Archive: 16th-22nd July 2008: E3 2008 – Konami, Sega, Capcom, Final Thoughts / CBC
Konami can’t keep time in the music game wars – Here’s an interesting fact about Konami’s Rock Revolution that I didn’t realise until after I played it – it’s being developed by Zoë Mode (who are based in Brighton). I initially assumed it was just a version of Guitar Freaks/Drum Mania being slapped together by a bored team of Japanese game development ninjas, but no – it’s actually being developed by a real developer and everything (they did Crush! they’re doing You’re In The Movies!) and yet it’s quite possibly the worst rhythm game I’ve ever played. It’s not the worst Konami game I’ve played recently, though. That (dis)honour goes to Castlevania: Judgement, which manages to be what people who hate the Wii think Wii games are – a game where all you do is wave your arms in the air while hoping something fun happens.
Sega’s Japanese developers see a Mad World – This one is a bit “out there” for a CBC audience, but I wanted to make the point that Japanese game developers are bolder about making tongue-in-cheek games about violence. Heck, Mad World even has John DiMaggio (Bender from Futurama) as one of the announcers – or at least, that’s who it sounds like.
It’s a shame that Sega didn’t allow any hands-on time, and even more of a shame designer Atsushi Inaba was on hand to demo the game but wasn’t available for interview (except to some outlets, I guess, though I don’t know who). Inaba looked incredibly bored playing his own game over and over again, the poor guy.
Capcom Looks To The Past – Street Fighter IV is excellent, Mega Man 9 not so much.
Final thoughts – Very much what it says it is – my final thoughts on E3. I talk a little about how the whole event is doing (not very well) and some of the themes of the show, but what I think is the most important I feel I should reiterate here. E3 should have a real press accreditation system. They should hire staff that know the games industry, know who the writers are and who the fanboy bloggers are, and work with the writers to make sure the coverage is as good as possible, and then trust that they’ll do a good job.
Right now the whole of E3 seems to be built around keeping the journalists at a distance – just close enough so the fanboys think they’re getting coverage, but not close enough that the journalists actually write anything meaningful. With fewer, higher quality press, E3 would be easier to manage and coverage would be higher quality.
Or at least, I think so, anyway. I really don’t think it’ll happen. Instead, the show is going to ramp back up to its old size – if not next year, at some point in future. Because it’s what people really want. Spectacle, not meaning.