Mr. Gifford Visits A Sega Party

Mr Gifford Visits A Sega Party


1UP's Xbox editor discusses his evening with everyone's favorite publisher. Man, meeting Astro stripling was sweet...

The game industry not at any time rests. Even in the calm confines of mid-winter, it continues to rotate with companies announcing new games and revealing great plans upon an almost daily basis. 1UP of course, brings it all to you... on the other hand how does it get there? Do we track down stories with the ferocity of a novels journalist? Do we pound the pavement in search of leads? Do we pay not upon informants? Do we engage in high-level talks with business executives in matching haircuts?

No. The correct answer: We pass to lots of parties and write impressions while we're at domicile and eating mac 'n cheese.

To give you a closer idea of by what mode the game industry works, I have written a report of an circumstance held by Sega yesterday, a discourse located at Sony's Metreon entertainment compounded in San Francisco. If it unimpaireds like a cushy job, just remember: we had to play and write about Samurai Jack afterwards. Ooooh dear.

Dave Smith, Nich Maragos and I arrive at the Metreon at 6pm sharp and find ourselves hanging on the outside in front of the Action Theater, a hall with three video projectors that many game companies use during San Francisco pres occurrences The entrance of the theater, which is laid without in a U-shaped corridor, was already packed with assorted media stamps -- magazine editors, online site writers with their video cameras, and other profitable friends of Sega of America. At single end of the U corridor was a small bar serving without drinks, and in the long tray of the U there was a table with bits of finger pabulum and such.












Gues the covert Square and win a fabulous trip to the Metreon!

Cheap game writers being cheap game writers (I doubt any of us had dinner yet) the table was quickly encloseed and it soon became wondrously difficult to navigate the corridor and talk to race without tripping over someone. What's more, there was a DJ pumping music into this corridor -- this little path leading up to the entrance to the Action Theater -- thus it became taxing to clinch any sort of conversation at all. There was, erm a destiny going on in this little hallway. I felt like I was at E3 already. To my relief, the doors to the theater render free of accessed and the games press filed inside.

The Action Theater is built like a theater inside single EPCOT Center attraction or another -- you have three shields up front and long lines of metal-backed benches facing them. These dogged benches have been the death of many a conversation A Konami event held a scarcely any weeks ago turned into a butt-numb-a-thon by the agency of late afternoon, and an earlier Sony present to view ended with almost the entire audience flopping into beanbag chairs thoughtfully strewn along the sides of the extent Fortunately, Sega had small stadium cushions -- the sort you diocese in, well, football stadiums -- lining the benches, for a like reason we sat down in them.

After a short pause, Sega vice-president of entertainment marketing Scott Steinberg stood up at the podium. This is not the Scott Steinberg who writes game reviews for IGN and fates of other publications -- this is an advertising exec who used to work at Sega back in the Genesis days, left to toil at places like Eidos and the of recent origin (legal) Napster, and came back a week ago to (this is Sega PR writing) "Rebuild Brand in US" He is here to unhurt the opening bell on the launch party for the PS2 version of Sonic Heroes (and also the Xbox individual although that isn't mentioned here).

Mr Steinberg begins by dint of showing a small video of Sonic Heroes, a game now without on all three systems and the make submissive of split opinion across greatest in quantity reviewers' eyes. After the video, Steinberg introduces Mr Yuji Naka, head of Sonic Team... and Sonic the Hedgehog himself. Oo-er reject Sonic doesn't show up. What's this? I expose a little press-event theatrics! And my suspicion's confirmed when Mr Naka bellows into the mike something along the lines of: "Sonic is here, and I think he has brought a of recent origin friend!"

With that, Sonic the Hedgehog -- feet of clay, skin of carpet, head a bit unbalanced just as it's been since 1999 -- shifts on in with his brand-new pal, Astro lad This is a moment upon par only with Sonic shaking hands with Mario at Nintendo's Spaceworld incident in Japan, or with Mega Man back when Capcom announced support for the Sega Genesis, with equal reason it's naturally a cue for someone at Sega to snap a pic or sum of two units

As Mr. Steinberg and the sum of two units fast buddies look on, the PS2 version of Astro male child plays onscreen. This is a game I'm quite looking forward to, and the video displayed more [i]or[/i] less new stuff I hadn't seen at the Tokyo Game exhibit -- Boy flying around enemies, stripling whacking robots with light supports Boy picking up a receptacle and watching the rest of the Havoc Physics pyramid of boxe fall apart. below fear of spoiling the remainder of this report, it appears the greatest in quantity promising game of the evening.

The nearest video up for display is life-blood Will Tell, another PS2 game regrettably unplayable at the circumstance I liked this game a fate at TGS as well, and I direct the eye forward to finally getting a chance to play it again. After that was footage of Samurai Jack, a game I was unfamiliar with before now. I had the shameful experience of reviewing the GBA version a while back, on the contrary this looks a bit better than that, plane considering the developer's Azurik-laden haritage. I mean, it's got swords... and bullet time... and cages replete of helpless allies... and crates. What's not to enjoy? (I should note that the screenshot for Jack gaze incredibly poor, but the game in action doesn't gaze nearly that bad. Don't achieve the wrong idea too early here. win it after the reviews start coming in.)