Well, the biggest industry event of the year is over and even though I lost a full day, it was a blast. My apologies for not writing while I was actually there, but I never did adjust to West Coast time and was pretty brain dead after each day; definitely not in much shape to write anything coherent. Overwhelming would be a good word to describe the experience. There was no way any one person can take in all there is to offer at E3. There are so many games to play and so many sights to see (i.e. booth babes). You definitely have to pick and choose what you want to do. I realize Billy, Ty, and Steve have probably covered this in their E3 reports, but I figured I’d add my voice to the lot and make you readers even more jealous. Anyway, let’s get onto the highlights of my personal E3 experience.

Day One (Thursday)

Stuck back at home in New Jersey thanks to the wonderful weather we had Wednesday night. Instead of hearing from Gabe Newell, Hal Barwood, Warren Spector and company, I was brooding and think of various ways I could take down Continental Airlines management if they failed get me to E3. Luckily for them, I did eventually get to L.A. late Thursday night so Continental Airlines will continue to function for now.

Day Two (Friday)

I got about 5 hours of sleep and then was off to fight the Southern California traffic to make my way to the Convention Center (but not before I endeared myself to my cousin’s kid by giving her a stuffed Togepi, knowing Pokémon is a great way to get the little ones to love you...as if you didn’t know). Surprisingly the trip to downtown L.A. was fairly smooth and easy, definitely not what I was expecting. After picking up my badge holder, I was off to the sessions of the day (I’m only going to gloss over the sessions for now, so all you aspiring game developers will have to wait. I’m going to do a full-blown article for the sessions, maybe one for each if I’m up to it). First up was Collaborative Game Design: Are Two Heads Better Than One? Sid Meier (Firaxis) was the marquee name on the panel, but I also knew who Ken Birdwell (Valve), Brad McQuaid (Verant), and Noah Falstein (the Inspiracy), the moderator, were. Oh, just to give you the right picture, the session had the panelists sitting on a stage while the moderator had a podium from which he asked the panelists questions. Sometimes the moderator would comment and ask a follow-up question and sometimes the panelists would keep the discussions going between themselves. Then, after about an hour, the audience was invited to ask questions. Not really the most exciting format in the world, but if you’re there to learn things from experienced industry veterans, you really shouldn’t care. Back to this particular session…in a nutshell, the panelists thought collaborative design was the way to go and people with huge egos who want to control every aspect of development need to rethink their way of doing things. While there were occasional situations that required a single dictatorial developer, these situations are becoming a thing of the past, which means aspiring developers better get used to working and communicating with other team members. Even Sid Meier, one of the biggest development names in the business, preferred to have a collaborative design effort rather than do everything himself.

After the session, I made my way over to the pay phones to try to get in touch with Billy. We set up a meeting time and place but it didn’t end up working out. A note to anyone who wants to meet up with people at E3, having a cell phone will make the whole process a lot easier. As it was, I could contact Billy but he couldn’t get in touch with me...which made meeting him problematic. I did eventually catch up with him but not until the end of the day. Next on the sessions was the one I was really looking forward to, Handheld Gaming: 2000 and Beyond. Jim Merrick from NOA was the big attraction to me, but I also wanted to hear from Craig Harris (pocket.ign) and the rep from SNK (whose name eludes me and since she was a last minute replacement, I can’t look it up in the Conference Guide). Mike Mika (Digital Eclipse) was the final panelist and Vince Matthews (Imagine Media) was the moderator. This session gave some insights on what to expect in handheld gaming in the near future. Unfortunately, Jim Merrick wanted to keep his job and was limited to the usual evasive Nintendo company lines regarding the GBA, despite the fact that he recognized some GBA developers in the audience who were already privy to the inside word on the upcoming handheld. I have to give Vince Matthews credit though, he tried several times to get Mr. Merrick to say something. In the end, Jim Merrick apologized for his lack of meaningful answers. He said that he’d signed on expecting to be able to give full disclosure, but because of retailers’ demands, the launch of the GBA was pushed back to give GBC one more holiday so any GBA info would have to stay under wraps for a while longer. I even went up to Jim afterwards to try some hypothetical questions regarding GBA and Dolphin, but he didn’t budge...maybe I should’ve brought some brews with me. So, on the whole, this session was mostly talk about the Neo Geo Pocket and the Color Gameboy, nothing all that exciting.

Finally, after 2 sessions, I had time to make my way to the Expo Floor. I had about 90 minutes to work with before the next session and spent most of the time at the Nintendo booth checking out the new N64 titles, looking out for Billy, and counting the number of people who stopped to take a picture in front of the Pikachu fountain (about 9 groups, half of them were Japanese). I’ll save my impressions of the N64 games for the Day 3 review, and I didn’t end up seeing Billy...so I guess I’ll just get on to the third and final session of the day.

Last but not least was Development Lessons From the Best with Alex Dunne (Game Developer Magazine) moderating and Louis Castle (Westwood), Matt Pritchard (Ensemble), and Jason Rubin (Naughty Dog) on the panel. This was easily the most tightly packed of the three sessions, almost entirely full, while the other two were at about 50% capacity. There were definitely some useful ideas thrown out in this session. Just the sort of thing aspiring developers want to hear...though I think I have to take issue with some of them (more on that in the Sessions article). Let’s just say that while I think Jason Rubin is a very cool guy and have a lot of respect for him as a developer, I don’t like some of the implications of his ideas on the present and future of game development. I would’ve stayed afterwards to talk with him personally, but my gamer’s instincts took over developer’s rationale and I was back to the Expo Floor for more gaming goodness.

This time around, I took the chance to check out the Sony and Sega booths. PS2 did not impress me that much. Some of the games had nice graphics as you’d expect, but they weren’t a huge leap forward and more importantly, nothing there seemed to take any leaps in gameplay or game design. Sega’s booth was another story. Graphics on most games seemed to be good, not too far behind PS2, and more importantly, there were some interesting game designs. Space Channel 5 and Samba De Amiga were particularly interesting, but I unfortunately didn’t get a chance to try them so I can’t say how well they played. Still, I was glad to see something different, even if it was odd and might not be everyone’s cup of tea. Shenmue looked really good, but I didn’t really know what I was supposed to do when I played so I can’t say much on gameplay. Overall, the Sega booth had a nice variety of games and who knows, maybe they will be able to survive the PS2, X-Box, and Dolphin after all.

After a couple of hours on the Expo Floor, day 2 came to an end. I was finally able to meet Billy and took him and Ty back to their hotel where I tried to write about my experiences but found that my brain had turned to mush so I just kicked back and enjoyed hanging with 2 of the big boys from the site. Oh, I also got thoroughly trounced by Ty in Goldeneye, but I don’t want to dwell on that. I need better competition, damn it! And the next time one of my friends says I’m doing something cheap...well screw them! I’m just using a survival tactic, of which I’ll definitely need a lot if I even want to touch Ty next year. Fortunately, Excitebike and Smash Brothers proved to be a little more even (though I still wonder if Ty was going easy...damn you Ty! You’re f---in’ with my mind...). Anyway, that was about it for day 2. Details on day 3 and the Sessions coming soon.