Quick snippets
- Overheard about Super Mario Sunshine: "Mario's gone from a plumber to a janitor!"
- Ryan and I were talking with nVidia and as we left the conference room, we passed by Todd Hollenshead (CEO) and Marty Stratton of id (and wearing Doom III shirts), who were waiting outside.
- Saw Warren Spector on the show floor (of Deus Ex, among other incredible games).
- Saw DOOM III! We almost watched it with Tony Hawk but at the last minute he didn't come because he had to sign autographs.
- SimCity4: Incredibly beautiful, detailed, and fun! Great job, Maxis!
DOOM III
- At 8:30am Ryan and I waited at the side doors to get in to the expo.
- At 9:00am the doors opened and we ran to find the line.
- At 9:02am we were in line that had a 2 hour wait(!)
- At 9:30am all the showings in the day were booked (about 35 11-minute shows).
- At 10:05am we saw DOOM III.
- At 10:16am E3 was worth it.
My DOOM III impressions
I realize that DOOM III is still in development, but here's what I think about it so far
- Trent Reznor was quoted as saying, "we want to get inside your head and make it an unpleasant place to be." That's an understatement. DOOM III is incredibly scary (and gruesome too).
- The atmosphere is tense: Every second is dripping in agonizing tension and fear of what lies around the next corner or going to jump out from the shadows. As you walk through, pieces of metal might fall and create a scary clanging sound, making you think something is near.
- The industrial environment looked absolutely stunning and the detail and quality was way, way above anything we've seen before. The monsters, on the other hand, looked fairly shiny and plastic-like. We think this is due to the way bump-mapping is being used. This is just me, but the shiny fat zombies are just lame (even though their bellies jiggle when monsters eat their guts, literally)
- Scary Death Sequence: Huge salivating monster kills you and your head hits the ground and you can only see your arm and his feet as you black out. He then rips off your head (which you can still see though, of course) and then eat you. It's so disgusting but very well done.
- The console in the theatre was apparently from a Star Trek movie.
- Nice physics! Boxes tumble and so do monsters down the stairs.
