Here we are at the end of a very long, very exhausting, and very, very cool day. E3’s annual exhibition show opened its doors to the media and gaming industry this morning, and for the six hours that it was open, we experienced as much of gaming’s future as we could manage to pack in. While we’ve got two more days to enjoy all that E3 has to offer, check out our experience and initial impressions from Day 1 below.

For those that haven’t been to Los Angeles, or the LA Convention Center specifically, the venue is divided into two exhibit halls that take up several city blocks in length. Despite all the available space, the slew of exhibitors and general audience make for a very busy, very tightly packed convention. Our day began with getting in a line of several thousand people as we waited for the conference hall’s doors to open. Fortunately, there are a large number of displays – as well as a diverse, though expensive gift shop – that span the lobbies, giving attendees something to enjoy while they wait to get in.

While we were waiting, we ran into a Microsoft / Forza 6 tent, which featured several vehicles for show and included a custom-painted Ford truck that was themed around Halo and its UNSC soldiers. While not a true-to-life Warthog, it was still cool to see. In addition to the vehicles, the custom-themed Xbox One racing controllers that have been making their way around various trade shows were featured in glass display cases as well.





Further into the lobby, people could also get their pictures taken next to a life-size Mad Max display featuring the main car from the movie, a Halo 5 display that showcased life-size models of Master Chief and Spartan Locke, and an interactive Dark Souls III display that featured several bodies and a working geyser that gushed black blood. Disgusting, uncalled for, and probably one of the coolest displays we’ve ever seen. We also lucked out in scoring some signed Forza 6 posters, autographed by Forza community manager, Brian Ekberg.





With the LA Convention Center being divided into two exhibit halls, it’s typically organized where one hall contains the “Big 3” — Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo — and the other contains most of the third-party developers. This year we chose to start with the third-party developers first, where we would end up spending most of our day. Upon entering, we were immediately greeted with Electronic Arts’ giant booth showcasing Star Wars: Battlefront, complete with a life-size snow speeder that attendees could “ride” and have their photo taken on. As we walked around the hall, we took note of a giant Battleborn display that was probably 10′ tall, an XCOM2 statue featuring an alien helping a human, a stage for Relics of Gods that had several actors in full costume, an “Indie Arcade” where up-and-coming developers were showing off their games, a retro video game display that had old classics behind glass for spectators to reminisce over, tricked-out GAEMS trucks showing off the latest in portable gaming screens, and the Natsume booth showing off its latest Harvest Moon titles, surrounding people with cute stuffed cows, chickens, and dogs.

All those aside, the big names in this hall stood towering over everyone else, and included Activision (Destiny: The Taken King, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Skylanders: Superchargers, Guitar Hero Live), Square Enix (Just Cause 3, Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward), 2K Games, Ubisoft (Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, The Division, Rainbow Six: Siege, Just Dance 2016), Konami (Metal Gear Solid V), Capcom (Street Fighter V, Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition, Resident Evil 0 HD), and finally, Bethesda (Fallout 4, Dishonored 2, DOOM). We chose to spend a good chunk of time there.





With all the excitement surrounding Fallout 4, Bethesda’s booth had several life-size models of various Fallout items and characters. Included in the set were a working, moving, amazing Mister Handy robot that would follow attendees around and chat with them, a full Vault 111 door that was cracked open to reveal the world outside, and several 5′ tall Pip Boy models and old-school televisions, all showcasing the newly released Fallout Shelter for iOS. There were also huge models showcasing DOOM and Dishonored 2. During our attendance at Bethesda’s booth, we were also treated to a live interview with Todd Howard, the creative director behind Fallout. Check out our post covering the interview for all the latest details that were discussed.





After wrapping up our time in the third-party hall, we managed to sneak across the way over to the “Big 3”, though not without a few distractions along the way. Outside of the exhibit hall, we discovered a fully interactive virtual reality experience that Starbreeze had conjured up for E3 — one of the coolest experiences we’ve had in our history of these shows. Their experience was titled The Walking Dead: Overkill, and it put players in a real wheelchair with the intent to survive the situation they were put in. After strapping on a fully interactive helmet that immersed the user in the world, they were handed a replica shotgun and were simply told to “survive”. Inside this virtual world, we discovered that we had lost a leg to the zombie outbreak (hence the wheelchair) and we were being pushed around by a fellow survivor. As one of the more creative uses of the rail shooting mechanic, we were quickly thrown into the mix when a zombie horde broke into the hospital that we were in, and with our shotgun in hand, we began unloading shells into their undead corpses in the interest of surviving. Because this was VR, anywhere you turned your head or moved your shotgun was visible, and with the full immersion of your vision and hearing being controlled through this helmet, it didn’t take long for the experience to feel “real”. It was an awesome and unexpected treat.





Another brief experience was Atlus, which was showing off both Persona 4: Dancing All Night (Vita) and Persona 5 (PS3/PS4). Attendees could get their picture taken with various character models to score collectible merchandise, and if they chose to live-dance with Teddie on-stage, they would be rewarded with an exclusive t-shirt. Naturally, we did both of these.





Finally, we managed to scope out the main exhibit hall, though with limited time left in the day. While we’ll be covering Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo in much more depth tomorrow evening, we did get a chance to grab a few pictures from their booths before leaving.





We hope you enjoy our recap of E3, Day 1. Check back periodically through the day tomorrow for our updated impressions of titles we get to try at the show, and again tomorrow night for a full recap of Day 2. Stay tuned, PIPers!