I actually got to sit down and talk with the new President of SNK Ben Herman and their V.P. of Sales and Marketing Eric Feiner. I had a lot of questions for them as an SNK fan and they answered all the ones they could. A lot of what they told me ended up being stuff that I can’t talk about on the site just yet. There are a few nuggets thought hat I think I can share.

The games

No Bluetooth on planes, at least not today. Hm.

I hadn't heard this until just now, but apparently Triton Labs - i.e., the Afterburner guys - are cooking up a wireless solution for the GameBoy Advance. Hot damn, that boy is crafty.

Gabe will be in a better position to tell you about the Sonic games on the floor than I would, as Sonic has been his thing from way back. Altered Beast was just a video that didn't really elucidate anything. Billy Hatcher was inexplicable. Otogi continues to hone Sega's edge on visually striking action games.

The thing about E3 booths is that they often shaped in a very strange fashion, so that approaching them from this or that angle will sometimes reveal games you missed, even though you were quite certain that you saw all the stuff. The density of the stimuli compounds this effect. In any case, I saw a game called Culdcept in the Capcom booth long after I'd considered it "done" that really aroused my curiosity.

This may be a long post.

I've figured some things out about this.

Two new maps, two new mechs, Capture The Flag gameplay mode, and assorted improvements including a "Rematch" button are all available for download.

Gabe's baseline impressions of E3 - Best, Most Surprising, Most Disappointing - are now available. This will be followed on Wednesday by my own answers to the same questions, with only one overlapping title.

we were standing in the LucasArts booth and Tycho was looking at Wrath and I was standing behind him listening to a conversation going on behind me. G4 was back there filming a little thing about KOTOR and some G4 Business guy was talking to some LucasArts Business guy.

My apologies about the late update, we could not get networking to operate correctly.

Just to make things clear our meet and greet is at noon tomorrow. Not today. If you want to see us today come by the Namco booth at eleven or so. I am pretty nervous about the finals, so any PA support I have there would be much appreciated. Tycho told me that our credibility is on the line so I better fucking win. No pressure.

I have a lot to talk about, but my eye is still bugging me and I wan't nothing more than to hold a physician recommended cold compress over it. We do, however, have a new strip which might do with some background.

I am sitting here at E3 and I wanted to make a quick update regarding the store. As you are well aware, you guys broke it yesterday. So powerfull was your desire for our shirts and posters that you brought the Gameskins server to it's knees. The store had to be taken down yesterday so that we could resolve the problem. We have talked to the server place and they should have us on a brand new server by next weekend or so. Please, please be gentle with this one.

I don't know how it began exactly, but every year for the last four we've gone to see Bioware at noon on the first day. In fact, it is the only time I can remember actually eating anything any year we come to this. So, it is with a certain amount of excitement that we ponder this annual ritual.