E4all

[Bobtheduck]

Just got back from E4all today, going again tomorrow... Met David Hayter (got an autograph!) met Akira Yamaoka twice (once outside the official autograph thing, one in the official one) played Metal Gear Solid 4, Silent Hill origins, ... Got lots of videos and pictures (will upload tomorrow, probably.)

To be honest, outside of meeting CAA people, E4all was a LOT more fun than AX, as for actual attractions I mean. Man... Did anyone here go to it? Didn't see anyone I recognized. Smash brothers brawl and Mario Galaxy were there, too, and ROCK BAND... Played it, did the singing and that's my new favorite part now, a lot better than the guitar. I got about 20 copies of the last issue of PSM ever (since Sony dropped the official mag, and bought PSM, so they're becoming the new official mag, which is good because it's better than the official one anyhow) and gamepro.

Man, it was so exciting. The briefing for MGS4 was pretty cool, even if it wasn't as intense as the one at TGS (I saw a video, they actually pulled people out at gunpoint and had angry drill sergents teaching you how to play the game... At this one, they had the trailer guy ("In a world...") telling you how to play...

They had a video game music concert, but I couldn't afford it after the expo (you can't buy one day's ticket)

I'm gonna get in the MGS4 line again tomorrow, so I'll have a more accurate writeup for the demo... As of now, I didn't get enough time to get used to the new control scheme. I didn't play ANY Wii games today, since my focus was on stuff I'm gonna get, but I'm really itching to try out Smash Bros Brawl (sans Snake, dirty rotten so-and-sos) and Mario Galaxy... I think i got the stuff that most interested me out of the way today, particularly my starstruck idiot meetings with Akira Yamaoka (twice!!) and David Hayter!!!! Man... So excited. I should have asked them both for connections for jobs at Konami, darn it...

In any case, I have a better impression of Silent Hill origins than I do of MGS4 (because I didn't get to spend enough time with MGS4, I mean, not because it sucked or something) and it's actually a decent Silent Hill game, which didn't look likely from the trailers I watched. It uses a bit too much of the movie's story, but doesn't openly CONTRADICT anything in the games... yet, anyhow. Unlike that RE4 inspired demo that got out a while ago, this one actually feel mostly like a Silent Hill game with one huge exception... No kicking... Maybe that it's I'm fighting nurses and playing as a trucker, so he doesn't kick women, or doesn't yet anyhow, but it's not really silent hill without kicking them while they're down.

My short demoing of MGS4 had me fighting with the cameras, mostly... I'm an inverse player, and I switched to inverse up and down, and instead, it switched my left and right... Grr, so I flip them both around, and it played ok for a minute, then switched back... I sure hope this glitch is fixed in the end, but if you don't play inversed you probably wouldn't have noticed it to begin with... The controls are sort of part MGS part gears of war, which was ok but I miss the classic controls... This is easily the best looking thing I've played on the PS3, by the way. Alpha mapping is spot on. I didn't quite... Get the octo-camo yet, it's not the same as the camo on MGS3... I'm gonna try to play it again tomorrow, now that I have a better idea.

Rock band was freakin awesome... I like singing more than doing the guitar, and the atomosphere of the game when everyone has to work together is really nice, very different from Guitar Heroes, and much better (as I expected it to be, actually)

They also had Contra 4 and Civilization Revolution there, which was awesome, though I didn't get a chance to play either of those... The line for MGS4 was about 2 and a half hours, so that took up a lot of my time, and I took off early because we were starving and weren't gonna pay exorbitant prices on the caffeteria at the LA convention center...

Anyhow, I doubt much new will happen tomorrow, I'll just get more money's worth out of my pass, and I'll get a chance to play the non-sony games. I have to say, I changed my mind about Mario Galaxy... Now that I've seen some NORMAL levels, it' looks pretty awesome. Reggie was right, it does look like the first true successor to Mario 64, including the annoying lack of multiplayer, but also in all the things that were great about mario 64 too... From what I saw, it controls the same way Twilight princess does, with both the wand and nunchuck, which doesn't bug me since I got used to it in Twilight princess... You use the pointer a bit, but you mostly move with the nunchuck. Looks really really fun.

Anyhow, I'll report back on anything new I get tomorrow.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

DAVID HAYTER?????

I envy you SO freaken much.

[Bobtheduck]

DAVID HAYTER?????

I envy you SO freaken much.

No adoration necessary, just throw money. No MGS4 love, though? Maybe it's because I wasn't digging the controls? I'm sure it just takes getting used to, since I was one of the few that didn't like them...