All Posts by mhampden

...Till next time!

Hey folks, I’m finally home and getting back into the swing of things after one hell of a week in LA.

Here’s my belated blog on day III of E3:

In the morning, Dana and I met with Gordon Walton and Richard Vogel, MMO legends to those in the industry. We couldn’t get any details out of them on their new MMO with Bioware, despite all of Dana’s interrogation skills.
I also got to see a little of Warhammer Online - this is going to be one cool game folks.

Garrett and I got to meet Beth O, who was down at E3 promoting her new show on G4: Filter. She was quite nice, and signed a special autograph for the website, which I’m sure Dana will scan any day now…

The day sped past at lightning speed, 4 o’ clock is closing time on day 3, instead of the usual 6, and I really could have used those extra 2 hours. In the end I raced down to Kentia to see some friends and check out The Witcher one last time before the closing bell.

My only regret was not being able to finagle myself a session with the Wii, I simply didn’t have the time to wait the require 3-4 hours in line.
 
My favorite non-MMO of the show was The Witcher, this games uses Bioware’s Aurora Engine, and looks sensational. The guys from CDPROJEKT (Developers of the Witcher_ were very cool as well, and I picked up a slick Witcher poster while at their booth. It is perhaps my favorite piece of swag.

The Wii was on the tip of everyone's tongue all week, it absolutely has the edge now over Sony's impressive numbers and figure box. Blue-ray shmoo ray, the new control input method is king.
 
My biggest disappointment of the show was all whooping 11 pounds of the PS3. The next GTA game can't come out soon enough.

I still love my PSP though.

All in all, E3 was everything I had hoped it would be and more. It was perhaps the best trip I have ever taken, and the whole experienced really made me feel positive about being a part of the games industry.

We have a young industry, full of talented and excellent people, I can't wait to see where we'll go next.

Bloging is hard when you’re having this much fun!

Yesterday was day 2 of E3, and it was every bit as manic as day one

I started the day off by checking out many a booth, and getting my first look at the new Battlefield title, Battlefield 2142. I’m a huge fan of the series, so I’m pretty hyped about the game.

My first interview of the day was with the guys from Flying Labs, to check out Pirates of the Burning Sea – Check out the feature I wrote on the game, it should be up later today.

For you guys who love a laugh out there, I literally bumped into Jeremy from Pure 0wnage (He’s responsible for the hilarious World of Warcraft Episode) on the show floor – and as luck would have it, he agreed to an interview with us! Fans can check it out on an upcoming podcast.

The day ended with a fantastic party thrown by the guys from The Escapist, there were loads of good industry folks there, it was nice to get to know some of them in an unofficial capacity.

I was quite busy all day, but here are a few quick thoughts about what happened on day 2:

• Adam West was signing Family guy stuff at E3, but sadly I wasn’t able to see him

• The line for the Wii just keeps getting long, I plan on trying to sneak in at the end of today, but I doubt I’m the only one.

• Gods and Heroes looks cool

• Age of Conan is giving away inflatable swords, I want one

• Webzen is giving away inflatable surfboards, I want one of those too

• I made the trek through Kentia hall again, there are some very cool European  games in Kentia, including the Witcher, which I can’t wait to check out.

• The Burning Crusade looks excellent, I may have to start playing WoW again

E3 E3 E3!!!

I don’t think I’ve gotten out of bed early so easily since I was a kid on Christmas morning!

Ok. So I owe you guys an extra blog, somehow I didn’t manage to post yesterday’s blog this morning… y’know, with the show opening and all. Here’s a quick rundown of what happened yesterday…

 Yesterday Jon, Garrett, and I attended the eFocus party. It was definitely the best party we’ve been to thus far, featuring loads of free drinks, excellent food, and an outstanding service staff that I take my hat off to.

At eFocus Garrett was able to catch up with the guys from the Chronicles of Spellborne, while Jon and I caught up with Neverdie and his crew from Club Neverdie of the Entropia Universe. At the Neverdie booth we got an excellent podcast interview with Cheri London, the world’s first MMO internet Diva. We also got an interview with the guys from Global Gaming League, so check that out too.

Besides those I’ve mentioned we met a number of excellent industry people and in general we had a great time. Be sure to check out our gallery of the party and look out for the podcast interviews soon!

Ok now on to today.

E3 is insane, it’s awesome it’s the most fun I’ve had in a while. A quick rundown of stuff:

 - PS3 looked disappointingly average, like the PS2 with better graphics… Maybe some other titles will change my mind – we’ll see.

- Being able to actually play games at E3 is damn near impossible, there’s are 2 hour + wait times for the Wii… needless to say I couldn’t stand in line.
 
- Contrary to popular belief, booth babes are alive and well, and our gallery will prove this once and for all.

- Played Dungeon Runners, it was okay… Felt early, vaguely reminded me of WoW.

- EA has a very cool booth, Nokia’s booth is equally cool, though much different, it’s as if they built a nightclub inside E3.

- Thanks to everyone who posed for pictures, you guys were great.

Pretty much all I can tell ya at the moment, tune in to the news section for news and features as they arrive!

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?