SNAP! boy Alex Chinien reports from E3 conference in LA

My 8 am flight from Montreal was nearly half full of perky Ubisoft and EA montreal developers.  The conversations ranged from E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) predictions to debates about game mechanics. 

I lazily pulled out my ipod touch to play the new peggle app from PopCap games and was instantly surrounded by on looking gamers.

I caught a "supershuttle" into town from LAX and it turned out that everybody in the shuttle was in L.A. for E3.  Before even unpacking a bag, business cards were being in exchanged with reckless abandon and in every possible direction.  Twitter updates on smart phones were going off all around me and the gaming parties for this evening were discussed.

Here are some photos I took yesterday from around the convention center.  I registered for my media badge and walked around the giant hallways, trying to remember the layout for when the show starts the next day.

In the evening I caught an open bar karaoke party hosted by the gaming blog Destructoid.com and met people from all over the country.  It turns out EA was hosting a invite only party to promote it's DJ Hero and Guitar hero franchise featuring a performance by Jay Z and Eminem.  Tonight, karaoke renditions of Tenacious D will have to do.