Gamespot “After Hours” video game convention coverage
I was somehow able to swipe a private invitation to Gamespot After Hours, which is Gamespot’s first gaming convention and tournament. It has held on Pier 27 in San Francisco. Here was the lineup for the night:
Of course, with an interesting lineup comes a sizable line to the entrance:
When I got inside, I looked around for the hottest items at the event. One of those items was the unreleased Playstation 3 console. I got to play Full Auto 2, which is like Twisted Metal (very destructible environment, destructible cars, automatic guns mounted on the hood, etc). I was a bit disappointed. The Sixaxis (6 axis controller motion sensor) was not implemented anywhere I could tell in the game. The PS3 was hooked up to a 720p (HD) TV, so it looked crisp, but other than that, I could have been playing a Xbox 360 game and wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference. I would not buy a PS3 for at least another 2 years, or until the price dropped to $300. Six hundred dollars is way too much for any console. Plus, look at how big it is - it’s enormous! Photos:
Now this is something you don’t see every day. Even if you eventually buy a PS3, you may never see one of these. It’s a PS3 Development Kit, and it’s more than twice as big as the PS3. The front has 6 USB ports, 2 hard drive bays, a memory card reader (supporting CF, SD, miniSD, and ???), a disc drive, and status lights, including one for wireless:
Guitar Hero II showed up, and it was quite a showstopper. The area around the two Guitar Hero screens was packed all night long with players and onlookers. This goes to show that people don’t need HD to have a rockin’ good time. ARE YOU HEARING THIS M$ and SONY? Create great games, and they will come… I’ll get to my rant about the Wii a bit later. Photos and Video:
Next up is Call of Duty 3. This guy is taking the game seriously in his camo fatigues:
The Battlefield 2142 booth was also full all night long. If you haven’t yet done so, download the multiplayer demo of this game, and have some fun online. 1.5 million demo games have been played since last week since it was released. Photos and Video:
See? Girls play Battlefield 2142 too:
Lost Planet for Xbox 360 looks amazing. Search for some of the trailers for it online, you’ll see what I mean. Photos:
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon Photos and Video:
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO (this one has a great kill)
Bomberman for the Xbox 360 was hilarious. Photos:
Dance Dance Revolution: SuperNOVA made an appearance, but there were no lines:
In contrast, there were extremely long lines for the 2K Games booth, which had new footage and demonstrations for Jade Empire, Darkness, and Bioshock:
The Counterstrike: Source and Battlefield 2 tournaments were very cool to watch. Gamespot had selected some very good teams from around the country to compete. The tournament was sponsored by Stride gum, hence “The Ridiculously Long Lasting Tournament” plastered on the back of each jersey. Photos:
About the Wii: It didn’t show up in the console games section. I was really bummed about this. I was looking forward to playing Zelda: Twilight Princess and Red Steel. I can’t believe it! I guess I’ll have to play the Wii on release day, just like everyone else. However, there was a stage demo with a Wii for Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz:
Since Gamespot didn’t charge admission to this event, it relied heavily on the its 6 online video streams to generate advertisement revenue. Here are a couple shots of the A/V room:
That wraps it up for the After Hours gaming event. Post in the comments if you attended!