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

Day 4 - Wednesday 8th June:
Breakfast is an important meal. So to skip it would be insane. Especially at an event like E3, where you can easily work yourself into a hunger without even knowing it. After waiting a whole half-hour just to get a glance from the waitress at my hotel's restaurant, I decided to bite the bullet and invest in a 7-11 breakfast. An 'English Muffin,' apparently. My body didn't like my brain after that encounter.

What I found interesting about restaurants in America is that many of them have menus that list the number of calories in each dish. That would be rather helpful, if any of the items on these menus were under 1300 calories. Seriously, I ordered Mac and Cheese one night and received a portion big enough for three people! I guess if you end up walking around the E3 show floor all day like I was, you can easily burn that all up though.

Whereas I was spending a lot of time with Square Enix games on Tuesday, this was very much a SEGA day, experiencing a tour of the company's booth and sitting in with developers behind closed doors. I think SEGA's booth had to be one of my favourites at the event - each game was excellently themed, and the masterstroke was the Sonic Generations 20th Anniversary section which featured two huge statues of both Classic and Modern Sonic. I was in heaven, yes.

Even better was that in the evening I was a guest of honour at SEGA of America's special Sonic Boom event in the Club Nokia venue across the road. Sonic Boom was a celebration of Sonic's 20th Anniversary in the form of a party for the legion of fans around the world. As a creator of a Sonic fan convention in London, I was asked to talk a bit about Summer of Sonic to the American crowd, and it was lovely.

Getting to enjoy a performance from Crush 40 (the band that makes the theme songs to the Sonic games), have a photo taken with Yuji Naka and chat to loads of American Sonic fans was an especially amazing experience, and one that I was very lucky to have been a part of.


Day 5 - Thursday 9th June:
The last day of E3 and besides the fact that Operation No Breakfast was still in action at my hotel, things were pretty chilled out and ran very smoothly. I managed to meet Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada for the first time, take a look at Serious Sam and re-enact that scene from 300 on the new Yoostar game.

To think it all started with a culinary disaster. Avoiding 7-11 this time around, I thought of taking a look inside the LA Convention Centre itself for something to eat. Imagine my surprise when I read that the Galaxy Court was offering a 'Grilled Chicken Sandwich'! Imagine my chagrin when I bought it and discovered that it was just a burger. A burger is not a sandwich. A sandwich is a sandwich.

My day of exploring booths, visiting hotels and meeting developers ended with a hands-on demonstration of Nintendo's new Wii U hardware, which I enjoyed very much despite the games on show being mere tech demos. I especially had fun with the pirate ship-based rhythm game, where you had to move around to block cartoon arrows and shake the controller to remove them from your touch screen's view.

After all was said and done at the LACC, I spent some time having a final hurrah with Chris. I have to say, working with him has been fantastic - he really helped me out and gave me some pointers on how best to tackle the mammoth that is E3. A lot of other friends also helped share some knowledge and for that I'm grateful.

E3 is definitely unlike any other event I have been to in the six years I've been working in this industry - the enthusiasm, the madness, the schedules and the friendliness of others is something to behold, really.

I'm now on the plane journey home as I write this, feeling a little bit fatter and a little bit wiser. I'll sum up my current situation in true British fashion. The chap in front of me has pushed his chair back so far that my head's in my computer screen, the armrests on both sides of my chair are being used by the other guys, there's a screaming child kicking my seat behind me and I've been writing copy for the last seven hours.

It'll probably be raining when I land in London as well. But you know what? As much as I love E3 and LA, it'll be great to be home. I could murder a real sandwich.

Disclosure: Svend's trip to E3 was sponsored by SEGA of America.