It's the last day of E3 here at the LA Convention Center and I thought some might like to get a feel for the event.

On my first full day here in LA I drove from my hotel to the downtown area and found a rare $5/ day parking lot. From there I walked to the Ritz Milner Hotel and hopped on the courtesy shuttle for a free ride right to the main entry of the convention center. On the way I could see large ads painted on the sides of buildings saying things like “Live in your world, Play in ours.” Billboards covered most of the face of the convention center promoting everything from Square Enix, G4TV and Sony to other non-related products like Red Bull. Then again, what else do you drink during those all night “Final Fantasy Tactics” sessions with G4 on in the background? My thoughts continued to wander as our bus driver jockeyed for position in the crowded intersection and finally pulled into the loading zone.

The south entrance was already congested with people. There was a security checkpoint in the lobby for bag inspection, and from there it was just a little hop up the stairs, flash the media badge at the main expo entry, and I was in. First thing I saw was Buena Vista's demo screens showing previews from some new Disney games and all ages titles. Around the corner was the Konami area, which featured a huge video screen running a 25-minute demo montage. With space at a premium value all of the exhibitors' booths were pretty close to each other – and they were all showing demos and blasting the volume. Combined with the din of crowd noise and DJs beckoning people to come to their booth -- the area was extremely noisy. This and the herds of people flowing in and out of every corridor and hallway created a sort of theme park feel.

My first mission was to score myself an nVidia T-shirt. The quest started at nVidia's booth where I was given a green booklet and instructed to visit eight different partner companies. The task seemed daunting, but I was focused. With a little help from fellow Stratics staff member Xeveniah I found all of my contacts and within 20 minutes I returned to my trainer and received my reward. Much like a quest given in your favorite RPG, this task gave me a good introduction to all of the attractions and helped me get my bearings and generally just calm down. With so many thoughts going through my head and the organized chaos all around me I decided to go with the flow and just explore.

By the end of the day I had visited around 3/4 of the attractions, but only experienced about 1/10 of all of the games. The Stratics team of 25+ met up in the lobby around 5:30pm and after a few minutes of human interaction I was keyed down and back on earth. We discussed our assignments, the goodies, the demos, the free junk, the posters, the press kits, the presentations and the contacts we made. Everyone had an expression of exhausted elation at the end of a long fun day, and even though my feet and shoulders were killing for me the hell I had just put them through, all I could think about was the next day and what I'd play first.

It's Friday morning, and I'm sitting in the media lab typing this up. I think it's time I went downstairs and re-acclimate myself to the theme park atmosphere that is E3.

Nic “Kap” Stransky

Staff Writer

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