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Trip Down E3 Lane: 2004 Edition

Part II

While every E3 brings its list of anticipated games, there are also those that don’t receive the same attention as the big budget titles. You’d expect lines of people to be gathered at the EA, Capcom, Sony, and Vivendi Universal booths, but if you look toward the further corners of the convention center you’ll see some companies with barricaded walls and a few shiny lights. If you take more steps closer you’ll usually see why the booth is barren, although other times you might find some very interesting game. Now most of these games aren’t necessarily “new” as E3 introduced an all-new exhibit at this year’s E3 to celebrate the 10^th Anniversary called the “History of Videogames.”

Just a couple of the retro items from the History of Videogames

If you haven’t already heard of the exhibit, it might be due to the fact that it was positioned below all major companies in Kentia Hall. Inside were hundreds upon hundreds of retro and classic videogames that were playable. You could test your luck with Pong, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Super Mario – you name it, chances are it was probably there.

As I made my way through the hall I realized the atmosphere in Kentia is completely different than elsewhere in the convention center. For one, there weren’t any ear-piercing techno beats, which is always a good thing. Second, I was able to walk around with relative ease without having a group of three Dungeon & Dragon fanatics knocking me over just for a chance to grab a free t-shirt.

It was in Kentia Hall that I found one of the marquee stars of E3 2004, Faltal1ty (the master of Unreal Tournament). The setup was pretty cool and so was the premise. Fatal1ty would play a 1v1 game of Unreal Tournament 2004 with a willing opponent for their chance to win a check for $1,000. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? To win the $1,000 a player must defeat Fatal1ty by killing him 10 times. Killing him 1 time earns the challenger a free copy of unreal Tournament 2004, with better prizes along the way to the 10 kill prize. I watched Fatal1ty unleash his wrath against flustered attendees time and time again. Some challengers went as far as to try and get a glance of Fatal1ty’s screen, which did not help at all. Directly next to the exhibit was a board with the list of people who tried their luck against Fatal1ty. The list was filled with zeroes and negative points. Out of approximately sixty or seventy opponents, Fatal1ty died only once. No one could even touch him and this was on the last day of the show. (In three days, one person walked away with a free copy of unreal Tournament 2004.)

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Fatal1ty isn’t only an avid gamer with bragging rights from here to Taiwan, but he also has his own website where you can buy t-shirts, mouse pads, and who knows what else in the years to come. This gamer is for real and if you happen to spot him in a server of Unreal Tournament 2004 – run!

Once finished staring in awe at his rampage of ass-kicking, I made my way through the other

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classic games and future products, such as a personal CD-duplicator

that works just like a printer. Not only will it copy CDs, but you will also be able to

duplicate the same artwork from the cover of the original CD. Watching this marvel brought only one word to my mind: Bootleg.

A shot of EA's booth (left) and everyone loves Larry (right)

I had just about seen everything when I spotted two exercise bikes hooked up to an ATV game for the PS2. Being naturally competitive I asked my friend if he wanted to race, knowing that I have the better chance of winning. Depending on how fast the peddles spin determine how fast the ATV would go. Once the green light came on, I was off. Both of my legs were peddling frantically trying to edge my ATV past the others. However, speed wasn’t the problem – the problem was steering. The handlebars had a hair-trigger with one slight adjustment sending me flying into the scenery. With both of us having our own difficulties, the race quickly turned into a neck-and-neck race filled with crashes, bad turns, and slipping feet. The exhibitor appeared to be delighted by our sweaty faces and grunting noises although it was heard to tell whether he was laughing with us or at us.

I ended up losing the race, but winning the war (whatever that may be). As if trotting around the convention center wasn’t enough of a burden for my toothpick legs, the race made them flail around like a bowl of Jell-O.

E3 2004 was, in my opinion, not as majestic as it was last year, but it certainly had an arsenal of great booths and memories. With E3 2004 breaking the record books and bringing in a record number of people, I can only sit and ponder about the behemoth which will be E3 2005.

- Eric Lahiji

element@armchairempire.com

(June 7, 2004)


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