There were lots of booths at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, but only a few of them were worth spending any great amount of time around. One of those was Sony’s, which seemed a little smaller than last years – most likely because, as with most other publishers, there aren’t as many AAA games around compared to last year – but was still a pretty impressive setup. Click below for a tour. galleryPost('sonybooth', 3, 'TGS08: Sony Booth');
The Kid’s Corner at TGS is a special place. Reserved for small kids and their parents, it’s a place free from loud speaker setups, overpowering LED displays and scantily-clad young women. In place of those things comes ample room for napping parents, more pink DS games than you dare to imagine and the wholesale indoctrination of a new generation of Japanese gamers.
We’re sure the EA booth companions at Tokyo Game Show had great personalities. Lovely girls, the kind you could take home to mother. But those outfits! Unless they were designed by John Madden himself, the horrible pastiche of red, green, yellow, cyan and camouflage is inexcusable. It looked like Piet Mondrian had puked on a gaggle of aspiring Japanese models wearing potato sacks. This is not how a multi-billion dollar publisher should attempt to lure TGS attendees into playing Mirror’s Edge. Tsk tsk.
With something like a billion versions of Q Entertainment’s Lumines published on various platforms, we won’t fault you for having but a single grain of enthusiasm for the PlayStation 3 version. We dredged up enough on your behalf, waiting a full thirty seconds in line to go hands on with Lumines Supernova. Unfortunately, the things that make Supernova stand out from the Lumines pack were nowhere to be seen.
As the clock struck 5pm on Sunday evening, the 2008 Tokyo Game Show drew to a close. But as the public streamed out of the place, booth companions kicked off their heels and PR types breathed a long, deep sigh of relief, the worker bees got to work. Why? Because a trade show never ends. Someone has to end it. Click below if you want to see how it’s done. galleryPost('tgstakedown', 3, 'The TGS Takedown');
This funny-looking code, which one Giz reader labelled a “zebra-crossing-gone-horribly-wrong“, has been popping up on Kotaku a lot recently. If you’re one of the few who haven’t seen it, and been absolutely dumbfounded by it, then check out here, here and here for our attempt at an explanation. For those who get it, the third and fourth codes have now been released, taking you one step closer to that 15K in prizes. So, you know the drill, simply scan the above and follow the link to the clue. [Quantum Code on Kotaku and Quantum Central] More »
I know, a demo’s already out, but I hadn’t had a chance to download it, so one of the first games I ran for this TGS was pro Evo 2009. Why the running? Because I’m torn on the Pro Evo franchise. Once was a time football purists would buy Pro Evo for the simulation, and everyone else would buy FIFA because it had all the major league licenses. But the last few years? Konami have gotten sloppy. Current-gen Pro Evos looked like last-gen Pro Evos with the cracks painted over, while FIFA has come on strong with a new engine and improved gameplay. In fact, FIFA’s come on so strong that many people have already declared it the winner in this year’s tussle. Me, I’m going to give the old bird one last chance to impress before doing anything drastic.
Home should not be shown at trade shows. Absolutely not. Not under any circumstances. Why? Because it is boring. Home is not a game. It’s not even a user interface. It’s a…thing. Once Sony get around to deciding what that actually is will probably be the time they decide to release it, but until then – and especially in the state it was in for my TGS demonstration – it should be kept as far from prying eyes (and hands) as possible.
Every night as the 5 p.m. hour winds around and the show begins to wrap up, the speakers begin to pump out an orchestral version of Auld Lang Syne. Each booth gathers its companions to parade them around their booth for a final goodbye to the show’s attendees. Some marches feature mascots, some feature bows, but all of them feature oodles of companions.
