Note: This is the last in a series of posts about Los Angeles. For previous posts, click here and here.
The last day of E3 was fun, as the crowds started thinning out a bit, and I had a free hour at the end of the show. If you're tired of hearing about all of this - just skip this post. If you're still here, I'd love to show you a little more of the spectacle and craziness that is E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo.
First, I went back to the Sega booth. They are working on a game called "Sonic & Mario: London 2012 Olympics". To showcase the game, they built a little bit of London:
And for those of you that like the show Glee, our friends at Konami bring you the sequel to Glee Karaoke Revolution, so you can sing along with your favorite Glee characters:
I found a really interesting game for families, called "Once Upon A Monster". This is a game that uses characters from Sesame Street, and takes advantage of the Xbox Kinect (where you use your hands and legs as controllers):
Over at Warner Brothers, they like to create "Lego" games - using Lego characters in various movies. These are some of the most-popular games for kids, because the characters never really die and they're a lot of fun ; ) They have Lego Star Wars, Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Batman...and Lego Harry Potter:
Here's a quick look at the entire Warner Brothers booth:
Over at THQ, they have a product called uDraw. This is a device that connects to the Nintendo Wii, and allows kids to draw pictures that show up on the TV. I think it's a really cool way for kids to see their artwork instantly:
Right next to our booth was a strange set-up This wasn't a game, but an interesting toy/gadget. It's called the AR Drone, and it's a remote-controlled flying drone:
The best part is that you can control it with an iPhone/iPad, and it has a camera, so you can see where it's flying! The booth was set-up like a beach area. There was a large net surrounding the entire thing, so the drones wouldn't go where they weren't supposed to:
There was a booth dedicated to the history of videogames. They had ALL of the systems displayed, from the 70's, forward. I got a little nostalgic, looking at systems I had played as a kid - as well as systems that I had actually worked on:
The Atari 2600 - one of my first systems, as a kid
The beloved 3DO Multiplayer - one of the first consoles that I worked on...
The Sega Dreamcast - one of the best systems I had a hand in...
Jumping back into today's games, they had a new driving game called Forza Motorsport 4, for the Xbox 360. Microsoft brought a very expensive Ferrari to show off:
I went to look at the other "heavy hitters" in the industry, to see their giant booths. Each one had booths of around 30,000 square feet. First up, is Nintendo. In this video, you'll see some REALLY long lines. These were for people to get a "hands-on" with the new Nintendo Wii U:
Next up was the Sony Playstation booth:
Sony announced a brand-new portable unit, called the Playstation Vita. It's a slick mobile device that has some great gaming features. I personally don't think it will do well outside of Japan, as people don't want to carry a smart phone, as well as a dedicated gaming device. The iPhone has clearly disrupted this part of the market:
This was the line to get into the special PS Vita area of the Sony booth. I was very surprised that the line was this long, on the last day of the show:
T-Mobile showed up at E3 this year. They were showcasing all of the gaming that could be done with their phones and service. The interesting part, is that they built almost a complete diner inside their booth. It was amazing. They had people serving food and drinks, while people tried out the phones:
One last picture from the AMD booth. We now have the capability of connecting up to 5 monitors/screens to a single graphics card, in a PC. By placing these monitors in "portrait mode", it makes some games even more interesting to play, as you can see much more of the world that you're playing in:
One last panorama of the E3 show floor, from a different perspective this time:
The parting shots are more of a "behind-the-scenes". To understand how all the booth displays and equipment get in the Los Angeles Convention Center, I decided to walk back to the loading dock - and being from a trucking family, I was very familiar with how this whole operation worked:
Just a small portion of the loading area. Within 90 minutes, all of these boxes would go back inside to be packed.
One of four separate loading areas for trucks/trailers.
That's it for E3 2011. I hope you found these pictures and movies interesting. Going to this show reminds me of how much I love this industry. Thanks for reading!
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