This was my first time at E3 and it was exactly what I expected it to be, lots of loud music, stunning visual effects, new game concepts, cool gadgets and lots of people who share a passion for games. It was awesome!

There was an awful lot to take in and I'm sure I didn't catch half of it, but here's a fun look at my trip to E3 2004.

Square Enix - Snazzy Cinema Set-up

One of my first stops was the Square Enix Booth. They had a very impressive looking booth that included a 360 degree cinema with a rotating platform. In it they showcased Final Fantasy XII (12), (which I found to be rather impressive looking), and titles from Square Mobile. Also seen in the snazzy cinema was a glimpse of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Squares upcoming direct-to-DVD movie.

NVIDIA - Busy Booth

The NVIDIA booth was very interesting. They showcased lots of games including Unreal Tournament 2004, Call Of Duty, Armies of Exigo and Zoo Tycoon. They also had a showing of the Unreal Engine 3 and a very lively tournament, as well as a showing of "Dawn" a real-time, 3D human character. "Dawn" is brought to life using puppetry techniques borrowed from the film world, the movements and facial expressions were captured extremely well indeed and the overall feel of "Dawn" was actually quite realistic.

In the picture the woman standing to the right is having a discussion with "Dawn" who is controlled by the two women inside the booth.

Here is a picture of the tournament that was being held at the NVIDIA Booth, The machines you're looking at in the picture are the new customizable Compaq X gaming PC's from HP. The PC itself sports an AMD Athlon 64 CPU with an NVIDIA nForce3 chipset and a GeForce 6800 Ultra.

Also found at the NVIDIA booth was a 3D racing sim that could be enjoyed in its fullest by wearing 3D glasses. The interface looked like I could reach out and touch it, with the road and the car appearing a little farther away. The depth perception was pretty good and while the concept itself is not new, it's still pretty cool.

N-Gage QD - Very Appealing

I managed to get a chance to handle the N-Gage QD, its pretty lightweight and slightly smaller than its big brother the original N-Gage.

I didn't get a picture but here is one for those who haven't seen it yet.

Smaller than most regular cell phones and offering wireless game play, PDA features, email, SMS or MMS and XHTML browsing for a better web browsing experience and with its new sleek design I think its well worth its estimated retail price of 99 - 199 US Dollars or Euros.

Nice one Nokia!

Dance Dance Revolution - The Party Scene

Taking a walk past the Dance Dance Revolution booth was always fun:

They had a little nightclub setting where they were showing Karaoke Revolution Volume 2. It was pretty "happenin" in there, even if the room was only 8 X 8.

Shark Tale - Watch Out For Jaws!

Using the Dance Dance Revolution style pad (or the choice of a regular controller) were DreamWorks with their new title Shark Tale that just happens to be based on their upcoming movie. You are a little fish (Oscar) that is trying to escape the jaws of the big nasty shark. In order to get away in time; you have to match the symbols shown on the screen with the correct button presses (much like Parappa the Rappa). It was a lot of fun.

Vivendi Universal - Doing It In Style

Ohh my gosh its Riddick!

Who is this "Vin Diesel" people keep speaking of?

Booth Babes - Watch Out They'll Av Ya!

I snagged a photo opportunity with two of the booth babes from Rumble Roses (Konami), this is a picture of a picture so the quality is a little poor.

Confession - I'm a fake:

I have to admit, I was mistaken for a booth babe once or twice and rather than tell people I wasn't one, I just went ahead and had my picture taken anyway. So if you have a picture of me, and thought I was a booth babe, please accept my humble apologies... It was fun though. :-P

Rant - It wouldn't be a complete trip if I didn't find something to complain about.

Unfortunately with the good comes the bad, and by the end of day three I had blisters on my feet, achy limbs a sore back and a splitting headache.

Learn from my mistakes:

• If you're ever planning on going to E3, book your hotel way in advance, don't wait until the last minute or you might find yourself cooped up in a complete dive 6 or 7 miles from the venue.

  The little dive I stayed in, had a 10 year old TV that looked like it would fall apart if you touched it, half the buttons were missing, all of 4 channels for my viewing pleasure, a chair that leaned at a 40 degree angle but was still in one piece, (which I thought was actually pretty impressive), cigarette burned blankets that just added to the pungent odor that filled the "no-smoking room", no plug for the bathtub, In fact, there was no fixture to put a plug into, it was literally just a hole in the floor of the tub, I was too scared to stand near it while taking a shower for fear of what might jump out.

  I should have realized that it wasn't going to be the best experience when I went to drop my bag off with reception and saw bars on all the windows and doors. The receptionist sat behind a counter with a plastic shield thing, which made it virtually impossible to hear a word she was saying (I managed to perfect my lip-reading skills though). ;-)

  (That hotel wasn't all that cheap either).

  
  

• Don't ride long distances in L.A. cabs unless it's a moral imperative (or you fancy a nice white knuckle ride :-P).

  Can you say "Road Rage"? One of the cab drivers obviously had some kind of stress problem, he would shout at other drivers and every now and again, while making a maneuver would jolt in his seat for no apparent reason, he was playing Mozart and mumbling to himself. He had me quite worried at one point when he did one of his jolts, bumped his head on his visor and in reaction slammed his breaks on in the middle of the freeway. Naturally when he asked me if he could smoke, I said "yes, please... by all means, go ahead".

  
  

Wrapping it up

All in all E3 was an excellent 3 days and I felt a great sense of pride in the industry as I walked around and saw how far it's come since the days of Space Invaders. I'm very much looking forward to the next one.

Hope to see you at E3 next year!

Photos