E3 2011 Secret Diary: Tuesday
Wednesday 8th June, 10am
Welcome to bus journeys of the poor and a bit famous in the right circles on the Internet. As I zoom my way down Olympic, through Koreatown on the way to the Conference Center, I have a quick moment to update you on yesterday.
E3 is a ridiculous place. The self-importance required to construct a poster the size of a building must be enormous. And pretty much every game has one. Everything has to be BIG. And nothing is bigger this year than Nintendo, Microsoft and Playstation's "booths". Each is the size of a small town. They literally have maps.
And the noise. The noise is such that almost no communication is possible on the show floor. EA's vast screen has its audio bellowed out by speakers larger than God's own, so loudly that the EA staff all look as though they're holding off tears.
(This bus is now going at 700mph and I am going to die.)
It's as if the publishers believe that if their bits and pieces are the biggest and the loudest then people will like them the most. They won't, publishers. They'll rock quietly in the corner whole wiping the blood from their ears.
(I'm the only person on this bus who sniggers when the electronic voice says, "Stop requested. Please use rear exit.)
People have often complained in the past that E3 has gotten too big. The thing is, that's only literally true. If everyone could just use some sense, bring regular screens and not build a city to house something that will eventually be played in someone's living room, they could probably host it in a village hall. Like a gas, the pomposity of the games industry fills the space it's given.
Today should be a good day. I'm set to get my hands on the five games I'm most excited about this hear. Beginning with Tomb Raider. I'll try to give you some impressions of that tonight, or in RCT first thing in the morning.
Hopefully you caught the Battlefield 3 preview, and my interview with CCP in which I try to unravel what on Earth is going on there. And there will be loads more coverage of what I'm seeing in previews that'll appear next week.
But now my bus draws close to my destination, having gone so fast that we skipped through time, such that this has finished before I started writing it. Love you all.