DailyGame’s only E3 rookie showed up in Los Angeles with stars in his eyes and butterflies in his stomach. He handled the firestorm of E3 admirably, but when it came time for his first after-hours booth tour, he nearly burst with excitement. Below is his journal entry from that first E3 event.
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After the first day of E3 closed on Wednesday, the Microsoft booth re-opened after-hours to give a select few gamers free run of the Xbox 360 and PC games for two hours. Although 400 people may seem like a lot, in the vastness of Microsoft’s booth (and compared to the masses at E3), it was surprisingly spread out, and we were able to play pretty much anything we wanted.
Once we assembled in what felt like a compound, Xbox Live community guru Major Nelson thanked us for coming and introduced executive Peter Moore and the person responsible for the Blog Bus that Microsoft had outside the convention center. He then announced there would be a drawing every 30 minutes for Best Buy gift certificates that increased in their amount each time a name was drawn. He also announced everyone in attendance would get T-shirts and a one-year subscription to Xbox Live Gold, an Xbox Live Arcade game and 200 Microsoft Points. Most of the crowd erupted at that point, but we were really there for one reason: to play the games. And play them we did.
We got some hands-on time with Chromehounds, Saint’s Row, Too Human and dozens of other titles, and we also got to talk with the man of hour himself, Major Nelson.
“What’s your favorite game?” he asked.
My mind started racing over the titles I saw, but Chromehounds had been on my radar for so long (since I own one of the most hardcore ‘Mech games made, Steel Battalion), so I pretty much knew what I was going to say.
“There’s so many of them,” I stuttered, “but Chromehounds has really grown on me. And it would be even better if it could use the Steel Battalion controller.”
Major Nelson smiled. “Well, that’s difficult,” he replied simply.
And with that, he headed back into the crowd to talk to other gamers.
I met some great people and hooked up with a member of the PMS clan, with whom I’ve played on Halo 2 a lot. I also took advantage of the food and refreshments, which was GREAT. The C3@E3 was truly a top night out, and my thanks to Major Nelson, Peter Moore and Microsoft for inviting me.
