E3 2007 was all about the press. It was a different kind of event, of course. There was a lot about it that I liked and a lot that I’m sure will be reflected on in order to plan future E3 events.
What was consistent between this E3 and events of the past is that, for me, it was non-stop action.
My first meeting was literally right after I got off the plane on Tuesday (the day before E3 officially started). I went directly from the LAX airport to the demonstration room to show Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway to Jeff Haynes of IGN (preview article here ).
Since I had just gotten off the plane, I had to plug my equipment into the system that was set up for us in the demonstration suite while Jeff waited. There were some issues with the audio setup and some issues with video inputs on the plasma screen that took a few minutes for the tech folks to work out. This kind of thing always tends to happen on press tours, but before long we were rolling.
I showed some things from the PC version and some things from the Xbox 360 version. On the 360, I wanted to demonstrate some really amazing environments that we haven’t shown before. Before E3 2007, the only thing we’ve shown of BiA Hell’s Highway has been the bright, daytime fighting along the streets and backyards around Eindhoven and Son in Holland. These are great, nice environments, but the full game has a LOT of variety and a lot of amazing things that you just wouldn’t expect to see in this game.
So, I used the 360 to show some of Eindhoven at night, after the Luftwaffe firebombed it. In just a matter of hours, Eindhoven was transformed from an idyllic village celebrating liberation into a hellish nightmare of flames and destruction. In the game, Sgt. Hartsock charges into the city in the hopes of saving civilians while Baker and his men cover him.
The environment is stunning – lots of reds and blacks with really incredible effects for the fire, smoke and burning embers.
The other new thing I showed off was the interior of a hospital in the combat zone of Operation Market Garden. I showed it because it is a huge contrast from what you would normally expect in a BiA game. The story there is that during the celebration of the liberation of Eindhoven, Pvt. Frankie (new kid – a repple depple that Sgt. Baker picked up for his Recon unit) met a Dutch girl. After the bombing, he broke ranks and went looking for her. Everyone and everything comes together inside this creepy, abandoned hospital near the edge of town.
The IGN article wrote that the area was “surprising in its use of shadow and light” and that it “looked like it was right out of Silent Hill or Half-Life 2.”
It’s a spooky, but beautiful environment.
Showing these two environments helped me to demonstrate how Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway is a much more rich, dense and varied experience than anyone could possibly imagine compared to what we’ve shown thus far.
I talked to a lot of people about the game at E3.
Besides the IGN article, there are some great previews up on GameSpy and on GameSpot and I strongly recommend checking those out if you haven’t already.
My favorite quote from the GameSpy article is “team fanatically devoted to improving the genre.”
Also – The GameSpot article does a good job talking about the innovation in the game about risk feedback on screen.
There is also some amazing game play footage on Team Xbox.
Later in the week, I showed some really great journalists with some of the big magazines – some of my favorites include the Official Xbox Magazine, Game Informer, PC Gamer and Games for Windows (Sorry – you both get my love for different reasons!). I’m also a fan of EGM and Nintendo Power, btw. You should definitely give each of these magazines your attention when you can and look for previews about Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway and other games we’re working on in each of them.
I love E3 because I love talking about the things that are being created at Gearbox. I love talking to the press because there are some really amazing people that are as fanatic about games as I am and they are usually really good about giving honest feedback. When they like what you’re doing, they’ll tell you. When they have questions, they’re not afraid to ask them. Sometimes some really great ideas or different ways of looking at things have come back to us through these kinds of press meetings and have helped to make our games better. Making games is a process and, for me, interacting with the press is a really important part of that process.
The best part is that I’m reminded of the value that is created by the hard work all of the talented developers of Gearbox. I tend to be out there, front and center, talking about our games. But it’s vital to remember that the heart and soul of our games is not me, but the entire Gearbox Software team.
