E3 2006
By Ian Wilson
Monday. Jun 26, 11:45 AM
Wheelchair fun in the land of countless games.

I managed to get into E3 this year, but only for the second day. The reason for this was because Aubrey (my ride there) had a knee operation. I spent the majority of the time pushing him in an old wheelchair I luckily had. I say “luckily” because they were charging $5 an hour with a $20 deposit for a wheelchair. I won't go into what I think of the extraordinary charges; instead I’ll just get on with the day at E3.

We (Aubrey and I) were let in a few minutes early due to Aubrey being wheelchair-bound. It took awhile to get that all squared away, but we were almost immediately free to wander before anyone else got in. Our friends Des and Paul showed up, so we let them know where we were headed. Our first destination was of course Nintendo's booth. Upon reaching the booth, we saw the line to get in... it was ridiculously long. If you are an Exhibitioner, you get to be on the show floor way before everyone else, which meant the line was full of Exhibitioners. This is where having someone in a wheelchair is nice, as I proceeded to the front of the line and asked if we could get in early. We were let in right after the Special Guests and before the huge line. I'm planning on breaking one of Aubrey's legs next year, as getting in first is a sweet deal.

Nintendo obviously didn't include wheelchairs in their design plans: getting the attention of other people was hard. There were quite a few instances where there was no room for us, and I didn't like leaving the wheel chair in the way of traffic since Aubrey's leg could have been bumped. We headed right for Zelda and waited to play. Paul and Des met us there, making the wait a bit shorter. I didn't really feel like playing the games myself that day: I just wanted to see what did what and (most of all) talk to the people at each booth about the games. Aubrey's playtime was about 10 minutes: when compared with the waiting, it would have been nice to have longer at the controls. It took him a while to get used to the Wii controller, especially since the sensitivity is really high. The large plasma screens were on a slightly elevated platform, so we had to help Aubrey up into the couch adjacent to the screen. Afterward, we went to Metroid… and of course waited even longer. Eventually, though, we hauled Aubrey to the couch and he got 10 minutes of Metroid goodness.

These games looked to me like Gamecube titles (in the case of Zelda, it was a Gamecube game just ported to Wii: both versions should launch around the same time. This may be the case for Metroid as well.). So, while not looking next gen, they certainly play that way thanks to the controller. While Aubrey was playing, the girl watching over the line snagged one of the main exhibitors for me to ask some questions about the Wii. I had a few, but I decided to ask one: “What about online play?” The guy I asked (I don't remember him having a badge and I never asked his name) told me that it was in the works. Most likely they will be putting up WiFi hot-spots throughout the U.S. to create a network, much like they are doing for the DS. As for when this will be completed or when they will start, I am not sure. Not wanting to wait another 30 minutes to play one of the other games, we took off... slowly (the thick carpets are hell when you have to push a wheelchair) over to Sony's area.

After we got to Sony, we looked for a game that didn't have too big of a crowd around it. The first game we spotted that fit the criteria was the new Sonic. The only thing that was actually part of a PS3 that we got to see with this game was the controller (the games were being run on devkits that Sony actually let us see through a glass case. I liked this a lot: no smoke and mirrors), which is much lighter without rumble. Sonic doesn't use the motion sensors in the controller, but from what I hear it doesn't seem to help Warhawk much and is more of a hindrance than the innovation that is the Wii controller. While Sonic looked great on the PS3, the controls were twitchy at best: the game is only 40% done and Sonic moves way too fast. This was the only game I played at E3, and being a rabid fan of the Genesis games... I felt let down. After this, it was back to fighting through crowds and the temptation to run them over with Aubrey. We both agreed that he would need some sort of a weapon and the wheelchair a battering ram.

While passing a huge throng of people huddled about Heavenly Sword and Warhawk, we caught some of the Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer. Aubrey couldn't really see much of the screen, and neither could I since the man behind me was videotaping and needed me to duck down. We didn't watch for long, instead going back to trying to get the crowd to move out of the way as we pressed on. Just outside of the mass of people, we saw the new Gundam game for PS3 and stayed to watch a bit. The mechas in this version moved like how I think giant robots should... slow. Most would consider a slow Gundam game bad, but in this case not me. Watching these giants move reminded me of the old Mechwarrior games, and that made me happy.

About this time Aubrey and I were both a bit hungry, so while making our way out of the hall, we stopped here and there so I could take pictures of booth babes with Aubrey planted beside or between them. I was hoping that we'd get special attention from the girls, but that didn't happen at all. Heck, hardly anyone noticed Aubrey because he was below the level of all the monitors.

Many were the times when we were at a standstill as I yelled "excuse me!" over the sounds all around us. The food court area was packed and prices were hell. After getting our food, we found an empty spot and settled in to eat. Right afterward, Aubrey wheeled himself into the bathroom, which was luckily nearby, while I waited. At this moment, Jeremy – star of Pure Pwnage – walked by and I told him I loved his show. By the time Aubrey came back and I told him who I just saw, I realized that I had the camera and that I could have gotten a picture. I love hindsight, I really do. After getting all our things in order, we headed back into the belly of the beast.

We forced our way to Microsoft's area and watched one of the guys running the exhibit (most likely a game tester. These guys are almost always at the show watching over the game and answering questions. Kinda makes me jealous, except for the part of being stuck in one area with a game you have played to death) play the game. We got to see Sam Fisher in Winter camo swimming. Seeing him swim in the water almost brought a tear to my eye, as I remember failing a co-op mission in the last game due to the water not being a viable shortcut. Right next to that, Shadowrun was being played. I talked to one of the guys there, and from what he said it sounds like the game won't be just another Multiplayer First Person Shooter. From what I saw of it, though, it sure looked like your average FPS with Shadowrun flavor. Hopefully I'm wrong and the game will be a success, prompting more Shadowrun and more FASA games to be made (I really want a new Mechwarrior!). After ward, we headed in a bit deeper to search for Dead Rising. In the middle of our search, we happened upon Saint's Row. This is basically San Andreas with character customization and a new story on the 360. Luckily, I didn't expect anything more than that, and neither did Aubrey. He had fun running over and into everything while shooting the rest. All I could think about was doing the same on the show floor: maybe then people would get out of the way and have more respect for the disabled.

We soon finally found Dead Rising. While Aubrey slayed zombies in a shopping mall, I talked to a game tester for Enchanted Arms (from Software's first RPG). Both games looked awesome, but I'm a bit concerned about both. Enchanted Arms looks to fall into the cliché of many RPGs except for the battle system and the online head to head play. Dead Rising, on the other hand, while being a great game with a perfect setup (let's not forget campy dialog!), could get monotonous as there isn't really much to do except kill zombies and stay alive.

By this point, we had seen what we came to see for the most part and just started to wander with no real purpose. Around this time, we got to see the expansion for The Movies and learn about all the new features that are being added. The expansion, aptly called Stunts and Effects, will feature... well, stunts and effects, as well as a slew of new options. We also saw Huxley being played, and I must admit it looks to be a contender. We watched Fatal1ty own some noob in Quake 3 (I think it was 3) so badly that it hurt us. We then happened upon X-Steel, a mecha game in the same vain as Gunz, and found that the initial game will be free. After this, we left the show floor and proceeded to make our way out. Along the way, we both bought shirts (there was no way in hell I was going to leave Aubrey somewhere so I could try and snag free ones).

Though we didn't spend that much time at E3, we saw a lot and achieved what we wanted, so it was a great experience. Now all that is left to do is wait for everything we saw to hit the stores so we can see how it turned out. I'm sure certain titles will be way better than what we saw. Next year probably won't be as exciting, as there won't be any new systems from the big three. By that time the systems will be pretty much figured out by dev teams, so I can expect some big games at that time. We'll just have to wait and see.

PS: For more info on E3 as well as other gaming news head on over to Phoenix Genesis.

Ian Wilson

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