Ahh, E3. You get sweeter with every day.

After the diabolical shambles that was yesterday (eight hours non-stop, booth tours, changing from hall to hall, no lunch, dehydration and a severe lack of booth babe perving), today was a well needed change. I got a chance to play (and suck) at some games, had interviews with developers and got some hands-on experience with a game I have been chomping at the bit to play. Finally, I have had a hoon on Star Wars: The Old Republic.

The day started off with a video tour of the E3 campground (the Los Angeles Convention Center), while James Cullinane was treated to the tricks and treats inside the 2K booth. I had a go at playing Marvel Vs Capcom 3 (awesome), Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 (great stylised Naruto fan fodder), Fable III (actually looks like a good time, not boring and vanilla like the last one) and Super Scribblenauts (adjectives!). After the gaming session I was thrust into interview mode.

Doing interviews for print is one thing, but keeping facts, names and decent questions in there while you’re in the midst of the E3 ruckus running on no sleep and heaps of fizzy drink is another altogether. I think it went pretty well though.

I had a chat with Daniel Erickson of BioWare. Daniel is the lead writer on Star Wars: The Old Republic, which has to be my pick of the expo so far. The game is shaping up to be a deep and rich roleplaying experience, massively multiplayer and, well, it’s Star Wars. Just prior to the interview I had a chance to get some hands on play with the game. Whoa, it’s going to be awesome. I’m itching to get a beta and roll myself a bounty hunter. Everyone gets to earn their own star ship, which is like an epic mount and a portable inventory rolled into one. Plus, it’s a friggin’ space ship! I am going to make Boba Fett look like a jerk by comparison. You probably can too, I suppose.

I also took a crack at playing Mafia II, which looks irresistibly entertaining. We capped the day off by taking a visit to Sony's E3 HQ. At Sony I got my first real go with the Move controller system. I had a play of SOCOM: Special Forces and I have to say I was impressed. My cynicism about motion controllers eroded significantly when I whirled the controllers around and my actions were reflected smoothly on screen. I’m a pretty unco person (as I had proven in HD when I had a go at using the Kinect), but I was able to aim and shoot an assault rifle with ease. I played a bit of The Fight (also with Move) and found it pretty responsive as well. I wasn’t very good at either game overall, but for a first try I think I’m at fault, not the system. It’s certainly not frustrating, just requires a bit of grace.

Last thing for today, Little Big Planet 2. The whole LBP paradigm of user-created maps and mini-games has been revamped with creation of your own games as the focus. The game looks wonderful, the animation and textures are some of the best you will see. The new features for scripting and game design in the game will blow the creatively focused of you out there away. Quite special, can’t wait to play some more.

Tomorrow I’m going to have a blat on Kinect, Move and the 3DS once more to try and come up with a sort of ‘king of new tech’ distinction. Oh yeah, and play some Dead Space 2.

James (JC)