The action began today at 10:00 a.m. with the opening of the gates for Business Day. Access was limited to only press, maunfacturers, and invited guests, although there seemed to be plenty on each of those lists. Given the location of this event, the overwhelming majority of the overseas media is from Taiwan and China, although there is a sizable contingent of media from both Europe and the States (including yours truly). Also present was former RPGamer staffer Alex Wollenschlager, who is now working for Kiziko Games. It was good to run into him again, as the last time we crossed paths was at E3 2003. We had talked about coming to TGS sometime in the future before, so it was good to see that both us made true on our promise, albeit with different companies.

What to say about the first day of action? Probably the thing that impressed me the most was the Xbox 360, and in fact Microsoft had their sizable booth posted right in front of the press entrance, for everyone to see. Not only were the consoles on display, there were playable games...and lots of them.

Sony had a presence, but while a concept model of the PlayStation 3 was available and some tech demos were showing, that was it. I also give negative marks to Sony and Capcom for running out of press kits for overseas media (yet having plenty for Japanese media and refusing to hand them over to us, because, you know...we're foreigners!). Nevertheless, they had a few titles to show off, and here are some pics of the "proposed" PS3.

All cynicism aside, there were plenty of titles to sample, and I was able to play four of them today: .hack//Fragment, Tales of the Abyss, Gensosuikoden V, and Rhapsodia. One of the great things about having a press pass is the ability to progress though lines fairly quickly and exchange business cards for just about anything. My arm was hurting coming back carrying all the swag, although like most conventions of this type, most of it is fairly useless.

Nevertheless, visiting the individual company booths is the best part of the conference, and the usual suspects were around with some interesting titles.

Probably today's biggest news was the annoucement of the new remote control for the Nintendo Revolution, which had many people's attention on the floor. Ironically, Nintendo doesn't have a booth at TGS (and usually doesn't) but that isn't stopping them from trying to steal some of the limelight.

Impressions will come soon, but for now, rest and preparation for tomorrow. I'll be doing tagteam coverage as well with Bill Early, so look forward to more gaming goodness from the Land of the Rising Sun. Amish out.