Features// E3 2012 Diary Day 5: End of the Day

21:56, June 7th 2012.

All good things come to an end, and today is the day E3 2012 does indeed do just that. As intense as it was, and believe me it was intense, I'm always saddened when E3 does come to an end.

For it means that the remaining stuff I really wanted to check out I wouldn't be able to, as the doors to the expo hall would have long since closed. But enough of this melancholy nonsense, let me regale you with my last day here in the city of angels.

My first port of call was at the Capcom booth. They had three games to show me: Resident Evil 6, Devil May Cry and Lost Planet 3, in that order. As with previous diary entries I won't be going into too much detail about these games, but I will expand a little on them so you get a bit of a taster for the full articles.

Resident Evil 6 is an interesting one as it appears to be three games made into one. There are three characters, Leon, Chris and Jake, all of whom have their own story to play through in the game. Another interesting facet to the game is that it appears to play like Dragon Slayer, in that during certain points of the game, the player is required to carry out actions in a predefined manner otherwise they die. I was quite bad at this, because I have the reactions of a dead snail and found it to be somewhat frustrating.

Devil May Cry is effectively a reboot of the series that is being developed by Ninja Theory. It retains the heavy reliance on combos within combat and places a demand of skill on the part of the player to get the most out of the game. It also boasts a new art style, which is not too dissimilar to the last Prince of Persia game: cell shaded.

I came to Lost Planet 3 with a great deal of trepidation. The previous title in the series wasn't up to much and so I couldn't see this game faring any better. From the time I spent with it however, it does appear Capcom has made some significant changes to it that may bring this franchise back from the brink.

Not wanting to go into too much detail here, I can say that the company has focussed on the story of the game, with a brand new set of characters that Capcom hopes the player will have a vested interest in.

After Capcom I ran across the South Hall to SEGA, where I managed to chat to one of the developers at Gearbox about Aliens: Colonial Marines. From this discussion it was clear that despite the long gestation period of this game, there is a deep-seated passion and belief in it. From the multiplayer session I experienced, this commitment may not be misplaced.

I then played Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed. Yes that's right, I went from shooting aliens who have the ability to tear my face off as soon as look at it to a cartoon kart racer. But this is no ordinary kart racer, oh no. For the clue is in the last word in the title, as it does indeed have the player's vehicle transform to react to the ever changing track. It's mad, it's different and well...fun!

I then scuttled off to Sony's booth to play a game that caught my interest during the company's press conference. Unfinished Swan was its name and was highlighted as an indie game that Sony had decided to champion as an example of its commitment to more esoteric types of games. It's a Move-based game that requires the player to fling liquids around the world, which then reacts to said liquid in different ways. I found the game to be thoroughly charming and enthralling in equal measure - full write up soon!

I finished off the day and E3 2012 itself by interviewing the developer behind ArmaII mode, DayZ. We had a fascinating discussion about his personal history in the videogame industry as well as how this amazing mod came into being. We also chat about the future for the mod/game as well as where the industry sits with original content like DayZ.

So that's it for another year. It's been a very exhausting five days, both mentally and physically, but I've come out fighting on the other side. Here's to E3 2013, which may not even be in LA if rumours are to be believed...

My other diary entries from this year's E3 can be read:
E3 2012 Diary Day 1: The Diary of a Games Man - Assassin's Creed III Mural so large I couldn't fit it all in...

E3 2012 Diary Day 2: Conference Hell Day - Sony, EA, Ubisoft and Microsoft

E3 2012 Diary Day 3: Dull Conference + Good Games - Hybrid, Forza Horizon and, wait for it, Halo 4 multiplayer

E3 2012 Diary Day 4: Hitting the Show Floor! - Ubisoft, Bethesda, Codemasters... more and more!