September 28th, 2007 Seth Killian
I got to check out the Resident Evil: Extinction movie premier last weekend and it was a blast. They rolled out the red carpet right through the gaming floor of the beautiful Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino.
In addition to the stars of the film, including Ali Larder, Oded Fehr, and Ashanti, other celebs I spotted cruising around included Pam Anderson (unmissable), Nelly (not Furtado, just Nelly), and Sylvester Stallone. Mila Jojovich was also there of course, but extremely pregnant, so she kept a low profile.
I did spot her in the Planet Hollywood lobby buying something from the convenience store (possibly a machete), flanked by a profoundly unamused looking security guard with one of those cool secret service wires. Who’s he talking to on the other end of that wire anyway? I wonder sometimes if they are even talking to anybody at all, or if the wire is just an efficient way of communicating I am basically a professional can of whupass, so please note that in your calculations if youre thinking about trying something funny (where funny means pretty much anything apart from existing quietly somewhere outside of the security perimeter).
The Ridiculously Gigantic Bodyguards award, however, went to the Ashanti/Nelly entrance. How big were they, you ask? They were so big that you could actually see gravity bending around them, and Nelly and Ashanti standing together were invisible behind just one of them. I was just happy neither one was sitting next to me, and needless to say, nobody tried anything funny.
Despite all the celebs, the biggest star of the night was a gigantic pile of candy. After they took your ticket and you came off the red carpet, you were ushered inside what looked like a traditional theater lobby, with posters, exciting bits of flair, random neon signage, etc. There were girls flanking the entrance with martini glasses full of green and red drinks, trays of baffling hors doeuvres featuring an obscure pink paste on tiny slices of bread, and, in the middle of the room a giant pile of candy.
The effect of this giant pile is hard to describe. Why was it so exciting? Because movie candy is BETTER than regular candy. I don’t mean it tastes any different, or that they sell something you cant buy at any ordinary convenience store. Its just that its behind that big glass counter and costs $5 for no reason, so you know its the very BEST candy on the planet. If I were to come upon a giant pile of candy in the road, possibly from one of those overturned candy tankers you hear about on the news, I would be excited, but not extremely excited. Free candy? Whatever! I would say. As a full-powered adult, I can afford 75 cents for some Junior Mints whenever I want, so free candy has lost its special childhood attraction.
Well, free
regular candy has lost its attraction. Free
movie candy is still enough to drive me wild, and apparently I’m not alone. Pam Anderson is excitement, but free movie candy was just thrilling. People were falling all over themselves for the stuff, with shorter attendees even asking me nicely whether I could reach some of the higher candy after the most easily-grabbed stuff was gone. Overall the people in attendance were an interesting mix of Hollywood types and slack-jawed yokels that appeared to have won some kind of radio call-in promotion. I told myself I was closer to the Hollywood types than the yokels, but then I saw the 12 boxes of candy stuffed into my pockets and had to reconsider.
The after party was up on the Planet Hollywood roof deck and required some kind of separate ticket. Im not sure who was getting in, but the scrub-to-Hollywood ratio seemed to have dropped up there. Apparently zombies arent very sexy, so the women staffing the event took their fashion cues from the post-apocalyptic theme instead (remember, apocalypse = sexy, rotting flesh = unsexy). There were some zombie-esque characters on stilts, those I dont move human statues, and lots and lots of women ranging from servers in black halter tops and hotpants, to post-apocalyptic dancers in dirty prom dresses and gas masks, to thinly veiled strippers, topless in full-body camo paint.
The showing itself got straight to the point. No speeches and no trailersjust lights out and on with the main event. Apart from the unusually large amount of rustling sounds from everyone opening a ton of free candy, it was a great theatervery loud and a lot of good energy from the crowd.
The movie itself was fun. Its not exactly Cocteaus Beauty and the Beast, but I had a great sugar buzz going and found myself smiling and wincing right through to the end. The movie ended up #1 at the box office in its opening week, so maybe that speaks for itself? Some surprising deaths, cool finishes, and great action sequences. Turn off your inner critic, grab some Goobers, and check it out.
Posted in Event Pictures, Feature, Resident Evil® | No Comments »
September 28th, 2007 Chris "Kramez" Kramer
Ive been fortunate enough to attend the Tokyo Game Show several times over the years, but this is the first time that Ive ever had to spend a few days working at the front desk of a company booth at the show. This turned out to be both good and bad. Good, because I managed to hook up with a surprising amount of media people at the people (talking with media people is a large chunk of what I do here at Capcom) as well as managed to spend time chatting face-to-face with a number of Capcom Japan compatriots that I usually know as little more than an email address or a voice on the phone. Bad, of course, because I had to spend a few hours standing on a concrete floor in the hot sticky Tokyo air, and I am a lazy, lazy man. Mostly, Im happy that I only had to work on the business days (Thursday and Friday), and not the insane free-for-all that is Saturday and Sunday at TGS.
I have several pics of the Capcom booth that I consider before and after. The before shots come from Thursday and Friday, before the sea of Japanese gamers washed up against the steely shores of Capcoms booth. The after pics are from 30 spazmotic minutes I spent swimming against the tides of humanity to document hour long lines for DMC4 and Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles play sessions, not to mention similar lines for We Love Golf! and Kobyashi-sans other game-in-progress, Sengoku Basara 2.
The main focus for the booth this year was, unsurprisingly, DMC4. Weve been regrettably quiet on this title for most of the year, breaking new gameplay footage in the Spring, a light sprinkling of deviously short trailers here and there, and 360-playable code at the European Games Convention in August. However, the DMC team pulled out a new 3 minute trailer for TGS that was positively jaw-dropping, featuring hot Dante vs. Nero action, new bosses, new characters, all sorts of quick glimpses of new levels and gameplay, etc., all delivered in high definition on a 20 screen. This new trailer will be delivered to Xbox Live Marketplace and the PS3 store in a few weeks, so you will be able to bask in the rosy glow of high definition video from the comfort of your own home. There was never a moment when the 30+ game stations running DMC4 were not occupied, including the ones in the Microsoft and PlayStation booths. The DMC4 section was a bit restrained, with ranks of game stations set up in two rows, and a city backdrop from the game that was similar to the one we had at E3.
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (henceforth typed as REUC, to the relief of my fingertips) was shown in a dialed-out creepy mansion-flavored area that sported columns and checkered floor patterns similar to RE 1, as well as guttering chandeliers and campaign girls (aka booth babes) decked out in REUC shirts, camo shorts, camo high heels (where does one go to purchase camouflaged high heels?) and Zappers galore. The area was dark and spooky and felt much like a haunted house attraction and rang with the sounds of co-op gunfire. We really should have had wandering zombie dudes jumping out to freak out gamers. Damn, next year.
TGS marked the first public showing of We Love Golf!, the superfun golf game being developed by Camelot Software for Capcom. The Camelot teams past experience designing games like Mario Golf, Mario Tennis and the original Hot Shots Golf is obvious from the gameplay and design of the title. With assistance from the helpful orange shirted campaign girls, most folks were up and putting with the Wii Remote in moments. The booth area felt much like a Japanese golf range, with green grass flooring and a very mellow lighting scheme. The We Love Golf! portion of the booth sort of felt like an island oasis of sanity amongst the Crazy-Crazy! Funtime! Exploding Frenzy that is TGS.
Zack and Wiki is quickly becoming one of my most favorite Capcom games. Theres really nothing else like it out there, and the dedicated area matched the games kooky pirate spirit perfectly. The campaign girls working the Z&W area had a jungle explorer look, which matched the giant idol and treasure trove tucked away within the play area.
Other notable areas in the Capcom booth included the small GTA: Vice Cities Stories section (Capcom distributes the game in Japan) and the Moto GP zone that had suits and boots from actual Moto GP riders. Samurai-flavored action game Sengoku Basara 2 had a pretty large chunk of space next to the REUC mansion, which housed a giant metallic samurai statue, as well as plenty of kiosks running the PS2 game. Basara may or may not come to the US, but it is becoming an increasingly large franchise for Capcom in Japan. Recently, the arcade division there announced a Basara fighting game, and theres even going to be a Basara festival in Tokyo in late October. Oddly, the game has a sizable percentage of female players (over 50%), which was obvious from the amount of women lined up to play during the show.
During my time at the Capcom booth, I was able to watch several presentations, which is incredibly helpful in getting to know the various game producers, as well as being able to see first-hand what elements of the various games the actual creators think are important enough to hammer home to a consumer audience. As in most TGS booths, a large part of the overall floor space was dedicated to the stage and 20 screen, from which Capcom ran hourly shows? Interviews? Presentations? Im not sure how to even define these events accurately. At the start of each session, a hottie campaign girl would come on stage, accompanied by one or more members of a game team. The hottie would then usually conduct an interview, asking a series of questions about each game or franchise, while video would run on the screen above and behind them. Sometimes, a larger group would come on stage, such as the host of Japanese comedians who came out to demo Zack and Wiki while producer Takeshita-san offered gameplay suggestions and hints. Mega Man producer Horinouchi-san (who is cool enough to sport a blonde topknot and the rad nome de game Hori-ken, which sounds like a Street Fighter special move) was accompanied onstage by Mega Man the same Mega Man that appeared at Comic-con in San Diego this summer. The costume, at least, not sure who was inside.
On a side note, Capcoms campaign girls won a TGS show award for best costume design. Im not sure if Im allowed to say who, but a top member of Capcoms development was undoubtedly very pleased by this, as he personally designs the campaign girl costumes almost every year. Campaign girls are so called because they are considered to be part of the marketing campaign around a game. Sounds a lot less trashy than booth babe, too. True story: there are officially approved poses for the girls; they must strike one of them for any picture they pose for.
For even MORE coverage on all things Capcom at the 2007 TGS, click here!
Posted in Event Pictures, Feature, Capcom® | No Comments »
August 15th, 2007 Chris Tou
Our own Christian Svensson has put up a post in our forums about the MotoGP event we attended a few weeks ago down in Laguna Seca, where I got really sunburnt and was peeling for over a week afterwards.
A couple weekends ago (pardon the delay, Comic-con and other stuff has kept me from getting this up), the only US-held MotoGP event attracted more than 100,000 attendees at Laguna Seca, just outside Monterey, California. Among the crowds were several Capcom executives from Japan and the US, including myself, eager to get our first look at a MotoGP event since we’d signed a long term deal for the PlayStation platform rights earlier this year.We were escorted by our Dorna hosts and given the full VIP treatment (rides in the pace car at 160+ MPH, pit lane walks, air conditioned suites to watch the event, etc.). What we found was quite the spectacle. Mind you, compared to some of the events in Spain or Italy, which have 250,000 or 300,000 people, (where fans sneak in entire motorcycle engines into the crowd to rev the hell out of them until they blow rather spectacularly in support of their favorite riders) Laguna Seca might seem a bit “tame”.
Click on the jump to see the rest of the post and more pictures!
Link.
Posted in MotoGP, Event Pictures | No Comments »
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