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20100718.144024
website is now in archive mode. visit blog.subnova.com for information.
20080730.144615
i added amazon context links... just because i can... if they're not too obtrusive... i'll leave them
20080114.231544
enabled mod_deflate on andromeda. the site is now seeing an estimated 80% reduction in overall size for clients to download
20080109.022443
added an rss 2.0 feed for the news at http://www.subnova.com/news/rss/. it will show the 14 most recent posts
20070823.031056
updated cq calculations so that if a member doesn't login to the website in the past 77 days, the contribution points start vanishing in a hurry... tanking the irank
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E3 2004 Part 1: Boy Are My Arms Tired
My journey began the night of May 12, when Miguel suggested that I spend the night at his house instead of trying to get up and make it to JFK by 5AM. After a relatively uneventful night broken only by sleeping from about 1AM to 5AM, Claude arrived, having gotten up at 2 in the morning to drive up from his Connecticut base of operations. We immediately set out for the airport. One minor Bungie joke later, and Miguel, Mark, and Claude were on a Jetblue plane bound for Long Beach.
After myy first view of Long Beach, we quickly rendezvoused with the Bungie Party Wagon, driven by Tom "mnemesis" Van Sinden (note Miguel shooting the identical magnetic sign on the other side). We were driven directly to the convention center, arriving at about 11 AM (the show opens at 10). The building was festooned with banners of all sorts, from these traditional flat squares to the entire helicopter for America's Army.
Getting into the expo was a bit of a problem, since we were required to prove that we were members of the gaming industry to obtain passes. Everyone except me was well-prepared, having read the instructions and arranged things with SketchFactor ahead of time, and got in with his help. Me, I had to resort to convincing the desk girl that my employers Freeverse Software were in fact a game company and that the random pieces of paper with their name on them that I happened to be carrying were evidence that I worked for them. Fortunately, I was successful, although it was a close thing.
We had already heard that Halo 2 was not on the show floor since several of us (including, for the first time, me) had brought laptop computers and were borrowing bandwidths from our various kind hosts. However, shortly after meeting up with (among others) Shishka, Cunbelin, CYBERFRK, and Dolbex, we learned that some lucky people had gotten a chance to go backstage and fill empty slots in games meant for the press, so we made a beeline for the gigantic Microsoft booth. That entryway, incidentally, gradually changed color and was filled with mist. It led to the Xbox arena, a vast and crowded space full of people and game demo stations. On display were playable demos of MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf, Doom 3, Conker Reloaded, Jade Empire, Burnout 3, Timesplitters: Future Perfect (mad props to mad max), Forza Motorsport, Battlefield Modern Combat, Full Spectrum Warrior, and more. The old guard was quickly mesmerized by Conker, and everyone else headed for the rear of the Halo 2 demo area, ready to be picked out of the crowd by Brian or Max at a moment's notice. While waiting for this, we discovered one of the E3 Webcams, atop the press area wall. Our hopes were dashed, however, when Brian peeked his head out and stayed long enough to tell us that the lucky fans of yesterday had only gotten their chance because so many media people had failed to show up in the chaos of launching E3 and prioritizing surprise announcements, and every session today would likely be full. Heads hung in disappointment, we went to resupply at the car and grab some lunch. On the way to the parking lot, we spotted this unusual group at a distance, which someone who had been there the day before identified as "The Mullet Brigade". Naturally, we were unwilling to approach any closer. Returning to the convention center, we grabbed a horribly expensive lunch (Counterclockwise from the right: Dolbex, Cunbelin, Hippieman, Hip's girlfriend Alanna, Louis, mnemesis, CYBERFRK) before heading out to see the rest of the show floor. Sometime around now, we discovered the reason that nobody posted updates live from the show floor.
There wasn't much time left in the day, we were still unwilling to stray far from the "Bungie booth", and I was running out of battery power and storage space in my camera, so I made a quick round of the main hall. America's Army had a middle east-themed booth [insert political commentary here]. Vin Diesel was signing autographs at Vivendi's Chronicles of Riddick area. There was a room highlighting artwork used in video games, such as this image from Ninja Gaiden. Bethesda Softworks had stuffed a dragster into the building for one of their racing games. Chances are this guy is from a Square game. I don't know who this is either, but that's a neat costume. And there's thrills aplenty at the Painkiller display. There was plenty of Star Wars content, from videos (and playable demos) of Republic Commando to this private security team. NetDevil's Auto Assault should appeal to Twisted Metal or Road Warrior fans. Last but not least, the world-famous Phantom console put in an appearance, although instead of a sleek game console it was displayed as a sleek game console, a huge box of mysterious hardware, and what appears to be a 1980s stereo receiver. Hmm...
The day wore on, and come 6 o'clock the expo floor was cleared out by security. Sketch kept the security guards at bay with his official Xbox staff badge while we helped set up the fanfest materials. Pretty soon, 7:00 rolled around and it was time to start letting in...
(Continue to part 2) |
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