I've been putting off writing about this event because it really didn't live up to my expectations but I have respect for those who work for ZD.

On Friday, Oct 14, I left work early to go check out the greatness that I hoped DigitalLife would be. I even dragged on of my coworker friends with me in the hope that I could share with him the beauty of Xbox360.

As you may or may not know, the Northeast went through a pretty bad week of rain. It seemed like it had been raining from Monday-Friday. I hope it was this that led to the less than stellar sales people and reps available at the convention.

My friend and I took a cab down to the convention center to avoid as much rain as possible. The line to register wasn't too bad. We got through it in about 10 minutes. As soon as we walked in the doors, we were hit with the "360" booth. Only there were no 360s in sight. I caught a glimpse of Peter Moore but didn't stop to say hi because he was in the middle of an interview. Instead, I walked around doing a general glance at everything being showcased.

When I met Cella from PMS earlier in the week, she had mentioned that she and the other girls would be at the Cosmo Lounge throughout the weekend. Only problem was, I couldn't find the lounge anywhere. I did find some brightly colored Vespas, though. Still not sure what they were there for. My friend refused to sit on one for a pic.

After wandering around the accessories aisles and picking up some discounts for sweet laptop bags, I went over to check out the GGL tournament section. Finger twitching madness was abound behind LCD monitors, PCs and Xboxes. I didn't recognize anyone playing but it was fun to watch for about 5 minutes before my eyes caught the DDR corner. It's not possible to ignore people playing this. I quickly made my way over and saw several players going nuts. I wasn't sure what was funnier, the guy going ballistic on the dancefloor or the Napoleon Dynamite looking guy filming it while trying to eat a really huge pretzel. I watched the dancers for about 5 minutes and decided to move on again.

The Tivo booth was mobbed with people trading in their vhs tapes for a free Tivo. They had guards standing around the towering boxes. There was also a tivo walking around the event looking for photo ops. I don't know how the person wearing the costume managed to get through the aisles without knocking stuff over.

Stormtroopers of every shape and size were wandering around the Battlefront 2 booth.

UGO had a box truck set up with some game that I couldn't get close enough to see. When the crowd dissipated, I was looking at something else but snapped a pic for those interested.

JinX! was also represented at the show. Their tees do make me laugh sometimes but I feel that they're a little too stereotypical. I like the more subtle shirts like my Zanzibar shirt from Bungie. They had a lot of interesting stuff, though.

There were also some cool offerings from the Intel at Home booths. One was a mat where you actually have to physically control your game character. You could stomp, kick and punch the air making the actions happen on screen. Finally something to get us couch potatoes off our backsides. They also had a full-size bike attached to a device that added and took away resistance according to what was shown on the TV. You watch your virtual racer on the screen while you pedal away. You can also race a bot. It was very cool to see. Now, if they'd come out with a reasonably priced ski machine like that, I'd be happy!

I wandered back over to the GGL area and saw that MaryJane PMS and Some Girl were playing Halo 2. I stayed to watch this as I'd never actually seen the PMS girls play. MJ was VERY good. It was a really tight match with 2 players pretty much going head to head. At 49-49, you could see the look of dread and concentration on the leading players faces. Finally, 50 came and everyone started freaking out. Unfortunately, MJ lost but she really impressed me.

Once I had made my way around the entire floor, I was determined to try and find the Cosmo Lounge. I looked on the convention map and found that I'd walked right past it. It was tiny! I thought it would be much bigger. It was stuck in the middle of the accessories and you really couldn't get to it easily because the aisles in that section were incredibly small. Lots of pushing and shoving was going on. I gave up after a while.

Instead, I wandered back over to the 360 booth where a very nice woman working for MS was handing out entry forms for the media center PC giveaway. She came right towards me smiling and started to pull out a form. I got ready to take it when she breezed right by me and handed it to my friend. GREAT...It's hard enough trying to get into gaming and now women are snubbing women? Give me a break. I was about to pull out my MVP card and cut her with it hahaha Then again, she was there to hand out fliers so bah, her life already sucks LOL The people manning the booth didn't seem interested in sharing anything about the new system. They just sat around looking bored. It really was a let down. The fact that the 360 demonstration area faced a wall didn't help, either. I was so sad...I left shortly after that. I decided not to return the next day.