Its been a while, I know. But now I'm full of E3 goodness.

Holy cow the last 2 weeks have flown by! I'm extremely lucky that I got to go to the Electronics Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles CA for my day job. For those of you not in the know, it is THE gaming industry trade show stretched out over 300,000 sqaure feet of the LA expo center (which equals Valhalla for gamers).

I was hoping to get a "Pre-E3" podcast up before I left but I was running around trying to take care of stuff in the office and get all my stuff ready for E3. Then while at E3 last week I was hoping to post but the internet connection is my hotel was terrible and I couldn't deal with the latency so I figured I'd do it when I got home. But after arriving home at 1 a.m. Sunday morning, I spent most of day sleeping off E3.

So a few quick things from E3:
1) I was lucky enough to open E3 as the emcee for the America's Army game. We had the U.S. Army's Golden Nights jump in for the opening (and then jumo in twice a day after that). It was pretty cool and I'm now getting to be known as "the voice of America's Army". I can't thank those guys enough for letting me participate in their display. Here is a photo that appeared on the Army Times homepage.
2) I met Cory Barlog who is the game director for God of War 2 which is the upcoming sequel to one of my favorite all-time games. What a nice guy! He took probably about 20 mins to talk in depth about the changes in the game and wanted to get my impressions. The picture below is from his blog and that's me in the lower left corner waiting to play the demo (which oh by the way I never did, bad for me but great for the game). The game looked stellar and I can't wait to get my hands on it when it comes out Feb '07. Although I'm hoping to get a copy of the demo (Cory, wink-wink if you're reading this)

3) I met Robin Williams, and he was such a nice guy. He took the time to take pictures with some of the soldiers with me and of course I didn't think to jump in front of the camera to get my own picture but it was great nonehteless. Really great, personable guy and pro-military. Who'd a thunk it? I also met former NBA star John Sally and the comedian Sinbad (of all people). I just couldn't get over how nice they were.

4) The show floor at E3 is a shotgun blast to the senses. I'll post some pics and video later but suffice it to say that you can't just talk to another person on the floor, you have to yell in order to be heard!

5) Had a great meeting with the game company I'm going to do some consulting for. More news to follow and I'll post all about my upcoming trip to a far away land.

6) Last quick item was that I got invited to a private party where after a year touring hiatus and while currently working on their next album (some of the new songs we got to hear for the first time) the band Incubus played about a 2 hour set. How stoked was I?! I was standing about 8 feet in front of lead singer Brandon Boyd. They hit all the songs we know and love; Nice to Know You, Stellar, Drive, Pardon Me, Wish You Were Here and we got some new songs of the soon to be released album. Gotta tell you it was the best concert I have ever been to. It allows you to have a real appreciation for the artists and their music.

Alright this is one thing off of a 100 item to do list. I'll post again soon and be on the look out for an E3 wrap up podcast.