E3 2004 Coverage > Retrospective

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Dean's Annual E3 Retrospective

When you set out to write a big long article for a site such as our own, you tend to put it off as long as you can, with the knowledge that it will be, as required, uber long. Add to the fact that you've been shooting video the entire week of E3 and when you get back, a tedious effort to edit, author, burn, and mail all those orders (of which we had just under 50) as soon as humanly possible, you try to put writing at the end of the list... Well, I'm at the end of my list, and what follows is my best recollection of the events leading up to, including, and events after e3 that happened to myself and the N-Sider staff, without sacrificing the entire reason to buy our DVD.

The Journey of E3 2004 began back in November of 2003; in the previous year, Brenden and I had flown out of Detroit on pen- er Spirit Airlines for a very modest price of $300 USD. Knowing that the airfare is cheap when it's first listed, we were able to secure our flights at $208 USD (and since you crazy Americans had that war going on, the Canadian dollar equivalent was a mere $280). Shortly after the airfare process was completed, reserving the hotel was in order.

Unfortunately this year, there was no Inn Towne, as it was (and still is) under renovations. Instead, we found a Comfort Inn, apparently a half mile from the LACC and it looked good, and was priced well; we would have been fools to pass up such an offer. The booking of three rooms occurred and all we had to do now was wait five months for May to roll around.

After some staff adjustments and people cancelling out, we were down to two rooms and a total of eleven people making the magical journey to Los Angeles on May 10th. Of the group coming from our neck of the woods was I, my girlfriend Amanda, and my buddy Ben (Sir Burley Bee of Recycle Bin fame).

Nintendo Logo at their Press Conference.

Our official E3 journey began on the night of May 9th, waiting for our shuttle bus to Detroit to arrive. Of the fun that occurred that night, were things that included Ben going through sugar rushes and almost passing out of being so tired; our watching Trailer Park Boys, and my mother showing too much affection for my friends. I'm sure reading about our initial travels are as interesting as watching Glen shave his privates, so I'll fast forward to LAX.

We arrived in LAX after a bumpy plane ride on a ghetto plane, to wait for Cory and Aimee to arrive; when they did we caught a taxi to our Hotel (which took longer than it should have, because our driver apparently didn't know where downtown was) and we tried to check in.

Now I know what you're thinking The reservation wasn't there, right? No, it was there, but there were a lot of problems. First off, we wanted two rooms, which of course, there were plenty, but we wanted those rooms connected - and she said there weren't any that did. After me asking about 3 times, she said "Well I do have two on the second floor that connect." - This begs the question; why not give us those in the first place? Either way, once we got the rooms figured out, another obstacle jumped in our way. We couldn't check in until 3pm because the rooms weren't ready yet. Its noon at this point and three hours to kill in downtown LA is somewhat of a problem, especially since we were on the border of Little Mexico. So we were okay with that, we left our luggage in a 'safe room' (which was basically an unfinished hotel room that smelled of urine), and were getting ready to leave, when we heard the fateful words: "Your card was declined."

Now, in any normal hotel, you use a credit card to hold the room, and pay once you leave, in cash, or on the card, or whichever method you wanted. I protested as the card (which has a $500 Canadian limit) was just for holding the room, and we'd pay in cash when we checked out. The clerk digressed and said "This is a pay as you go hotel, you pay upfront" - Total BS, as they were trying to milk E3 for all the money they could (as overheard in a conversation they had). Either way, luckily enough Aimee had a wonder-card and was able to pay for the entire stay in one hit; we, of course, reimbursed her.

Nevertheless we arrived to many problems, including the knowledge that Jason and Co. had a scheduling conflict and that they were going to be yet another day! Just filler for those who don't know: Jason and Neale took a bus from Ottawa, Ontario to Los Angeles. Do the math, that's about a four, or in their case, five day bus ride. They were less than happy to have to come in later than planned.

So after we 'safely' secured our stuff we went for lunch at the ever so popular lunch deli right across the street from chez Denny's, after a half hour walk mind you. Our hotel was supposed to be less than a half mile away, or two city blocks as they stated, from the LACC/Staples Center. It was two city blocks, but it was sure as hell further than a half mile. Either way we went and ate and killed three hours snooping around the LACC (Where we got those initial pictures you guys might remember). While doing so, however, we were getting yelled at by countless (See: one) guards that acted like our parents: "Hey, you weren't listening about those cameras were you?" but were aged like that cheese that went bad a few weeks ago in your fridge, but still haven't thrown out.

So we get back to the hotel to find Mark waiting for us, and we head to our two connecting rooms. We open room 233 first, and it has two beds, very small, and an XBOX ready Panasonic TV; we decided that the smaller group (consisting of myself, Amanda, Ben, Cory, and Aimee) would take this room; as the second room was much, much bigger and could hold more people (which was needed, as it contained Jason, Neale, Mike, Justin, Mark and Josh). We unpack and pass out for a few hours. Currently, at this point in time, we were all exhausted. Later that night we were supposed to go to the Microsoft conference but opted not to, as

  1. We knew it'd suck.
  2. We were dead tired.

Instead, we ordered a pizza and played SSBM and watched TV. Justin arrived shortly before dinner, and Josh graced us with his presence after his Final Fantasy Concert experience, and we all regaled and bonded.

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