The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center on June 7-9, 2011. Alongside our sibling site, CtrlAltKill, Jared was able to attend one day of the world’s premiere video game industry event.
The day began early as driving to the LACC is not a fun trip during the week due to commuter traffic. However, I was able to arrive before 9AM. The press room was open and I grabbed one of the last remaining apple juices from the pile of complementary breakfast offerings. Sadly, all the bagels and doughnuts had already been taken. I made my way to the entrance of West Hall and waited for doors to open at ten. While in line I had the opportunity to talk with other member of press about what they have seen at the show. Many of the discussions were on the endless amount of lines for different popular attractions like the Wii U, Activision screenings, and the Playstation Vita.
One of the things that made this E3 easier than last year is that everything was setup in a similar manner to how it was the year before, so finding my way around was easy. The hall opened at 10 and I made my way to the Nintendo booth in the vain hope of seeing the Wii U. Upon arrival to the booth the line was already around the entire booth and it was continuing to grow. I decided it would not be worth using up time trying to play with the Wii U. So I played a little Mario and Sonic at the 2012 Olympics then made my way to the Perfect World Entertainment booth.
As a player of various Perfect World games I decided to take a quick look around their booth. I played a little bit of Rusty Hearts, a side scrolling beat ‘em up MMO. I was entered into the Perfect World drawing for a cute plush. I did not win the plush, but I would find other swag as I continued through the event. It was only a short walk over to the Capcom booth.
The Capcom booth was just as lively as it was last year. There was a large display for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City and the jumbotron was playing various game trailers. As always it was difficult to find an open spot to game, but I got lucky and found an abandoned Street Fighter 3 Thrid Strike game. I played several rounds and held my own despite the horrible Xbox 360 controls. I then moved on to Street Fighter X Tekken to get a feel for Capcom’s next crossover game. I got in to battle someone and beat them on my first try. I then held my own against another opponent, but I was beaten by the third challenger. Honestly, I could have stayed at the Capcom booth all day.
Somehow I pulled myself away from the Capcom booth and I went over to the Trion booth on my way to set up an appointment with Bethesda. Trion was showing off some of their new MMO offerings. I got a picture with their booth gals and I continued on my way to Bethesda. I was lucky enough to get an end of day appointment with Bethesda. Finally I hit the Sony booth before heading out of the West Hall. I did not spend much time at the Sony booth because I did not want to deal with the Vita line and I was not in the mood to play more Move games. I left the West Hall to grab some lunch at the press room. I got a turkey sandwich which also came with a cookie, an apple, and really good cheese. The press lunch boxes often disappear quickly because they are great. After filling up on food I made the trek to the South Hall.
The South Hall was massive and it was not very easy to navigate. I made my way to the first booth I ever stopped by at E3, the Natsume booth. There was a long line for the new Harvest Moon. I decided to join the queue in order to see how Harvest Moon was on the 3DS. It looked great, but the 3D added very little to the game. However, I was told that street pass and special mini-games were going to play a big part in the 3DS version. After that I looked at some of their other offering and I got myself a stuffed Alpaca for spending time at the booth.
The hall was a mess and getting into some booths, like Activision, was nearly impossible. As I walked the hall toward the Konami booth I stumbled into the Atari booth. What caught my eye more than anything was their line up of classic arcade machines. Each of the machines had a long line, which is surprising considering that the games they had setup were about 30 years old. Right next to the Atari booth was the Square-Enix booth. With some reservation I went into their booth.
The booth had several rows of games featuring some of their big upcoming titles like Final Fantasy XIII-2, Dead Island, and Deux Ex: Human Revolution. Between the crowding and fanboy smell, I did not spend much time with the games. One of the cooler parts of the Square-Enix booth is that they put several of their figures up on display. Too bad, they were not giving any away and speaking of toys Namco-Bandai had several different toys at their booth. They had a great assortment of games, but I could not seem to find the new Ace Combat. I did, however, find the Power Rangers Samurai game and it was surprisingly fun and I got a kick out of drawing the kanji with my Wii remote. I then saw a sign that stole my attention from the Namco-Bandai lineup Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3. I had the opportunity to play a little of Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3, but I died both times. Still, it was fun to play as Quattro Bajeena in the Wing Zero.
The Tecmo-Koei booth had a pre-alpha build of the new Monster Rancher game for mobile devices. I hope the final build lives up to my memories of the earlier titles in the series. It would not be a trip to Tecmo, without playing Ninja Gaiden 3. They had a separate room full of consoles and a jumbotron showing off gameplay. Although, I did enjoy Ninja Gaiden 3, I was a bit disappointed to not see Dead or Alive 5.
Finally, I had my time at the Konami booth. After seeing the trailer for Silent Hill Downpour I was a bit bothered by the direction the series seemed to be going. Thankfully, my fears were abated upon talking with the production staff and playing the demo. The game had the feel of the older titles in the series. Hopefully the final product will live up to the demo I played. Beyond Silent Hill Downpour, there were several other titles that caught my attention at Konami. It was great to see Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker HD and No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise. More than anything else, I could not believe that they made another Glee game.
Realizing that I was limited on time I tried to make my way out of the South Hall and toward the West Hall. On the way I stumbled upon Sonic Generations at the Sega booth. I had some fun giving the 3DS version a try and from what I played and what I saw this is the Sonic game that many have been waiting for all these years. As my time was running low I had to make a dash out of the West Hall. It was a crazy run through the halls of the LACC, but I got to the Bethesda booth just in time for my appointment.
One of the biggest titles I was looking forward to was Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I was lucky enough to be able to sit in and watch the presentation. The game looked great and I am even more excited about it. After the presentation I had the opportunity to watch the presentation for Prey 2 and get hands on time with Rage. Before I knew it the announcement came on the speaker telling me that the exhibit halls were closing. I slowly made my way out of the West Hall and made my way home.
There is far too much to do at E3 and I wish I had more than one day to be there. I had the chance to check out several interesting games and I ran into some weird people. I did not get the chance to meet up with any of my favorite online reviewers and I got only a few booth babe pictures, but then again that is not what E3 is about. It is about the games and the hardware and I cannot wait to be back on the showroom floor checking out the biggest game titles in 2012.
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