Unwinnable

What could possibly inspire such a look of blissful serenity upon the features of Ken Levine, creator of the forthcoming BioShock Infinite? (more…)

I don’t like booth babes or the base promotional thinking that ensures their continued existence. I was at E3 2011 to see games, not scantily clad women – the notion that a bit of skin can sway my opinion of a game or product is both mistaken and repellent to me. Chuck, on the the other hand, has no such problems – so much so that he managed to not only get a gallery of booth babes on Unwinnable, but on Complex too. I guess so long as I didn’t have to witness it being made first hand, it’s OK.

Check out Chuck Moran’s Complex debut: The Booth Babes of E3 2011: A Retrospective.

Well, that was exhausting.

We made it through another E3. We played and demoed over fifty upcoming games. We sat through press conferences, survived parties, met dozens of brilliant people and talked about the world of videogames to the point of exhaustion. But beyond just the games each of us enjoyed, there were plenty of other lessons to be learned during our week in Los Angeles. We would like to share this knowledge with you. (more…)

This was my first E3 experience. Heck, it was my first experience in California.

And, courtesy of Stu’s “One Night in Los Angeles,” you all know by now that I spent one not-so-delightful evening in California Hospital (yes, that’s its real name), instead of at the delightful Downtown Sheraton Hotel.

It wasn’t that horrible. Turns out, when you tell medical folks in L.A. that you want out early the next morning so you can visit E3, they get excited and tell all their other late-night medical buddies. Before you know it, an Asian doctor is visiting you. You figure he’s just replacing the Indian doctor who wants to keep you overnight for “observation.” But really he’s stopping by to find out what your early impressions of E3 are (that’s a true story).

Another true story? In between that one strange evening and now, I found time to ponder my favorite non-Wii U and non-Vita E3 2011 moments. You know, for posterity. (more…)

As we deplaned at LAX, Stu and I walked down the hallway towards baggage claim. The city of Los Angeles came out to greet us, with a sign held by a limo driver that read, “Sasha Grey.” It became clear to me at this point that my first trip to the West Coast and E3 was going to leave some lasting impressions on my mind.

Yesterday, Stu chose his five best gaming moments of E3 2011. These are mine. (more…)

E3 is a beast. There is so much to see and so much going on that it is practically impossible to not be overwhelmed. Once you are adrift in that ocean of pixels, many things seem more amazing than they really are. It is extremely easy to be caught up in the rush of the conference. I learned this last year, when games that I loved on the show floor turned out to be nearly unplayable upon release (Castlevania: Symphony of Despair) or lacking the depth that they initially promised (Vanquish). Others made good on their promises (Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Portal 2) and other still await release (Deus Ex: Human Revolution).

What remains is the fact that those games from E3 2010 the impressed me so continue to be some of my favorite memories of the show. In the exciting, hectic three days of the show, those games were the best of the best, even if the future wasn’t as kind.

With that in mind, these were my favorite gaming moments of E3 2011. (more…)

My first time as an adult in Los Angeles, I felt I gained a new understanding of American culture. Having grown up and lived outside of New York City my entire life, it is second nature for my brain to wrap around Ghostbusters and Batman and Grand Theft Auto IV but now Chinatown, Factotum and the O.J. Simpson trial suddenly made a lot more sense.

The thing I didn’t understand about Los Angeles until this trip is that you are really only a couple of turns away from actually living through something that could be made into a movie or a book. Like last Tuesday night, for instance. (more…)