E3 2008: Igarashi whips Konami conference

LOS ANGELES--The last time the E3 Media & Business Summit was at the LACC, Konami's booth drew overflowing crowds with a trailer for the hotly anticipated Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. That game finally launched on the PlayStation 3 earlier this year, leaving a question as to what potential showstoppers Konami would anchor its E3 2008 around.

The publisher has already taken the wraps off of its new Castlevania, Elebits, and Rock Revolution games, but it might have more in store during its Wednesday afternoon press conference. The event is scheduled to kick off at 2:30 p.m. Pacific, and GameSpot is on hand to live-blog the whole thing.

[2:43] Konami didn't let attendees in until 2:30 p.m., but they sat everyone quickly and the company's VP of marketing Anthony Krauss comes out to kick things off.

[2:44] He says that one of the bright spots for the company was Metal Gear Solid 4, and thanks the reviewers in the crowd for positive reviews that he said really helped it "get over the hump."

[2:45] Now comes "big announcements" for the Metal Gear Solid franchise. The first Metal Gear Online expansion pack will be available July 17.

[2:45] A Metal Gear Online world tournament will take place at the Tokyo Game Show later this year.

[2:45] At next week's San Diego Comic-Con, Konami will hold the first live Metal Gear Online tournament.

[2:46] Moving on from Metal Gear to Rock Revolution, he says that Linkin Park has a big US tour with Rock Revolution serving as the "official video game of the tour" this summer.

[2:47] He brings up Silent Hill: Homecoming for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, saying that one of the designers from The Collective and Foundation 9 will give some detail on the game. Apparently, that will happen later in the event.

[2:48] This is the first time in Konami's history that the publisher has released games in all of its major franchises in a 12-month span, he says.

[2:50] He recaps the lineup, thanks the crowd for their support, and introduces Castlevania producer Koji Igarashi to show off his latest games.

[2:51] Speaking through an interpreter, he says that it's his first E3 in a while, so he's a bit nervous. He then introduces a trailer for Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia on the Nintendo DS.

[2:52] The trailer shows some non-Belmont characters using some nonwhip weapons to plow through a variety of boss characters. The game will be available this fall.

[2:55] The crowd applauds the clip, and Igarashi (who sports a snappy cowboy hat) begins to talk about Castlevania Judgment for the Wii. He said that he considers it more of a 3D action game than a fighting game. The trailer shows off gameplay that fits squarely in the fighting genre, with onscreen elements like life bars, super meters, and a round timer.

[2:56] Alucard, Maria, Simon Belmont, and of course Dracula are all characters in the game. It arrives this fall.

[2:57] Igarashi goes over the story of the game and how it fits into Castlevania's millennia-long timeline. That timeline is threatened in the game, and magic forces bring characters from throughout the series together to do battle.

[2:59] To help with the game's character designs, Igarashi enlisted Japanese manga artist Takeshi Obata. Next he picks up a Wii controller for a live demonstration of the game.

[3:00] He goes through the basic movement and dodge controls. Shaking the Wii Remote activates the basic attack. He notes that people were asking for a Wii Castlevania in which they could shake the controller like a whip crack, and that was part of the reason for this game in the first place.

[3:01] However, he thought that people would get tired of doing the whipping motion for hours on end as a normal Castlevania game would require, so he settled upon the fighting genre instead.

[3:03] Whether or not the player is moving or standing still determines which type of attack is performed. He mentions destroying objects and picking up the items within as a gameplay element synonymous with the franchise that will also be in Judgment.

[3:05] Igarashi goes into the special-attack system, and performs one on Alucard with Simon. The Belmont progenitor launches his opponent into the air and then finishes him with a flurry of midair whip lashing. The game will also have non-player creatures that get in the way of the fighters.

[3:07] Igarashi thanks the crowd and introduces Jason Allen, who quickly shows a trailer of Silent Hill: Homecoming.

[3:08] The game revolves around a man's search for a young boy named Josh, which of course brings him to the town of Silent Hill. "Find me, and everything changes," Josh says in voice-over.

[3:10] The demo will start in the fifth level of the game, with protagonist Alex in search of the mayor. The game uses a player-controllable camera, which represents a departure for the series. The developers are also incorporating the Havok physics engine to help the world feel a bit more real. There's also a first-person view so players can better examine the world.

[3:11] The player walks through a door and the normal world melts away to reveal what Allen calls "a hell state." A bit of film grain appears on the camera to emphasize the transition.

[3:13] Alex begins a dialog tree with the mayor (of Shepherd's Glen, not of Silent Hill). The mayor's son Joey is also missing, it seems. Apparently Silent Hill needs to get up to speed with the Amber Alert system.

[3:15] After finding the mayor to be uncooperative, Alex lashes out at him, which prompts the room to begin shaking and all Silent Hill hell to break lose. Some sort of massive, fleshy boss hangs upside-down from the ceiling, and a boss battle begins.

[3:16] The player has a few ways to take the boss out, with axes, ranged weapons, or somewhat more creative means. A variety of hanging meat sacks around the room are acting as counterweights, so Allen destroys a couple of them, bringing the monster crashing to the ground.

[3:18] Allen thanks the crowd and hands the presentation over to Rock Revolution senior product manager Lauren Faccidomo. She introduces an LA-based, all-female Ramones tribute band, The Sheenas, who take up instruments on stage.

[3:20] They break into "Blitzkrieg Bop." The nice thing about the Ramones is you can play almost any one of their songs and still hold the show up for only about two and a half minutes.

[3:22] Faccidomo (who played bass on the song) says that it's time to take the music from the stage to the living room, and picks up a Guitar Hero controller (literally, the Gibson Les Paul controller) to play a bit of "Blitzkrieg Bop" in Rock Revolution with a drummer. It looks like they might not have calibrated the guitar before the conference, given that the previous performance was clearly rocking significantly harder.

[3:23] They don't quite finish the song before getting booed off the in-game stage. That concludes the presentation, and Faccidomo thanks the crowd for attending and wishes everyone a great E3.