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E3 2009: Day 1 Wrap-Up

E3 2009
E3 2009

It’s time once again for the Electronic Entertainment Expo, known to its friends and admirers as E3.  Just those two little digits can send a video game enthusiast’s heart aflutter.  It isn’t quite the spectacle it’s been in years past, but this was my first E3 experience, and as a life-long fan of video games, having the opportunity to actually attend myself on behalf of Adventure Gamers was a dream come true.  The first day of the three-day event is the shortest, six hours instead of eight, yet somehow I managed to get some hands-on time with 17 unreleased games (only four adventure games, so don’t get your hopes that high).  So does it live up to the hype?  Did I get lots of “swag?”  Was it as fun and crazy as we’ve all imagined it to be?  Yup, yup, and yup again!

As soon as the doors opened to the West Hall (there are two full-sized halls, West and South, and I didn’t even step foot in the South today), everyone swarmed in and started seeking out the biggest and most important games.  While most of my journalistic colleagues headed to God of War III or Modern Warfare 2, I stayed true to the cause (at least at first) and went right for [game=1510]Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box[/game] for the Nintendo DS.  The sequel to one of my favorite all-time puzzle-adventure games has finally been localized for North America, and I couldn’t be happier.  The demo only lasted 10 minutes, but that was time enough to remind me that every puzzle indeed has an answer. 

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Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

Nintendo definitely had the biggest presence of any company in the West Hall.  After Professor Layton, I couldn’t resist checking out a bunch of other really cool games, like Wii Sports Resort (my first swag of the day: a Frisbee), and New Super Mario Bros., a side-scroller in the classic Super Mario Bros.-style but designed specifically for four players at a time, which was only announced just a few hours earlier at the Nintendo press conference.  If you’re an RPG fan, you’ll want to check out Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story for the DS.  The brothers have been miniaturized and are living inside Bowser’s body, so naturally they’re forcing him to finally use his powers for good.  Returning a little closer to the genre we all know and love, I next checked out the new Women’s Murder Club: Games of Passion for DS, a hidden-object adventure that also features interrogation puzzles and color-matching.  No sign of Another Code R for Wii, which is a shame, as it looks like one of the most promising adventures ever to hit the adventure-friendly console, and I’d have loved the chance to put it through its paces. 

Some of the other big presences in the West Hall were Sony and Capcom.  I couldn’t bring myself to get in long lines for the hottest Sony games, but I did manage to play Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (more shoot ‘em action with Nathan Drake) and Batman: Arkham Asylum, which features my new favorite feature: Detective Vision.  All the baddies carrying guns show up in red, which lets you know Batman can’t tackle them head-on, and instead you’re forced to take to the shadows (or the rafters) to sneakily take the thugs out one at a time.  On the Capcom side of things, I had a round with Tatsunoku vs. Capcom (various anime characters battle Capcom characters, Street Fighter-style) and Dark Void, which is the lovechild between Gears of War and The Rocketeer.  The main reason for being there, however, went sadly unfulfilled, at least for today.  Capcom isn’t showing Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth at all, while Sony is showing Heavy Rain behind closed doors only.  I’m as disappointed as you are, but there’s still a chance yet to see Quantic Dream’s ambitous new thriller, and you can be sure I’ll do my best to get on the other side of those doors before all is said and done.

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Chronicles of Mystery: The Tree of Life

In the afternoon, I fared much better on the adventure front when I sat down for a nice hour-long chat with the good folks at City Interactive, the Polish developer behind the Chronicles of Mystery and Art of Murder games.  They’ve got new titles in the works for both franchises slated for later this year.  In fact, the former is actually getting a dual platform treatment.  Chronicles of Mystery: Curse of the Ancient Temple for Nintendo DS is a retelling of the original Chronicles of Mystery: The Scorpio Ritual, but adjusted for a more casual audience (more hidden objects, for example), while Chronicles of Mystery: The Tree of Life is the next full-fledged point-and-click PC adventure, bringing back Sylvie Leroux, who is now in pursuit of, well, the Tree of Life!  City also revealed they’re hard at work on Art of Murder: Cards of Destiny, in which FBI agent Nicole Bonnet returns to track a killer who leaves playing cards on the bodies of the victims.  Production on Cards of Destiny is so early that they didn’t have anything for me to see first-hand, but they at least want fans to know the series will be back. 

We’ll have a more detailed preview of City Interactive’s games in the coming days, as well as longer looks at Professor Layton and Women’s Murder Club, but with two more days of E3 still to come, I’m afraid there’s only time for these teasers for now.  So that’s Day 1 in the bag, but tomorrow is going to be even bigger and busier, with two more hours of show, and five times as many appointments with adventure game companies.  If games like Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island and Black Mirror 2 mean anything to you, or you’re interested in finding out what’s in store from the likes of White Birds, Deck13, and a little company called LucasArts, stick around for tomorrow’s report!  Come to think of it… Yipes!  I better bring a few extra pencils, and maybe another notepad while I’m at it.  See you then!


This article originally appeared in Adventure Gamers' now-defunct blog.

 

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