Digital Trends
The Tokyo Game Show, billed as the world’s largest computer entertainment fest, kicked off Thursday with hopes that depressed sales of game consoles will enjoy a holiday resurrection.
Hurt by the global recession and few blockbuster releases, the video game industry has been in a slump for much of the year. U.S. sales of video games in August tumbled for the sixth straight month, according to market researcher NPD Group.
Attendance at the just-concluded CEDIA (Custom Electronics Design & Installation Association) Expo, held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, was down for the second straight year to around 20,000, and the number of exhibitors shrunk from 500 to 400. But the good news for home theater enthusiasts is as follows: What the various exhibitors that remained actually exhibited was a considerable amount of ingenuity.
In case you hadn’t heard, booth babes were back at E3 2009. The scantily clad ladies designed to lure unsuspecting nerds into booths were out in full force yet again this year, and in the name of journalistic integrity, we saw it fit to crown the most shameless display of skin.
Over the course of our scientific and completely unbiased consideration, we had to consider many factors, including the number of models, how ridiculous their costumes were, and how completely inadequate they were for covering them up. Many contenders were painstakingly considered, and while they all excelled at bringing the level of classiness at the show down a rung, one booth’s specimens especially stood out.
Despite Sony’s market position well behind Nintendo in both the home and portable console markets at the moment, the company had no problem drawing crowds at this year’s E3, where a full deck of high-profile titles made its booth one of the busiest at the show. We headed upstairs for a tour of the latest with developers on hand to explain.
For rabid fans of the well-known and universally respected Halo franchise, no more exciting news emerged from E3 than the announcement of Halo: ODST, an unusual new chapter in the series that will allow players to move on from Master Chief to play as a different type of soldier in the war against the Covenant. We packed into a tiny theater with Bungie developers and other journalists for an early peek at gameplay from the hotly anticipated title.
Despite the Ubisoft’s snooze-inducing press conference this year (James Cameron can talk), the company’s core titles actually managed to get our blood pumping as we made our way around its massive show space at E3. Let’s run over a few of our favorite titles.
It takes some imagination to use the Wii remote as a controller for a golf club, bat or tennis racket, but as a flashlight, which you’ll wield it as in Silent Hill Shattered Memories, you might just mistake it for the real thing. Moving a character around with a joystick and pointing at the screen with the Wii remote to cast light on your pitch-black surroundings feels as natural as doing it in real life. And just as creepy.
Thanks to a giant Warner Bros water tower and a genuine, on-site Batmobile, there was really no missing Warner Bros.’ movie-themed booth at this year’s E3. But we’ll call that fortunate, since WB had a fine (and expansive) set of wares for this year’s show that we’re glad we caught.
Halo is turning into a major franchise. With a new game out a few months ago, production is already underway on the next one, Halo: ODST, and the announcement of a follow-up to that, Halo: Reach, there’s plenty happening in Haloworld.
At E3, Bungie was offering a demo of Halo: ODST and answering some questions about Halo: Reach. Most specifically, a studio spokesman was asked about the game beta, to which Halo: ODST users will be invited.
You can start reading Tecmo’s E3 brochure from either the dark cover or the light cover, depending on whether you’re looking for family games or mature titles. While we’re sure Family Football for Wii is a winner, we started on the black side, and did the same when it came time to check out booth demos. Bring on the blood.
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