E3 2004 Coverage photos by Gary Fixler   PAGE 2

PREV 1 2 3 4 5 6 NEXT

Random Fun

I worked for EA for about 6 months surrounding this past Christmas, so I figured I'd take a picture of their booth. There it is. It stretches off to the right, and back, quite a bit. I didn't see the game I worked on, even though it's supposedly EA's biggest deal this year. I found out just today that I didn't look hard enough. Some big wall in the back was painted up for the game, and served as the portal to some secret room wherein you could play the game. Apparently, behind the wall was a very generous space, and EA's largest single-game dedicated area this year. I totally missed it. And I'm totally fine with that.

This was some mess where booths were dukin' it out for control of the hallway area's people. Half-Life 2 is the most interesting thing in this image. I wish they'd just hurry up and release it. I know they had the big break-in last year that delayed things for already about 6 months, but everyone wants to buy it, so just get on with it already. The line to play the demo was about as long as the line for the split screen GBA, possibly longer. I did not bother to wait in this one, either. I'm patient enough to wait a year for a game to come out before playing it, but not enough to stand in a line for 4 hours for a brief taste.

Majesco had one of the cooler gadgets of the show. They also make the GBA cartoon videos I mentioned back in the Nintendo section. This gadget allows two GBAs to talk to each other via text messaging. It has a working radius of about 3 miles. That's a 6 mile diameter! This seems like the perfect toy for kids in development housing, or on road trips with multiple cars.

Here's a note I sent Marcus, who was on another GBA about 5' away from me. It took about 5 seconds, but then it popped up on his screen! The dude at the counter told me that anyone in the area would show up as 'available,' and you could choose people to chat with, setup groups, block people, etc. Just like Instant Messaging. In a kid-rich housing region with lots of GBA sales, this could be pretty fun. It would be even cooler if they got this working so game data could be transferred around. Turn-based RPGs would be pretty fun, and slow enough for this to work.

I got to play about 5 minutes of The Incredibles (Pixar's next movie) at the Buena Vista Games (BVG) booth, I think on XBox...? I'm gonna go with "Fun!" I liked the animation in it, and the fighting kept me entertained. It's a nice blend between a kids' game, and something I can put up with and enjoy. I can't wait to see the movie!

The BVG booth had all sorts of treasures, from this "A Nightmare Before Christmas" fountain (I guess because they're making a game for it?)...

...to my first peek at the Narnia movie propaganda...

...to an update of what's going on in Raven Simone's life (I always thought Malcolm Jamal Warner would be the Huxtable with his own game)...

...to a cool Tron 2.0 sculpture.

This has something to do with X-Men. I don't know. I just took the picture 'cause it had a mockup of Cerebro from the movie. I was the kid who liked playing with the box more than the toy.

Bandai has an eagerly awaited Cowboy Bebop game on the way, presumably in October '04. Here are some preview screens. You'll be able to play as Spike, Jett, or Faye, but not Ein or my favorite (and everyone else's), Radical Edward. They seem to have a part in the game, however, as well they should.

There's a Transformers game on the way, which actually lets you transform and roll out. The game features a souped up Optimus, who doesn't really look all that much like the beloved original, and a lot of running around through deserted forest. I'm spoiled. I expected more.

Minor celebrity sighting - Morgan Webb from Tech TV. She's died her hair black. I ran into her last year when it was still brown/blonde. Either is hot.

Major celebrity sighting - Vin Diesel was there to promote the game for his upcoming movie, "The Chronicles of Riddick." This is a sequel or prequel to "Pitch Black," a movie I saw by accident back in FL. The new one is a huge technological/cinematic leap above the previous, akin to the jump between "Alien" and "Aliens", or the first 2 Terminators. I took this photo while leaving the area.

This is how I encountered Vin's appearance. I was looking around at food in the cafe just behind me in this picture, and heard a bunch of commotion. The guy behind the counter saw him and told me "It's Vin Diesel!" so I ran out to join the rave. I don't know if he realized it at the time, but that cafe employee totally lost himself the sale of a muffin and large Diet Coke.

Using my crushing force, I pushed this far into the crowd, but then there were just too many bodies, and I was tired, so I never got any closer. If you wanted an autograph, that line started somewhere about 2 miles behind Vin and snaked around all over. Yet another line. Yet another me not interested.

I know this kinda pales in comparison to the Vin thing, but Nyko's really coming out with some nice third-party accessories. This turns your GBA SP into a camera, and they had a neat set of AirFlow controllers that blew cool air through your fingers, in case you're playing Metal Gear Solid outside, in Florida, in summer. More common than I had originally suspected. Neat stuff.

PREV 1 2 3 4 5 6 NEXT