E3 2012: E3 Daily Journal - Day 0
By: Jeff Rivera
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I love day 0. Day 0, or the day before the show floor opens, is usually where the majority of the drama happens. Typically Sony and Mircosoft hold their conferences, which they did so this year, and everybody is left wondering what Nintendo will have the next morning as an answer. The major 3rd party publishers also typically hold their events on day 0 as well. So, here's how day 0 went for me.
I was up early this morning. In most years I'm in a hotel that's downtown, and there's usually shuttles to the press conferences. Well, this year I'm staying at the Hilton in Universal City. It's a nice hotel, but I don't have shuttle service to any of the press events, just for the LA Convention Center itself. To get to the Microsoft event on time this morning, I had to leave by 7:30am.
After a shower and some final prep, I made my way out of the hotel and started the walk down the steep road to the subway station as I ate my breakfast of an energy bar and a chocolate milk box. Kind of unsatisfying, but easy to eat and carry. Two transfers later and I had made it to the Galen Center, and the crowd waiting to get into Microsoft's conference was huge. I thought that it would be a mess getting inside, but the staff in charge got everybody filed in quickly. It was actually kid of impressive.
The buzz inside was oddly muted. Nobody knew what Microsoft had aside from Halo 4, but anticipation and energy was lower than I would have guessed. Microsoft kicked off the event with Halo 4 gameplay, which was a wise move as it got everybody immediately engaged. The rest of the show was a mix of hits and misses with Micosoft focusing heavily on service-orientated functionality for the 360. I enjoyed the conference, but found that buzz online was not super positive. Weird.
After the conference wrapped up, I left with ringing ears (seriously, the volume was WAY too high in there) and made my way to the LA Convention Center to pick up my media badge. I hate wading through the lines the day of the show, so I've been doing this the last couple of years. The center looked great. Huge banners all over the place and advertising placed anywhere it could fit. Hitman had the West Hall stairs, and the outside banners were taken by EA and Sony. Getting my badge was quick and easy, and I spent some time in the media hospitality room to grab a quick snack and rest my feet. Unfortunately someone who was paying more attention to his cell phone than where he was going spilled lemonade on me. Not cool.
Leaving the LACC, I decided that I'd try to save some money, so I went to go buy some food I could use for cheap lunches and dinners that I could make in my hotel room. I rode the subway back to Universal City, and mapped out on my phone the route to the nearest grocery store. Just over half a mile a way, I decided to make the walk before dropping off my gear. Big mistake. It was warm out, and carrying three bags of groceries, drinks, and all of my camera equipment was a killer. By the time I made the trek back and got up into my room, I was gassed.
I took a nap before the Sony conference.
Sony came out and put on a decent press conference, but the WonderBook stuff fell totally flat with attendees. It was just way too much time dedicated to something that only need a few minutes to properly introduce. The lack of a strong Vita presence at the conference left me baffled and somewhat worried about future support for the handheld.
After the Sony conference I browsed online and caught up on the other announcements of the day. After day 0, Watch Dogs, Last of Us, Halo 4, and Rayman Legends top my list of games that I want to play, but Nintendo's conference will most likely introduce a few more onto the list. After pushing out a few articles tonight, I'm off to bed early. Day 1 is upon us shortly, and it gets started real early with Nintendo's E3 press conference. I'm tired, but I'm excited.
