the booth walls and rolling up the carpets with all the expediency of worker ants. How long would it take them to completely erase all the traces of something as large as E3?
Just as quickly as it had begun, the Expo was over. Within a few hours, I would be catching a red-eye flight back to my home, and E3 would be little more than a mad rush of memories for me to process.
Earlier that morning, Katy and I were more concerned with watching our wallets. The E3 merchandise store was brimming with temptations. I was pleased with the swag that I’d gotten, but I wanted something a little more to commemorate the experience. I ended up settling on two E3 shirts, and this was accomplished after I spent far too much time agonizing over pins, zippo lighters, mugs, hoodies, and jackets.
With our new merchandise in tow, we resolved to demo The Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse. This was primarily for Katy; she had poured hours into the original on the Sega Genesis whereas I had no prior experience with the title. I opted to err on the side of caution and play one of the earlier levels in the game, which I was told would be ideal for first-time players. The employee at the booth passed me the controller and a caveat. “This is considered a hardcore game,” he warned me. Fair enough, I thought. I had ample experience with other titles on the Genesis, and I remembered all too well the difficulty curve in many of its games (who can forget the challenge of The Lion King, after all?). I started the level and had no problem with mastering the controls, and I quickly learned how to fling marbles to vanquish the toy soldiers and jack-in-the-boxes which served as my foes. It was the springs that ended up stumping me a little; it took me two tries to realize that holding down jump activated them. This prompted another comment from my observer. “Just remember that this is a hardcore game,” the employee repeated with cynicism. “You probably won’t be able to complete the level because, you know, it’s hardcore.” By the way he said it, you would have thought that the word “hardcore” was enough to send me screaming for the hills. I did complete the level, however, and I did so without dying once. This was no grand feat, but it was clearly more than the employee expected of me.
Admittedly, his continual references to the game’s difficulty might’ve been inspired more by previous players than by me, personally. As Katy and I left, I noticed that a young boy who had come to play the game couldn’t find the door leading to the level itself. If that was the norm for people demoing what appeared to be a game strictly for children, then I could easily understand the employee’s frustration. However, the employee’s continued warnings (and the complete lack of effort to conceal his skepticism) did not make for an encouraging atmosphere.
Our next stop was the meeting rooms on the third floor, where we were to attend our appointment with CD Projekt Red. We were immediately greeted by a life-sized model of Geralt (who was obviously unresponsive to my advances). Inside, we found a table that offered pastries, peanuts, and coffee, and they also had a fridge full of cold, Polish beer. Such offerings–coupled with the genuine niceness of the group–was like a breath of fresh air.
I could easily write a small novella singing praises for The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt. I’ll spare you that grief and summarize it with as much brevity as I can bear. The only thing larger and more complex than the world that they’ve created is the story. To give you a sense of this claim’s gravity, the one area we saw in the live-demo was many times larger than the entirety of The Witcher 2, and that was just one island–one portion–of the world in W3. With their forthcoming masterpiece, CD Projekt Red has found a way to make even the most menial of sidequests feel like a primary quest. The choices made during these quests will have a large impact on the story itself. As such, the world that Geralt occupies is living, breathing, and perpetually changing. When you combine that with the beauty of the environments and the ingenuity exhibited in combat against imaginative, lore-based monsters, you have a game that transcends description and necessitates experience to comprehend. Our interview with Jonas Mattsson ended up being equal parts excited inquiries and awe-based praises as a result of the demo.
With a little time to spare before our meeting with Activision, I had some hands-on time with Sony’s PSN exclusive Rain, which promises to be a melancholic and moving game. It was the second time–the first being my experience with Transistor–where a game gave me chills. My time with the game was cut short, but not before it had stolen my heart and thoroughly piqued my interest. Much like The Unfinished Swan and other experimental Indie games, Rain promises to be a title which blurs the line between art and videogame. The cutscenes were lovingly rendered in watercolor images, and the gameplay itself was unique for how it calls for players to become, at times, literally invisible.
The Activision booth touted free food–a welcome source of sustenance after a hectic morning. Katy and I refueled on sandwiches and soda before we were ushered into the Destiny theater, where the Bungie team had a live demo waiting for us. Though it was very much the same demo that aired at the Sony Press Conference, I daresay that they sold the “acting” far better. What made the demo even more special was their unbridled enthusiasm for the project. Team Bungie is adorable. There, I’ve said it. They take pride in their work, but they haven’t forgotten to have fun with it in the process. Their pride and spunk really showed through in the demo. Destiny, as you can imagine, looks fantastic. I was excited about it before, and the inclusion of Peter Dinklage as “Ghost” only gives it more momentum (and class).
The final hours on the show floor passed in a fury. We caught the tale-end of an interview about the Last of Us in the Sony booth and ended up meeting Troy Baker as a result. Sam Thompson, during one of our conversations with him, referred to Troy as a “dapper gentleman,” and I think that’s the most eloquent and accurate description possible. Troy was incredibly friendly, gracious, and polite, and he was kind enough to pose for a picture with us despite needing to head over to the EA booth post haste.
Katy wanted to get more time with Beyond, so I left her behind to finally check out the Ubisoft with less than thirty minutes left. This was largely due to oversight on our part; we didn’t realize that the show floor closed early on the final day. Thankfully, I had precisely enough time to flash my media badge and cut to the front of the Watch_Dogs line, where they recapped the demo from the conference along with a second, new demo. This involved a live demonstration of the multiplayer features from the upcoming IP. At any point during the game, your friends could access your game and attempt to hack you. This results in a hectic hunt in which the original player must check the surrounding NPCs until the hacker can be identified, and, once caught, the player must chase down the hacker in order to prevent them from escaping with valuable data. Ubisoft was clever in their representation of this feature. What had appeared to be a light in the wall turned dim to reveal a window, and we learned that the other group demoing the game was attempting to “hack” us. Much to my amusement, the other group won, and their Ubisoft employee gamely tossed insults through the glass.
It was striking how heavily Watch_Dogs was influenced by Assassin’s Creed. Circular areas on the mini-map in both indicate where enemies are searching for you. There is a touch of free running in Watch_Dogs, too, though the emphasis is on using the environment to get the upper hand. From AC’s notoriety system comes the ability for civilians to recognize Aiden Pierce and report him to authorities. Even the “hacking” gameplay and subsequent chase bear some resemblance to the NPC Templar assassins of Revelations. It’s neat to see Ubisoft building on and improving these ideas in a new setting.
A final announcement rang through the loudspeaker as I exited Ubisoft’s booth. E3 was over, and what an experience it had been! These posts focus on the show floor and conference; they don’t cover the after-parties, the near celebrity encounters, and the overall vibe and character of LA. I ate some of the best food, met some of the kindest people, and had the opportunity to rub elbows with the creators of some of my favorite games. I wish that I could do more justice to the event, somehow. I was that I could condense everything–the giant screens, the plush carpets, the elaborate booths–into something more tangible, more comprehensible for those who did not have the opportunity to attend. By now, all traces of the expo have been erased from the convention center. Only the excited writings of other attendees memorialize its occurrence.
I would say that there’s always next year, but that’s not for certain–finances, grad student work, and any number of unknown elements may prevent me from returning. I can only hope that I’m so lucky.
