E3

“games games everywhere and not a drop of exciting play” — coleridge, rime of the ancient gamer.
lou and i went to E3 today and powered through the thing in about 4 hours. we were working, so we were there to see certain things, which we did. (or did not, in some cases).
i went to E3 way back in the 90’s, and i remember it was about 1/10 the size and 1/100 of the volume. i also recall being disappointed that almost none of the PC games seemed to work because the game media had been stolen from the drives as soon as they opened the doors to the hall.
this time around the experience was actually sort of similar. everything on display was pretty much old news. games are making as much money as movies these days, and the companies behind them have adopted a similar strategy of blockbuster homogeneity. (i know this isn’t exactly news to gamers). i am KIND OF excited to play a FEW of the games i saw today…AGAIN. sure, they were called “InsertGameNameHere” and “InsertGameNameHere 2” and now they are called “InsertGameNameHere 3: Return of the Game Insertion”. the graphics have improved, and the genres have become so well defined that…well how the HELL is it supposed to be FUN if you are ALWAYS playing the same game?
the cut scenes are getting really pretty.
i walked out of there reeling. like i was hungover, and it took several hours to recuperate. now i need some sleep. i’ll probably be more excited tomorrow.