Features// E3 2011: A First-Timer's Perspective

I've covered a lot of press events over the last few years of my career, but in this past week I managed to accomplish something of a goal of mine - to attend E3. Nope, I'd never been before. Hell, I'd never even been to America, let alone Los Angeles. As far as firsts go, this was a triple whammy.

So sensing a poignant and douchebag-like opportunity, I decided to write about my experience. Maybe some of you will read back on this, nod wisely and think, 'yes, I remember encountering the same on my first trip to E3.' Maybe some of you will just think 'God, what a twat, he needs to sort himself out.' Maybe I'll just punch you in the stomach. Who knows what crazy shit will come as a result of this brain-pouring madness?


Day 1 - Sunday 5th June:
All I had to do was sit in a flying tin box for eleven hours. What's so hard about that? Well, the night before I practically had no sleep - hayfever for the lose. In a midnight dash to grab some tissues, I epically smashed my toe against my hard-as-nails suitcase. It bled a fair bit. I won't even go into the fact I had rank sushi for dinner on the Saturday and I was fiercely suffering the consequences.

My typical Sunday morning continued when I travelled to the train station to head into London, only to realise that I had forgotten my passport and had to speed back home to retrieve it. To top it all off nicely, the rechargeable battery on my trusty four-year-old MacBook had kicked the bucket, which meant an impromptu purchase of a new work computer.

With a functioning work computer set, and a hell of a morning behind me, I hopped on the plane to Los Angeles. That was probably the most boring bit, besides the fact I only enjoyed about a half hour's worth of sleep.


Day 2 - Monday 6th June:
You'd have thought that I'd snooze like a bastard after hitting my hotel at 11pm, but in actual fact I woke up at something chronic like 5am. I had my first taste of American cuisine - something called the Denver Omelette, which was immense - a wrapped up eggy feast that was packed to bursting with chicken, bacon, mushrooms and onions. It was lovely.

Less lovely was my first taste of American public transport. I hopped on a bus with a smile of hope, and instead endured a rather awkward conversation with the bus driver that made my face want to invert on itself. These guys aren't very tourist-friendly.

After being dropped off at the wrong place and having to figure out the quirks of a second bus (I don't learn), I reached the Galen Centre and met up with Chris O'Regan, fellow E3 correspondent for SPOnG.

Travelling between each conference was made much easier thanks to the coaches that ferried press all over the city. Electronic Arts and Ubisoft's events were held within two blocks of each other down the same road - both in really fancy auditoriums, which were like shining beacons against a somewhat dilapidated side of LA.

Sony definitely had the largest party of them all, having set up a massive area outside the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena which housed beer tents and burger trucks. The conference itself was particularly slick, but I wouldn't have been able to tell you that at the time because it was incredibly difficult to connect to the WiFi hotspot. After suffering internet blackout at both EA and Ubisoft's conferences before it, I learned a valuable less this day - never trust the provisional press facilities.


Day 3 - Tuesday 7th June:
The first real day of E3 begins, and I'm still trying to figure out how to cross the road. There's a mammoth-sized zebra crossing just outside my hotel - I ended up waiting for a chap to start walking across it before I was brave enough to attempt it. Roads are massive.

No bus for me here - nor ever again, as my hotel is quite a handy 20-minute walk away from the LA Convention Centre - but I did have to add to my jet lag by waking up early to attend Nintendo's press conference. The was the one that mattered to me, what with the announcement of the company's next home console and all. You can read my thoughts on the conference and the Wii U elsewhere, but I'm damned if Nintendo doesn't know how to smother us with fan service.

The WiFi was still crap up in there - which sucked hardcore, as I was eager to update my Nintendo 3DS to get my free Excitebike on. Instead, I played Mario Kart, Starfox 64 and Luigi's Mansion 2 on demonstration 3DS pods outside of the Nokia Theatre when Nintendo's conference ended.

At noon, the doors to the LA Convention Centre opened, and you should have seen the size of the crowd waiting to storm into the halls. There were some epic queues for all of the games, but I was more concerned about keeping the appointments I had arranged - including one with We Dance developer Nordic Games, who had the misfortune of having to deal with TV output and Wii development kit problems.

Annoyingly, my 3DS decided to kill itself just before I walked into the Nintendo roundtable that evening. I was doubly gutted when I saw Shigeru Miyamoto mention that his personal Mii was being transferred to the audience's 3DS machines via StreetPass. "I have an unofficial one and an official one," he said. "You know this is the real Mii because I'm wearing gold pants." Classy.