With the PS2 in full stride, the onslaught of top-notch exclusives continued at E3 2002.

By this time, E3 was firmly installed as the highlight of the games industry calendar and websites and magazines starting to issue awards for the best titles of the show. Look up the awards for E3 2002 and on most lists you’ll find Ratchet and Clank, Sly Raccoon (or Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, as it was known in the US), Kingdom Hearts and The Getaway.

The Getaway TV ad:

Here’s a little known fact: there’s a pub on the corner of Great Marlborough Street, not far from the SCEE offices, called the Coach & Horses; many of The Getaway’s scenes are based on that very hostelry.

EyeToy also made its first appearance introducing people to camera-based gameplay and getting them off their sofas at the same time.

With the PS2 already installed in 30 million homes and yet another strong line-up of games in waiting for it, the crowd would have to wait until 2003 for a truly show-stopping announcement, when Ken Kutaragi took to the stage and had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand.

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Ask most people for their favourite E3 and they’ll likely pick one that was dominated by a single memory, be that the Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty trailer or the unveiling of the PlayStation 3.

However, for sheer breadth of PlayStation games, E3 2001 is hard to top; the SCEA stand was burgeoning with titles that would go on to earn classic status.

From first party studios we had Naughty Dog’s latest project, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy; SOCOM: Navy Seals, which was one of the first online enabled PS2 games; and a stylish little action adventure known as ICO.

Third party publishers brought Final Fantasy X, Devil May Cry, Silent Hill 2, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and Grand Theft Auto III.

It’s this incredible line-up of exclusives still early in the console’s life and its multimedia functionality that helped take the games system out of the bedroom and put so many PS2 systems in lounges worldwide.

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As the world recovered from the cataclysmic disappointment of the Millennium Bug, Hideo Kojima proved his knack for stealing the show at E3 by revealing a trailer for Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. It was shown every hour and proved so popular that hundreds of people would queue for each screening.

It was the most impressive demo of PS2 graphics to date, especially as it was revealed to have been created in real time using the game’s engine, with the exception of the weather effects at the start.

Metal Gear Solid 2 headed up a visually striking selection of games that also included Tekken Tag Tournament and Onimusha: Warlords. It was already becoming clear that, like its predecessor, PS2 would have no shortage of both first and third party games.

In a trend that has been constant since E3 began in 1995, booths grew in size and budget as game companies fought to attract the eyes of visitors and the Internet opened the show floor to billions of eyes and ears.

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E3 returned to the Los Angeles Convention Centre in 1999 and attracted a few stars, as David Bowie made an appearance and a horde of WCW wrestlers grappled on the show floor.

However, PlayStation 2 was the real star of the show. To prove its power, the famous ballroom scene from Final Fantasy VIII was presented in real time (originally it had been a cut-scene) and attendees could get their hands on a stunning playable demo of Gran Turismo 2000.

It was a glimpse at the future of gaming.

That’s not to say that the original PlayStation was absent: Ridge Racer games had always pushed the potential of the system and the fourth in the series, Ridge Racer Type 4, had some people mistakenly thinking it was a PS2 game. We also saw Ape Escape, a key title in the history of PlayStation as it was the first to actually require the DUALSHOCK controller that had been released the year before.

Everyone left wondering about the possibilities of the PS2; little did they know that a familiar Snake would be sneaking into E3 2000.

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This was the year of Gran Turismo and the original Real Driving Simulator arrived in the West around the time of E3 1998, redefining how good a racing game could look and handle. There’s even a rumour that top journalists were transported to the event in stretch Hummers and could play a few races on the way.

Not only was E3 1998 the last time the event would be held in Atlanta, it was the last time the original PlayStation console would take centre stage. It was supported by a strong cast of highly anticipated sequels like Crash Bandicoot 3, Twisted Metal 3, as well as new titles such as Syphon Filter and Silent Hill.

Squaresoft followed up on the popularity of Final Fantasy VII with Final Fantasy VIII and backed that up with an impressing range of titles including Parasite Eve.

It was a lavish show closed in suitable style when Foo Fighters played at the PlayStation end of show party. However, not even they could upstage the star of E3 1999…

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