E3 2017

Last week I went to E3 2017, again held in Los Angeles, CA.  This was my second year in a row attending E3, so my expectations were pretty much set based on last year's experience, which I had heard wasn't as exciting as previous years.

I got into L.A. on a Tuesday night and ended up staying at the Shelter Hotel in Koreatown. I decided to only go for 2 days this year, since I felt the first day (Tuesday) was too busy for me to care to attend.

On Wednesday, I arrived at E3 around noon and met up with my friend Kavita.  We were able to see pretty much all of the exhibits the convention had to offer in one day, but when you don't care to wait hours in line to play a new game like Destiny 2 or Mario Odyssey, you end up just walking around the exhibits, like a big museum or theme park.

I went back on Thursday by myself, mostly for a half day to get a final look at any booths Kavita didn't care to look at, such as the independent games.  But overall, I was pretty disappointed this year, mostly because there was no news whatsoever for the game I was most interested in hearing about (Square Enix's FF7 Remake).  It just seemed like a down year for video games.  The Nintendo Switch is pretty cool and Mario Odyssey looks amazing, so at least there's that.  I'll be getting one later this year.

So as an IBMer, I still get to attend the convention for free, but I'm considering skipping next year.  While playing demos of upcoming games and checking out new technology is exciting, I don't really enjoy waiting hours in line for them.  We'll see...