E3 2005 - Reflections

Written by
Christina Gmiterko — May 25, 2005

For a show whose first two days were highlighted by several great upcoming adventure games, day three proved to be unusually calm. Marked by a minimal amount of meetings compared to the no-room-to-breathe schedule of the previous two days, this gave us a chance to reflect on the experience that is the Electronics Entertainment Exposition.

My personal E3 experience goes back five years now, and so the hectic pace of the show has become normal to me (well, as "normal" as can be expected under the completely irregular circumstances that a relentlessly tight schedule will inevitably bring about). Many of my fellow Adventure Gamers staff members were attending the show for the first time with a completely fresh view. So how did this E3 compare to the past ones, and how did it meet with the E3 newcomers' expectations?

Well, for starters, there seemed to be more walking and more driving, along with less sleep and less food, yet somehow I came out of it feeling less drained than in previous years. Maybe it's because I've grown accustomed to the torturous nature of it all, but I'd like to think the reason is all the promising adventure games that were on display, and all of the great people that we met.

I can comfortably say that there were more quality adventure titles on display this year than any other in recent memory. Dreamfall, Myst V, 80 Days, Lost Paradise, Runaway 2, Ankh, and Nancy Drew are just a handful of the titles that adventure gamers have to look forward to in the near future. This is certainly heartening news during the current drought of really high-quality, engaging adventures.


Dreamfall	80 Days

Rivaling the quality of the games we viewed was the quality of the conversations we had with the publishers and developers. Pablo Martin of Revistronic, Rand Miller of Myst fame, and David Cage of the game Fahrenheit (now known as Indigo Prophecy in North America) were especially memorable, though every person we met with was extremely nice and accommodating.

But as with every great high point, a low is bound to come with it. E3 is the ultimate equalizer for gaming journalists everywhere, and to first-timers, the experience can be more than a little akin to shock treatment. As Emily put it, "It's certainly an interesting experience, but also an overwhelming one, and slap a hectic appointment schedule down in an already hectic environment—especially when the only food you've managed to get your hands on all day is a bag of potato chips—and it becomes a sort of surreal experiment in how long a volunteer games reporter can sustain the last shreds of her sanity. By day three my cognitive abilities were definitely in question."

Laura shared a similar sentiment, calling E3 "three days of glitz, exhaustion, and high-rev energy all rolled up in one. The hard reality of E3 is racing by food carts whose aromas make your mouth water and knowing there isn't even a minute to stop and eat, sleepless nights trying to wring a few more words out of your wasted brain, and so many games and displays to reach that you see too much of your watch and your cell phone and too few games just for fun. The whole event threatened to become one seamless blur as we raced from one appointment to the next."

So why do it? The way we have laid it out makes it seem like some form of ancient Chinese torture. Are we really just gluttons for punishment? No, what we are is passionate for this genre, and the opportunity to meet the developers and publishers, to interact and engage with them and each other, and to report on these games for you is both the reward and motivation for us. On that we're all agreed; it's just too great an opportunity to pass up--lack of sleep and nourishment be damned.

Our intrepid Underground writer, Berian Williams, also chimed in with his take on the duality of the E3 experience by saying, "Despite having my preconceptions about E3 shattered, I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Sure it's hard work, but getting to see so many promising adventure games (which, of course, you'll be seeing too, over the coming weeks) makes all the tiredness well worth it."

Despite all the drawbacks to E3, somehow at the end of the day, it always ends up worthwhile. You have to take the good with the bad as part of the entire experience. From the power outages to the most overblown light and sound show around, the fun trips to the business meetings, the happy times and even the fights, everything combines to make the show memorable. E3 just wouldn't be E3 without all of the ups and downs, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Now we would like to share our E3 picture gallery with you so you can relive some of these moments along with us.

You've read about the joys, trials, and tribulations of E3, but no report would be complete without some photo evidence. There's no way to adequately capture the spirit and energy of the show, but we can at least share a few of the moments that helped make it the memorable experience it was. (Click the thumbnails for larger images.)


A quick peek at the media center during the power outage gave no indication of the chaos to come.	Kheops CEO Benoit Hozjan showed Laura and Emily his upcoming adventure in a private, quiet presentation. E3 was proving entirely manageable!


Back on the crowded show floor, we weaved our way over to Ubi Soft's impressive display.... (Photo courtesy of Mike Thompson.)	... where Rand Miller shared his thoughts on all-things-Myst and beyond for Christina.	At Atari, Laura got an up-close look at Indigo Prophecy (Fahrenheit). Just ignore the fact that it's on an arcade-style machine. It's a figment of your imagination.


No E3 would be complete without a trip to Nintendo, but this time we were here with a purpose.	The Nintendo DS is promising to become a hot new adventure platform, as demonstrated by Another Code (Trace Memory).	Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney also caught our attention as another pure adventure for the new Nintendo handheld.


Now running late, the pace started becoming more frantic. This poor guy got in our way as we raced to our Dreamfall meeting. It looks worse than it is. We hope.	As it turns out, we ended up waiting for Funcom anyway, so we sat and pondered important things like how hungry we all were.


The wait was well worth it, as Dreamfall was prominently displayed.	Christina looks up to the newer, darker April Ryan.	We ALL looked up to Zoë, whose giant banner hung from the rafters.


Berian... must... resist... glowing lure of Psychonauts... not... adventure... (Photo courtesy of Mike Thompson)	Meeting Tim Schafer, though -- that's always encouraged.	Speaking of adventure glory days, we popped by LucasArts, looking for any trace of adventure. Let's see... Star Wars, Star Wars, and more Star Wars. Right, just checking.


Roaming through the classic (read: ancient) gaming display was geeky fun. We couldn't help but notice the "Arcade Adventure Vision" system.	Nostalgia and homesickness, all rolled into one.


Christina, Emily, Stevan Zivadinovic, and Doug Tabacco at the annual, post-E3 trip to Disneyland.	Geez, send the staff of Adventure Gamers to a theme park and they end up at... Adventureland.

So that's the scoop on our own personal adventure through E3 2005. But of course it's really only the beginning of the story, as the real heart of our E3 coverage is up next, with many in-depth previews coming your way!

Laura MacDonald, Emily Morganti, and Berian Williams contributed to this article.