GH3 was sitting right next to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, so naturally I stepped over two feet and got on line for that bad boy. Man, oh man, is this game sharp looking. The demo stage had my squad being airlifted onto a cargo ship in the middle of a rainstorm to take out some terrorists on board. The weather effects stand out in a big way, adding a lot of atmosphere to the action. I got dropped in armed with an MP5 and grenades, but there was the option to pick up a fallen targets' weapon to replace it, and there were at least two other guns to grab; a mini-Uzi, and an AK-47. The controls are silky smooth, and react quickly and accurately to every movement. Perhaps it's still a far cry from the keyboard and mouse combo, but until that kind of support makes its way to PS3, this will certainly do. Your squadmates are definitely more useful in this game than any of the other FPS games I've played, as I was shot full of holes rather quickly after foolishly ignoring them and rushing headlong into a firefight. Towards the end of the demo level, a massive explosion rocks the ship, and you're forced to race through the sinking hulk to make your escape. This bit really emphasizes the lighting and smoke effects. Things are flying around and exploding very convincingly as you scramble to get to your chopper. This game is definitely shaping up to be as exhilarating as the hype surrounding it.
As luck would have it, I got off COD4 with just enough time to head back into the first hall to make it to Square-Enix for the Closed Mega Theater show. Things started with perhaps the most hotly anticipated title on the roster; Final Fantasy XIII. Apparently the story this time around is that everyone lives in a super-advanced floating city. The city is sealed off from the outside world by the power of a crystal, and anyone found to have contact with the outside world is exiled. On a side note, does anyone remember the Paranoia pen and paper RPG? Sounds a lot like that to me... Anyway, apparently the protagonist, a girl by the name of Lightning, has been outside and back and thusly comes our conflict. My guess is that she's going to upset the status quo in this happy little burg. We were treated to some lovely CG of Lightning and friends raising hell on what I assume to be the local law enforcement. Her buddy with the skully pulls off some nifty tricks with some kind of ice power, then rides his motorcycle all over the place while blasting cops. At the very end, we see one more female character actually outside the city, standing on a cliff looking over a huge field with dinosaur-looking creatures running across it. Now everything was certainly beautiful, but personally I'm sorely disappointed by the marked lack of any kind of gameplay footage. I can see CG anywhere. I want to know what this game is actually going to look like. Well, I guess I'll have to wait.
Next up was the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, or as I like to call it, The Game That Does Not Die. Seriously, do you think that S-E will ever stop milking this franchise? In any case, there were teasers/ads for Crisis Core for PSP, Before Crisis, FFVII Snowboarding(?!), and Dirge of Cerberus for mobile phones, and (big surprise) the release of Advent Children Complete on Blu-ray. I'm sure Sony's happy about that little decision. There are plenty of fanboys who will probably pick up a PS3 for that one.
Following up is more Final Fantasy, this time Dissidia for PSP. Again, CG only. There appears to be major characters from all the PS FF games mixing it up in this one. Squall Lionheart squares off with Sephiroth in the opening sequence, and later on Zidane from FFIX makes an appearance.
A short trailer for a new game called Third Birthday rolled out next, and certainly looked intriguing. A woman in a bride's dress walks the aisle alone while some kind of exposition is given via voice-over. I apologize that my Japanese isn't good enough to decipher it. What I did understand is that a shadowy figure appears in the doorway to the chapel and opens up on the place with a machine gun. Ms. Bride turns and pulls a pistol, firing a bullet past the wedding ring falling in the foreground. Instead of falling, however, Mr. Shooter is seen with another body in his arms. Finally, we see the wedding ring lying on the ground, slowly being surrounded by the spreading pool of blood. I've got no idea what was actually going, but this little teaser has me interested to say the least.
The next 10 minutes or so had me itching to go, as it was mobile game after mobile game, followed by an interminable length of Kingdom Hearts trailers. Many, many people love the Kingdom Hearts games. I'm not one of them.
It's good that I didn't split early, since S-E saved one last big bomb for the end, going by the name of Final Fantasy versus XIII, a PS3 exclusive. We see a young man riding in a car through a futuristic city decorated in a gothic style reminiscent of the Gotham City from Tim Burton's Batman film. Cut to a truly cool sequence wherein a young spiky-haired man (is there only one haircut in the protagonist repertoire?) walks nonchalantly down a flight of steps as soldiers open up with rifle fire. He's not worried, because he has the ability to summon translucent swords to block all the bullets. He then proceeds to summon a very solid sword with a crazy engine-looking attachment at the hilt to make short work of the troops. Another cut leads into several high-speed sword fights, and Mr. Sword running down the side of a building taking out more of those soldiers. What they're doing on the side of a building is beyond me, but interestingly enough we do get to see Mr. Sword run one soldier straight through, blood and all. That's something new for Final Fantasy, isn't it?
A co-worker wanted me to look up his friend at the Hudson booth, so I made my way over there next. No dice on the connection, but I did take the opportunity to check out Decasports, the major title for Wii that they're working on. It'll feature 10 different sports, featuring some unusual choices like curling and badminton. The latter was one of the three playable at the demo, and it was easy and fun. Much like Wii Sports tennis, you only need swing your racket with the Wiimote to bat the birdie back and forth. Also playable were archery and snowboardcross. Controls were very easy to use, and the graphics were clean and simple, although not so simple as Wii Sports by comparison. I'd say it's shaping up to be a fun little title, but I do worry about the depth of the content.
So by this point it was just about closing time. I had hoped to get some play time on one of the games Konami had on display, but it was simply not in the cards. To be honest, I was so disillusioned by the horrific line for MGS4 that I was almost beyond caring. It would have been nice to see what Silent Hill Zero looked like, I must say. I did get a good look at Metal Gear Online, though, and it's looking pretty fine indeed. There was a 6-on-6 team deathmatch going on, and it was running full tilt without a hitch. The characters sported a very high level of detail and animated very smoothly. The battle was taking place in a bombed out city, and there was plenty of eye candy to make the whole thing very immersive. It looks like the whole gamut of Metal Gear hardware is available, along with hand to hand combat and some kind of skill system as well. As I've stated in previous posts, I'm not one much for online gaming, but this one does look really great.
Finally, I stood around for 15 minutes or so watching the MGS4 trailers. This only made me even more disappointed that I couldn't play it. Looks like a ton of the characters from the previous games are making their final appearances, and looking damn fine doing it. Sigh.
Well then, that wraps up this year's Tokyo Game Show. Today's Big Winner was tough to choose, as Sony's impressive scale of playables impressed me, but Namco Bandai really won me over with Ace Combat 6. Special honorable mention goes out to Tecmo for getting me interested in a DS, and more importantly for their totally kick-ass dance shows. Haha! Today's Big Loser was Square-Enix, since the only thing I really wanted to see was some gameplay footage, and that's exactly what I didn't get, and not just FFXIII. I really want to complain about Konami as well, but it's really not fair to blame them for the insane popularity of the MGS4 demo. Doesn't make me any less upset about it, though.
In closing, I'd like to express my newfound (and very profound) respect for the professional gaming journalists who cover events like this. After two full days walking around, waiting, and writing, I'm thoroughly tired from head to toe. Still, it was a good, fun experience, and I thank you for taking the time to read my take on it. Man, this is long. I'll post a more personal perspective on the whole show later this week. Hope you'll check it out!