INFINITE LIVES: THE ROAD TO E3 is an upcoming, independently-produced feature that documents a week at the Electronic Entertainment Expo from the perspective of four gamers from the American midwest.  The film also marks Terran Media’s first feature-length motion picture.

FAQs (updated 5/13/09):

1. Why?  Any real gamer has seen hours of footage of E3 from <insert network/web site here>.
2. I’m attending E3, is there any way I can be involved?
3. Who are you documenting?
4. How are you documenting it?
5. When will the film be released?
6. How will it be released?
7. Is there any way to follow the filmmakers on Twitter?

—————–

Why? Any real gamer has seen hours of footage of E3 from <insert network/web site here>.
Infinite Lives is a documentary about the experience of E3, not necessarily the content.  The documentary is not about exclusive gaming footage or crowd teasing theatrics, it’s designed to give those who don’t (or can’t) go to the Expo a chance to follow some (relatively) regular guys who do.  It’s also aiming to not only be an introduction of E3 to gamers, but non-gamers as well while ultimately being an enjoyable film for anyone even slightly interested in the gaming industry (or people who just like road trip movies!)

I’m attending E3, is there any way I can be involved?
Absolutely! We’ll be more than happy to feature you (and a site URL if you have one) in the documentary.  So what are we looking for?  If you’ve attended E3 previously, either in large or small-scale formats, we’d love to hear your experiences and impressions.  Even if this is your first Expo, we welcome your impressions as a gamer or industry professional!  To get involved, either contact us at the link at the top of the site, or follow us on Twitter in real-time at the show!  NOTE: All interviewees will be REQUIRED to sign a Release Form in order to be featured in the documentary.

Who are you documenting?
The four guys in question are actually regulars from our short films:

N. Pfeifer – 2-year E3 veteran.  He’s the bald guy in almost all of them.
Kelly Karnetsky – E3 nub.  Here he is as Brent Meyers.
Cody Meyer – 2-year E3 veteran.  He’s the bearded one in Achievements.
Sam Mackey – E3 nub.  You might know him as Logic in The Baby Question.

How are you documenting it?
The film will feature the planning stages of the trip all the way up to the voyage home.  At our disposal are four HD camcorders that we will use to squeeze in footage whenever and wherever we can.

When will the film be released?
We expect editing to be complete by August for a release in September.  Stay tuned for more details!

How will it be released?
There will be a DVD release initially, but we’re exploring our many, many other options as well.

Is there any way to follow the filmmakers on Twitter?
Yes!  Follow Nick, Kelly, or Sam, but watch for the #e3infinitelives hash tag both before and during filming to keep track of us.  We’ll be using the hash tag to indicate where to meet us for interviews, to hang out, or whatever.

Those of you who have played 2D platformers can understand the love and joy that comes from a game as simple as the aforementioned genre, and with this next review, you’ll hopefully find another fix. Knytt Story is a very interesting game in the fact that the game is one long progression of screens, creating a much larger whole to a single level. The main ‘campaign’ if you wish to call it that, may take you a good couple of hours, and some getting use to the controls, as the game doesn’t seem to support a game pad.

The game itself centers on a little girl called Knytt, who must traverse a seamless world filled with dangers both moving and stationary, without using any sort of aggressive tactics to do so, or in other words, you’re forced to run instead of fight. The game is a pretty basic at its 2D standard, but shows a great deal of time and patience in it’s creative design, as you move through several variously themed zones, collecting power ups that allow you climb walls, double jump, and create a hologram of yourself (a la Duke Nukem’s “Holoduke” ), all of which come into play when trying to get past all the movement based puzzles the game throws at you.

The design is pretty basic, but the sound design and music are some of the best you can expect out of a freeware game. Each one lulling you into a casual and relaxed state, or throwing you into a state of subtle suspense are you traverse the darker levels. The game also comes with it’s own built-in editor for creating your own “stories”, and lends to the over-all intrigue that the game hones. Though freeware games are usually considered a dime-a-dozen sometimes, Knytt Stories surely stands out as a high-quality work of art, and if you love plat formers, you won’t go wrong here.

            After playing the all awaited demo, I can say with confidence that this game will want to be part of your gaming library. If you like killing zombie-esque hordes with a guy who has giant tube steaks for arms then enjoy. The over the shoulder view is still the norm and what’s even better is the ability for co-op play. Nothing is more fun then shooting stuff with a friend. The game looks amazing, a big jump from its Gamecube/PS2/Wii predecessor. Capcom also went ahead and added a new face to the mix of things as your partner is a women named Sheva.

            Going through the two areas available in the demo was a joy and March 13^th couldn’t come any sooner. If there is a midnight release for this game, don’t worry, no one will mind if you stand in line for this ultimate shooting gallery full of awesome.

Aside from the extra title screen this is an exact copy of the arcade version, there are no extra goodies at all added in the two games aside from maybe slight graphical tweaks. When I first loaded the game on my Nintendo Wii I figured out very quickly that the sensor bar would not sync up to where I was shooting on the screen despite doing the Nintendo Wii calibration, me relocating the bar, and then going into the Wii settings to tell it that it was below or above the TV at least 20 times. I would get 3 feet in front of the TV trying to shoot a zombie in the head and end up hitting the hostages instead which takes away from your precious life bar, which in this game is the equivalent of slamming a door on your finger. House of the dead 2&3 are hard games even on the easiest setting, keeping their original forms from the arcade! You play agents sent to destroy the evil flood of zombies in 2, and in 3 it’s the same thing with shotguns and a slight twist at the beginning. So if you’re drunk you still know what you’re supposed to do just shoot the screen which I’ll admit is still mindless fun. 

Running around a parking lot full of zombies is great fun and all but the only way you’ll make it past the 4^th and 5^th level on either of the games is if you’ve played it before and know exactly what to expect around every corner, if you die enough times to get your lives to it’s max capacity, or if you’ve turned the sound completely off. The voice acting is very distracting though this applies mostly to the 2^nd House of the Dead, it’s so bad it will have you rolling on the floor laughing for hours.  

With all of that said “House of the Dead 2&3” are still fun to play as long as you have selected a target icon from the options menu so you know where you’re shooting so rent it, but not fun enough to recommend a buy due to the fact that the two games have virtually no additional features to offer.

In summary to my experience with it, and yours may have been different, by the time I had reached the first boss fight I was quick to end my romp through this game’s somewhat diminished outlook. The game itself was rendered as being a faithful companion to the Heavy Metal magazine, along with the cartoon features that preceded it, yet I had trouble believing that seeing as most of what Heavy Metal promotes is sex, violence, and the occasional drug usage.

In part, the game play staggers as an early attempt at something you might find in a game like Prince of Persia, of the more recent variety, and in that sense, you could say that the game wanted to let you do a slew of moves that were in some cases acrobatic, and in others, very basic and unappealing. The story itself is redundant, in that you play as a woman, whose costume is pretty much the equivalent of most leather and bare skin, fighting against an evil force of sorts. My attention was drawn away from mostly due to the fact that I just wanted to watch her peal off her top in the Heavy Metal tradition. The game really began to fall apart during the boss fight where you were forced to slowly shimmy over pools of radioactive muck while being attacked by flying enemies, at which time you could not defend yourself.

The sound design was lack luster, and the game did little to draw you in unless you were busy watching the heroine’s rear end, in many cases being pushed into the camera’s view during various points. The game was essentially a rip-off of Tomb Raider in the same sense that Tomb Raider is a constant series of rip-offs of itself. The game used the Quake 3 engine, and as good as it looked back then, didn’t quite make the game any more bearable. Unless you’re a diehard fan of the Heavy Metal canon, or just curious, you can pick up the game at your leisure via E-Bay, but otherwise I wouldn’t recommend it.

   If you’re looking for platformers these days you will have to do some searching, unless you look to Ubisoft. POP comes with a new storyline and characters to boot and the only sand you see is the stuff blowing around during the intro. Your main hero in this tale is not a prince per say, but a thief who has lost his donkey Fara (wink, wink). While scouring the desert to find her you stumble across the female lead named Elika as she falls off a ledge and onto you. Oh day of days, you would think, except for the palace guards chasing her. You follow after her and you yourself end up getting caught in the middle. You continue to run until a bridge collapses that you happen to be on and Elika swoops in to save the day, yes folks, Elika is your replacement for the sands. After you dispatch some more fools while learning the ropes you meet a bearded fellow that happens to be Elika’s father. Conversation complete, you head over to a large temple structure with a tree growing out of it and you go inside only to confront her father. What her father does next is the beginning of your journey through the new and improved Prince of Persia.

            If you’re a POP fan like me then you will have to hit back the fan-boy inside yourself with a big stick. This game is a must have for those devoted to action/platformers and POP. First thing, and in my mind the best part of this serf turned hero adventure, is the artistic style and visual appeal. The game looks phenomenal and those behind it should pat themselves on the back, go ahead, I’ll wait. Environments fill the screen with colors or depending were you are in the game the lack there of. Believe it or not you can fill a desert environ with color. Cell shading can work for you or against you, but in this case it works, and the characters still look detailed.

            Game mechanics for POP are about average. Issues with what you want the prince to do are something that could still be worked out. Clipping can be an issue when you are jumping from one rock outcropping to another, but other then that the motion is fluid and fast paced. That is how it should be in this type of game. Game play doesn’t suffer too much from these troubles. Objectives are getting from point A to point B. Simple in the complexities of the graphic quality, but you won’t be using a strait line most of the time. Fighting or rather dueling in this case is tight and left to the battle area. POP focuses all it’s time into the platforming part of the equation. You get to work with Elika in performing combos and such on your foe, but it’s always one versus two. For those who liked the fighting aspect of POP: SoT and its ilk will be saddened by this new dumbed down version. One of the best parts is using Elika’s powers, but you can see how those work for yourself.

            Music in the game is irrelevant until you get to your first world were Elika learns a new power. It’s the best part of the soundtrack and the only one that stands out among the ambience. The sound of the game isn’t bad, but at times can queue in late or not at all. Voice acting suffers for the fact that both characters sound outside there genetic disposition.

            In the grand scheme of POP I enjoyed this new retelling and it stands above all the rest. POP is entertaining and going back to play it again with some of the different skins to acquire more achievements is worth it and not daunting. Go out and give this tale a try.

Amongst the FPS genre, one of a very few that really stood out as a truly innovative game, Deus Ex pitted you against very high-stake odds to come out on top and look pretty tight doing so. Using the classic Unreal Engine, Deus Ex took the player into a stark and shady world, in the guise of a nano-augmented agent, JC Denton. Taking place sometime in the 2020’s, you sneak, snipe, and tazer your way through terrorists, military-types, MIBs, and other various victims in a FPS/RPG/Steatlh style that rivaled any other game’s story telling abilities at the time.

The story is very much that of a dismal world fraught with peril from active terrorists groups, a plague that’s slowly eating away at human life, time and precious resources; and an underlying conspiracy lurking in the shadows. Much like the earlier System Shock games, you end up wading through multiple menus for inventory, augmentations, health, skills, and mission objectives. The skills themselves, as well as the augmentations can compliment each other in interesting ways but can also feel a bit unnecessary at times when you’ve leveled up other key, and usually more important skills, as is the case between Swimming and Lock picking. There are a fair bit of glitches in the game, but the game is usually pretty effective at playing smoothly.

As an older game, you won’t get orchestral symphonies, but that doesn’t mean the music and sound design don’t express the game well enough already, with mainly techno-based themes keeping up the atmosphere while you traverse the sometimes blocky and overly darkened levels. The lighting doesn’t always tend to work as well as you’d expect, and so hiding in the shadows can be a bit difficult. Over all the game itself is a very good piece of work, and is a definite addition to your older game collection if you don’t have it already. The story is compelling and meshes with your decision making, the dialogue is firm, and the game play, though not perfect, does the job pretty well considering the standards of game play at the time of Deus Ex’s release, as far as FPS’s go.

            The levels in this game are broken up in the typical world 2, 3, etc. process, but each one is broken into sections. When you start out you walk into what is your house and the first world is opened up to you. Every time you enter a world for the first time you are introduced to a series of books which lay out the story to you and the challenges that are faced for ones choices. This is a puzzle based game and does a great job of presenting as such. The first time you walk into a section of the world you are bombarded by colorful landscapes and amazing backgrounds of art pieces that move along the level with you.

            Gameplay is simple in the sense that A is jump and X controls the ability to rewind time. Also, it is nice to go back and play a game that is like the old 2D side scrollers. Every world has a different way of changing time around you and has to be utilized to complete the puzzles. The game is challenging and you can spend hours trying to get through some of these puzzles. It is addicting and a great adage to the already growing cabal of games on Xbox Live.

            If you haven’t picked this game up yet or thought it’s not worth the points, go ahead and take a leap of faith on this one. The choice here has never been so right.

Back when point-and-click games were part of the essentials of a good game, there were always a well defined array of genre’s and styles to pick from, from fantasy, to horror, to mystery, and so on. One of the few that may have caught someone’s eye is Beneath a Steel Sky, a somewhat stark, yet interesting tale of a man named Robert Foster, whose adventures lead him from a kidnapping, a helicopter crash, and ultimately a search for a father he never knew. The story may not be a critical acclaimed masterwork, but it does feel good to break into something that’s both simple and well put together.

The game is pretty much centered around item-based puzzles, usually relying on a small inventory system, and in some cases requires you to make dialogue choices that could affect your progress. The game isn’t a shining jewel of art design, though it does hone a very nice comic book flair. You will be followed around by a mouthy little robot whose various talents allow you to progress as well, and between the small pop-culture and science fiction references, the character adds to the game, if only to pester the main character in his journey.

The game is relatively short, so don’t expect a couple days worth of game play, even if the puzzles add to the time counter. The difficulty can curve from relatively easy and obvious to somewhat difficult, but otherwise it offers up an interesting challenge. As far as point-and-clicks go, you could do a lot worse than Beneath a Steel Sky. The entertainment value is there and as it’s abandonware at this stage, you can have the luxury of finding it on the internet with little hassle. It’s a nice little addition to your older collections if you’re bored of what you already have.

For those of you who like turn-based RPG’s in a style similar to the Final Fantasy’s, but with the writing and directional genius of Space Balls fan-fair, then you should probably consider Anachronox as a part of your collection. The game is one of the funniest I’ve uncovered in these old libraries of games long since put aside for more engrossing, if lesser quality, experiences.

The story sets you in the future with Sylvester “Sly” Boots, a down-on-his luck, wise-cracking, and if not so much ‘dim-witted’ detective, who owes a pretty penny to a famed and feared mob boss. At the start of the game, you’ll find yourself in the midst of something of a tutorial mode, which will play out through the beginning of the story as you make progress through the first section of game. The setting begins on a large, constantly shifting rock known as Anachronox, named so for the fact that the life forms that once lived their most likely died under unnatural causes, leaving behind a true seventh wonder-esque piece of technology. The game play in itself feels solid enough, based within the Quake 3 engine, with the main navigation worked with your mouse and keyboard. The fighting is the basic turn-based, stand-in-rows formation, yet allows for characters to move about certain spots on the arena for creating strategies. It can feel a bit cheap in an overall perspective, but works well enough that you won’t feel incapable of handling it.

Another Ion Storm product, you can bet the sound and musical design works well for this sometimes stark yet always interesting game, the atmosphere never ceases to be adequately portrayed both in sight and in sound. Anachronox was never realized as the PR for it never came forward enough to be enjoyed, but the game truly does shine if you give it a chance, and I’d recommend it as a title to add to your older library of games.