Microsoft's Gamestock was a rousing success and a lot of fun (they paid me to say that). And all the games looked wonderful. They even gave out free mini-vibrators (force-feedback pens). You've got to love an evil mega-corporation like that. Well, I do anyway. Star Wars Online from Verant Interactive was announced, and fan-boys began having seizures over the prospect of camping the Sarlaac and portraying Boba Fett's third cousin Do0dz_FeTt. Larry Holland announced he and Totally Games were jumping from a galaxy far, far away to the final frontier when they announced Star Trek: Bridge Commander. Also, Brian Reynolds left Firaxis to start Big Huge Games and Richard Garriott (Lord British) was fired from the company he founded (Origin).
UbiSoft announced a game based on Pamela Anderson Lee's show VIP. The game hasn't come out yet but think of it as Space Bunnies Must Die meets Tomb Raider (only with smaller breasts). UCI, a school I once thought about going to (I grew up in Irvine, CA) announced a new gaming major at the school. The industry thought this was a good idea since freshly-graduated students can be hired and milked on the cheap and recruiting from the rabid gaming fanbase generally results in people like Levelord.
Finally, John Romero proclaimed Daikatana was almost done and that they were: “Focusing on level ‘D', detail!” I cheekily remarked that he'd already spent too much time focusing on level ‘DD', Stevie Case.” I am far too proud of that joke.
My baby girl, Maggie, was born. Did anything else happen in April?
Oh yes. Daily Radar let go of Beatdown. I wasn't fired; they just felt it was silly to pay me for two columns a week there (I also do Andrew's Views every Monday at PC Daily Radar). Fortunately I met Alex “Sharky” Ross that very week and he took on the column. Not a week missed!
Daikatana was released. There was much rejoicing, followed by much disappointment, followed by much laughter, then derision, then Romero started giving interviews defending himself, then more derision and laughter, etc.,
Looking Glass died a horrible death. Gamers everywhere lamented. Bigtime Software released Combat Mission and wargamers everywhere rejoiced!
Sierra announced their sports line-up, which was remarkably free from actual sports titles (unless you devotedly believe Fishing, Bull-Riding and Pool are sports). Fox canceled their sports line-up completely and, at E3, everyone noticed that Microsoft wasn't showing follow-ups to their NBA Inside Drive and NFL Fever games. Nothing else happened at E3 (that I know of, I wasn't there last year).