In what appeared to be a 60/40 split between actual industry professionals and droves of goober, *oops*, I mean uber-gamers, the 3-day videogame tradeshow E3 has left LA just as swiftly as it had descended upon us… But not without plenty of online content for those who could not attend, provided by those privileged and/or crafty enough to enter the pearly gates of gamer heaven.
Who won the console war? While I desperately wanted to cheer for my former coworkers at Sony, I’m still trying to figure out which feature to consider “the big news” out of their 2-hour press conference. I hope it wasn’t the 3-D software titles that required the funky glasses because Nintendo’s 3DS does not. Was it all about accessories and the very phallic PlayStation Move that functions an awful lot like the Wii released 4 years ago? SMH. Was this supposed to extend the life of the PS3? Did they really not know about Xbox’s controller-less Kinect available in time for holiday 2010? (Eek, tail between Sony’s legs.) One good thing that came out of that press conference for me was discovering Jesper Kyd, composer for Assassins’ Creed (Ubisoft). This is the kind of music that builds excitement, not 1994′s “I like to ‘move’ it, ‘move’ it” that accompanied the sizzle reel for PlayStation Move. (You pick, SMH or tail between the legs)
As for the convention center floor, I couldn’t see myself standing in hour-plus lines for anything. I appreciated the booth babes (maybe not exactly in the same way as the boys did) and I gave them what they wanted – a friendly smile after a vertical scan of their goods. Thank you Spike TV for capturing the E3 booth babes and getting down to the important issues (how to successfully approach a booth babe).
I would have stood in line for Activision’s concert featuring Eminem, Travis Barker and Rihanna (is this stuff really just for the trade?). I’m upset I missed Russ, Red and Meth for their Def Jam/Konami mash up announcement and performance. I was happy to have my first experiences with the iPad though Josh and I were both perplexed by the ported iPhone apps that were clearly not optimized for iPad’s larger screen. Moreover, how not fun are digital comics that don’t optimize the technology – even the open pinch zoom so that the comics would actually be legible? : X
Until next year, we move on to celebrate another Laker victory (oh yeah) and offer our photo recap of E3.