Sarah J. Gim
Articles by Sarah J. Gim
E3 booth boi at N-Gage
I am so offended. Do these companies really think that having some H-O-double-T, hot Booth Boi with a St. Tropez spray-on tan, a Colgate smile and wearing nothing but a skin-tight t-shirt parading around their E3 booth will get me to buy and play their games?!?! Show me a Booth Boi who looks good and knows how to handle his Wii and then I'll be impressed, okay? Besides, don't these Booth Bois have any respect for themselves at all?!?!? All it does is continue to objectify men...
Scarface will give you balls
The Vivendi booth in South Hall didn't have anything hands-on for Scarface (or at least, not that I saw) -- just two flat panels playing clips from the movie, and a big, sweeping staircase that led to an upstairs "screening" room, where we got to watch a demo of the ugly game. Oops, did I say "ugly?" I meant fugly. The graphics thing aside though, I can see how someone who liked the movie would like to "say hello to my little friend" in a game. The game picks up where the movie left off, with you, Tony Montana, up at the top of the staircase. Instead of getting shot and killed like in the movie, the first thing you have to do is turn around and kill the guy behind you before he kills you (otherwise, I guess you have to start over). After that, the game is all about building up your cocaine-trafficking empire, basically by using your cajones. You earn Balls points by intimidating others with the use of voice, or by doing balls-y things. Higher speed driving, more destructive shooting, and of course, being more of an a**hole as you cut deals with local shopkeepers to join your cocaine empire.
E3 Fashion: I scored with the princess
I'm sure it's not something we haven't seen before, and it's certainly not as hot as our Joystiq t-shirts, but I thought it was cute . Or maybe it was just cute that he was holding hands with his girlfriend, who was dressed like...a princess.
Slickest move at E3
It was like a scene right out of any club on a Saturday night. It's dark, lights are flashing, and two cute girls are dancing with each other. Some guy walks up, watches them for a few seconds, gets all up in the face of one of the girls, and though I didn't hear exactly what he said, it must have been something good because she stopped dancing and started talking to him. In fact, I think they actually exchanged numbers. That guy's got game.
Paris Hilton creates a mob scene [update 1]
While we wouldn't exactly call ourselves fans of the hotel heiress, we have to admit that we were still intrigued by the idea that Paris Hilton would be making an appearance at E3 to promote a new game with her name splashed all over it: Paris Hilton's Jewel Jam. We stopped by the Gameloft booth to see it all go down. Er, you know what we mean.
Retropia E3 at Arena: Party Album
Most of the after-show parties are in and around downtown Los Angeles, and some of the go as far as Hollywood, but Retropia was all the way out in West LA at Arena, an interactive lounge. Just a few snapz of what went down after the jump...
The longest, hardest wait at E3 isn't for Wii
If you saw the queue of people that snaked down the aisle, around the corner, and back through the non expo floor section around the corporate meeting rooms, you might think that the longest, hardest wait at E3 was for Wii. *eh* You should have seen the 50-minute line in front of Starbucks for the standard 4:00 coffee break. I don't know where the anxiety is worse: gamers in line waiting for Wii or gaming industry execs deprived of caffeine. There are no lines for the bathrooms. Weird.
Qmotions full motion game controller
Qmotions has controllers for active sports so now you can really pretend like you're playing golf, baseball, or skateboarding, instead of pretending to pretend with a mouse and keyboard. Using the Qmotions controller for Tiger Woods Golf wasn't too bad, but there is no way that even using your real clubs on a plastic ball feels like you're out on the links. Still, better to slice in the privacy of your own living room than at Pebble Beach. They also had a hook-up to an exercise bike, which seemed kind of cool if you want to work out while racing around the city. Wait. Exercise? You mean like, we actually have to be move around and be active?
Nintendo E3 Party Album
70,000 people are in town for the conference, but only 2,000 people were allowed to be at the party -- Nintendo's E3 Party at the Highlands was the hot ticket in town last night. (Rumour has it that there were actually 2,400 people crammed inside and that the Fire Marshall warned them about "overbooking."
Seen around eFocus event
We stopped by the eFocus event over at the California Mart in LA's Fashion District. Just a few snapshots of what we saw...
Dell's design concepts for XPS M1710
Adams already mentioned Dell's gaming desktop that is part of their efforts to re-invigorate PC gaming for them. Dell is hoping to "up the cool factor over the next couple of years," particularly with several design concepts for their mobile gaming system, XPS M1710. Dell execs presented four designs, one of which is based on the fiery Renegade System that was unveiled at CES earlier this year; "True Fire" laptop is done by the same artist. Dell asked us for feedback on the four concepts, which also included "Acid Green," "Alien Invasion," (alien invasion, huh?)and "Blue Skullz." Everyone sounded positive for the most part, though I did overhear something about Trapper Keepers. They are looking for general feedback from the public on their website. I also inquired about designs that would be geared toward girls. "You mean like pink? Floral?" Uh, oooookay.
Top Five Signs You're at an E3 Party
The parties "officially" start Tuesday night, but still, some of us were out rockin' out as only E3-ers do on a Monday night during conference week. The International Game Journalists Association (IGJA) held a casual "undwinding" session at Golden Gopher right after the Sony Press Conference. If you couldn't find your way there, here are the top five signs you should be looking for when looking for an E3 Party: 5. The brightest light in the bar is coming from someone's Blackberry at the end of the bar. 4. There is one female in the entire place. Oh wait, here comes one out of the Ladies' Room! Our bad. There are two females in the entire place. 3. Only dorks carry backpacks (there was a pile of them in one of the corner booths). The cool guys are carrying purses. 2. Everyone is wearing matching necklaces. And the number one sign you're at an E3 Party: 1. No one is playing Ms. Pac Man.
Joystiq t-shirts are hot and here
The team is sporting our o-fficial Joystiq t-shirts at E3 this week. (Also: good news for all of you who were lucky enough to pre-order a shirt before they sold out: the shirts ship to you today.) If you see any of us in the t-shirts, don't be shy. Come and say "Hi!" Don't worry, each of us has more than just one shirt -- you don't think we'd wear the same t-shirt five days in a row without washing?!?! Each team member actually has two each. (Don't do the math, we won't either.)