It's good to be back where internet connections work properly! Hell, I even worked on articles on the plane. After a nap, of course, was up at 7am, then after we got home (midnight) I put stuff away, sorted the laundry and worked on some more things.

So for E3 coverage:

And other news:

Saints Row 2 mobile trailer
Valhalla Knights 2 trailer (JP, EN subtitles)
Zoo Hospital screenshots
Our House screenshots
Cooking Mama World Kitchen screenshots
Wonder World Amusement Park DS screenshots
Viva Pinata Pocket Paradise screenshots
I Heart Geeks screenshots
All-Star Cheer Squad screenshots
Saints Row 2 screenshots
Tomb Raider: Underworld trailer launches on BBC
Tomb Raider: Underworld beneath the surface trailer
SAGA releases Undead expansion
Codeminion releases Ancient Quest of Saqqarah
Rock Band Adds Nine Inch Nails tracks to Download Catalog
Tomb Raider: Underworld preview event with James Cameron
Guitar Hero: On Tour goes on tour in London
2K Sports Announces Exclusive Video Game Partnership

Back to work! ^_^

Whew. It's over. Yet another exhausting day, plus two trips out of the LACC to hotels for meetings to see Gamecock's titles and The Game Factory... except as we got up to the suite, we see Damien barely standing up straight with a hospital bracer on his wrist. Poor guy did something to his back, a disc popped out of place and his ciatic nerve is now giving him a hard time. So no meeting, just an assets disc I need to go over when I get the time. We'll set some web conference thingy when he feels better.

I got to play Wii Music today, so much fun. Silly fun, mind you, but still Got to see Capcom's games (CAPCOM!! I never had any contact with them before, so this meeting was a huge surprise), they had SFIV japanese arcade machines thre, wow. I took a bunch of pictures, need to upload them still though. Check the album later or tomorrow for those. Also saw Tomb Raider Underworld, Monster Lab, Battlestations Pacific, Sonic Unleashed, SFII HD Remix, RE5, played on the balance board with Shaun White Snowboarding, Animal Crossing City Folk, Velvet Assassin, Flock, and that's about all I remember right now. More photos uploaded, some still need to be done, clicky.

Working on turning my notes into articles, so this is what I have for now, Nintendo press conference, XSEED and SouthPeak.

Here are the new E3 posts, and here are the non-related news:

Roogoo announced for DS and Wii
UltiMotion Swing Zone: plug and play motion game system
Time of War Released - C1assic Shooter Fun Is Back!
Spore Origins available on AT&T mobile phones
Be the Dark Knight in the All-new Online Game
Lastest Update AVENCAST: Rise of the Mage released
CDV and Mark Ecko to bring I Heart Geeks for DS
CGS World Quarterfinals Results: July 16, 2008
Pok?mon Video Game Showdown
I AM 8-BIT art exhibition returns
PlayStation by the Numbers: June 2008
BigWorld Announces Local Presence in Japan and South Korea
Nordic Game Partners with the GC Developers Conference
1C Company And Buka Ltd. Announce Acquisition Deal
Partnertrans UK Ltd Unveils New Name and Identity

Back to typing!

My meeting with Atari turned out to be a big mess, at the last minute changed to the show room (well, like friday or something), but since I wanted to speak to someone from CDPR, someone called upstairs and up I went. And had to wait almost 20 minutes...

Anyway, thanks to the craptacular wireless connection at the LACC (wtf, seriously, I got NOTHING done except at the hotel, and everyone I talked to kept complaining about it too), so I couldn't check the Q&A for The Witcher Enhanced Edition that I had in my email notepad... and with all the excitement, I forgot most of what I wanted to ask. But I got my copy of the game (CD and cover, complete with a smiley face) signed by Tomasz Gop, assistant producer. OMG! WHEEE! I was literally jumping around (as soon as I got out of sight of everyone, of course lol).

.

He was so nice too, and was apparently surprised I knew the game like the back of my hand, and the fact that I was a reviewer AND a fan. Because it seems like a lot of people at E3 are attending but don't even play games, let alone enjoy them. I must have sounded like a total nut too, I mentioned the Halloween plans and the soundtrack in my MP3 player - might as well go all out eh? LOL Anyway, I had such a nice half an hour there, totally made my day.

Especially since the SOE meeting didn't go as planned. We got stuck at the back of the room doing NOTHING because like 3 crews came in to film the games we were trying to look at. Toal "screw you, little guys" situation. At least there were mango smoothies and comfy couches back there... And we got these cool pens with lights that project a bat-signal (yes, THE bat-signal).

Rock Band 2 demo was very cool, took a ton of photos. And found out (it was my 9am meeting) that I can drink a cup of coffee in like record time. It was another long day, had an extra meeting after hours at the Legacy Interactive office, got to say hello to the president and see some demos. Now to find time to type all this down, I am exhausted and half of my notebook is full!

You know what I really like about E3? I can finally have faces for the names I see in my email almost on a daily basis

Oh yeah, photo album updated, clicky clicky!

So um, yeah, what a long day... we had to get up at 6am because of the 7:30 shuttle to the Nintendo press conference. And compared to last year, it was very unimpressive. Mind you, I laughed my @ss off with the Wii Music demonstration, and went oooh and ahh like everyone else over GTA for DS, only to find out there was no footage or images (just a logo).

Still, I got to see the Kodak Theatre and stomp on Britney Spears' star on the Walk of Fame (wow, seriously, who decided she deserved one?).

Plenty of meetings all day, and I also got to meet another Grrlgamer finally, Dawn Then I found The Witcher, and damn, I could seriously just sit there all day admiring the Enhanced Edition *drool*, it's soooo amazing. But anyway, it wasn't my demo time, so we looked at a few other random things before the meetings. Fun things I saw today: X Blade, Our House, Fallout 3, Major Minor's Majestic March, Away: Shuffle Dungeon, Ninja Town, Saints Row 2, Mister Slime, Big Bang Mini, Raven Squad, Zoo Hospital, Monster Madness: Grave Danger, LOTR: Conquest, Valhalla Knights 2, KORG DS-10 Synthesizer, Populous DS, Retro Game Challenge, Wii Music.

Swag? Well, not really. But I got a poster of X Blade (which I really really have to have when it comes out), adorable buttons of Ninja Town, ze goggles (made some guy crack up by actually saying that out loud too) and Nuka Cola bottle from Fallout 3, and a t-shirt for signing up with the Video Game Voters Network.

Brandy has been fantastic keeping the E3 forum updated with the press releases, announcements and fact sheets while I'm in meetings, especially at such an emotional time for her too. Minna has been updating the front page with the daily news too, so there you go, you know where to read it all.

Updated photo album with a HUGE batch of E3 photos, check it out: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27185762@N08/

I even got Kevin Pereira, Morgan Webb and Victor Lucas in there Victor was an accident though lol

See you on the next blog entry!

We had a look around the LACC to get familiar with the room locations a little, and went in to see the artwork exhibit. And here it is, photos of some (or most) of the amazing artwork showcased in the West Hall.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27185762@N08/sets/72157606177647215/

After a really crappy night of headaches like I've never had before and sleeping for like 2 hours, we got up at 5:30 and were at the airport an hour later. The usual boarding mess with the automatic check-in things in Toronto, hate those things. They NEVER read my passport. Ever!

Anyway, damn, I forgot to take a picture by the mini-statue of liberty, holding up the "Geralt for president" poster LOL, but I think the security staff there would probably have me detained or something.

The flight wasn't bad, until kidney pain attacked, and even then, nearly no turbulence, I wasn't dizzy as all hell as usual, and I managed to nap on and off. We went to get our bags, and who was standing next to me? Russel Peters! Yes, the comedian He is sooo nice, we were chatting, found out he plays some energetic Wii Sports boxing (at least it's not jsut me). And it's funny how he guessed Iwas portuguese. I mean, there was nothing visible that would have given that away hehe. Super nice guy though. Forgot to take a picture, lol, even if I took one for the other guy next to us.

The rental car is neat too, I can't remember what it is already (tired). The hotel isn't bad either, though it was so strange driving through Koreatown to get here. We're looking around and it's like only 5% of signs are in English hehe.

Well, here are some news. I am showering, closing my eyes for an hour and heading off to the registration spot. Possibly Hollywood later I wrote directions to the Walk of Fame!

Xbox 360 Console Now Offers Triple the Storage
Legendary Apogee Returns to Action
UK games sales surpass previous records
Modojo.com Launches Comprehensive iPhone Games Coverage
New Rise of the Argonauts video
Rock Band 2 Rocks the World Again
Vanilla Live Games announces new city racer ? BETandRACE
Disney partners with Music For Relief
Project Origin E3 trailer revealed