Hindsight

The “e for all” expo took place at the L.A. Convention Center last Thursday through Sunday. I didn’t spend a lot of time playing any games as I was with an exhibitor. On my off time I did get a chance to try out EA’s “Rock Band” and roam the floor a little bit before heading home each day.

Rock Band is nothing particularly “new”, but the execution is well done. I personally had a blast trying out the drums on two songs.

Gears of War PC was demo’d over at HP’s booth (they were showcasing their new gaming systems). I should have grabbed the controls since I play Gears often with a group of friends…

Nintendo was the first thing that any attendee saw when entering the South Hall. Super Smash Bros. Brawl was highly anticipated and playable.

Nintendo also had booth babes. Who knew?

Compared to the monster E3 from several years ago or Tokyo Game Show, the first year of the “E for All” expo was small, less crowded and considered unimpressive. For gamers who have never had the chance to attend a game expo, this was a fun romp for them. I, on the other hand, think that there’s a lot of work to be done to make this expo a big event in the convention space. I’ve heard good things about PAX, the Penny Arcade Expo (in Seattle). We’ll see what E for All has in store next year, when it opens doors to gamers in August instead of October.

http://hitotoki.org/tokyo/021

I submitted a piece to the moderators at Hitotoki.org, a site about moments in Japan. It was recently published online :)

Yoko Kanno and Grand Funk have released “CM Yoko” on iTunes – it’s available in both the iTunes Japan and iTunes U.S. stores for Y1,500 and $9.99, respectively.

The album is a compilation of compositions Mrs. Kanno created for CMs (short for commercial music) in Japan for many many clients (KDDI, Lexus, etc.).

“Exaelitus” is definitely derived from Vangelis’ end theme for Blade Runner, don’t you think? It’s still a fantastic and breathtaking song.