By Jason Green
Every June there is a little event known as the Electronic Entertainment Expo, E3. It might not strike the common man as something of importance, but E3 is actually the biggest assembly for the biggest entertainment medium.
It’s a huge video game convention.
Journalists from all over the globe; all races and ethnicities gather at E3 to salivate at the upcoming products that will be shown off.
Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo all use the three days that E3 takes up to present the world with new IPs (intellectual properties, and fancy term for new video games), game consoles, game peripherals, and so on. Not to mention game developers such as Ubisoft and Konami, along with many others, unveil new material.
This all sounds like a nerds wet dream, but sometimes the sheets get soaked.
Let’s take a quick look at some of E3’s less than stellar moments
Mr. Caffeine
Need I say more?
See the thing that bugs me is that the people who run E3 seem to hire entertainers who don’t know a thing or two about gaming and think they’re talking to high schoolers. If you look at some of the people who come out on stage and represent these companies, you’ll see what I mean.
Now I have no idea what the case for Mr. Caffeine was but Ubisoft apparently thought this guy was funny or secretly hated that man and wanted to embarrass him. Either way, he entertained me in a Mystery Science Theater-esque way.
Jamie Kennedy
Ouch.
Another example of sending someone on stage who knows nothing about video games. I understand that these developers want to hire some famous names to promote a product or two but for heavens sake make sure he/she doesn’t get totally hammered before stepping out on stage.
Wait, is Jamie Kennedy even a famous name?
Sony’s PS3 Unveiling
Now I am a big sony fan boy and watching that really kicks me in the soul.
Way back in 2006 when Sony finally presented the shiny new Playstation 3 it was met with a big gasp, and not a good one. The console had a whopping $600 price tag and a line up of mediocre launch titles.
The part that steals the show is when they claim Genji 2 is based on real Japanese battles, yet they fight a giant crab. Hey, maybe it was real at one point.
Thankfully, 6 years later, the PS3 is alive and kicking but nobody has forgotten its lackluster birth.
However, E3 has been around for over 10 years and I have just scratched the surface on some of the embarrassing things that have been shown there. Who knows, maybe something this year will take the cake.
@JayGreen89
By Jason Green
Last december at the Video Game Awards, the debut trailer for Naughty Dog‘s newest game The Last Of Us premiered (seen above).
The Last Of Us is a post-apocolyptic game set 20 years after a fungus epidemic know as Cordyceps wreaks havoc across the world, turning people into quasi-zombies.
Kind of like 28 days later except with huge fungus heads. Tough guy Joel is tasked with taking 14 year old Ellen Page-I mean Ellie- across the country for some unknown reason. Probably to film Juno 2.
What makes this game worth looking forward to is not the fact that it’s another post-apocolyptic game, there’s a slew of those, it’s the fact that it’s a Naughty Dog game. They made all three Uncharted games, Jack and Daxter games, and Crash Bandicoot games. To go from fun, pulpy, campy adventures to a dark, grim, and grotesque setting seems like a daring step.
Though Naughty Dog has never done wrong (to the best of my knowledge) and I full-heartedly believe that The Last Of Us will be a smash hit. It’s always good to break out of your shell and try something new, so I give Naughty Dog credit for doing so and it looks like they’re taking the same care and finesse to all of their other products.
In the newest trailer Naughty Dog redesigned Ellie. Probably to make her look less like Ellen Page. Joel still looks like Josh Brolin though.
@JayGreen89
Jason M Green 