Day One at TGS 2008 was nothing short of amazing. In stark contrast to E3 (at least the E3 of yesteryear), TGS '08 had a more calm and orderly feel to its proceedings. TGS is in short, a fun, jam-packed and above all, informative outing to look at upcoming titles. To put it bluntly, TGS is what E3 should be; in fact, TGS is what every gaming convention should strive to be. However, I know you're not reading this to know about the structure of the convention, but rather to hear about how it all went down. We'll do our best not to disappoint.
First up was a tour of the private Capcom suite with the producer of Bionic Commander Ben Judd, the development team Grin, and the helpful QA staff. While neither photography nor video was allowed (it was a very casual setting so they were afraid it wasn't the best setting to showcase the games), Capcom let us take our sweet time with their TGS offerings. On hand and playable were: Resident Evil 5, Capcom vs. Tatsunoko, Monster Hunter 3:Tri, Fate: Stay the Nite, Bionic Commando, Street Fighter IV, and Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop (stay tuned for in-depth previews). While I'm not going to go into details yet, rest assured that Resident Evil 5 will blow gamers away in terms of action and graphics, and Monster Hunter 3 is going sell by the truckload in Japan thanks to familiar gameplay and unusually strong graphics for a Wii title. After being treated to a few face poundings, refreshing pints of mineral water, and tricked into eating some Saltlakrids (Swedish salty licorice), we made our way to Sony's 'secret' showing and QA session for Level 5's White Knight Chronicles.
Whatever they are looking at, it's captivating.
The Street Fighter peeps strike a pose for us
After a brisk stride (edit: sprint) we made it to the White Knight presentation right as it began. White Knight Story's producer gave a 30 min presentation on the game sprinkled with FMVs, plot tidbits, how the offline and online components interact, art design, and the importance of user created avatars. The powerpoint and presentation given were informative, but sadly the QA session proved a little less so. Over half of the questions from the press was answered with a “We cannot answer at this time”, and mind you the questions were as simple as “Will there be mini-games?” and “Will there be voice chat online?”. While the lack info towards the end was a bit odd, the game is definitely shaping up nicely. With a strong storytelling components in the offline version of the game, and a strong focus on quests in the online portions, White Knight Story is shaping up into a strong title for Sony. After thanking the PR staff, and grabbing some free water (score!) we rush onto our next appointment with...
Raiden and... some other people.
EA! Far from the image of an evil, stale-sequel-spewing, money-hoarding empire that gamers of years past have painted of the company, EA's offerings were surprisingly fresh and innovative this year. As soon as we were asked what was first on our list of games to play, “Mirror's Edge” came out without thinking. The parkour-ish game is certainly the freshest thing I've seen in a long while, but I was reserving my judgment and excitement about the game until I tried the controls first hand. I can now say without a doubt, that Mirror's Edge has climbed it's way onto the top of my 'must get' games list. The controls were easy to learn and maneuvers were a joy to execute. It's a game where you can't fully 'get it' until you've had the chance to control it firsthand. I could go on, but that'll simply have to wait until we get our hands-on preview up. The other games we played were Spore, Battlefield: Heroes, FIFA: All Play, FIFA 09 and Need for Speed Undercover. Other than Edge, Battlefield: Heroes really surprised me. As a free game with a look to rival TF2 and the same level of addictiveness as the other Battlefield games, I'm interested in seeing how BF:Heroes grows from micro-transactions.
Heroes was surprisingly difficult to put down
A bit of spare time on our clocks saw us wandering toward the SNK Playmore booth, eager to check out the new entry – the twelfth – in their King of Fighters franchise, aptly titled King of Fighters XII. KoF, once one of the fighting game genre’s heavy hitters, has in recent years had trouble keeping up with its competitors. The game they had on display, however, was a sight to behold. It drew a large crowd with its new HD sprites and animation, and controlled well enough to give Street Fighter IV a couple of power waves to the gut.
After a pair of quick and shameful defeats at the hands of our Japanese opponents we struck out for Koei – but got waylaid by the free inflatable monsters and group-led demonstrations at Sega’s Phantasy Star Zero booth. Phantasy Star Zero continues the same third person action RPG gameplay that made its predecessors famous. Plus, you can chat with the touch screen! Much loot was shared, and many laughs were laughed out loud.
Cooking Mama shows us how it's done
We were greeted at the Koei booth and summarily introduced to their gamut of upcoming Dynasty Warriors and Dynasty Warriors-like games. Fans of the series will have a lot to look forward to: Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires for the PS2 and Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce for the PSP will both soon join Warriors Orochi 2 on the shelves, completing Koei’s immediate lineup of warrior-themed mayhem. Koei also showed us a sweet little DS title tentatively called Monster Racer, in which the player hunts for and raises racing monsters in an effort to dominate the global monster-racing circuit. A circuit, we think, that would be pretty hard to dominate.
After we crossed Koei off our list we headed over to Konami and checked out Silent Hill: Homecoming as well as Suikoden Tierkreis. The biggest draws, however, were Konami’s two upcoming Castlevania titles: Order of the Ecclesiast – another DS outing – and Judgment, a 3D fighting game. Moreover Konami’s PR folks let slip a little secret: there’s a third Castlevania game is in the works for the PS3 and Xbox 360! Sadly, no details are available yet. Hopefully Konami will shed a little more light on the subject over the next few days of the show.
Dynasty Warriors! Now with more button mashing action!
Finally, as we waited for our final interview of the day (again with Capcom) we stopped off at the sidelines of Square Enix’s booth to partake in a bit of Star Ocean: The Last Hope. We were allowed a hefty chunk of playtime and came away with a pretty solid impression. Action RPG fans, take heart.
Finally, we ended our day with an energetic interview with Bionic Commando’s Executive Producer Ben Judd and Director Ulf Andersson. They spoke passionately about their new games, and we touched on topics ranging from publishing in Japan to the nuances of producing DLC to difficulty levels in modern games. Look for the transcript soon!
Erik gets Mirror's Edge explained to him
And, with that, we're are off to eat some sweet, sweet yakiniku (that’s all-you-can-eat self-grilled meat, for those not up on their Japanese). Stay tuned for more coverage over the coming days!
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