– The weakest E3 of all time is still the greatest thing you’ve ever experienced, if you’ve never been there before. I can’t count how many new games I played and saw demoed last week.
– Game journalists have a very close-knit group that’s tough to get into. They’re all generally very cool, personable people, but it’s hard to speak to anyone when they only see each other once a year, and have known each other for years and years. No one wants to speak about games when it’s all done and gone, not a good thing for someone as excited about what he just experienced as I was.
– If I go again next year I might skip the press briefings by the big three. Everyone watches it online or on G4TV anyway, and our plans of liveblogging Nintendo and Sony fell apart thanks to no wireless internet. It’s mostly just a glorified press release, but I’ll say one thing- on video you don’t catch the swells of excitement that run through the crowd when you watch them announce something new. Sometimes that backfires, like when you sit down next to a Sony Fanboy, who nodded at every damn thing Tretton said and yelled “Sack Boy!” when the main character from LittleBigPlanet was displayed on screen. Did he ever think that at some point in his life he would yell that out in joy? I hope he knows that he has nothing else left to live for.
– There’s really no way you can get a fair idea of how a game plays from E3. Impressions, sure, but as everyone knows it’s incredibly easy for a game to squander a good thing. Sure, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed might be incredibly fun, but will it stay that fun for the whole game? You just can’t tell. Hell, even the game I spent the most time with (half hour with Fallout 3) could end up getting boring. Not that it will in that case (that bad boy’s going to be the game to beat at the end of this year, no question about it) but you really can’t tell how a game will be from a short playtime with it.
– Next time, I’d consider getting (or borrowing) a wireless internet card for my laptop. The state of the internet at the hotels around the convention center is disgusting- it hardly worked 90% of the time, and when it did you could harly call it “working”. The Media Center at E3 was no better, constantly going down and denying connections to users. Sure a lot of fun when you’re trying to get articles up.
– The Who? Still got it. Highlight of the week, by far. Man, highlight of the year, highlight of my show-going life.
– A lot of producers and designers talk about their games without any excitement at all. You can tell immediately which ones actually play games and are gamers themselves, and it makes you a helluva lot more excited about them. It’s gotta be hard to talk about the same things over and over for 3 days, but c’mon, at least show a little excitement about your work! Most entertaining game demo? The guys at Harmonix, of course.
– The guy that voices Bender on Futurama is also the voice of Marcus Fenix. And he’s a karaoke wiz.
– Gamers love to drink. And eat. Almost every company had something for you to indulge in at their meeting rooms, and the after parties had booze flowing freely. No complaints here!
– Girls in dresses shouldn’t ever get on mechanical bulls, unless they want pictures and video of their thongs displayed all over the internet. I mean, thank you for the view, but think next time!
– Speaking of, the women are gorgeous in LA. Lot of older ladies wearing things they shouldn’t have tried to fit into (like their faces) but otherwise the city’s real easy on the eyes.
– Sorry, Devin, but LA sucks. Especially if you don’t have a car. People stared at me like I was masturbating in the street every time I jaywalked (Shock!), and I heard horror stories about people getting ridiculous tickets for it. The subway system is 4 lines with a total of 3 or 4 stops amongst them all. I get people who like to live there because all the famous people do, but that’s just another reason why the place feels fake as hell. Just walking around the streets I overheard at least 4 or 5 people talking about famous people. It does have a certain charm to it (see the last bullet point) but it’s no place I’d want to live.
– Virgin American is a damn fine airline, even if their strange purple mood lighted planes are one furry rotating round bed away from being a private jet for Austin Powers. But the fact that you can play Doom on the TV in front of you? So cool. I liked their little Asteroids ripoff too. And they even have some great music that you can set as a playlist and listen to for your whole ride! I always appreciate when an airline can keep my mind off my impeding, firey doom. (I write this as I’m sitting in some turbulence) Also perfect if you’re a sentimental fool and want to listen to The Beach Boys, or Falling Slowly.
– There’s no place like home. I did absolutely nothing the first day back from the trip, and it felt good.