OK.... Here is the skinny of the show version 1.1A (the edited version with all of the names)....

First Note: The info was all taken on Friday because there was no way I was going on the public days.... PlayStation 2 area was crazy. The had about 25 kiosks of playable stuff (I am not quite sure of the exact number). The playable stuff was Tekken Tag Tournament (namco), GT 2000 (polyphony digital/scei), Eternal Ring (from software), and Dark Cloud (scei). They had a few games running on a real-time demo. Bouncer (dream factory/square) was one of them, Den-Sen (scei), Unison(tecmo), Popolocrois 3 (scei), and Kessen (koei). Namco was showing a real-time demo of Tekken Tag and The New Ridge Racer in their booth. Konomi showed a video of the PS2 Gradius and the PS2 Drum Mania. Rage was showing off the not so perfect Wild Wild Racing as well. EA had a booth and they were showing off their game, X-Fire. This looked like a normal American console game, enough said... Multiple companies were showing signs of PS2 development and it looked like everyone will be developing for the new system in the future. Sega had a few games up their sleeves. Virtual On 2 was there and nice looking (compared to the arcade). Codename Veronica was impressive because it seemed like they are giving Rez something it has never seen yet, a slightly moving camera (aka Dino Crisis camera). Dead or Alive 2 was looking really good. Space Channel 5 was impressive (a dancing action game from sega). Crazy Taxi was arcade perfect. The only disappointment about that was the release date, Jan 2000. Samba De Amigo seemed to be a hit. Shen Mue still was not a show stopper like sega wanted. What did they think when all they were showing was the same stuff . They had a real-time movie of it running and it was just the main character driving a forklift, moving boxes and racing with other forklift drivers. The Typing of the Dead was interesting. I don't know Japanese but I am sure it will help me learn how to quickly type it. Oh yeah, D2 was there. That game is crap. About the only good thing about their display of D2 was their models dressed up like Laura, and honestly they were not that good.... Square had a nice booth with Parasite Eve 2, Vagrant Story, Chrono Cross and Dew Prism. I am really looking forward to their lineup because all of them with the exception of Chrono Cross (the chrono trigger sequel), are action rpg's. Some company had a lowrider game. That was funny. Capcom had Biohazard Gun Survivor for the PS1, Jo Jo's Adventure for both Ps1 and DC, and Techromancer for the Dreamcast. They also had movies running of Resident Evil 3. Throughout the show, they interviewed the guys who created Onimusha (the Samurai Resident Evil game), which was announced for PS2 now (originally it was a PS1 game). The intro movie of that looked incredible. Microsoft had the best booth of the show because the outside of their booth was covered with the saying "I love game".

The Review of the games.... Part one..... Before you begin, remember that the announcement said that all of the companies only had a few weeks to work on each project (I believe that has something to do with the new tool system). I know that some of the game have been in development longer but no game has been in development that long... It will be interesting to see how many launch titles there will be on March 4th 2000....

The New Ridge Racer - This game looked incredible. It was easily the best looking thing at the show. The graphics blew away everyone who was watching it. There was so much detail that when the cars drove by you on a side view, you could see the disc brakes and brake calipurs of the cars. It was crazy. When the cars slammed on their brakes, you can see the disc brakes heat up (turning slightly red). Too bad that this was not playable.. Supposedly they had one but didn't show it. I wonder why...... Click here for huge MPG of Shin RR

GT 2000 - Gran Turismo looked quite nice as well. Although it was not up to par graphically with Ridge Racer, the gameplay was great. At least they had a playable even though it still had some draw in and dropout. They added a nice heat sensation during the replays. That was impressive. The sun effect when you are driving through the city track was a nice touch. When you drove around the corner, the sun comes out from behind a building a lights up everything. It was awesome. The cars still look too shiny. Hopefully they will change that. It seemed like the track was still rough because it, like most other game, you could still see the polys in the turns (the corners were blocky instead of smooth and round like Ridge Racer). Since the system is not slated until March, they have some time to add more fluff...

Tekken Tag Tournament - Only one word.... Incredible.... Did you think that Soul Calibur looked good on the Dreamcast? It looks like crap compared to Tekken Tag on the PS2. More polys on the characters and better backgrounds. Ok, if you look at Jin's chest, it looks like there are more polys there than in both characters in Soul Calibur. Someone asked if it is really that much better and I thought to myself "this guys is a jacka$$". Glasses would be a nice thing for him. I almost offered to buy them for him. The bottom line is that if you are a Tekken fan, this is the game for you. The best thing about that is you know that it is only going to get better in the upcoming games... According to sources, Tekken Tag has only been in development for three weeks. That is why only 6 characters were playable at the show. Namco is making a stab at being the best developer out there.... Are they? We will see..

Eternal Ring - The graphics were very nice. This is also a must see for the 5 people who liked Kings Field and Echo Night. Eternal Ring looks gorgeous and the gameplay is extremely faster this time around. I did not play enough because there was a ton of people in the PlayStation 2 section.

The Bouncer - Two words for this one.... Holy $#%&! This game looks great. Too bad it was only running on video though. If it plays anything like the video, this might be the best home system game yet. Very high expectations for this game. I am not sure how they are going to pull it off but it looks like it will be internet co-op playable. It must be to pull of some of the stuff that was in the video. The Matrix effects going on really looked nice. I, and every other person at that show, really wanted to play the game but you know... Things happen. Hopefully, it will be much better. Dreamfactory is one of the better companies out there so I am sure that we will not be let down..

Den-Sen - This game looked extremely interesting. It was a completely new concept with interesting gameplay. You are a girl that travels on lines while holding on to a hanger. You can jump to transfer from line to line and perform stunts in the process. It was really nice looking and put together well. As the girl traveled through the game, she would encounter new lines, enemies and bosses. This one was definitely not your ordinary platformer. Honestly, it looked like a next-gen Pandemonium with a hanger. That is not a bad thing. SCEI might have a winner with this odd game.

Popolocrois 3 - If you watch cartoons, this could be your game. Think about a cartoon and then put that in real-time. It instantly made me curious about the gameplay but just like a few other games, it was running on a real-time video. Hopefully they will have a playable demo of the game at the next TGs or E3.

Dark Cloud - An interactive RPG where you can create your own villages and towns. Graphically this game was impressive. You can set town a tree and then render it in real-time immediately. It was crazy. This one had a lot of traffic at the show. It was interesting to see all of the stuff that you could create and immediately render in real-time. Once the demo played and I looked at the water, I was in 'awe'. The water had a similar look to the Nerbs demo at E3 last year. This one is extremely nice once you begin to run around the area that you just made. The best thing is that if your area sucks, it is your fault because you made it that way.

Virtual On OT - This was a nice game. The graphics on the Dreamcast version was dramatically better than the Model 3 version. Gamplay was all there and everyone liked the Arcade Home Sticks that Sega made for VOOT DC. The one disappointment was the split screen. For some reason, they are not utilizing the whole screen. They only use 3/4 of the screen size for the game and the rest of the screen area was black. Supposedly, they did that because they wanted each side of the screen to be the exact same size (it does not make sense to me.) If you play on a small TV, you will not be able to see what is going on. Sega is taking advantage of the modem and making VO2 DC internet playable. They did have two systems linked and playing against each other (similar to the arcade). Hopefully you can play across a LAN connection this time. We will see....

Dead or Alive 2 - Great looking. The gameplay seems like a sped-up Virtua Fighter. Two modes in this one. Tag battle and 1 on 1 battle. The tag battle is very similar to Tekken Tag except faster. Once you tag your other character, they pretty much instantaneously appears in battle (looks choppy making it seem like the characters teleport in and out). This game is pretty good. Light years ahead of the original Dead or Alive. The naked girl in the intro was interesting. I thought they could not do that. You know that will be cut out in the American version. Supposedly, a PS2 version of this game is in development and according to sources, looks quite a bit better than the DC and Naomi board counterparts.

Ha..... I am tired...... More later.....