E3 convention sparks interest of gamers

By James Hill III

The Electronic Entertainment Expo, commonly known as E3, is a video game trade show held annually in Los Angeles since 1995. For over a decade now, E3 has been the world's premier video game showcase, with companies from around the world converging in the Los Angeles Convention Center for three days in early summer to debut, show off or otherwise detail their most important forthcoming game releases.

The video game industry has become a legitimate juggernaut in world entertainment, contributing over $5 billion to the US economy in the last year alone, and E3 is its Super Bowl. Ultimately, I'll remember this E3 for a lot of games, accessories and debuts, but two things stand out.

With the Wii's motion sensitive technology, game developer and producer Nintendo fully embraced gaming in a new and innovative way. The Japanese company, which recently celebrated its 121st birthday, is staying at the forefront of gaming innovation with the upcoming Nintendo 3DS, to be released March 31, 2011. The 3DS was officially unveiled at the Nintendo press conference, and the company set up a large booth with over 50 playable 3DS systems set up.

3D technology has developed as a popular fad in the movie industry, though most pundits haven't expected 3D gaming to catch on because people are generally hesitant to wear 3D glasses at home. The 3DS gets around that issue with the use of auto-spectroscopy, a new technology that allows viewers to see 3D images without specialized glasses.

The reason this hasn't been used in theaters is that the range is very limited; people watch a movie from a variety of angles and distances, and the visual would be blurry to almost all of them. But with a portable gaming system, one typically holds it about a foot away and looks straight at it, perfect for auto-spectroscopy.

In addition to its stunning use of 3D, Nintendo has also managed to display GameCube-quality graphics on a console not much larger than the standard Nintendo DS. With demos of a new "Resident Evil," "DJ Hero," "Metal Gear Solid," and a new entry in the long-beloved "Kid Icarus" series, the 3DS impressed many, and I anxiously await its March release.

The 3DS would have easily wrapped up my title of "Best in Show" - an award it did receive from the post-show Game Critics Awards - if it weren't for a new entry in a series whose genre has grown stagnant. Music games were highly popular a few years ago until, just as suddenly as they showed up, their sales dropped dramatically as the market grew oversaturated.

But now, Rock Band 3 (October 26, 2010), developed by Harmonix, has entered the fray with an amazing flourish. The Rock Band 3 demo began innocently enough; press members were invited into a small theater within the exhibition . After we were all seated, the TVs turned on and showed clips from talk shows such as "The Tonight Show" with Conan O'Brien, news reports and other media attention that all focused on the phenomenon that the Rock Band franchise had become.

Then, the curtain rose, and a full band began playing The Cure's "Just Like Heaven," using Rock Band's well-known instruments. Immediately one could notice a few new additions: most notably, Harmonix has added keyboards to the impressive line up of instruments.

In addition, the drum set had extra cymbals, and three vocalists were able to participate in the song. But as my eyes fell on the guitar, I noticed there were a lot more buttons. After the song finished, the team leader began discussing the new features in Rock Band 3.

All instruments were being played at a new level of difficulty called "Pro Mode." For the drums, Pro Mode adds three extra cymbals and/or a second bass pedal. The keyboards use progressively more keys as the difficulty increases, until the entire set is used on the Expert level.

It is the guitar, however, that has the most revolutionary change when entering Pro Mode. The user chooses between three different styles of guitar. There is the standard five/ten button guitar similar to those from earlier Rock Band or Guitar Hero games; a new controller from Mad Catz with a whopping 102 buttons; and the third, most suprising option: a real guitar.

During the debut performance, the guitar player pulled out an apparently real Fender Stratocaster, complete with strings, and proceeded to play a few example chords. He then selected Pro Mode within the game, and played Rock Band...with a real guitar. It was an astonishing and spectacular thing to see in action, and with that one gesture Harmonix has done the unthinkable: made a video game in which you can learn, and play, real music.

They explained that Fender was helping them create a real guitar with all of the necessary Rock Band technology inside and that it would release later in the year for approximately the same price as a normal guitar.E3 only happens once a year, but the video game release cycle is never ending. The games spotlighted at the annual showcase will be available for our gaming pleasure throughout this school year and into 2011, until the next E3 brings bigger surprises and new games with it. Game on.