So this is going to be a quick summary of the day with some pictures. Videos and more in depth goodness tomorrow but for tonight here is a quick rundown:

Walking in for the first time was kind of epic and daunting but any intimidation that may exist is quickly shoved out of the way by just how badass it all is. I spent most of the day shooting video you will eventually be able to see but I got to play some things as well. I am going to try for more hands on stuff tomorrow.

Right off the bat I got my hands on Splatterhouse. I never played the original but I’ve been interested in this one for awhile. I took some video of some other people playing it after I died trying to video and play at the same time. It looks really great, tons of gore and persistent damage to your character. The action is just alright. It feels like Jason Voorhees taking over for Kratos and fighting horror monsters. That being said, you can rip off your enemies limbs and use them as melee weapons and that was pretty awesome.

Next up I had a Closed Doors Rock Band 3 demo. I am a big fan of Rock Band and Rock Band 3 looks fucking great. The big news of course is the addition of the keyboard and the more realistic instruments but there is a lot more than that going on in this iteration that maybe doesn’t sound as exciting as the new instrument but will make the experience a lot smoother. Like being able to drop in and out whenever you want without messing up the game for everyone else and being able to change difficulty on the fly. The menus have been redesigned to streamline the experience and there is an updated character creator. I will do a more in depth preview tomorrow with video if the tech gods are kinder to me then than they were tonight.

So after the demo we got to go out and have hands on time and I was coerced into trying out Dance Central which uses the Xbox Kinect to make people like me look like a complete ass. Thankfully no video exists of how much I suck at dancing. Thankfully the Kinect didn’t hold it against me and I managed to white guy my way through No Doubt’s Hella Good and get four stars. I am not sure if this tells me that Kinect is awesome or if it very obviously can’t actually see me but it was fun and the menu was responsive and accurate. I am going to brave the lines tomorrow to see if I can try out some other Kinect games to see how they go. So far I am cautiously optimistic.

Next I went to try out some Tron and while I had a problem jumping properly, I thought it was pretty badass. The combat is fun and varied as there are 3 styles of combat that you can switch in and out of on the fly. It was very easy and intuitive. I was playing on a PS3 and switching through was a matter of holding R1, L1 or nothing at all. Easy. The game looks spiffy and I shot some video of that too which you’ll see tomorrow. Also I am going to swing back by and see if I can’t drive a lightcylce in game. That or try to make off with that sweet statue up there.

After that I had a meeting with Gazillion games about Jumpgate Evolution. I wasn’t super aware of this game before today but it was really cool. It is an MMO for the PC that is based around space combat. You control with the mouse so combat is tight and maneuverability is solid. Also it looks super nice. No specific system requirements were mentioned but it is apparently going to be fairly accessible. This is impressive given there are no instances. Everything is persistent world. It worked great in the hands on demo I played. I will have a full preview of Jumpgate Evolution tomorrow as well. It is one to watch for sure.

I saw a lot of games that I took video of but didn’t get hands on time with yet but they look awesome. Marvel VS Capcom 3 looks insane, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood’s multi-player looks interesting, Dead Rising 2 looks tight enough but I was distracted by the zombie girl in a cage wearing a bikini. Holy shit they will put anyone in a bikini at E3. Also there are tons of zombies running around. A different one gave me a temporary tattoo, which I appreciated because it was much better than having my jugular torn out.

Zombie girls and all that was fine but the highlight for me (which I waited about 45 minutes to see) was the new Mortal Kombat. They’ve gone back to their roots and taken a page from Street Fighter IV by shifting to 2D gameplay with 3D graphics. This has freed up resources to make the character models much more detailed. Each character has its own intro, stance and behaviors which is a far cry from the palette swapped ninjas from days past. More than just that but the characters sustain persistent damage during the match including blood, costume destruction and really nasty open wounds. That is another thing: the gore is back and it is back with a vengeance. The fatalities are brutal as hell and the X-ray combos show what is being done to the bones inside when the hits happen. It is nothing pretty I can assure you. The former dial-a-combo gameplay is gone and you have to put your combos together on the fly so that is nice. If it plays half as good as it looks it is going to be fucking great. Guess what I have to upload tomorrow.

So that was my first day. It was a shorter day than the rest and hopefully I will get to even more tomorrow. And hopefully with more video I can actually upload and show you. Also Method Man and Redman are rapping tomorrow and Leonard Nimoy is doing Karaoke. I love E3.