To anyone that has ever been to the Electronic Entertainment Expo or E3 (before this year's scale back) that thinks they could handle the Tokyo Game Show, I've got news for you. Take the number of nerds running around and multiply that by 2 or 3 (180,000 attendees is the goal this year). Take the number of booth babes and square it (each booth seems to have their own army, all of them HOT Japanese girls and latex seems to be the number one costume choice). Take the craziness and raise it to a power of 10 (everyone seems like they are screaming at ME, and ME alone, and in Japanese!). Finally, take my stress level and set it as the limit of y=x^2 as x approaches infinity!

I am pretty fresh from a red eye that came in overnight from Bangkok, yet my adrenaline kicked in the second I walked in the 'Media' entry. I drank down a liter of water prior to coming in the doors, and it may not be enough for the day. The halls are bigger, but not quite as nice as the Los Angeles Convention Center. All the booths at E3 2006 took care to put carpeting down everywhere, but that is not the case here. Other than the booths, the hall itself looks sort of unfinished, as if each booth is an oasis of technology in a desert of concrete. Add to that technology an absolute plethora times a plethora of booth babes and exhibitors each wanting to hand you some cheap and useless pamphlet (best swag so far: a Dragon Ball Z hand fan which is coming in handy, no pun intended) that think the best way of getting a white guys attention is to scream at him in a language he probably doesn't understand. The mood is set.

I played one and only one game before heading over to the press center to submit my initial thoughts. That game was Halo 3! I know it's coming out in like 3 days but I could not help myself. I am an Xbox 360 supporter and a Halo fan! It looks like we are in for a treat! Added to the vehicles available was a rotary looking deal-e-o (called the Brute Chopper) that looked a lot like the vehicles used by the droid army in the Star Wars prequels, most notably by General Grievous in Episode 3. Luckily I had my trusty plasma rifle and was able to easily dispatch the operator.

It seemed that we were playing some demo mode that involved 8 human players taking on an army of Covenant. It is quite possible that this means that we were playing a large co-op mode, but all the mission objectives that were being listed were in Japanese. I have a bit of a hard time reading Japanese. (Editors note: The entire campaign is online co-op playable.)

No pictures yet because of the WiFi limitations in the so called 'press center' (another downgrade from E3), but at least there is free orange juice and coffee. Too bad I don't drink coffee and double bad that I didn't bring a case of Thai Lipo (original Red Bull that's banned in all but 6 countries!) with me. But I digress. It is time to head back into the fray, my friends. Wish me luck and pray for my survival!