(Pictured l. to r.: (back row) Teddman, Antony, Sleeveboy, AFX, me, Reno; (front) Ali)

"Some things never change . . . and some things do."

The Electronic Entertainment Expo is one of the biggest annual events to grace the industry. For one week, the Los Angeles Convention Center is transformed to a bustling hub of activity. As any media veteran can tell you: work first, play later. This mandate was especially evident to me this year, since my role required covering the show for two outlets: PS2 IGN and TNL.

That's not to say that I didn't enjoy myself in comparison to previous E3's that I attended. Far from it, actually. There were a number of highlights and significant random events which took place, some of which were directly related to the show and others that weren't.

The saga unfolded like this . . .

May 11

Since my move from the Big Apple, I've yet to acquire a driver's license (or a car for that matter) and so I had to secure some driving services to reach Bradley Airport in Hartford, CT. Tradition has led me to rely on one of my local friends, James, but he had just attended an event featuring a bunch of fighting games, including Capcom vs. SNK 2 and Guilty Gear XX. Rather than have him go out of his way to make the morning journey so I could catch my flight on time, I made plans with another friend, Rich - who also happens to be one of our valued contributing regulars on the forums.

Rich arrived around 8:15, just as I was in the midst of packing. I asked him to give me a few more minutes to wrap up, and he headed back to his car. I tossed in a bunch of clothes and decided against taking one of my consoles along, fearing it would get damaged during travel. I decided to be practical by simply bringing along my GBA SP, which was perfect for the occassion. (A six-hour flight leaves plenty of time to sleep, eat, and play!) I randomly selected a half-dozen games from my library, including my copies of Sonic Advance 2 and Zelda, which I planned to get autographed by Yuji Naka and Shigeru Miyamoto, respectively.

Rich came back in the house to help me with my bags. I handed him a copy of Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven that he won a few weeks previously through one of our promotional events. (He's such a lucky individual when it comes to promotions. Last year, he somehow managed to score two GBAs at E3!) We departed shortly after I made one final sweep of the house to ensure that I wasn't leaving any vital items that would be required during my visit to L.A. (like press badges).

We made a brief stop at Target in Waterford, CT, to pick up a few more travel necessities: mainly a pocket-sized toothbrush, mouthwash, and shampoo. I ran into one of my old co-workers, who I shamelessly flirted with. After getting back on the road, I started to talk Rich's ear off. I could've just as easily gone to sleep, but that would've been weird and rude). Rich also was planning to attend E3 and chill with his friend Jose (Shinobi128 on the forums) and TNL Contributing Editor Eric Manch (a.k.a. Sleeveboy) later in the week.

Somehow we ended up missing a turn, a fact which Rich quickly deduced several minutes after I commented that the area didn't seem too familiar. So we made a brief stop at a gas station for directions to get us back on track. It's a good thing, too, because I arrived at BDL with just a bit over a half-hour to spare for checking in my bags and getting settled.

I booked a flight with Continental, which offered a rate much cheaper than any I had found in previous years - $250, tax included. Quite a bargain, if you ask me, and the service overall was quite good, too. I am definitely going to make my reservations with them in the immediate future. My primary flight was aboard a small jet that would take me first to Cleveland and from there to LAX.

I arrived just a bit past the anticipated flight time, and I was greeted by Matt Van Stone, whom I arranged to give me a ride from the airport to the hotel. We had to wait about fifteen minutes or so - which felt like a lifetime - before I was finally able to reclaim my bag. It didn't help that some random stranger then talked my ear off with what came across as more-or-less pointless ranting. Meh.

Matt decided to wait outside while I remained by the baggage claim. It felt like an eternity was passing, but in reality, it was approximately twenty minutes since my plane had touched down. Finally, the luggage from my plane was released, I located my suitcase, and we made our way to the Ramada Inn.

(Insert random discussion here and simmer for half-hour).

We arrived at the hotel around 5:15 P.M. I went to the desk to check on the room, hoping that perhaps Ali had already pre-booked the room with my name on it. As it turns out, he only had reserved it in his name, leaving me with no other option but to wait until he arrived. I went back to Matt's truck to get my bag, we made our departing lingo, and he took off. I sat in the lobby, awaiting Ali's arrival.

I ended up getting somewhat restless shortly after an hour had passed. It got to the point where not even playing Zelda or Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo was adequate to quell my boredom. Not to mention I was getting hungry again. Eventually the hotel clerk invited me to personally check in under my name, but due to a tight budget, I declined. Besides, I didn't want to assume any responsibility. 7:45 P.M. rolled around - Ali and his friends Lucan, Antony, and Dave made their way inside the hotel. Ali introduced us all and then checked us in.

Totally famished at this point, we tossed our bags in the room and then went off to grab a bite. Since our options of places to eat were limited, we decided to mingle at a Hispanic fast food joint. Ali said that Lucan was treating, which was nice considering this was my first time meeting him. We all ordered rice dishes with side orders of potatoes, chicken, and vegetables. Our table was a little dirty, but thankfully the cashier that serviced us quickly made the area we selected more respectable and appropriate to eat in. Ali and I discussed plans to find an alternate place to update, seeing as the hotel where we were staying no longer offered broadband service. How convenient. It was decided that we'd search the general area the following day in hopes of locating an internet café.

With our bodies properly nourished, we headed back towards the hotel and briefly stopped inside one of the local arcades that we previously passed on the way to eat. To my surprise, Street Fighter Alpha 3 was there. Antony and I got in a quick game while Lucan complimented me for actually being a player that did not use a Shoto. I selected V-Charlie and immediately had issues with the sticks; they sucked. I ended up missing grabs and it reminded me of the old ghetto cabinets that used to be around my corner back in New York. Meanwhile, Ali found a Virtua Fighter 4 cabinet nearby and played a few games. Lucan and the others eventually joined him as spectators as he battled the CPU. However, Ali quickly discovered that the cabinet possessed much the same crippled responsiveness I experienced with the A3 cab. I remarked that no serious comp could possibly exist there. No matter, we were tired anyway and headed back to our room to sleep.

May 12

We woke up around 8, made rotations to use the shower, and made our way down to the breakfast lounge. Our plans were pretty basic - Ali wanted to look into getting his business cards printed up since he hadn't had time to in Belgium, while Antony was going to be assisting TNL with some media coverage and wanted to check on the memory storage items sold at Staples.

I walked around a bit and kept getting harassed by one of the workers there that couldn't understand that I was simply "just looking." I found a Hewlett-Packard digital camera which piqued my interest and I pondered picking it up. But with my restricted budget, it would take a miracle for me to get anything decent enough to record pictures (no, I didn't want to deal with disposable cameras either). Ali and I had been discussing a possible arrangement to sell my Sony CLIÉ, which I brought along to help me with the E3 appointments. Ali explained that the HP model I was considering didn't look too reliable, or durable, for that matter.

After browsing the store in relatively great detail, we headed back to the hotel to check on the location of internet cafés. We eventually discovered one not too far from the hotel - only six minutes away by foot. The place wasn't too shabby at all, but the prices were quite a drawback; it cost six bucks for one hour. Well, it served its purpose for the moment. I called up Nick to check on things "back home" and discuss our course of action for handling E3 updates. At 11:30, Ali and the others decided to head back to rendezvous with Reno, who had been staying with Hero and his family for a few days. I remained behind to finish up on some updates and chat a bit with Nercm and some other buddies via AIM.

Since I didn't want to exceed the hourly fee, I decided to wrap things up and head back to the hotel to join Ali and the others. I found Reno had already arrived, so I handed over his personal E3 media badge and a few games to review for TNL. Upon meeting Sqoon, Sleeveboy, and AFX, I would provide them each with his own media badge, along with a few games, a Metroid Prime necklace, and a black Tenchu T-Shirt. (Yeah, Christmas had come early this year - compliments of Santa Bahn.) We didn't remain there for long, since Jeremy "Makaze" Dunham from the PS2 IGN channel needed to give us a quick rundown on how to utilize the IGN back-end to facilitate our freelance duties for the show. At a quarter to 1, we made our way out while the others hung around. We made plans to meet at the South Hall of E3 after Derek "AFX" Durham arrived from the airport, and from there head to the Xbox press conference scheduled at 6 P.M.

It had been ages (okay, a year) since I used the L.A. train system, and Reno didn't have too much of a clue as to which line we were supposed to take. In typical tourist fashion, we ended up asking some of the people walking around to help us out. Oddly enough, some of them didn't know their way around the subway system either. Thus, we were left with the only remaining option - consult the subway map. We took the first train that arrived and got off at the wrong stop and ended up having to take another line back to where we started in order to switch to an alternate line leading to Pico Street.

When we arrived at the LACC, we made our way to the IGN "office" near Concourse Hall, only to find that Jeremy was nowhere in sight. Some of the staffers were there, but no one that I recognized, aside from Aaron Boulding. They invited us to remain there since Jeremy and Doug Perry hadn't returned from the Capcom press conference. So we waited - about a whole hour-and-a-half. Reno joked about Jeremy's prior advice to "be on time, and he's late." We walked around for a bit and returned to find that he was still out on assignment. One of the IGN personnel tried to phone Doug, but there was no answer. We were getting a bit restless, but before long I decided to break out my GBA for a bit and play. Reno left his back at the hotel, so he was compelled to do nothing but remain restless. Heh.

Around a quarter to four, the dynamic duo arrived, prompting some reintroductions (Jeremy had already introduced me to Doug the year before). After getting settled in, we were issued a log-in that would be used to for the laptop that Reno and I would share to update our coverage for the PS2 IGN channel. Jeremy than jumped right into the procedures for updating, which reminded me a lot of how we use our board's mySQL functions to update. While it seemed simple enough, I couldn't help but feel somewhat intimidated by the responsibilities laid before us. If Reno was nervous, he was definitely doing a better job than I not making it apparent. I had been stressing about all this just a few days before, since this year I'd be producing coverage for the them as well as TNL. I did my best not to sweat it, and soaked in every detail that was dispensed in that short period of time.

With that out of the way, there wasn't too much else for us to do until day one of the expo. We had the chance to go "behind the scenes" while E3 was still being set up. I hadn't had the opportunity to do this since my second visit to E3, when I was issued an Exhibitor badge. Of all the booths, the one that was especially noteworthy was the Konami booth in South Hall. There Reno and I had our first glimpse of the full Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater trailer. Standing in awe, we remained motionless as the footage ran its course. A few Konami exhibitors walked by and glanced at us and we did our best to try not to get all fanboy-ish. Unfortunately, the footage was too impressive to contain our excitement and we eventually were ejected from the area by one of the Konami exhibitors. Her ability to sneak past our cone of vision remains a mystery, but we'll be stealthier in the future.

We came back to tell Doug and Jeremy of our brief adventure through the LACC and then took off to meet the others, who called me to alert me that they had arrived. Outside, we found the entire crew from the Ramada Inn, plus one Derek Durham now within our company. Checking the clock, I felt there was no way we would arrive at the conference on time by foot (note that I also thought it was being held at the same location as last year). After catching the number of a cab passing by, I used it to phone for a cab pick-up of our own to take us to the conference. The dispatcher said it would be twenty minutes before the cab would be there. Since Eric hadn't arrived, I called him back with alternate arrangements for a meet-up, explaining it would be best if he headed straight there. I lost track of time, but estimated that our scheduled ride should've been on the scene, so I called up the cab service to find out its status.