The E3 Experience - The First Day
[prebreak]Continue reading[/prebreak]
This whole day could be effectively described in one word – insane. Starting with the 3AM wakeup time, followed by my departure through Uber to downtown Los Angeles, the day was off to a crazy start. Leaving the house at 5:30 so I could make that 9:30 Microsoft conference was a good way to start a Monday morning, with a midpoint at the Kawada hotel in the heart of downtown LA so I could check in my luggage. I’m surprised that my room actually was ready for me, at such an early hour – check in wasn’t supposed to happen until after 3PM.
That Microsoft conference though. All I have to say is…damn. I’ve watched a lot of those online in previous years, but being there, in the midst of all of the action, was infinitely better. It was actually a very fast 90 minutes, considering how much content they threw in there. This year, the conference actually was good and didn’t have a ton of shameful throw ins that were there in previous years. Things that I never imagined I’d be hyped about… that all changed with the adrenaline-charged atmosphere of the conference. People were going wild over some of the showings, and for good reason. In my particular seat section, we were all losing it over the XBOX 360 backwards capabilities and the Hololens demonstration with Minecraft.
I just loved it when I see all of these online people be like, oh yeah, I can enjoy the content on my 4K monitor, where I get lag free, 60 FPS streams, and after witnessing a conference live on the floor, there’s still no comparison. There can’t be. The base drops and the sound effects were amplified to almost ridiculous levels. There were a ton of fancy monitors that still had secondary information about the game while the main gameplay trailers were still going. The release dates could have been gotten, yeah, but the level of insanity that the conference had in terms of hype levels and adrenaline was beyond anything that I’ve seen in a long time. It’s damn difficult to be able to reproduce that from a television screen or from a computer monitor. The little things – like when a developer celebrity happened to enter the room during the pre-show seating – caused eruptions of cheers from the audience and the VIP section in general. Our entry passes into the convention – the little amulet dangling from my neck (see photo!) would start blinking and flashing in time with all of the gameplay trailers, and when you look all around the convention center, it’s pretty cool to look at. Once the show ended, the badges were no longer blinking but could be poked instead for flashes of light. Gimmicky, but hey, I like it. It flashed in green and silver – traditional XBOX colors.
Once the convention ended though, the day got further crazy. Had to try and get the lay of the convention center, but unfortunately most of the floor was closed and only accessible for exhibitors. A new friend and I tried playing it friendly with a guard, but oh well, no dice. Today would be relatively quiet in comparison to everything that’s going to happen tomorrow, but there’s still a lot to be done. I am a little bit sad though that I won’t be able to attend any more press conferences this year, but I achieved my number one goal this year, which was to just attend any of them and have a good time. And yes, so far I’m having a great time. Am I exhausted? Absolutely. I got roughly two hours of sleep last night, and I'm in my hotel room, barely able to keep my eyes open, and running coverage on a few other conferences while people are away. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be done in very early tonight. In other very exciting news, however, my hotel room's amenities suck and actually don't work. No refrigerator, and only one towel. Great. This is an absolutely stellar hotel so far. Kitchenette is also completely dead. I can't believe that a total of $445 was shelled out for this ridiculous hotel. Anyway! I’ll catch up with everyone tomorrow on the showroom floor – you can feel free to follow me on the GBAtemp Twitter for my latest shenanigans as they happen, or visit the GBAtemp IRC and/or Shout Box, where I may end up having some conversation. Stay classy, GBAtemp, I’ll catch you guys tomorrow.
GBAtemp Twitter
Photo Album - Day 1