The best way to arrive at E3 is in a Lamborghini Gallardo SE, If you weren't a driver for Forza Motorsport 2 you may settle for an Xbox360 at home. Just getting to E3 was cause for celebration, and the Forza girls were happy to oblige a photo op on the podium.
After the customary check-in proceedure, I entered the South Hall where the Gears of War mural was still under way. Seeing the long lines of people waiting for the exhibit halls to open at 11am, I headed to Kentia Hall where many hardware vendors and obscure publishers/developers lurk. To my surprise, the makers of the Saphire ATI graphics cards had left two models wrapped up for me.
Being a hardware junky, I'm always looking for new stuff. The latest keypad, keyboard and mouse offered by Saitek were of particular interest. They will be on the selves around July and offer many enhancements over their current products. The backlit, black key, keyboards are purported to be more durable, and the USB mouse will have a sample rate of over 3000 dpi! Not to be ignored, the Nyko girls still offer the best controllers with internal fans, so even if you are console impaired like me, you remain cool.
Once inside the South Hall I sought out some key titles. First was Webzen's Huxley. Most likely to be the 1st Unreal Engine 3 game to be released. I playing a round of Huxley Domination, player loadout and insertion into servers was clean, as was the graphics and gameplay. You will need a serious gaming rig and phat broadband to enjoy the multiplayer side. Second was MotoGP 2006 by THQ, okay it's not Unreal, this Xbox360 title appeals to my Sunday canyon carving cravings. See ya at Laguna Seca in July Rossi!
Another favorite Unreal Powered series is Splinter Cell. I know Splinter Cell 3 is UE2.5, however the game remains immersive and I can't wait to see what Ubisoft does with their newly aquired license of UE3. Speaking of UE3, we have been told it will be supporting accelerated physics. PhysX by Aegia will have their software in UT2007, and be offering accelerator cards.
Yes, physics hardware accelerators. Sounds almost too geeky to be true. Well, Aegia had a full booth demo'ing several games with their wares. All I can say is you will notice the difference in a good way in games that use a lot of physics *cough* Halo2 *cough*
Here's a couple shots of some of the PhysX cards carefully stashed behind some thick glass (excuse for poor photos). The two shown are by Asus and BFG respectively. I inquired about nVidia's SLI solution, where the second gpu is used as a physics accelerator but only recieved a red bouncing ball to fight carpel tunnel...
I also stopped by the Microsoft booth for the Geras demo being leaked all over the web. It is much more awesome in person. The ballistics and level of detail for a console is truely amazing.
You wouldn't believe how fast the day can go while surounded by awesome displays and numerous distractions. Verging on sensory overload I nearly missed these two banners in the concourse outside of the West Hall... A very swank UT2007 banner and below a mural of the UT2007 vehicles. The mural cleaverly disguises the entrance to Petree Theater showing UT2007 every half hour.
Yeah, I plan on being there first thing tomarrow morning! On leaving, I stopped outside by America's Army for a pose as "Lord of War" with a Barrett 50 caliber sniper rifle. Forget about poly count, this puppy weighs a ton! Just another arguement in favor of limiting the loadout for FPS players.
Stay tuned today for more BU @ E3 content, including interviews with Epic Games people and more UT2007 and Gears content!