Imagine landing a part-time gig as a writer for a video game web site. Your first assignment is to participate in the year’s biggest gaming event, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). You must examine your surroundings, get as much experience as you can, and take plenty of notes. Fortunately for me, learning quickly and writing fast wasn’t going to be a problem.

When I received the news that I was going to attend E3, I nearly fell out of my chair. I’ve been aching to go since I heard about the event two years ago, and I finally had my ticket inside. The event took place from Wednesday, May 10, through Friday, May 12. On-Site registration was on Tuesday, so I decided to use that day to get a feel for the convention center. As I walked around and glimpsed at all the booths and exhibits that were going to be bombarded with people the next day, I realized that nothing could prepare me for just how colossal this occasion was going to be. It ended up being everything I expected, and more.

Wednesday started like any other day of the week. Though the convention center opened its doors at 11:00am, I wasn’t able to attend until 2:00pm, just after class. Finding a parking spot was the main objective once I arrived; it took me a miraculous twenty-seven minutes to find an appropriate spot, without having to pay the ridiculous sum of $40 for the convenience of parking in a structure. After walking a half-mile to my destination, I met up with my boss and had a brief discussion of said events. We talked business for perhaps fifteen minutes and then I was off: bound for the booming West Hall.

One of the first things that caught my attention was the amount of items people were giving away for free. Everyone around my immediate vicinity was carrying bags full of goodies like t-shirts, posters, magazines, pictures, key chains, and other bags. It seemed as though I was the only empty-handed person for miles, and no one was handing me anything for free. That is, until I found a bag of my own. After that, things magically appeared in there, whether I wanted them to or not. I was able to snatch four posters, three bags, five press release kits, and an endless array of game magazines. It is truly amazing how people will do almost anything to get something for free, myself included. For a brief moment, I recalled the “kid in a candy store” metaphor and instantly felt like a spoiled child without a care in the world. Once my free-item frenzy was over, I advanced to the videogames.

There were hundreds of exhibits unseen by my naked eye, and after the excitement of Guitar Hero II, I could hardly wait. Next to the guitar game stood Destroy All Humans 2, a sequel to another one of my favorites. Instead of the game taking place in the 50’s (like the first one), this one had the alien land in the 60’s. As I played through the short demo version, I noted that the graphics improved, the alien had new powers, and the mechanics of the controls were simplified. All it did was make me want to play it more. After a brief moment with the extraterrestrial, I made my way to the over-crowded Playstation 3 booth. It was there that I realized E3’s potential: everything was within your grasp; nothing too simple, nothing to advanced. The new system couldn’t have been any farther than a couple of inches away from me, and it felt like I could reach out and touch it at any moment. Since the glass box surrounding it prevented that from happening, I did the next best thing. I played it.

There were too many game displays for me to count, so I decided to give each one a little bit of my undivided attention. Each Playstation 3 game lived up to the hype in my opinion. The graphics looked stunning, not too much changed from the original hardware design, and the actual video games ranged in taste. There were early versions of Final Fantasy XIII, Gundam World, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Call of Duty 3, just to name a few. Unfortunately, you can’t play them all if you want to get the full E3 experience, so I looked just as much as I could before I headed off towards the other games.

This is where I spent the better part of my day; where there were countless numbers of displays for your viewing pleasure. You could go check out the latest games for the PSP (Bomberman and Death Jr. 2), or maybe head over to the innovative and inventive computer games (Battlefield 2142 and Hellgate: London). If that didn’t tickle your fancy, you could sneak a quick look at the new John Woo Presents Stranglehold trailer, or check out the latest news on the Wizards of the Coast trading card game. It was all within fingertip reach; you just had to grasp it. I squeezed as much value out of my Wednesday as I could, and reaped the benefits when I got home.

The beginning portion of Thursday was more or less an exact replica of Wednesday, from finding parking to walking the mile. I made my way towards South Hall this time, not knowing what to anticipate. Aside from the different games I would demo, I didn’t expect anything new to take place. I was mistaken.  “New” hit my face in the form of contests, giveaways, autograph signings, and models. Obviously there was far more here than I had imagined, and I paced myself.

Not only was this hall far lively than the one before, it was also a lot grander. Twice the amount of people were present, not to mention the games. Following the previous day’s routine, I grabbed the nearest bag and filled it with goodies. Next, I sprinted towards the Microsoft area, where the XBOX 360 stood (among other things). I wanted to test XBOX 360 exclusive games first, and no other game stood out more than Dead Rising. Not only was it spectacular eye-candy for me, but it also contained most of what I was looking for in a video game: violence, comedy, horror, appealing graphics, and a decent storyline. During the fifteen minutes of game-play I had, I was able to execute thirty-plus zombies, change my clothes twice, switch to numerous amounts of weapons, and capture photos of my character doing it all (in the actual game), all while staying within the compounds of a local mall. I had not even heard about this game before I played it. And thus E3 taught me yet another lesson: expect the unexpected.

After that, finding different types of booths to fill my various video game desires was simple. Once again, the variety of options was phenomenal, and it seemed impossible for one to become bored. Sega set up their own booth, displaying games like Shadow the Hedgehog, and Yakuza. 2K games held strong with their demonstrations of Prey and The Da Vinci Code. And in case that didn’t suit your mood, Frontlines: Fuel of War and WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2007 were positioned over by THQ. For the next couple of hours, I was in paradise.

As if video games weren’t enough to keep your ADD leveled down, there were alternate forms of entertainment to keep everyone satisfied. Constant contests of every type occurred every hour or so, just in case you didn’t have enough goodies in your bag already. They ranged from raffles to competitions to games to “lucky shots”. If these kinds of challenges weren’t your bag, who better to promote them than beautiful half-naked girls? You haven’t lived a full life until you’ve taken a picture with an elegant model who’s dressed up as your favorite video game femme fatale. Some of the ladies’ costumes included them being nurses, army rangers, sexy kitties, and chicks with guns; Halloween come early. As an added “fun” bonus, E3 had autograph signings for celebrities in the video game world, the highlight of which was Adam West. You may know him as the original dancing Batman, but most recognize him as the whacky mayor of Quahog in The Family Guy (which, by the way, is also getting its own game). I participated in all the routine tourist activities: I stood in the never-ending lines, saw game teasers, took pictures with the gorgeous ladies, and even got a free T-shirt. By this time I was used to the atmosphere, so I milked the experience for what it was worth. I was anywhere and everywhere… and having the best time of my life.

I didn’t arrive on Friday until 2:00pm, which gave me little time for Kentia Hall. It was more of a technological exhibit hall, and the party seemed to have died down since opening day. I got some last minute photos in and quickly skimmed the area as much as I could.  Unfortunately, because they closed E3 at 4:00pm that day, two hours wasn’t nearly enough time to cover it all. I placed a big emphasis on the Redoctane booth: one of the designers for the original Guitar Hero was playing a song from it on Expert difficulty, never eyeballing the screen once. It was an amazing sight; truly remarkable. Also noteworthy, Graveyard BBQ (who sang “Cheat on the Church” in the first game) was present at the booth as well, and they appeared to have played a couple of songs (though I missed it). The fact that I didn't get to see it all didn't matter though; I still felt I got everything I could out of it. Even though I didn’t get to see every nook-and-cranny of the event, I was left extremely satisfied, with a tremendous grin spread across my face for the rest of the weekend.

Surprisingly, that same satisfaction seemed not to come from the actual video games, but the idea of E3 itself: a unification of individuals under one roof that, for a brief moment, all shared a common interest. For those three days everyone was at peace. E3 has always been full of anticipation, excitement, enthusiasm, and entertainment. And from the way things appear to have advanced, unity has firmly claimed its place on that list. With all the thrills and exhilaration still flowing though my body, I truly can’t wait until next year.

Copyright © 2006 David Soria. All rights reserved.