in years past i recall there were things like this. i did a search and i couldn't find anything for this year. my apologies if it's out of line or seems too megathready. i don't think it'll be that big of a thread though. it might be a helpful way to answer some questions other people might have who would not be able to go. also, i like recapping the day, and i never really have a place to do it.
the following is basically a repost. i thought better of it once it was posted.
first off it should be noted i am terrible with directions. i'm as good with directions as naughty dog is with platformers. so even a place i've been to at least a dozen times before resulted in me getting hopelessly turned around. i need to actually map out what sort of shitshow my driving was today because holy god where even was i.
...so basically i was late to the doors opening. that left only five hours and i arrived tired.
i checked out the nintendo booth first. kind of what i usually do since there tend to be really long lines all day for various things. this year they had one for smash bros. wii u being played on a giant screen. i don't know what you get for playing that or why you just wouldn't play any of the other demos but whatever. about 60-75% of the floorspace was dedicated to smash bros., so i just skipped all that noise and went to the treehouse live where a crowd had gathered and it was shigeru miyamoto and bill trinen! i've actually never even seen miyamoto in person before, so i snapped off some photos near the end of his talk during the treehouse live segment.
reading up on the day. i had no idea that star fox hadn't been mentioned until miyamoto said something. i was there when it happened and everyone in the area was cheering.
afterwards i wandered around some more, and snapped off this picture. i still don't believe it's real.
then i went over to the sony booth with a coworker. actually, a lot of my day was talking with people i knew instead of playing games. i wound up in the south hall about two hours into the day and finally played the first game- sonic boom. the 3ds version, more specifically.
it was not really bad but it didn't do anything outstanding either. the level design is simple, but it also feels small and repetitive. you switch characters via the touch screen, and the menu at the bottom is changed with the left and right shoulder buttons. i was constantly pressing these buttons in futile attempts to auto-switch characters but it was not to be. it's a much more slower-paced sonic, but that's not what makes it dull. there's just not enough to justify having four different characters. it's like it makes you come to an area where you get stuck, so you just switch to a character that can get you through there to move on- instead of granting the player a moveset that would do the same thing. at least that way, it would open up the level design to be more intricate and a test of your skills. as it is, it's more about selecting the right color key for the right color door. i did not bother with the wii u version.
it felt a bit like a licensed game versus a sonic game. even the bad sonic games felt like they were being made by sonic team, or people who had some sort of understanding of the series. this game felt like it was made by a bunch of suits who knew what kids liked and wanted those things in a game. very underwhelming.
i moseyed around the hall for a while. i checked out the konami booth, which from what i could tell was press-only and they were only showcasing the newest pes game. disney downgraded from last year's custom shirts and 2012's custom oswald hats to a photobooth session with a marvel character (think like a disney ride where you get a picture at the end). capcom's booth was actually pretty open. so was square enix's (they were right next to each other). afterwards, i went back to the west hall. i think it was around 3 then.
so i did get a chance to play smash bros. wii u. despite the huge amount of demos available, there were long lines for almost every kiosk. i managed to find one that only was a four minute wait. they were also doing a thing where if you won the match, they gave you a card like this:
afterward, you can redeem it for a shirt. i actually didn't win. on the qualifying match (you play two, and the first is practice), the game froze, so the booth dude gave us all cards. smash was fun, but i'm rusty. i actually didn't get my ass kicked- i placed second both times (the first time, after a sudden death elimination- damn you star fox).
the only other game i played at the show was splatoon. it was fun, but i have no idea how they expand it into a fuller game. thanks to years of experience with team fortress 2 as a spy, i was kicking ass and infiltrating the enemy base to surround their spawn point. while we lost both rounds (the second by only a single point), i was the top scorer from both teams. while i was up there, i snapped these shots:
splatoon's controls rely a bit on the motion sensor in the gamepad to work sort of like the wii remote pointer controls. i forgot what the right stick did, but it was a bit disorienting. i do recall someone saying that this effect could be turned off- and i would assume so seeing that not everyone would be playing with a gamepad (although in the case of our 4-on-4 multiplayer, everyone was).
i also went to the invitational and got a voting card. i don't know if i was supposed to keep it. there were places to put them but i think that was only if you didn't want them. in any case i still have the one i grabbed. the invitational was mostly high-energy when it pertained to the big matches. although by far the biggest response from the crowd was mega man's final smash being activated.
tomorrow, i'm looking forward to trying out a lot more games and things. the line for morpheus wasn't long and i'm really interested in checking it out. while i didn't play a lot today (and look to improve on that tomorrow), i did see a lot of stuff in the short time i was walking the halls, so if anyone has any questions i can do my best to answer.
the following is basically a repost. i thought better of it once it was posted.
first off it should be noted i am terrible with directions. i'm as good with directions as naughty dog is with platformers. so even a place i've been to at least a dozen times before resulted in me getting hopelessly turned around. i need to actually map out what sort of shitshow my driving was today because holy god where even was i.
...so basically i was late to the doors opening. that left only five hours and i arrived tired.
i checked out the nintendo booth first. kind of what i usually do since there tend to be really long lines all day for various things. this year they had one for smash bros. wii u being played on a giant screen. i don't know what you get for playing that or why you just wouldn't play any of the other demos but whatever. about 60-75% of the floorspace was dedicated to smash bros., so i just skipped all that noise and went to the treehouse live where a crowd had gathered and it was shigeru miyamoto and bill trinen! i've actually never even seen miyamoto in person before, so i snapped off some photos near the end of his talk during the treehouse live segment.
reading up on the day. i had no idea that star fox hadn't been mentioned until miyamoto said something. i was there when it happened and everyone in the area was cheering.
afterwards i wandered around some more, and snapped off this picture. i still don't believe it's real.
then i went over to the sony booth with a coworker. actually, a lot of my day was talking with people i knew instead of playing games. i wound up in the south hall about two hours into the day and finally played the first game- sonic boom. the 3ds version, more specifically.
it was not really bad but it didn't do anything outstanding either. the level design is simple, but it also feels small and repetitive. you switch characters via the touch screen, and the menu at the bottom is changed with the left and right shoulder buttons. i was constantly pressing these buttons in futile attempts to auto-switch characters but it was not to be. it's a much more slower-paced sonic, but that's not what makes it dull. there's just not enough to justify having four different characters. it's like it makes you come to an area where you get stuck, so you just switch to a character that can get you through there to move on- instead of granting the player a moveset that would do the same thing. at least that way, it would open up the level design to be more intricate and a test of your skills. as it is, it's more about selecting the right color key for the right color door. i did not bother with the wii u version.
it felt a bit like a licensed game versus a sonic game. even the bad sonic games felt like they were being made by sonic team, or people who had some sort of understanding of the series. this game felt like it was made by a bunch of suits who knew what kids liked and wanted those things in a game. very underwhelming.
i moseyed around the hall for a while. i checked out the konami booth, which from what i could tell was press-only and they were only showcasing the newest pes game. disney downgraded from last year's custom shirts and 2012's custom oswald hats to a photobooth session with a marvel character (think like a disney ride where you get a picture at the end). capcom's booth was actually pretty open. so was square enix's (they were right next to each other). afterwards, i went back to the west hall. i think it was around 3 then.
so i did get a chance to play smash bros. wii u. despite the huge amount of demos available, there were long lines for almost every kiosk. i managed to find one that only was a four minute wait. they were also doing a thing where if you won the match, they gave you a card like this:
afterward, you can redeem it for a shirt. i actually didn't win. on the qualifying match (you play two, and the first is practice), the game froze, so the booth dude gave us all cards. smash was fun, but i'm rusty. i actually didn't get my ass kicked- i placed second both times (the first time, after a sudden death elimination- damn you star fox).
the only other game i played at the show was splatoon. it was fun, but i have no idea how they expand it into a fuller game. thanks to years of experience with team fortress 2 as a spy, i was kicking ass and infiltrating the enemy base to surround their spawn point. while we lost both rounds (the second by only a single point), i was the top scorer from both teams. while i was up there, i snapped these shots:
splatoon's controls rely a bit on the motion sensor in the gamepad to work sort of like the wii remote pointer controls. i forgot what the right stick did, but it was a bit disorienting. i do recall someone saying that this effect could be turned off- and i would assume so seeing that not everyone would be playing with a gamepad (although in the case of our 4-on-4 multiplayer, everyone was).
i also went to the invitational and got a voting card. i don't know if i was supposed to keep it. there were places to put them but i think that was only if you didn't want them. in any case i still have the one i grabbed. the invitational was mostly high-energy when it pertained to the big matches. although by far the biggest response from the crowd was mega man's final smash being activated.
tomorrow, i'm looking forward to trying out a lot more games and things. the line for morpheus wasn't long and i'm really interested in checking it out. while i didn't play a lot today (and look to improve on that tomorrow), i did see a lot of stuff in the short time i was walking the halls, so if anyone has any questions i can do my best to answer.
Also the t-shirts they give out at the end are pretty decent