E for All, Take 2

It’s 10 hours, give or take, before I hit the floor at E For All. If it’s possible to be excited and indifferent at the same time, I guess I am. Let’s face it, E3 is dead. Its shell and some bits of rotting meat still linger about Los Angeles during the summer, but the excitement and anticipation have gone the way of the dinosaurs. Plus, they keep denying my registration. Then there’s the Tokyo Game Show, but for a small time journalist to travel to Japan on the budget I live by is more than a stretch. It’d be a lifestyle change. That and I HATE to fly. Anxiety issues. The only other viable alternatives are Comic-Con and PAX. Comic-Con’s game presence is pretty minimal and PAX, well PAX was inconvenient for me this year, though next year is looking better.

So that leaves me with E For All. Sure, I wanna check out the new titles, get some hands on time, do a little networking and pick up some schwag. I’ll pass on Fatal1ty. Who made this guy “famous” anyway. I guess I can give the guy props for playing games for money, but dude’s got an ego bigger than the convention center. They’re trying a Cosplay contest this year that might spice things up a bit. The Into the Pixel exhibit is always cool, but I can do without the World Cyber Games. I just don’t get the competitions. I’m a competitive guy and I love being a gamer, but video games are not, nor will they ever be a sport, so it just seems like a big waste of space and circumstance.

So, I’ll check out Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft and the independents who are exhibiting and pine for the giant Sony and Nintendo showings whose ghosts may yet still roam the halls of the LA Convention Center.