This year was the first E3 that MyGaming attended, and what an experience it was. Things got off on the rocky start, with my luggage never arriving from SA, but apart from that, LA and E3 in particular were incredibly welcoming.
Over 45,000 people attended the event this year, made up mostly of media and industry professionals. 90 countries were represented, and 300 exhibitors were there to show off their work.
Despite the size of the event, it went down without a hitch. The organizers ensured that toilets, food and drink stands, and general information were never difficult to get to. Not once did I have to wait longer than 5 minutes for anything; from game demos, to nachos, everything was easy to get to. I tip my hat to the organizers, and hope that one day our own similar local events can be as slick as this one.
A special thanks goes out to Megarom for sponsoring the trip.
There were a few big announcements at this year’s event.
Xbox 360 “Slim”
The first one was Microsoft’s new Xbox 360 “slim” model, which comes with a slick new design, as well as built in Wifi adapter.
Nintendo 3DS
Nintendo’s new 3D enabled handheld, the 3DS was shown off for the first time. Check out our hands-on impressions.
Xbox Live announced for emerging markets this year
It may be a bit late in the game, but Microsoft announced that various emerging markets, including SA will be getting their own Xbox Live service this year. They are 90% sure that we will be able to migrate existing Xbox Live accounts from UK/USA to SA.
Sony pushing the Move
The main driver behind Sony’s keynote address was the PlayStation Move. They also had a bit to say about exclusive content going forward, and of course 3D.
Microsoft named “Kinect”
Apart from the new Xbox 360 SKU, Microsoft also gave its motion control device previously known as Project Natal a more marketable name: Kinect. A lot of Microsoft’s E3 energy was spent promoting the device, and we will have our hands-on impressions up soon.
Bits and pieces
Then of course there were tonnes of games being shown, including Medal of Honour, Crysis 2, Dead Space 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Mafia II, Portal 2, Gran Turismo 5, Fable 3 and loads more. Gabe Newel of Valve announced that Portal 2 will be released for PS3, and that it will be the best console version thanks to Steam integration coming to the console. Gran Turismo 5 finally got a western release date, and a new Twisted Metal game was announced for PS3.
Life sized statues of a Big Daddy and Little Sister from Bioshock outside the 2K Games stand
Bethesda’s stand decorated with Fallout: New Vegas and Hunted stuff
E3 even had a world cup fever corner
Life sized Halo figures adorned the entrance
The Gran Turismo 5 demo showed off the PS3’s 3D capabilities
The Onlive stand received a lot less attention this year
Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel was taking on expo attendees at Quake 4
Discuss E3 in the forums
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