Not that I want to cry, mind you. But it’s definitely not the event it once was.

I was lucky enough to attend E3 2006, what could be considered the last ‘great’ E3. I have to agree with industry sentiments – it was not the best environment to get work done as a journalist. Securing interviews was tricky, finding a quiet space to think was even harder, and actually getting to publisher stands was hellish.

I’m not of the opinion that this year’s reworked version is a step forward. Perhaps the ESA is testing the waters, but apart from Silent Hill 5 and Resident Evil 5, I’ve been mostly snoring my way through the coverage.

First we have Quake Wars. It’s quickly becoming the new Team Fortress 2. We have a demo, yes, but I’ve been seeing news on it for years now with no game to back it up. I can only hope, for Activision’s sake, that it gets released this year. I want to stay interested, but it’s a struggle.

Killzone 2. I could have sworn we were talking about this when the PS3 was in the prototype stages. Where’s the gameplay?

Gears of War for PC. News of this leaked months ago and despite Mark Rein’s best efforts to deny its existence, we weren’t buying it. Epic would be silly not to port it, unless rolling around in huge piles of money gave them rashes.

Spielberg’s games. EA is currently wrestling Activision for the ‘Most Vacuous Press Release’ award after putting out this doosy: http://www.info.ea.com/news/pr/pr965.pdf. The description for the Wii title reads like a cut-and-paste. It’s just, well, it’s just useless. It tells you nothing.

Oblivion Game of the Year Edition. Not news, sorry. Pretty much a given considering it’s exactly what they did when Morrowind had a few expansions under its belt. Good I suppose if you haven’t got the game, but not worthy of E3.

Argh. I’d rather pistol-whip myself with a howitzer than continue reading what’s coming out of Santa Monica.

~ by Logan on July 12, 2007.

Posted in Industry news

Tags: e3, events