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LOS ANGELES -- I'm heading south through Malibu on the Pacific Coast Highway, and I'm late. My shuttle leaves from Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles for Sony's PlayStation 3 press conference in 45 minutes and I've still got at least an hour of driving left to do.
It's two days before the start of E3, the video-game industry's biggest convention, and the big boys are showing off their new hardware. Sony will officially unveil the PlayStation 3, its much-anticipated follow-up to its monster hit game console, the PlayStation 2. Later, Microsoft will fire back with a press conference for its own next-generation console, the Xbox 360. Everybody wants to know how the two machines, which will compete head-to-head, will match up. But first, we just have to make it to the events.
When I finally arrive at the hotel, a media shuttle bus is already pulling away, but thankfully another arrives in 15 minutes. Once I'm on the shuttle, the driver quickly gets lost, taking us back and forth on Venice Boulevard. This is not encouraging. I fear I've died and gone to a personal Hades where I spend eternity roaming the streets of Hell-A.
Eventually, we arrive at Sony Pictures Studios. I grab my laminate and get directed up a very long, narrow path, through some hedges and then into the open. Hundreds of media, analysts, industry types and security by the dozens are milling around. They're trying to keep us all happy with food and energy drinks, but the fare is terrible: mini-burgers, tiny pigs-in-a-blanket, scary quesadillas and limp turkey wraps.
They begin herding us toward the building in which the press conference will be held. A security guard yells out inexplicably that no pictures of the back lot are allowed and that she's going to confiscate transgressors' film. We all laugh. Clearly, Sony hasn't informed its security detail about digital cameras.
Finally, we get inside. The studio is gargantuan, with seating for more than 2,000. The place is packed to the rafters.
David Allison, a writer for Cheat Code Central, is sitting on the edge of his seat and tells me he wants "to be taken to a whole 'nother level" by the PS3.
"Hopefully," Allison says, "there will be a couple of, 'Whoa, I wasn't expecting that'" moments.
A series of executives from Sony and its partners touts the PS3's all-world specs. Among other notable data are the PS3's 3.2-GHz Cell processor, an Nvidia chip called RSX that is supposedly far more powerful than the best PC on the market, built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support, the ability to read CompactFlash, SD and Memory Sticks, and support for Blu-ray discs, which have six times the capacity of DVDs.
Sony brass say that powerhouse game publishers like Electronic Arts, Square Enix, Namco, Sega and others are developing PS3 games. And we're bombarded by booming demonstrations of the games. The genres? War, war, racing, war, racing, war and war. Or something like that. I think I caught a glimpse of a boxing game, too.
After awhile, the demos and plaudits end, and so does the press conference. We make like cattle and leave, many of us to get back on the shuttles to go to the Xbox event across town.
Continuing a trend, this bus driver is also a little confused by L.A.'s streets. We head north, and then south again. Then we get on the freeway in what I fear will be a full rush-hour traffic jam.
Exactly 50 minutes later, we disembark at the Shrine Auditorium, and it is pandemonium. The registration process to get into the Xbox 360 event is reminiscent of the trading floor at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, with hundreds of us clamoring for the attention of three or four Microsoft employees.
Xbox Group public relations manager Genevieve Waldman blames the madhouse on Sony for running late. But that's a shallow excuse. We all knew Sony would run long, and Microsoft should have been able to handle it.
Inside, we endure another hour of ear-shattering explosions, sycophantic employee applause and some pretty amazing game demonstrations. War, war, sports, racing, war, sports and war. This feels familiar.
Like Sony, Microsoft trots out a stellar list of game developers planning titles for its new console. Unlike Sony, however, Microsoft actually says how many titles are in development (at least 25 will publish this year). Square Enix said it is working on Final Fantasy XI for Xbox 360, which might have been more impressive if the company hadn't just told Sony's crowd it is working on Final Fantasy XII for the PlayStation 3.
Microsoft brass claim they will eventually reach a billion people with Xbox by appealing to all segments of the population with wide-ranging games and support for multimedia entertainment centers. But really, is it likely that one in six people on Earth will use an Xbox?
For those of us who made both press conferences, it was a day of very loud noise and long lines -- a good preparation for the rest of E3. Both featured terrific graphics, which raises the question: How much more detail on a boxer's face do we really need to see to know we've been knocked out?
