Monday, June 08, 2009

ROCK & ROLL RULES AT E3 GAMING EXPO on RollingStones.com

on Rollingstones.com
Submitted: June 8, 2009

After two mellow years, annual videogame conference E3, which attracted some 41,000 visitors last week in Los Angeles, saw a welcome return to the scantily clad booth babes, pounding speakers and sideshow atmosphere of yore.

Between pre-show performances by Eminem, Jay-Z, Natasha Bedingfield and Travis Barker, cameos by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, and several high-profile debuts (see Guitar Hero 5, The Beatles: Rock Band), fans were treated to a virtual Woodstock’s worth of cutting-edge musical material.

Sparser crowds, one less convention hall and a truncated exhibitor list couldn’t keep away audiences fiending for a peek of this and next year’s hottest high-tech outings. Fans’ enthusiasm wasn’t just rewarded with hands-on glimpses of dueling disc jockey simulators DJ Hero and Scratch: The Ultimate DJ either. (Both sporting custom turntable controllers, with the latter touch-sensitive, featuring five buttons linkable to USB microphone-recorded custom samples and co-developed by real-world deck manufacturer Numark.) Karaoke title Def Jam Rapstar, which sees amateur MCs rapping along with Kanye West, T.I. and Young Jeez —, and lets players form crews or share 30-second videos of performances — also made its first public outing.

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