Day Two began on a much more positive note than Day One if only because I didn’t feel like I was legally dead. We still got a bit later of a start than we wanted and faced LA traffic on the freeway with a grim resolve. I really wanted to get to Capcom in time to get hands on tickets for Resident Evil 6 but sadly that was not in the cards. Still, good old fashioned aplumb and my girlfriend’s superior driving skills got me at the doors of the South Hall right as they were opening. Again using my entrance ninja magic, I managed to bypass all kinds of waiting and then failed horribly to get RE6 tickets. I did manage to get a ticket to Devil May Cry but again, the universe proved against me in a conspiracy that rivals the Kennedy assassination.

I left the Capcom area and immediately got in line for Splinter Cell Blacklist and found that my luck seemed to have run out as far as lines were concerned when I was the cut off for people who could fit. I then had a 20 minute wait at the front of the line. Remember yesterday when I felt guilty for getting to go in to the theater in front of a line of people? This is where I don’t really feel so bad. We had a healthy line waiting, I was at the front of it and I still almost didn’t make the cut because there were so many media people with appointments getting in first. It isn’t that I resent them or anything, they were just showing up for appointments, but the scheduling left a little to be desired.

The theater set up was interesting because rather than having chairs they had lean cushions with head phones plugged in. You basically put your put on a leather seat cushion that was attached to a pole and which was angled slightly. It was kind of weird but I guess it save on space. The headphones are a new trend this year that a lot of theaters are doing where you have to put on headphones to hear the presentation. I am not sure if this is because of the ambient noise that is ubiquitous at the show or if it is an effort to keep people from making audio recordings of the presentations and I kind of suspect it is a little bit of both.

Right off the bat, Splinter Cell looks great. It was running on PC hardware so I am not sure if it is going to look that great on 360 and PS3 but it was pretty gorgeous with a ton of detail on both the backgrounds and character models and realistic movements and actions. It appears to retain the ability to paint multiple targets for a group execution from the last game but the hand to hand and stealth attacks looked just as fluid and easy to execute. The mission looked pretty cool and the story seemed involved and fun but one thing bothered me: it didn’t sound like Michael Ironside is dong Sam Fisher’s voice. I am not sure about this and I will do my best to find out but if it isn’t him, I am very disappointed. More detail to follow.

After Splinter Cell I hopped in line for the Crysis 3 demo. This was a theater presentation as well and again I was almost skunked by people with appointments. Standing in the back was fine though and after a power point we were treated to a developer play through. I am going to get into a lot more detail later as I have hands on with it scheduled tomorrow but obviously being a Crysis game it looked fantastic and seemed to have some solid game play.

Next up was my Bethesda appointment, and as any one who reads regularly knows, I am a big Bethesda fan particularly when it comes to Elder Scrolls. I was there to see presentations for Elder Scrolls Online and Dishonored. On the way in to the theater I went through what was dubbed the Elder Scrolls Museum where practical replicas of armor, weapons and the Elder Scrolls themselves were displayed. I was in geek heaven.

Again I am not going to get into great detail here because there is so much to talk about but I am enormously excited about both of these games. Elder Scrolls Online looks terrific and seems to be doing things that MMORPGS have sorely needed while at the same time staying accessible to people with older machines. Dishonored looks like a cross between Thief and Bioshock Infinite and plays just about like that. This is a good thing.

After a 45 minute to get a goddamn burrito fiasco, I missed my Devil May Cry appointment and barely made it in time for my Star Trek appointment. Getting put in the media line for that and watching the falling faces of attendees who were in the other line again made me feel like an asshole but that is the way this whole thing works. We were given 3D glasses for the presentation and led into the theater. Star Trek looks pretty promising and the game play looks fun but the 3D was a bit wonky. It looked good in some parts and then failed to work altogether in others. I get that this is pre-alpha code and all that but if you are going to show something in 3D one would think it would be working 3D. I am sure they will fix it before the game ships and I don’t play in 3D anyway so I am not too worried. The game itself looked pretty awesome. More on that later.

Next up I had meetings with Steel Series and Origin PC. Steel Series showed me their new lines of game specific mice and headsets and they looked pretty awesome. I have been out of the PC game for awhile but I am looking to get some new hardware that can actually run things so hopefully that will change. When I do, I will look to Steel Series for peripherals. The attention to detail and care they put into their products is really phenomenal and I appreciate how serious they are about good gaming tools. Origin PC showed me two of their gaming laptops and we talked at length about the litany of features and customizable options they offer for gamers. It is really staggering how much control you can have over what goes into your gaming rig with them and at prices that didn’t make me want to scream and run into traffic as well. I am pretty sure I know where my next computer is going to come from. I will have a lot more information on both Steel Series and Origin PC in the days to come. Both companies have awesome representatives and they were equally awesome to talk to.

That was pretty much the end of my day save for an android/iOS MMO title I played called Dragon. It was surprisingly fun and detailed and the rep on hand was very helpful with gameplay and was also helpful with advice for what my next phone should be. It was a pretty great day and I am looking forward to another one tomorrow. Oh, also my girlfriend got to meet Wil Wheaton when she came to pick me up so that was nice.