OK, this is it: The number one most exciting/mindblowing/memorable/your-superlative-goes-here moment of any E3, ever (except for maybe the first time I descended the escalator at the 1997 Atlanta E3 and realized, holy crap, I want to do this stuff for a living). It's the epic Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty reveal trailer from E3 2000, the grandaddy of all tentpole E3 announcements since time immemorial. Remember how incredible this was, nine years ago?
(Lower quality version with the original subtitles here.)
Nevermind how much of a letdown you may or may not consider the actual game to have been. Let's just bask in the spectacle, shall we?
And what a spectacle it was. Here's an abbreviated version of a documentary Konami made, released only in Japan, that chronicled the game's E3 unveiling and the ludicrous amount of excitement it generated. Look at these throngs of people clogging up the show floor walkways. You couldn't go anywhere near the Konami booth that year without running straight into an immovable wall of humanity. I love all the dropping jaws and looks of astonishment. (And can anyone confirm if that's former GameFan editor Nick Rox with his mouth hanging open at the 4:00 mark?)
I'm certainly curious to see what Kojima Productions has going on with the Metal Gear franchise this year, but nothing can top this MGS2 trailer. At the time, no other game had looked quite so crazy or amazing, and these days, everything kind of looks crazy and amazing. The bar is a lot higher, you know.
What would it take at next week's E3 to get you this pumped up?
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