Austin resident takes in gaming’s best at E3
Published 5:00 pm Saturday, June 25, 2011
Local resident Jasmine Manuel rubs elbows with merchandising representatives at the Electronics Entertainment Expo this year. - Photo provided
The Electronics Entertainment Expo is a dream for video gamers and geeks nationwide.
There’s the latest games, the best new accessories and the coolest new hardware and consoles. One local resident lived the dream this year, going to E3 and coming back with interesting stories and insights on the most exciting game tech coming.
Jasmine Manuel, a manager at the local Game Stop, attended E3 this year for the first time, and she’s hooked.
One of the sites that greeted Jasmine Manuel was a building faced with an advertisement for “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.” - Photo provided
“It was amazing,” she said. “It was just really cool to see.”
Seeing some of the most innovative new games to come out is amazing enough, but meeting the developers and publishers behind the next great games was incredible. In fact, Manuel spoke with Geoff Mulligan, CEO of Deep Silver, “Dead Island” publisher.
She was already excited over Dead Island, with its new zombie rot mechanics (after a few days, zombies that had only light damage would have half of their faces rot off) and immersive-looking multiplayer.
After a mix-up with a secretary, Kundratitz was more than pleased to let Manuel know as much as she wanted about the game and could come down to Austin for a “Dead Island” release party.
“I really liked that,” Manuel said.
Games aren’t the only thing on display at E3. There’s merchandise from all the greatest gaming series on display, although some may not make it to the U.S. Yet seeing gadgets like the latest Xperia phone and signing up to test out new Soundblaster headsets makes merchandising worthwhile.
Manuel got excited over the Playstation Vita (though she’s not in love with the name) and was a little underwhelmed by the Nintendo Wii U. She said the controller, which “looked like an Etch-A-Sketch,” didn’t actually work, but Nintendo representatives showed the audience footage of what the controller could do a couple of months from now.
“They usually have the best presentation,” Manuel said. “I was really let down.”
Of course, seeing and playing games like “Uncharted 3” (the multiplayer looks better than “Uncharted 2”), “Duke Nukem Forever” (there was lag issues) and “Star Wars: The Old Republic” (overhyped, according to Manuel, a big “Knights of the Old Republic” fan) is a big part of E3, too.
Though E3 may be over, Manuel is already looking forward to next year.
“It wasn’t what I expected it to be,” she said with a smile. “It was really cool.”
