I decided to see what everyone else was doing, and I found the rest of the crowd down in Max’s room on the N64. Patrick was beating Ty at Perfect Dark (a pretty incredible feat!), and they agreed to let me play the system after their match ended. My game of choice: Sin & Punishment. Oh God yes. If you can imagine Contra in 3D, but fun, that might scratch the surface of how slick this game is. What’s especially disturbing is to watch the cutscenes in English and realize that the game will probably never come out in America or Europe.

A couple hours of gaming under my belt, and I was ready for bed. People were already packing up the DC and filing out of our room, so Matt and I brushed our teeth and all that and went to bed. I must have been up for almost twenty hours straight that day, and we had a very long and tiring plane ride ahead of us the next morning.

I woke up and got ready to leave the hotel, trying not to think too much about being sad. It was really tough though, and I’m surprised I got through it with dry eyes. At E3 2000, I had one good friend to bid adieu, now I had over a dozen. Never did I feel more a part of the group than just as I had to leave it. We weren’t just the PGC staff; we’d become the PGC family. How so many people can come from all over the world and almost immediately gel like that, I’ll never understand. Don’t anyone tell you that gaming is an anti-social hobby...it brought this group together like I never could have imagined.

Max and Pat’s plane back to Ohio was departing close to ours, so we all got a shuttle together back to the airport. It was a quiet ride, with the four of us mainly reflecting and contemplating on the trip. When we got there, we had to give our last good-byes and take separate paths. It was really sad, and actually the start of a post-E3 depression that lasted me for several days afterwards. The show is such a mind-boggling blast of things to do and places to go that almost anything would pale in comparison after it...much less small-town Alabama.

I could tell that Matt enjoyed himself. He managed to rake in some very nice freebie stuff, and even talk to some people at Blizzard, which I think is his favorite game company. Matt is also planning to be a developer one day, so the trip was obviously quite educational for him. Oh, and fun. :-)

What else is there to say? E3 2001 was bigger, louder, and busier than the previous year...but I expected that. What I didn’t expect was to fall so much in love with a group of “strangers”, and kick ass coverage-wise in the process.

E3 ’99 was about learning to be a journalist, and E3 2000 was about learning to be at E3. For me, E3 2001 was the culmination of those previous experiences. Planet GameCube wasn’t just present in full force; we were respected and known. We had tons of people come up just to say how much they loved the site, a totally bizarre thing for the guy whose site was getting less than a hundred hits per day just the year before. At the same time, we didn’t let anything get to our heads, and we put every ounce of energy into covering the show. I think PGC’s E3 2001 legacy speaks for itself. We accomplished our goal of having the best damn Nintendo coverage around, and we had an awesome time in the process. I couldn’t wish for anything more.

Please note that all quotes are pulled from memory and are probably not exact. If you are quoted incorrectly in this feature, or if you just have a question or comment about A Tale of Three E3s, feel free to email the author at jonathan@planetgamecube.com. Special thanks to the stellar “home team” PGC staffers, who gave up several days to stare at their computers and help us round out the coverage. Also thanks to everyone we met and talked to at E3 for being so cool, and thanks to you for reading this exceptionally long-winded article.