Arts & Entertainment
 

Game Riot burns Numbers

by Paul Saleeba
The Daily Cougar

New to the gaming scene is Game Riot, a touring show that touts itself as the touring Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Going into its second year this tour has been off the radar for most gamers.

Last year it toured as a part of Lollapalooza, impressing audiences wherever it went, without a negative review anywhere on the Internet. But outside of the music scene no one has heard of the show. 

"Unless you were at Lolla last summer, you would have not had the chance to hear about us," Game Riot executive producer Michael Ringel said.

AAA game releases, unreleased playable games, dancing girls, live DJ's, hardware and beer all in one place describes the Riot nicely.

Like the movie season, the gaming season is dead until summer, but what's available is on display for play at the Game Riot show. The short list of unreleased games to be available at the show includes Far Cry, Fight Night 2004, Top Spin and Rallisport Challenge. Most of them are set for release a month or two from now or before the tour ends. The show could almost be considered a seasonal preview. 

"We're really focused on games that are classic "till last year or newer. Typically the biggest releases; we're gravitated towards big AAA titles," Ringel said.

Also featured will be gaming competitions with Tony Hawk's Underground, SoulCalibur 2, ESPN MLB 2004, Halo, America's Army: Special Forces and Fight Night 2004. 

Any game that is multiplatformed will be featured mainly on the Xbox due to Microsoft's sponsorship. Other sponsors include Nvidia, which provided the new 5950 line cards for PC systems and AMD's Athlon 64 FX chips. 

Ringel said in a brief phone interview that hardware demos would also be coming to the show soon. Unfortunately he referred to the platform as a "vanilla box," a simple computer that reads the software. That may fly with mainstream consumers, but to appeal to the hardcore gamers, specifics must be released. But hardware demos appear to be a part of the show. The setups include 21 inch LCD's for the PC gamers and 42 inch plasmas for the games on the stage.

As for non-competition play, all the games listed in the show tour will be set up for general play on the floor.

Aside from gaming and hardware shows, Game Riot will be having a live DJ spinning dance, house, hip-hop and other mixes. Of interest however is a scratching tutorial where a DJ will have a class on mixes and such for the audience. Go-go dancers will also be featured at the Riot.

In all, Game Riot seems to be a solid show geared towards the mainstream gamer with an appeal to the hardcore gamer crowd.

Houston's stop will be at Numbers on Wednesday. There will be two shows, 7 to 9:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Each show will have different games for competition. The first will have Tony Hawk's Underground, Xbox's Halo, America's Army and Xbox's Soul Calibur 2. The second show will have ESPN MLB 2004, Rallisport Challenge, Xbox Halo and America's Army.
 

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