E3 2009: Day 2 Wrap-Up

Written by
Dante Kleinberg — June 4, 2009

Almost inconceivably, Day 2 at E3 was bigger and crazier than Day 1.  It was open for more hours, there were more people attending, I got more swag, I saw many more adventure games, and I even represented Adventure Gamers in a human interest piece for Slate Magazine.  In every way imaginable, today was all about more.

Crime Scene

I started out the day in the South Hall with an early morning meeting (okay, 10am, but it sure felt early) with the folks at White Birds.  The developers of such games as Paradise and Sinking Island have a lot of new products on the horizon they think adventure fans will be interested in, including a new franchise for the Nintendo DS called Criminology (or Crime Scene as it’s known in North America), based around forensic investigations.  They’ll also be bringing the franchise to Wii, iPhone, and PC, but under the name Scipol (short for “science police”).  In fact, White Birds is also dedicated to expanding their other games to different platforms, and for that reason they’re porting their PC game Nikopol to the iPhone.  I was able to get a look at an early version, and the graphics are remarkably clear.  Their third and final announcement here at E3 is Paris Mystery Files for the DS and Wii.  It’s inspired by the Professor Layton series, the biggest difference being that all the puzzles will be related directly to what you’re doing in the story instead of simply assorted brainteasers.

Next I rushed over to the West Hall (no small feat, I assure you) to sit with dtp entertainment, where I was excited to see The Black Mirror 2 and Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island.  Black Mirror 2 takes place 12 years after the events of the original title, and gives an all-new protagonist the opportunity to experience the horrors of Black Mirror Castle for himself.  The graphics are absolutely amazing, with really impressive amounts of detail creating a consistent sense of atmosphere.  Ghost Pirates is the latest from Autumn Moon, and has a unique twist: since you play as a ghost, you can’t talk to anyone, nor interact with many parts of the environment.  In fact, you’re invisible to living beings.  Because of these restrictions, you have to figure out ways to accomplish things in unusual ways, like moving a few small objects in order to trick a corporeal person into doing what you want.

From dtp it was straight to Wizarbox, who detailed the new version of So Blonde for the Wii and the DS.  Unlike a lot of DS and Wii games we’ve been hearing about, this isn’t a port of the PC game, but rather an “alternate” game  posing the question: What if Sunny had landed on the other side of the island?  All the puzzles after the tutorial are completely new, with many new characters, and almost 100% new locations.  Wizarbox only had the DS version available for me to play, but it worked like a charm.  The graphics are very impressive considering the system’s limitations, with lots of color and background animations in every scene.

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition

After a break for lunch (bland hot dogs! woo!), I headed to LucasArts and a 45-minute long walkthrough of The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Editon, the high-definition remake of the classic game.  If you’re not excited about this yet, you should be.  I spoke with some of the game’s producers, and these guys are passionate about Monkey Island, even going as far as to say it’s the whole reason they work for LucasArts.  All the voice actors (even the Voodoo Lady) from Curse of Monkey Island are back and they sound terrific.  You can seamlessly switch back-and-forth between the classic version and the HD version at any time, which makes the HD version look even more impressive.  And best of all (at least for me), they gave me the greatest swag in the history of swag: a t-shirt that says “I Found the Treasure of Mêlée Island … and all I got was this Stupid T-Shirt.”  That’s right, I now own a replica of the friggin’ treasure of Mêlée Island itself!  So cool!

Last but not least, I sat down with Deck13 for a first look at their new adventure game, Haunted.  It’s another light-hearted game from the creators of Ankh and Jack Keane. As you’d expect from its title, this game also features ghosts (haven’t you heard? ghosts are the new black), but it has its own unique features to help it stand out.  This time you play as a homeless girl in 18th century London who has a coterie of ghost friends that follow her around, each with unique capabilities to help her solve puzzles.  It has a similar art style to Deck13’s previous titles, but with a lot more detail in the backgrounds and some more advanced tech driving the graphics.  It’s very early on, so it could change a lot before it comes out, but it definitely looks interesting.

Of course, I did other things today as well, including playing games like The Beatles: Rock Band and Brütal Legend.  I talked with a programmer at DoubleFine, slyly suggesting they work on an adventure game next, but she wasn’t going for it.  She suggested I take it up “with Tim [Schafer].”  Sure, I’ll get right on that.  If you have any desire to look at my big face or hear my nasally voice, check out www.slatev.com, the video version of Slate Magazine, and click on “Gaming Through the Recession”.  They interviewed a bunch of people at E3 about how the gaming industry has been affected by the economic downturn, and for whatever reason one of those people was me. You’ll see me at 2 min 56 seconds, and then once more before the video ends. 

Tomorrow is the last day of E3, and I don’t expect to see many more adventure games, so this may be the final daily round-up at AG.  I am taking one final crack at getting in to see Heavy Rain at Sony (after being rebuked today), so keep your fingers crossed and start passing the hat around for bail money.  In any case, there’s no rest for the weary-from-lugging-swag, as there are detailed previews still to come, so stick around over the next little while for E3: The Aftermath!

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