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E3 was some really, really interesting stuff.

I realize I throw ‘interesting’ around so much that it’s kind of a nonsense word at this point, but bear with me here. Lot to cover.

Day zero was mostly just getting situated, meeting Alethea at the airport and then J and Roku at the hotel. We stopped by some local pita joint where Sony was holding some… thing. Some promotional event, who knows. Got a free Uncharted 2 t-shirt and some decent food out of the deal.

Funny thing is, the joint was this dingy, small joint outside the downtown area where we were staying, and the line to get in went around the block. You’d think it was a bunch of people lined up to get in a club – y’know, one of those exclusive joints that doesn’t have a sign or anything – but you get closer and it’s all dudes with PSPs, girls in Katamari shirts, some guy walking on his hands, all that jazz.

Day one, Monday, had us swinging by the Microsoft press conference. You’ve all seen the bullet points by now: more Halo, more sequels in general, Alan F-ing Wake, Facebook taking over the whole damn world, and Molyneux’s creepy digital boy via their motion-control system called Project Natal. Day two had Nintendo and Sony: Nintendo had some of the flattest presentations and boldest-face lies imaginable, but paired with respectable game announcements and more motion controls; Sony did that, but generally better, with the possible exception of the PSPgo being an unremarkable gaming device costing TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY-NINE US DOLLARS. Oh, and more goddamn motion control, but with a reasonably sensible device that understands we push buttons because the real actions are tiring as hell.

Between and around all this we scurried off to try demos, go to developer press briefings and join meetings. Playing upcoming Fallout 3 DLC with the makers standing right there is a surreal experience. Atlus and Natsume are staffed by some of the coolest, most down-to-earth people alive. EA is staffed by standoffish folks that got a lot more respectful once we flashed a card belonging to the CEO we got from an incidental encounter in our hotel elevator. True story.  Dragon Age is being marketed in the wrong ways; rather than using (ugh) Marilyn Manson, they should at least consider, say, the Hawaii Five-O theme or the Cowboy Bebop theme. Man, Sanford & Son would have been better. Oh well. Still buying at day one.

Mass Effect 2 looks godly. Get it if you like fun things and don’t hate democracy.

Apart from all that we just had a great time across the board. Dinner at the Octopus, this Japanese joint across the street, was cool. J knows his way around that country’s food, and even the eel, which I expected to be let down by, was quite tasty. The last night, we got invited to a party held by up-and-coming devs Riot Games, themselves a bunch of industry veterans splitting off to do their own thing. The game being debuted was League of Legends, essentially World of Warcraft played by Counter-Strike rules, instanced in 30-minute matches of varying size. I enjoyed the hell out of it, and they served up free food and drinks for all participants, which is unassailably cool.

I should point out this took place at a rather nice bar. I mean, it was basically a club setting for geeks; you take out the computers and it’s basically a social outing that normies would attend. It was… hip. You wouldn’t know everybody in there was a gaming geek to look at them, but rather than talking about sports or investments or whatever the hell it is normal people talk about, people were going on about scoring headshots or tricking out 100% invisibility gear in Oblivion. We were amongst kindred spirits and it felt pretty damn good.

As all things must, it came to an end all too soon. Tearful farewell, fond recollection of memories, and sorting through assorted swag and business cards (which wasn’t much for me, but what the hey).  I would totally do it again in a heartbeat.

No wonder people go to this thing <3