John's E3 Report #1: Doomed from the start

In the heart of LA, Atomic’s John Gillooly is breathing the pure gaming delight that’s E3. He’s swiftly delivered a prized report to HQ, and it’s gleaming in all its gaming glow.

It was somewhat fitting the first major press conference of E3 kicked off with new footage of the game that stole the show last year -- id software's Doom 3. Only this time there was no arguing about what hardware it was running on, for this was the Xbox press conference, held in LA's Grand Olympic Auditorium, or as our cab driver called it 'the place were they have the boxing'.

Microsoft never actually stated it was Xbox exclusive, but the safe money is that after the PC version hits, it will undergo an Xbox-only console release. The video showed a heck of a lot more than the footage from last year's E3, with the graphical glitches gone and in its place some of the prettiest, smoothest looking gameiness yet to grace Microsoft's big hunk o' black plastic.

But that wasn't all -- equally as stunning was the teaser for a new LucasArts game Republic Commando, a first person shooter that appears to focus on gunplay rather than light saber swinging. Here's hoping more details will emerge over the course of the week.
The rumoured announcement of the addition of digital media functionality to Xbox was less than expected, with the release taking the form of a new music package designed to let amateur VJs around the world strut their digital stuff. It also included some funky things like visualisations for music playback, and comes with a microphone for the Karaoke function. Cool, but not as huge a leap as could be done with the hardware inside the box.

What everyone was really waiting for were two big announcements; the first of these being the new titles from Rare, who Microsoft purchased last year for a maniacal sum. The main game being shown was called 'Grabbed by the Ghoulies', a quirky haunted house beat 'em up game that looked pretty and should be popular in the mass market. It remains to be seen how well it plays -- but it's something we'll be sure to look at when the show opens on Wednesday morning.

This was followed by a reel of various upcoming big titles. It was interesting to note which ones received the biggest cheers from the strangely effusive crowd. The hooting happened for obvious titles like Starcraft: Ghost, Soul Calibur 2 and Fable, but the biggest howls of delight were for a foul-mouthed alcoholic fox called Conker, a Rare-owned critter who is making the transition from N64 to Xbox in Conker: Live and Uncut.

But the huge demo of the night came as the finale: Actual gameplay from Halo 2, complete with anonymous Bungie employee taking the controls. It looks amazing, bigger, brasher and more featured than the original and for damn cool factor it even managed to make Doom 3's applause seem lame. I liked the original Halo a lot, and didn't have huge hopes for the sequel, but it looks like Bungie may well be putting together one of the finest games yet seen.

Tomorrow we see what Nintendo has up it's sleeve, as the console wars continue furiously in the lead-up to the opening of the show proper. Atomic will be there, and the news posts will keep flowing as we keep one eye open to find the best and brightest at this year's gaming mecca.

John Gillooly