General Discussion

Whoa, what a day!

Yesterday was day one of our E3 week here in LA, and it was quite interesting to say the least.

We started the day by heading down to the LA Convention Center to pick up our press badges. Dana displayed his poor sense of direction by leading us all the way around the outside of the West Hall in an vain attempt to find an entrance.

Eventually we found a way into the building through the underground parking. Dana assured us this was the way he meant to go… right…

Anyway, Badge pick-up was easy, the badges themselves are pretty slick, and I’m happy to finally have one.

Jon and Garrett went off to have some fun in Hollywood, while Dana and I settled down to do some work.

Our first meeting was with Howard Marks of Acclaim, we got to learn a lot about Acclaim and their title 9 Dragons over some delectable wild-mushroom pasta.

It was around 1 pm at the time, so Dana and I decided to kill a few hours wandering around downtown LA. I can’t say we found anything all that interesting, but we did grow rather concerned when we wandered into a part of town with zero cabs, and not a single car from a year beyond 1980…
 
We wandered back past Staples Center and got back to our Hotel in time for an interview with the guys from Darkfall. You can read all about it in my preview of the game here One thing I didn’t mention in the article is the enormous size of Tasos and Kjetil from Darkfall. I’m 6’3 and these guys make me look like a midget. I hope to see them at the show so I can get a picture of em’ with all 5’6 inches of Mr. Jon Wood.

The evening ended with a trip down Sunset blvd, and watching folks ride the mechanical bull at some bar… the name escapes me, but the bartender gave us some free shots, I think he could tell we were not LA natives. As I write this we’re seeing our hotel being invaded by fellow Games Industry folks, easily the coolest of these was a guy with a yellow Ferrari, his plates read: VIDGMES. How cool is that?

Howard Marks? If at all possible can you sneak him this statement. You can work it over with your awesome ninja skills:

"If you care so much about the Acclaim license and the gamers who have formed an emotional attachment to the brand. How come you're releasing games meant for 9-13 year old "tweens". Acclaim brought us Mortal Kombat, more than 13 years ago. Granted the last MK game they had anything to do with was 1996, but that's when MK stopped getting good. Acclaim also published Turok and Burnout. Okay, so Acclaim did publish Mary-Kate and Ashley: Sweet 16, but I'm sure the little girls just went crazy with it.

Blitz 1941 is a great Cash Shop game to localize. Recently, the international version was cut off by Hanbane by poor translation of the developer. If Acclaim doesn't take the opportunity to get it, a company like Code Masters will. And they’re European. Acclaim can’t lose to them. For the sake of all the NA players with lousy ping times to the UK. Acclaim must win!"

Oh, Stradden said the restaurant name was the "Saddle Ranch". Did you ride the mechanical bull too?

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Originally posted by Obiyer

Oh, Stradden said the restaurant name was the "Saddle Ranch". Did you ride the mechanical bull too?

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