Archive for May, 2005

The alsoran arrives back from E3 2005 having picked up a virus using the public transport in LA. Still reeling from the sights, sounds and T&A overload, he is most confused of all by the journlistic hyperbole surrounding the pre-rendered videos shown at the Sony Press Conference and E3 booth. Don’t they realise that pre-rendered movies mean absolutely NOTHING with regards to the final content of any game or power of the PS3?

He was amused at the Tekken video’s focus on sweat and muscle deformation, considering those were the same highlights of the pre-console movies shown at the announcement of the PS2.

And what about the Killzone 2 pre-rendered “conspiracy”? The easiest way to tell if a FPS movie is in-game or not as to look at the the camera movement, (the same way you can distinguish whether is on console or PC), joypad or mouse movement - this was neither, (not unlike UbiSoft’s recent Ghost Recon 3 offerings). The alsoran recently met graphics programmers from Guerilla at a conference in San Francisco and they were still upset from the Halo-comparision hype that surrounded the original, but he expects this alleged Axis Animation creation was Sony’s call and not theirs.

On a positive note, the alsoran was very impressed once again by Team Ico’s Shadow of the Colossus (previously Wanda and the Colossus). This is really pushing the boundaries of animation design, and like Ico combines robust IK and lots of pre-canned weight-shifting actions to provide near-flawless motion for the PC. This will definitely be worth investigating upon release this September.

The most memorable event of E3 happened not on the show floor, but on Sunset Boulevard after the last day of the show, on Friday. Sittng outside at a bar, the alsoran and friends could hear an approaching bevy of sirens and police chopper. Soon after, a slow-moving police “chase” involving a waving criminal and a convoy of LA’s finest complete with chopper and searchlight, all followed by one of the Rockstar buses from the show emblazoned with Midnight Club 3 logo bringing up the rear. Surely one of the most imaginitive (and costly to the american taxpayer) PR stunts completely ignored by the gaming press so far. Well done Rockstar’s PR department.

Attended the pre-E3 IGDA party last night. Was concerned by the lack of developers attending, mostly rabid Mobile Phone salesmen. At one point the alsoran had to walk away from some idiot claiming to be an Evangelist (his business card title), who was spouting crap about his game engine that could create “absolutely anything” - obviosly a genius if he has an engine that can do that.

(Note to Mobile Phone Developers: The Mobile Phone game industry will NEVER supersede the console game industry.)