ACHIM'S "E3 2006" DIARY




DISCLAIMER

I’d like to invite you to read about my personal experiences at the E3 2006 and everything that took place around it. If you are offended by too many f-words and other curses you should stop reading NOW. My English is not the best really and whenever I don’t know what to write in order to explain my feelings I throw in another f word or something like that. Also, the text would be much too short if I wouldn’t curse that often.

If you have any problem with me mentioning your name, game or company... or if you are on one of my photos and don't want to shown, just send an email to "e3 (at) producedby (dot) de" and I will come back to you as soon as I can. You may also use this address if you have feedback (which is extremely welcome!), requests, anything... I will do my very best to send a reply within a year or two.

I am starting to write these lines on Tuesday, the 16th of May, a day after coming back to Germany. Okay, and now let’s start…


Day 1 - Saturday, the 6th of May

The Arrival

After a 12 hour flight I am finally arriving at LAX. It’s now the sixth E3 I am attending but the first time I am writing about it. Actually it’s the first time I am writing more than 20 sentences in a row that are not written in an E-mail and not directly connected to the development of a game. Everybody who knows about my website and the tiny updates every six months knows what I am talking about.

Anyway, my arrival was quite the same as every one of my arrivals in the States after 9-11. The personnel at the Airport are doing their best to make you feel NOT welcome. Screaming, pushing, being offensive in general. Making you wait in lines that are even longer than the „Paris Hilton autograph waiting cue“ at the E3… but I’ll come back to that later.

My flight was really nice. First of all it was a direct flight with Lufthansa. Me always being slightly afraid of flying appreciates travelling with them. You know, all these tied up women making you feel like you are back in school... but also giving you the feeling of certain security. Perhaps you know what I’m mumbling about.

I was sitting next to a guy from Sweden - Mats - who was totally nice. When he told me that his job has to do with working on Volvo plane turbine electronics I felt even more secure. I had a lot of fun talking and didn’t even switch on my DS and didn’t watch one of the movies and TV series episodes I had put on my laptop. Better for the people sitting nearby, because most of the stuff I am watching would have probably offended them (just think about the in-your-face nudity in HBO’s „Rome“ or the sheer boredom a „Midsomer Murders“ episode brings with it. Mort, thanks for the nice company and good luck with everything! Your son will find a few nice game copies in his mailbox soon.
Lufthansa - always making Achim feel safe... Thanks :)
Mats & Per - you can't even dream of better company on such a long flight!

Anyway, back to my arrival. After giving away my fingerprints and a photo for the 10th time or so I am finally outside and hop in my Alamo rental car. Again they tried to push me into taking a bigger car (of course I rented the smallest they have) and again I successfully persisted on it. In the end I had a much bigger car (a huuuge Chevy) because these guys never have the smallest one available. Good for me.

After arriving at the Ambrose Hotel in Santa Monica at around 7pm I was much too excited and awake to just hang out and relax. It's always the same when I arrive in the States - on one hand I'm dead, on the other I feel I would miss something if I wouldn't go out immediately. So, after a shower I was sitting in the car again, driving to the „Rainbow Bar & Grill“ on Sunset Strip - my favourite place. In fact the best place to be on the whole planet. The food is just amazing, the atmosphere is extremely friendly and cozy, and I already know a lot of people and some of the guys and gals working there, which always makes me feel home. The travel from Santa Monica to the bar was surprisingly short. I had never rented a car in L.A. before and now I realized which fucked up routes the cab drivers took the years before. Every cab drive was about twice as long as my first trip there on my own. Bastards.

After eating some nice Spaghetti my friend Scotty Albanesius arrived. It is always a blast hanging out with him. Not because he is Lemmy’s best friend, but because he is just a very very funny and warm-hearted guy. I already miss him a lot when I am writing these lines.

A few hours later I fell to bed and slept immediately.

The Rainbow in daylight
You never see the place that empty
My dear friend Scotty


Day 2 - Sunday, the 7th of May

What? It’s his birthday and we are invited?!

Man, after a pretty fucked up start, Sunday became a totally wonderful and exciting day. I got up pretty early and some of my colleagues who also arrived on Saturday joined me and we drove to Santa Monica Pier. I forgot my mobile in the car when we went for a shopping tour on 3rd Street Promenade. I was the only one who was waiting at our agreed meeting point and after they had let me wait for half an hour I got confused and went all the way back to my car to check my mobile to find out what’s going on. Of course nobody had called to inform me of their changed plans - but that was the point where the good part of the day started as my dear friend David Freeman just called at the very moment I arrived at the car. I was lucky that I didn't miss his call as he invited me to join him and his nice girlfriend to go to the „Santa Fe Art Colony“ East of Downtown Los Angeles.

After a brief stop at Venice Beach where I bought a huge suitcase, just big enough to throw in my newly bought „Guitar Hero“, I went to this Art Colony. Around 30 or more artists are living at this place and they open their doors to the public only once a year. What a nice coincidence as I was able to see how they are living in their huge and stylish impressive lofts. Everybody had his or her own feeling for art and I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of paintings, sculptures, photographs and all that stuff. David and I were deeply impressed by the work of a 3D photograph artist and we also met the guy who did the amazing 3D artwork for the booklet of the latest „Tool“ album. Check out the following photos to get a slight idea of the atmosphere at this place. I just loved it and I am happy that David made it possible for me to see something like that.
...yeah, of course I will!
One of the artists living at the colony
Outside view
One of the impressive lofts


After the Art Colony visit I went to Melrose to pick up all the comics I had ordered. The comic store „Golden Apple“ is very impressive. I got to knew this place thanks to my good friend Alessandro who I met in L.A. about a year before, when I went there for the „Panzers - Phase 2“ voice recordings and David Freeman’s screenwriting workshop. In the case you wanna know what I am into comic-wise: everything Garth Ennis is writing is my thing. Of course I had already read all the „Preacher“ comics, this time I went for „The Punisher“ and „The Punisher MAX“. Also, I got a few „Walking Dead“ paperbacks which are truly enjoyable. I don’t really know what to expect from the „Ex Machina“ series, but I kinda liked the artwork and bought the first two books. Haven’t read them yet and hope I will like them.
My favourite comic book store...
...and my favourite comic book seller

But back to the crazy Sunday experiences. After the comic tour I went back to - tattaaaa - the „Rainbow“. After dropping off his girlfriend David arrived for Dinner. Some time later my colleagues Jan and Armin from „Deck 13 Interactive“ (I will soon update this website to present you their latest work "Jack Keane") and good pal Scotty joined and this is where it became totally crazy. Whenever I went to Los Angeles the years before I was unlucky because Motorhead were on tour („Hey Achim! Holy shit, you’ve just missed Lem and the boys again. Yesterday they’ve left for a concert in Germany…“). But not this time. Around 11pm Scotty left with his motorbike to pick up Lemmy and we hooked up to join them to the „Cat Club“ on Sunset Strip - just a few hundred meters away from the „Rainbow“. Not that it was already a total blast to hang out with Lem and Scotty for hours, no, this evening was in fact Phil Campbell’s birthday (if you don’t know him - he is Motorhead’s guitar (and fashion) genius.). We had just joined him for his private party, hanging out with only 40 or 50 people in this tiny club. And after some really good gigs (unfortunately I don’t remember the bands’ names) Phil and Lem went on stage for an hour or so, breaking the whole place to pieces. It was just amazing, awesome, exciting, heart-breaking (I wanna throw in a million more adjectives here, but I think you get the point).

So, we were going nuts… standing a meter away from these guys rocking the place. Man, it was just unbelievable.
Lemmy and Scotty
Armin and Jan having a good time
Lem on the mic


Around 2am we were totally blown away and I brought Jan and Armin back to their Hotel somewhere South (!) of LAX. Sorry guys for mentioning that… ;) Of course we didn’t find the place and drove around in circles. Around 4 or so I fell to bed, my head ringing and with my face carrying this stupid smile which didn’t leave me til then.


MORE PHOTOS OF PHIL'S BIRTHDAY GIG AT THE "CAT'S CLUB" CAN BE FOUND IN MY "MOTORHEAD SECTION" (coming soon!)


Day 3 - Monday, the 8th of May

Goddammit! Caught a fever...…

Monday was the first day of work and I woke up completely dead. All these experiences were a bit too much and I was really exhausted. My voice was mostly gone (I still thought it was from shouting with the crowd, but later I realized it was a really nasty cold I caught that night). I joined my colleagues to the Convention Center in Downtown L.A. in order to build up our CDV booth in Kentia Hall. That was hard work - nobody expected that we would have to carry around fuckin’ heavy tables and shit - we thought setting up more than half a dozen PC’s would be it. But we were wrong and this work was exactly what my health needed to blow me apart.

That’s why I stop writing about Monday here. Wasn’t a good day and when I went back to the Hotel, after stopping to get a million different pills at Walgreens I fell to bed at 6pm… totally dead. That night I dreamed I went up Mulholland drive and hit Jack Nicholson with the car. Crazy sight, him lying on the windshield, looking at me, cursing at me…

So, at least the fever (or was it the pills?) allowed me to have some really crazy dreams. A few days later I would drive up Mulholland for real - fortunately there was no Jack lying in the street. Which is good - I adore the guy and wouldn't wanna be blamed for his death, you know. ;)

Day 4 - Tuesday, the 9th of May

Work, drugs and Nintendo (feat. Freddy Kruger and Michael Myers)

After waking up with no voice and sweat all over me I prepared for the second day of setting up the booth at the Convention Center. Fortunately most of the work had been done the day before and I was able to keep my stay pretty short. Before I left I made a short tour through South and West Hall with Deck13’s Jan and Armin. On an Exhibition like that where you have to do presentations all the time you never know if you later have the chance to walk around and look at the impressive booths and games. So we used the time.


Back in the Hotel I relaxed a few hours and didn’t plan to go out that night. But of course I wasn’t able to just lie around and do nothing. My dear friend Pascal who is working as Marketing Guru at Nintendo Europe had invited me to the Nintendo party in the Hollywood Highlands Complex. So, I jumped (or better crawled) back in my car and headed to Hollywood Boulevard. At the reception desk I was greeted with a „Mr. Heidelauf?! But you are already in!“. Someone used my name to sneak in. Bloody bastard! Anyway - I didn’t have any trouble going in because I had my papers on me and therefore nobody really cared.

Man, this place was just amazing: Nintendo had booked the whole Highlands. A very exclusive impressive location next to the Kodak theatre spanning over several floors. You were able to get drinks and wonderful food at every corner and I stayed for two hours or so. Just in time to stand in Reggie Fils-Aime's (VP of Nintendo) way when he went up stage to announce the „Black Eyed Peas“ who rocked the place that night. But that was too loud and crowded for me with my burning fever, so I left after the second song and went back to the car.
Near the party entrance
Awesome view down Hollywood Blvd



On my way back to Santa Monica I decided to grab my „film location nerd list“ that I had compiled some time ago. I had never done any movie location scouting before and that night I felt fanboy enough. So I made a left of Santa Monica Blvd and passed both „Halloween“ and „Nightmare on Elm Street“ house. Los Angeles is such a strange place: one minute you are on a totally crowded huge road, a second later you are in a dark, moody ALLEE that just scares the shit out of you (at least that was the effect those streets had on me). By the way, these houses are just 2 minutes away from each other.

The Nightmare on Elm Street happened here
Michael Myers "worked" here in Halloween


But now it was time to finally fall to bed. My fever was on a high point and the Convention was about to start the next morning.



Day 5 - Wednesday, the 10th of May

Walking on the edge / First day of the Show

I truly enjoy presenting our games to press and sales people from all over the world but that day was just fuckin’ unhuman. I had presentations every half hour and the few minutes between them I almost fell into a coma. Lemmy would have been proud of my sexy voice that day and in the afternoon a damn headache and stuffy nose joined my fever. Hell!

Still, all the people looking at our games line up seemed to love them. Let me go through them for a minute:

„Glory of the Roman Empire (aka „Die Römer“)“ is a traditional build-up strategy game. The target group are casual gamers, children, girls & women and hardcore gamers like me who need a relaxing game atmosphere sometimes. The game was created by the guys at Haemimont, Bulgaria and they really made a nice job. Your task is to build up the perfect town, making your citizens happy, taking care about all the economics (build farms and wine plantages, woodcutters, fisher huts and all that stuff). The game is totally intuitive and easy to control and it just looks nice and friendly. Gives you a good feeling. And, although this is not a genre for Multiplayer modes there is a competition mode with several objectives that let you compare your skills with players worldwide.

Until today I haven’t found the time to update my website to show you more about it, so check out www.die-roemer.com in the meantime. Hope you like it!


„Warfront - Turning Point“ is a base-building RTS game set in WWII. It has some really nice weapons and features like jumping into flaks and cannons in order to blow the enemy away in arcade style. Also you can blow out Hitler's brains and make the Germans team up with the Americans against Russia. Crazy stuff. More about all that later... Check the official website in the meantime.


„Jack Keane“ (working title) is the latest work from my good friends at Deck13 (aka Artex Software), based in Frankfurt. They were named "German developers of the year 2005" and their previous game „Ankh“ is an Adventure masterpiece that was honored as „Game of the year 2005“ by several publications. These guys truly know how to do it.

I had already worked with them about 7 or 8 years ago when they developed „Iron Dignity (later named „Stealth Combat“) for TopWare Interactive. They had lots of problems when TopWare went bancrupt and I am happy that they are still there… and you should be happy too! Anyway, „Jack Keane“ will make a huge step forward in the genre. The setting and atmosphere is somewhat similar to the Indiana Jones and Monkey Island Adventure games, but Deck13 have their own style, so it will not be just a clone. Check out a few screenshots and prepare for a kick-ass game in early Summer 2007! More on producedby.de soon.


„Alien Shooter II“. What can I say? You have probably seen the screenshots on this website. If not, go here and check them out. Also, you should take a look at the trailer video I had created a few weeks ago. It has been made in a totally unprofessional way as I don’t really know a lot about video editing software, but it still gives you a good idea about what this great game is about: Fun. Lot’s of fun. And lot’s of Aliens. And lots of blood.

The guys at Team Sigma have been developing the game for about 2 years and they are just a few people working 24/7. The result is a kick-ass arcade shooter with an extensive campaign, lots of different mission objectives, jeep and tank driving, drone controlling, monster bashing fun. It also offers cooperative multiplayer, Survival modes, internet ladders and more...


IMPRESSIONS FROM VARIOUS BOOTH TOURS ON E3 DAYS 2 & 3

When I walked around on the Sony booth and entered the rather small Playstation3 area I thought I unintentionally walked into a secured area. It was so empty there and I expected that any second a bouncer guy would walk up to me to throw me off. But no, it just seemed that nobody really cared about that place and when I had a closer look at the games they shown I knew why. That stuff was just truly horrible. Another bunch of boring racing and action games that lacked of soul and style. Just hi-res crap that every PC gamer knows already (and probably these games ran on a PC platform as a PS3 console was nowhere to be seen). The worst surprise was Insomniacs new title. These guys are the creators of the „Ratchet & Clank“ series which I truly admire (except the last part which I thought sucked bigtime compared to the others). And their latest project looked as if the flat screens were broken. No color whatsoever, average character design, ... I couldn’t believe what I saw. Time to run away!


Capcom’s „Dead Rising“ for the XBOX 360 was one of the absolute high points for me. This game had it’s own style, nice gameplay, dozens of various missions and minigames and totally extreme humor. Loved it. And I wasn’t the only one - everybody trying it out had a huge smile on his face and it was pure fun to watch them playing and beating the hell outta hundreds of Zombies. I don’t wanna go into details here. My lack of English isn’t the best to write detailed reviews… so, just find out more yourself...

Take a look at the game's flyer:


I was really looking forward to see „John Woo’s Stranglehold“ – one of my mostly anticipated titles of the E3. I love Woo’s old work when he was still based in Hong Kong making movies with the great Chow Yun Fat (if you have watched at least one of Woo's flics „The Killer“, „Hardboiled“ or the „A Better Tomorrow“ trilogy you probably know why I admire him that
PLEASE let that work out...
much). So, I hoped that „Stranglehold“ could be made of exactly what Woo doesn’t seem to be able to do in his movies anymore since he moved to the States („Face/Off“ being the one and only exception in my opinion).

I was extremely happy that I was allowed to sneak into the presentation theatre with a group of retailers and there I watched a guy from Midway playing the game live on the 360 for about 10 minutes. To cut it short, I almost fell asleep after five… that’s how great that was. You know, Stranglehold doesn’t seem to have any new feature if you compare it to „Max Payne 1“. And I loved that game and I don’t really give a crap about „new features“ in games as long as they are fun. But man, Max was yeeears ago and it had a really great atmosphere, awesome locations and good story telling. Of course I don’t really know the details behind „Stranglehold“ but I don’t expect that there is much behind it story-wise. Just some really blocky looking cutscenes and characters without heart and soul. So, in this demo level – the Teahouse – the presenter blasted his way through dozens of enemies. At first that looked pretty nice, but after he switched to the bullet time mode for the 20th time it got extremely boring. No strategies, no scores, nothing to collect… just plain shooting. The enemies looked basically the same – with the exception of this „great“ boss guy with a rocket launcher. He had a health bar and that was the only difference I saw compared to the other cannon fodder guys. Horrible, just horrible… Finally the presenter had also blown this guy away and that was it. His last comment was the tip of the iceberg: „and now look at the Teahouse. All these bullet holes and crashed tables and stuff. It will always looks different, depending on the way you played the mission.“. Man, there IS no game really. And who gives a fuck if there are 200 bullet holes in wall no.2 and 300 in wall no.3? Sorry for flaming that harshly, but as you may guess by now I was really disappointed… even the trailer video they shown afterwards didn’t help. It included a few more locations that all seemed to have the same lack of „level design“ (if that’s what you wanna call a room with two stairways)… Okay, enough of that.


GSC's "good guy" Oleg Yavorsky promoting "Heroes of Annihilated Empires" at the CDV booth
Walking around a bit...
Microsoft's impressive XBOX area


Soon I will write more about Namco, Nintendo's Wii, Saint's Row and many more games... come back!
The Nintendo booth was just beautiful. A pool of relaxation in the middle this hectic show. Loved it!
These guys were standing/playing on a rotating platform in the very middle of the gigantic booth.

Check the gun prototype on the right side... awesome!
Zelda will be one of the launch titles



Day 6 - Thursday, the 11th of May

Back at the Rainbow, hanging out with good friends and playing cards with Lem…

When I'm at the E3 I'm always "organizing" a relaxing business dinner with a bunch of good friends and business colleagues. This year there weren't too many people joining because I didn't know until the very last minute if I would be make it or not. But after falling to bed early on Tuesday and Wednesday and all the work at the convention I just had to have some fun again... And as you can easily see on the photos we had lots of fun and everybody enjoyed the night at the Rainbow.
Nintendo's Harald and Pascal having a wonderful time
from left: Frank (CDV), Seba (Koch/Deep Silver), me, Harald & Pascal (Nintendo) and Georg (Koch/DS)
Frank's good pal Sal - a truly nice guy

Later that night Lemmy arrived and I spent quite some time with him. For the first time I was able to observe how fast he is playing with this "touch-screen card game machine". I gave it a try and failed completely. Lem's 60 years old now, but his fingers are flying over this screen, it's just unbelievable. We talked a lot about computer and video games and I am sure he would be an absolute amazing gamer with these reflexes. But - as he said - he would probably spend all his time with games if he owned a console or PC and we can all be happy he doesn't! It's better to see the guys on tour 9 months a year or so... and life without a Motorhead album every two or three years would be half as exciting... at least for me. :)



Day 7 - Friday, the 12th of May

Pure movie atmosphere, Game Celebrities and strange coincidences

Ufff... the E3 is finally over and I'm still alive. A bit. Since I saw Ridley Scott's masterpiece "Blade Runner" when I was 12 or so I wanted to see this crazy apartment building where the "puppet maker" lives with my own eyes. This year the time had come. Right after the E3 I went to the Bradbury Building which is just a few blocks away from the Convention Center (on the way there a guy crossed the street in front of my car and I am totally sure it was the evil mastermind - Idris "Stringer" Elba - from one of my favourite HBO series "The Wire". Another one of these crazy coincidences...).

The Bradbury Building was really worth the visit. You can't describe the dense atmosphere this place has. I hope you get a slight feeling when you look at the photos I took. By the way - if you ask yourself where you know this building from: it was also extensively featured in the Jack Nicholson movies "Chinatown" (I LOVE that film) and "Wolf"... and I think there were a few more flics shot at this location. Enjoy.
The Bradbury looks totally unspectacular from the outside. Pretty easy to miss it.
The East entrance



More to come: Dinner with Rick Goodman, Iron Lore's Brian Sullivan, David Freeman, Phenomic's Martin Löhlein, Scott Miller and others... and a *really* crazy coincidence.



Day 8 - Saturday, the 13th of May

MI-3 / Melrose Johnny / Ozzy! / Mulholland Drive Diner, ...

On Saturday I made a short visit to "Caesar's Diner" in Burbank. This is the location where David Lynch shot one of the best scenes he has ever created: the "scary face behind the wall" sequence in "Mulholland Drive" that scared the shit out of me.
Caesar's aka Winky's
After seeing Lynch's movie this is really a scary place
Okay, here you go... nothing there... I think...



Day 9 - Sunday, the 14th of May

During my four hour wait at the LAX Airport I was extremely lucky again as I spent most of the time with nice people: Florian Stangl and Simon Fistrich from Power Play magazine and Marc Küpper, Business Development Manager at 10Tacle - an old friend and colleague of mine (whose face you've already seen on this website several times). Marc also bought a "Guitar Hero" - but not only that, he even got an extra guitar! Smart guy he is! :)

Later, on the plane, I was sitting beside Valentina (coincidence AGAIN) who is working as Editor at ZDF/3SAT German TV. It was a real pleasure talking and in such good company the 11 hour flight felt like 2... Thanks for that! :)

Florian Stangl - Games Editor since 1723
Simon Fistrich - a truly nice guy!



THE BEST "E3 2006" DOWNLOAD LINKS (Thanks to VGPRO!)


NINTENDO PRESS CONFERENCE
http://www.vgpro.com/file/15549_e32006_pc_nintendo_800k.wmv.html

That was really impressive and very entertaining. Nintendo will finally rule the world. Better than Cheney and the New World Order (now featured in “Alien Shooter 2” by the way)…



MICROSOFT PRESS CONFERENCE
http://www.vgpro.com/file/15559_e306_microsoftpc_trim_800k.wmv.html

Also an interesting conference. Some great titles. Besides that nothing new really, but hey, Microsoft really deserve a short break, don’t they?



SONY PRESS CONFERENCE
http://www.vgpro.com/file/15560_e306_sonypc_trim_800k.wmv.html

Sorry, that that was totally underwhelming and even quite boring…Man, what’s going on at Sony? Hope they’ll proove me wrong later this year.



SUPREME COMMANDER – 4,5 Minutes of Gameplay
http://www.vgpro.com/file/16441_SupCom_E3trailer_4min.mov.html

Nice one. Loved Chris Taylor’s “Total Annihilation” years ago. This could be the kind of sequel we all wanna see. Let’s hope it is – after “Dungeon Siege II” I am careful. “Supreme Commander” is also a good example that shows that sometimes (in my personal opinion often) less is more. Technically pretty okay – but not more than average. But the final effect is really exciting. Must see!



METAL GEAR SOLID 4 – Guns of the Patriots – 15 Minute Trailer
http://www.vgpro.com/file/15643_e3_mgs4extendedtrailer_lq.avi.html

After I was pretty disappointed by part 3 this prooves that Kojima still knows how to rock the place. Just amazing work and I laughed off my tiny ass at the end of this 15 minute long (!) trailer. I bet you will too… What I don’t quite understand is why they still aren’t able to book a good English voice actor for a trailer like this… I mean, they are showing that at the E3 and it’s subtitled? I love original language versions, no question. But here you really wanna focus on the picture and reading disturbs the eye. Anyway, kick-ass!



ELVEON – HiRes Trailer
http://www.vgpro.com/file/15630_elveon_e3_720p.avi.html

One of the most surprising and promising titles at the E3 in my opinion. Great Next-Gen RPG stuff from 10Tacle Germany. Check it out!



SPORE – Extremely long gameplay trailers
http://www.vgpro.com/file/15614_spore.mpg.html
http://www.vgpro.com/file/15615_spore2.mpg.html

Most of my friends I talked to about the E3 said that this was their personal No.1 title. I must admit I can imagine why they are saying that, but still I don’t get it really. I mean, the graphics and the technics are pretty ugly (errrr.. "IGN E3 Awards" anyone? LOL). But in the end Will Wright will probably proof me wrong. So I better shut up and post the trailer links. ;)



INDIANA JONES – HiRes Trailer
http://www.vgpro.com/file/15599_indianajones_480.mov.html

Hmmm… I love Indy. Love the style of the trailer. But the game? And these “great new movement physics” they are talking about all the time? To me the animations look pretty fucked… moonwalking on a San Francisco cable car? What’s new about that. Still, the trailer is worth a try (A big Hello to the “Dharma Initiative”!).



ALAN WAKE – HiRes Trailer
http://www.vgpro.com/file/15552_alanwake_e32006_hq.avi.html

Very dark and dense, atmospheric work from the “Max Payne” creators. I think it’s technically not really spectacular, but who gives a damn. The atmosphere is just kick-ass. Gotta love it!



GOD OF WAR II – Gameplay Trailers
http://www.vgpro.com/file/15517_t_godofwar2_2_hd.mov.html
http://www.vgpro.com/file/15516_t_godofwar2_gdc_hd.mov.html

What can I say? Speechless… Let me play that game NOW! Make it half as good as part one and I will still be happy and jump around like a maniac. Pure gameplay genius!



…and last but truly not least:

HEAVY RAIN – Actor Casting – from the creators of “Nomad Soul” and “Fahrenheit”
http://www.vgpro.com/file/15660_heavyrain_e3.avi.html

That’s just amazing! Especially after getting in contact with David Freeman I am very focused on learning how to create emotion in video games. Here is an example of how to do it. Don’t look at the technical details – it’s all nice but not really overwhelming. What is overwhelming is the effect and sound timing, mimic, dialog quality and all that… I am sure you’ll love it. My absolute No.1 “E3 2006” download.



AND NOW LET'S TRY TO SUM THAT ALL UP...

Biggest surprises and most promising titles at the Show:
Nintendo’s Wii, Dead Rising, Viva Pinata, Saint’s Row…

Biggest disappointments at the Show:
John Woo’s Stranglehold, Playstation 3, Insomniac’s new game

Nicest meeting/presentation at the Show:
Showing Team Sigma’s „Alien Shooter II“ to the guys from Replay Singapure who were totally nice and totally overwhelmed.

Worst news at the Show:
That Take2 had just closed the Rockstar Vienna studios - and they seem to have done it in the shittiest way possible, treating the good people there like crap. I am truly sorry and hope all is well with Hannes, Michaela and all the others... Good luck everyone!

My personal shopping list:
A huuuge suitcase (and no, this time I did not carry it from Venice to Santa Monica – check the photos in the photo section on this website to know what I’m talking about), DVD’s: King of New York SE, Angel Heart SE, The Constant Gardener, MUSIC: Red Hot Chili Peppers’ „Stadium Arcadium“ and Ministry’s „Rio Grande Blood“, COMICS: „The Punisher Volumes XXXXX“, „The Punisher MAX“ Paperbacks 2-5 and „Born“, „MACHINA“ Paperbacks 1 and 2, „Walking Dead“ Paperbacks 2-4; „Guitar Hero“ for the PS2; and pills, lots o’ pills!

Miles driven: 398

Soundtrack of the week:
RHCP „Stadium Arcadium“ (especially "Slow Cheetah" and "Made you feel better" (they actually did that!)), Anthrax „Music of Mass Destruction“, Ministry „Rio Grande Blood“



SOME MORE PHOTOS FROM MY COLLECTION...
Union Station
Union Station - Main Hall - An architecure masterpiece you know from BladeRunner etc
Union Station - Tower


Westin Bonaventure ("Strange Days" & "Nick of Time")
Donnie Darko Cinema
Mulholland Drive - Winky Diner




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