day 1 of the be-there-now.

so there we were, still no press passes, but with a much more level-headed correspondent. so it was okay.

this is one of the few actual pieces of reportage to emerge from our voyage to e3.

i confess, on behalf of the editorial staff, we weren't really sure what to do with it. it didn't seem to fit in. . . but eventually we edited it thoroughly, and it's up on the internet now.

some things are better understood. ^_^

this was actually the one day of the expo that i thought i was going to miss.

turns out i chose to go after all. . . i wasn't sure if it was the greatest of ideas when i first thought about it. after all, i had work that day. however, it hit me that this was e3, the largest electronic game expo held every year, and every minute that i would get to see that exhibit floor would count.

(bigger than the game developer's conference? of course!)

into the hall

as soon as i entered west hall to start my first day off at e3, i wasn't disappointed. for those of you familiar with e3 and the los angeles convention center, the convention filled the place. not just one hall or two halls, but all 5 available halls.

the first booth i got to, partially because it was one of those companies i wanted to hit, but mostly because it was close to the entrance, was working designs. they had quite a few functional demos available, including one of ray crisis, one of the arc the lad collection, and one of lunar 2: eternal blue. this title, of course, was the most anticipated of working design's games at the show, since the sales numbers of lunar : silver star story complete were so spectacular. i wasn't disappointed, either. in the short time i got to try out the game, i was impressed by the voice performances of the characters in the game, not to mention the support of the dual shock controllers. the graphics were also spectacular, which led me to wonder why anime series don't always look this good and have as good a dub job. . . ^_^

it is the largest, after all. . .

also of note of my visit to west hall was my stop over at atlus.

rhapsody: a musical adventure. . . this game is so cute! it's an rpg, in the standard style, but it is extraordinarily cute. . . lots of singing by the main characters. they gave out the full english original sound track for the game. filled with lovely music. i'll admit, the singing itself is a bit flakey, but at least it's cute ^_^.

they also announced a new game that they are working on - persona 2: eternal punishment. and while the only thing i have gotten for the game is the poster that they were distributing, it's a nice poster. i hope that the game turns out as nice as the poster ^_^;; .

of course, the big 3 companies (nintendo, sony, sega) were all inside that west hall. i did browse in for a bit. more about this later.

i of course also got a chance to hit the booths that were on the other side of the hall. . . nothing too impressive.

hasn't the word 'cute' been used too many times in this article already?

i did, of course, have to stop in at the gamer's republic booth, since a.d. vision was there.

i was really hoping to get more information about the dates for lost universe. unfortunately, i got nothing out of them, except a few ads.

also of interest was the bandai booth, where they seemed to be showing off a new gundam game in the works. that's bound to be lots of fun.

(and of course, this publication is anime-focused, so why not).

since nintendo's area was on the right, i went to it first. i noticed hey you, pikachu - hey, how cute. now you can communicate with the yellow electric mouse through a microphone implement for the controller. . . perfect dark - new shooter game for the n64 and gameboy (i was shocked by that double release thing too). doesn't look half bad. i saw plenty of people around the game, playing 4 player deathmatch-style games. . . legend of zelda - majora's mask - nice.

then it was only a quick hop and a step over to the sony booth. unfortunately, i have little to report here. there were quite a few games out on the floor, but all very popular.

by 'very popular', our brave correspondent means 'stuffed full with a sweating mass of people such that the games were totally inaccessible.' . . . just a minor clarification from the ed. staff.

then there was the sega area. it had an impressive setup! large area and all. . . the entrance was lovely. they also had a large screen television (for certain events), and a wall of graffiti. but the thing that caught my eye was the display under the sega sign. for those of you that caught it, the game under there was space channel 5. apparently, sega hired girls to dance above the floor in the outfits that the characters wear in the game - short skirts, vinyl-ish, in bright colors. . .

i couldn't help but stare. . .

(hey, isn't apollo smile involved in that?)

and stare. . .

and stare. . .

and stare. . .

and stare. . . (no doubt drooling all the while).

well, you get the point. . . geez, this is what i get for trying to look for people trying to get pictures of panty shots

i did also get a small chance to hit south hall, with its squaresoft exhibit, microsoft xbox demos and such, but most of my experiences came out on the second day (which is where most of the info will be). the only thing i can remember seeing in that hall on that first day was this: bleem for dc to play ps games. . . weird.

definitely weird.