Multi Platform Gamer

E3 2012: E3 Daily Journal - Day 2

By: Jeff Rivera

Day 2 is typically the most serious day of E3. Day 1 is a shorter day, and you're still trying to figure out what the must see games are on the show floor. By day 2, you have a good feeling of what you want to see, but it's also the day with the longest hours, so you generally fit in more appointments and demos. By the end of day 2, you really start to feel the fatigue hitting, but you're eager for that third day when you can either play the games you've missed or revisit your favorites.

Day 2 started out a little later than any of the other days thus far. Zach and I got up, showered, and hurried out the door to get some breakfast up at the Universal City Walk before hopping on the subway and heading to the convention center. Zach still hadn't registered for the show, so our first order of business was to hit up the media registration desk. After some credential checks and some waiting, Zach had his media badge and we were headed for the Nintendo booth.

Before I could get into Nintendo's cozy section of the show floor, I met up with Jersey Jack pinball to check out his upcoming Wizard of Oz pinball machine. I'm an avid pinball machine collector, and Jersey Jack's newest creation was being shown to the public for the first time at E3 2012. I did a quick interview with Jack, flipped a few balls, and then made my way to Nintendo where Zach has wrapping up another demo. We spent some time in Nintendo's booth, which is always crowded with eager fans and curious journalists. We tried out Platinum Games' surprise game, Project P-100 (working title), Pikmin 3, New Super Mario Bros. U, Game and Wario, and several other Wii U and 3DS offerings.

After wrapping up at Nintendo, I had an appointment coming up in South Hall with Natsume, but I did have enough time to check out a few titles in the Sony booth. Sony has a deceptively good showing at E3, despite the lack of enthusiasm after their press conference. More on this later.

Natsume ended up being a little disappointing aside from the new features that will be packed into the next Harvest Moon. It seems as if they really want to start making more changes to the franchise, and I think it's a good move.

With Natsume finished, Zach and I hit up Sony once more and we moved from station to station. We played PlayStation All-Stars together. It was fun, but it lacks soul right now. The Vita demo stations looked inviting, and after some time with PSN games, we hit up the Vita demos, with Jet Set Radio sucking me in for longer than it had any right to.

After a few more demos in the Sony booth, we checked out Microsoft and I found my hidden gem of the show. Dust: An Elysian Tail is a game coming for XBLA that looked just gorgeous and it was a treat to play. It's an action RPG with a 2D view, but it's the art style that really sang. I'll have a preview on that coming in the next day or two.

We finished our day out over in the South Hall, getting our hands on all the 3rd party goodness stacked up over there. We saw the next Worms game, Scribblenauts Unlimited, Spy Hunter, more of Rayman Legends, Resident Evil 6, Final Fantasy Theatrhythm, Need for Speed: Most Wanted and much more. Zach is currently leaning towards Rayman Legends as his game of show, and I'm not too far behind him on that.

Coming out of the show we were excited by the day. It was Zach's first ever time at E3, and he'd seen a lot. We chatted with some friendly journalists before heading to dinner and doing a bit of souvenir shopping for family back home. I'm now here typing away, putting up previews I don't have the time nor the patience to copy edit. It's late. I need to be asleep so that I'm not dead on the show floor tomorrow, but there's still the best of E3 awards to sort out. Sleep can wait. It has to.

Day 2 is typically the most serious day of E3.