Michael: Hello fellow RPGamers, and welcome to another installment of the Roundtable. I, Michael Bischoff, shall be leading our special discussion on E3 tonight. But before we get to the first topic, I'd like our panelists to introduce themselves and tell us why they're here tonight.

Zachary: Zachary 'ASV' Lewis here. Reviewing is my game and chatting it up about E3 is what I plan to do tonight.

Alex: Hey, everyone. I'm Alex Wollenschlager. You might remember me from such weekly columns as Japandemonium. If you haven't already, go read my E3 journal, damnit. There are lots of pretty pictures.

Nathan: Hello people. I'm Nathan "rudyxx" Lee here acting as a guest panelist for the RPGamer people. Only here for one night but I hope to make it pleasant.

Wesley: Everyone else has said hello, so I suppose I'll just introduce myself. I'm Wesley "Tadrith" Fonvergne, and welcome to our E3 edition of Roundtable discussion. I hope everyone has a good time, and with any luck, we won't bore you too much.

Gabriel: And finally, I'm Gabriel Putnam, also known as Araes of newsie and editorial fame, anyhow, I'll be offering the home team perspective on the whole E3 scene for our panel tonight.

Michael: Now that our panel has made themselves known, let's get down to business. Taking a look at our E3 page shows a great number of RPGs displayed at this year's convention. Given what you played, watched on a video screen, or had to see from home, what RPGs do you think had the best showing at E3 2003?

Zachary: Most of the RPG sub-genres had a decent showing on the floor this year, with the possible exception of turn-based or ATB system games. However, MMORPGs and Tactical style systems seemed to win the show from my vantage point. Disgaea, an Atlus TRPG, was amazingly beautiful for a sprite-based PS2 title and seems to feature an amazing amount of customizable characters. On the MMORPG realm, I'd have to say that virtually everything at the NCSoft booth (Exarch, Guild Wars, City of Heroes, Lineage II, and Shining Lore) looked fantastic, as did surprise title, Mu.

Alex: I think that, at least as far as RPGs are concerned, the Game Boy Advance did very well this year. While they didn't necessarily generate the most buzz, the games on Nintendo's palmful of joy were of high quality. The console is quickly showing itself to be a platform for good games, and with titles like Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Harvest Moon: Mineral Town and Fire Emblem in the offing, the future looks good for the console.

Michael: E3 was definitely flooded with all sorts of MMORPGs. The best one at the show by far is Horizons by Artifact Entertainment. Second place would be Dragon Empires, produced by Codemasters. However I too was most impressed with the Game Boy Advance. Alex already rang off the marquee titles, so really, what's not to love about this thing? My biggest surprise was with the Xbox. Sudeki, Fable, Knights of the Old Republic, Gladius, Otogi, and Pirates of the Caribbean might give RPGamers who were a little weary of the system to finally take that (now) $180 plunge.

Nathan: There were many RPG's shown at E3 and I for one enjoyed some of the less popular ones. My favorite was probably Sudeki for the Xbox. It seemed to play a lot like the game Secret of Mana for the SNES. I was a big fan of that game back in its day and to see a company attempt to bring around a game similar to it has made me really happy. I also enjoyed Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. I actually own this game at home and have enjoyed it quite much there as well. The characters in the game do a lot of things that aren't normally done in most games, such as constantly move, and that to me has be a very neat feature. Rather than inactive characters stand around while everyone is conversing they walk around and go about doing their own business in very realistic ways.

Wesley: This year's E3 had quite a few surprises, mainly in that the old standbys didn't make as great of a showing as many expected. The MMORPG genre seems to be making progress in strides - I'm not particularly a fan of them, but there were quite a few games that impressed me, namely Exarch and Horizons. Exarch looked positively beautiful, and the game play was engaging and entertaining. As for Horizons, I've only got one thing to say: Playable. Dragon. Class. We had a chance to talk with Artifact Entertainment, and they gave us a fantastic demo. I’ve got my eyes set on beta testing for them.

However, above those mentioned above, and as a rabid Xbox fan, I’ve got to say that Microsoft had a great showing at their booth. Sudeki looks like it could easily make the must-have list of many RPGamers, and it was a blast to see in action. We have to wait a bit to see what the story is like, but I have faith that Microsoft will guide it well. Saving the best for last, of course, we have Fable. Sadly, I was not able to attend the Microsoft conference in regards to it, but everything I’ve heard from other staffers and seen has convinced me that this could very well be a revolutionary game. Everything you do affects you in the game, and the level of interaction is phenomenal. To put the icing on the cake, we’ve also been told the game will include cooperative multiplayer support.

Gabriel: Although it may not have had the best showing in terms of presence on the floor, of the impressions I did see, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness seemed to be one of the show's standout titles in terms of quality. Mixing good graphics with solid gameplay that had some innovative twists, Disgaea impressed itself on a number of the staff at home and abroad. The other title of note in my mind was definitely Chaos Legion for the PlayStation 2. With only limited news and impressions before hand, Chaos Legion blindsided a number of folks with its gorgeous graphics, great sound effects, and simple factor of fun. Assuredly one to look out for in the coming releases.

Zachary: As most everyone else has already mentioned, the Game Boy Advance and the Xbox both had marvelous titles under their belt. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance sticks out most in my mind as the GBA titles go because it managed to fully emulate the graphical style and nature of its predecessor. The Xbox, of which I have hardly been an outspoken advocate, had such a strong showing in Fable and Sudeki that I have been coerced into the later purchase of the console.

Alex: I'll agree that the Xbox is looking good. While it's tanking in Japan, the console is doing well in North America, and with the calibur of games on show at E3, it's only going to do better. One of my favorite games was Sega's Otogi. The motion was amazingly fluid, and destroying buildings was a blast. I can't wait for the game's release. I also got to sit down with Peter Molyneux (together with Andrew Duff and Doug Hill) and we talked about Fable for about an hour. It's looking amazing, and all signs point to it being one of the biggest games of the year.

Michael: I'll tell you why Mega Man Battle Network 3 sticks out in my head. Before E3 I hadn't yet touched either the first or second installments in the series. After playing 3 though, I was convinced it was a must-have game. Thus, the week after, I hopped over to my local Gamestop and purchased a used copy of the first Battle Network. I think that speaks volumes doesn't it? On the Xbox side of things, Sudeki was quite impressive. Battling was quite fun, but I do wish that we knew more about the plot of the game. All in due time though I guess. Actually seeing the game in motion, however, was a treat for my eyes. Note that this was early on Day 1 before the booth babes came out in force!

Nathan: Another very well done title I saw at the show was the already mentioned, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. I had never heard of this game before and Atlus's booth was kind of off in an area very far away from the rest of the convention but I am glad I was given the chance to see it. With over 150 different character classes and monsters there is a lot of room for things to do with your party. They also added in a neat feature that lets you do various combo attacks on enemies. Not something you see in to many tactical RPGs.

Wesley: Well, I think my fellow discussion members have great taste in games. I agree with all the comments posted so far, and I'm starting to wish I'd made it to see Disgaea. The game sounds really interesting, but sadly I never made it to Atlus' booth. I don't really have much to say, except -- Go Xbox! I'm rooting for you!

Gabriel: As Zachary already mentioned, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was another title which I was looking forward to seeing impressions and screens of at this year's E3. Although North America has been awash with Japanese screens for months, I was curious as to the progress of localization, and its eventual quality stateside. Thankfully, nearly everything I saw pointed to a well done job and a title worthy of endless hours of strategy play in the coming months.

Zachary: The PlayStation 2 didn't have nearly the RPG fanfare behind it that I have become accustomed to seeing from E3. One of the few titles for the console that piqued my interest even slightly was Arc the Lad: Twilight of Spirits. It follows the previous games in the series fairly closely except that it has obviously enhanced graphics and uses voice acting heavily.

Alex: Since no one has mentioned it, I'll mention Castlevania for the PS2. I was dismayed when I heard that it was going to be 3D, but it plays quite well. I don't like the in-game character designs all that much, and there's not much of an RPG there, but it's still a lot better than I thought it would be. I still think that a stylish 2D side-scroller would have been mindblowingly cool. Oh well. Another game not getting any love tonight is FFX-2. While a lot of people are shouting foul, I liked it. It's fun to play, and light in tone. And it's very different to FFX, which is good, since I loathed that game.

Michael: Sadly, even I didn't get around to playing every RPG at the show. Thus, I missed out on a few games that everyone raved about, and thus have me excited. Disgaea, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicle, and Harvest Moon: Mineral Town were games I really wish I'd have gotten around to. The system to beat is still the PlayStation 2, but I think, as other panelists have noted, that Sony put on a very weak showing. Of Final Fantasy X-2, Final Fantasy XI, Arc the Lad, and Chaos Legion, only Chaos Legion has really caught my attention span. There is of course Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, but it's as much an RPG as Legend of Zelda is. I'll still buy it though because it rocked. I'll have to conclude that the Xbox and Game Boy Advance dominated. Recently I picked up an SP, and I'll be very glad to make good use of it with the upcoming games. Also, as a non-Xbox owner, and someone very critical of Microsoft in the past, I have to give them kudos for a damn fine showing at E3 2003.

Nathan: I remember stepping into Blizzard's booth that I didn't really care for 3D MMORPGs but that World of Warcraft had been receiving a lot of hype and so I figured I would check it out. After one of the people at the booth spent a good 30 minutes showing me everything he could possibly think of showing about the game I was very much amazed. The graphics were done in a way so that everything wasn't given a realistic look to it but more of a very well polished cartoon look that was also done in Warcraft 3. The entire game sticks to its roots as well giving players the feel of actually being a part in one of the army's featured in the Warcraft series. I have hated every 3D 3rd person game I've ever played but something about this made me want to reconsider how I feel about games similar to it.

Gabriel: One last title which hasn't had too much mention yet, that I also thought hinted at quality, was the first Final Fantasy offering for GameCube, Crystal Chronicles. A number of folks I talked with, who had been initially skeptical about the usage of Game Boy Advance's as controllers, were impressed by how well the system worked in actual practice and how much of a group atmosphere the simple act of having to verbally communicate your actions developed.

Michael: There seems to be universal excitement for what Nintendo's Game Boy Advance and Microsoft's Xbox has in store for us after this year's E3. The GameCube was expected to be light on RPGs of course, but the big surprise was the lack of anything riveting from Sony's PlayStation 2, and the multitude of great titles coming our way via the Xbox.