Recapping the Weekend in Los Angeles for E3 2015
At times it's really hard for me to believe my good fortune. I grew up drooling over E3. As a huge fan of video games E3 is known as a video games fan week long Christmas. It's the show where all the big developers and publishers come out and show off what games they have coming the upcoming holiday season and beyond. I've been lucky enough to get invited to go the E3 press conferences for the past four years or so. This year we decided to go a little bigger for E3 and actually stay down in Los Angeles for the event.
Driving down to Los Angeles!!!
We got down to Los Angeles (only a 40 minute drive from our house) and went down to the LA Convention Center and Staples Center area to go pick up my pass (a wristband) for the Sony press conference. We had lunch at a place called The Farm of Beverly Hills which we had eaten at a couple years back. Jenn went the breakfast route and had an omelette while I had a club sandwich. It was really good. Not as great as our Rosa Mexicano experience last year though.
After picking up my wristband for the Sony E3 conference at the JW Marriott we did our obligatory walk around the convention center. We do this to see what games purchase the big advertising spaces around the convention center. Usually it's a pretty good precursor for what games are going to have a big presence at E3 for the year. This year there we signs for games like Uncharted 4, Fallout 4, Call of Duty Black Ops III, and Batman Arkham Knight.
After that we got back in our car and drove to the Omni Los Angeles Hotel at California Plaza to check in. We got there early around 1pm and were fortunate enough to be able to check in early and relax. We got a room on the 9th floor overlooking a really beautiful fountain area. Jenn and I relaxed in the room waiting for Jake to come down and join us for the festivities.
At around 3PM Jake got down to LA and parked in a lot near the hotel. I met him there and walked back over to the LA Live area. We walked back over picked up his Sony wristband for their conference the next day and made our way back to the hotel. I had been able to get Jake into both Sony and Microsoft's press conferences which I hadn't been able to do in years past.
We got back to the hotel and relaxed for a couple hours. I was supposed to go to the Bethesda E3 Press Conference that night at the Nokia Theater but I was exhausted. So we made a plan to go get some food and I would watch the press conference at our hotel while Jake watched the NBA Finals (Golden State v Cavaliers) and Jenn read her book (Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling). We stumbled upon a place called Bunker Hill Bar and Grill on Yelp and walked over.
When we got there I realized that this restaurant was right outside where I went to that Nintendo preview event last year. We lucked out and got there during happy hour so we may have indulged a bit. We all started with drinks Jenn got their Pinot Noir, Jake got an IPA, and I had their own Heff. We started with spicy tuna rolls and calamari. Jenn and I went for a second round of drinks and then we went to order our main courses. Jake had a burger, Jenn got a mushroom pasta, and I had some sliders and shrimp tacos. It was a great meal in the heart of LA.
We walked back to our hotel and barely made it in time to catch the Bethesda conference. Luckily we did. After the conference ended we all turned in for the night to get ready for the big E3 day ahead of us.
The next morning Jake and I made our way to the Galen Center at USC for the first conference of the day, Microsoft. We struggled to find parking. I think it took us nearly an hour to go a couple miles and get parked. Somehow though we managed to be in the front of the line and got great seats. After that conference I walked over to the Shrine Auditorium for the EA press conference while Jake had lunch at nearby pub. After the EA conference Jake and I drove back into downtown Los Angeles to go to the Orpheum Theater for Ubisoft's E3 press conference. To round out the day we then made our way to the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena for Sony's conference. Luckily there they had food trucks and a bar so we could get some free food and drinks before the conference.
It was an incredible day. I'll talk more about the games shown at E3 in a different post. It was great having both Jake and Jenn down in LA with me for E3. It was especially nice to have Jake as company at 2 of the 4 conferences. I cannot wait for E3 2016!
