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My Experience at E3 Live 2016

For the uninitiated, E3 Live (as opposed to just E3) is a free event, semi-open to the public (you needed to register to attend), in which you can try out a sample of the some of the newest games, systems, and other gadgets the gaming industry has to offer. Needless to say, I was excited.
All of my entire life, I wanted to experience what E3 is like. Granted, I know that I will not go inside the Los Angeles Convention since I wasn’t a member of the press during registration. But I wanted to know what the atmosphere was like even though I signed up for tickets for E3 Live.

E3 Live
New armor suit for Titanfall 2

I’ve been to many comic conventions before and the atmosphere is pretty much similar: many fans, specifically members of the media, game developers, community managers etc. attend the yearly gaming bonanza to display and try out what new games and systems the video game industry has to offer.
While it was nice for E3 to give out E3 Live for free, I was a little less than satisfied overall.
Granted, it costed a lot of money for the developers and companies to allow the public to sample this, but waiting in line for 1 to 2 hours just to try out a game is not the fun I had in mind.
E3 Live
Waiting in a deceptive short line for VR.

On Wednesday, I tried a VR demo from Steam called The Lab: Appliance of Science. It involves two mini-games: One is Longbow, in which you shoot a bow and arrow to defend your castle, and Xortex, in which you use futuristic guns to hold off enemy ships. I won’t get into much detail on the gameplay, graphics, etc., but I did have a good time with it. The controls were very intuitive for the most part, especially the response of the bow and arrow. In Longbow, if I’m mimicking the way to set up the bow and arrow correctly, the controls will vibrate; otherwise, they won’t. Xortex did involve some bodily movement in order to avoid the bullets, and some people were noticing that I was really into it. I was. Just be mindful about the connected wires to the VR goggles since those things can disconnect or even halt you if it stretches too long.
E3 Live
WB Games tent

Thursday I went into the WB Games tent in which it was showing off LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and LEGO Dimensions.
E3 Live
Gamers trying out LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens

LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens needs no introduction. It just plays like any other game of its franchise: humorous, kid-friendly, loosely following the storyline yet making it work, etc. The only new thing I know about is the ability to shoot Gears-of-War style when some of the story progresses. It was fun, but I had to rely on my partner who apparent didn’t know how to play the game, yet somebody else was with her to guide her. The game will launch on June 28th for the PS4, PS3, PS Vita, Xbox One, Xbox, 360, Wii U, 3DS, and PC.
E3 Live
Gamers playing LEGO Dimensions

LEGO Dimensions was something different (actually, the E3 Live demo is an expansion of the existing game). I was playing as Batman, competing against other LEGO figures of the franchise (Gandolf, etc.) playing Capture The Flag. Not an FPS, but you do have to, well, capture the flag from rival characters of different colors. It was a bit frustrating because I’ve never played the game in that manner before, but it was worth a shot. LEGO Dimensions is available now for the PS4, PS3. Xbox One, Xbox 360, and the Wii U.
E3 Live
You won’t see much more than this

While it may sound like I was having a good time, there weren’t too many other venues other than VR and sales, such as Loot Crate, clothing, figures, some PC hardware, etc but I really wasn’t into those.
E3 Live may be a “perfect venue” to see what the regular E3 commotion is about, and perhaps an excuse to try something new (if it comes out next year) or even meeting some new colleagues along the way, don’t really expect anything more. While I am thankful of being part of a huge event (and meeting new friends along the way), I think this is the case for making E3 a public event, even if it means taking out some of your savings money.

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