e3-2009-booth-babe posts

We remember reading an article a few years ago from a respected journalists about how E3 and the game industry in general wouldn't be taken seriously if they continued to allow publishers to have booth babes parading around in the exhibit hall. Today booth models at E3 are not just expected but celebrated as part of the culture of the show.

The latest evidence of this turnaround is an upcoming one-hour special on the G4 cable TV network called Confessions of a Booth Babe. The show, hosted by former Playboy bunny Sara Underwood, was filmed at last month's E3 2009 event and "explores how these young women were chosen and what exactly their job entails." We predict part of the job deals with keeping sweaty geeks from hitting on them. The show airs on Saturday, July 25 at 7 pm ET/PT. Of course you could prepare for the show by checking out our own E3 booth model galleries . . . just a thought.

E3 2009 is fading into memory but various web sites and media outlets are already putting out their E3 2009 "awards". We feel that a lot of these awards are, well, odd. After all nearly all of the games shown at the annual show are not finished and giving awards to these games would be like giving an award to a movie just by seeing its trailers. Remember when Spore won all those E3 "Game of the Year" awards? Remember when the actual game came out and, well, failed to live up to expectations? You get the picture.

So for our E3 2009 awards, we are doing something different. Instead of awards for best game or best action title or other generic awards, we are going to have some fun with our categories and give you a taste of the show itself. We hope you like it.

Click on the image above to continue reading Big Download's E3 2009 (Different) Awards

Yep, E3 is definitely back and the reason we know this is because there were quite a few booth models in the exhibits and just hanging around the convention center this week. We close out our look at these various models for the third and final (official) day of the show.

And yes, that is Eliza Dushku in this set of pictures. She was signing at Bethesda Softworks' booth on Wednesday to promote Wet, a non-PC game. But she has the look and feel of a booth model so we figured that we would put her in the gallery with the others. If you haven't seen our frst two galleries of pictures you can still check out Day 1 and Day 2.

It's day two of E3 2009 so naturally we wanted to give you folks what you apparently want: more booth model shots from the show floor. From shots of the G4 television school girls to the dirty ladies of DiRT 2 to folks that don't seem to be promoting any game at all, we have them here.

Overall, while E3 2009 does mark the return of the booth babe, it definitely hasn't reached the level it did in previous years of E3 as a trade show. There are not any massive dance numbers with huge stages and even the famous Tecmo babe shows are silent this year. Hey, at least the sexy Everquest elf is still around.

If some of you need proof that booth babes will be back at E3 2009 consider this new blog entry over at IGN for the upcoming first person shooter Wolfenstein. Kevin Long, the head artist at the game's developer Raven Software, talks about designing the look of the game's Elite Guard, the sexy female enemies that first appeared in the game series' previous entry Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

So what, you may ask? So this. It's also mentioned in the blog entry, "If you are interested in seeing real-world versions of these femme fatales, they will be at our booth at E3." Oh yes, we are very much interested in seeing them . . . maybe too interested.

Ok, forget we wrote that . . .we are just a little tired from packing to go to LA to cover E3 2009. Back to your regular programming.

In 2006, the Entertainment Software Expo took up nearly the entire space of the Los Angeles Convention Center. While the show is returning to its larger roots for the revamped 2009 show (after two years of the small, invite only affairs) the show's own floor plans reveal that it will still not match the glory days of 2006.

While the massive South Hall and West Hall of the convention center will indeed be filled with exhibits, this year's E3 won't apparently be using the Concourse or Petree Halls. Most notably the show won't be using Kentia Hall, which in the past has seen some of the truly oddest games and game-related products at E3 (Guitar Hero was first shown down in Kentia Hall).

Even though this year's show will be smaller than the E3 trade shows of the past, that apparently is cool with Michael Gallagher, the head of E3's owner the Entertainment Software Association. He's quoted on our sister site GameDaily as saying, "It is definitely much more reflective of the energy, excitement and creativity of our industry, but I wouldn't say it's our first 'big E3' or a return to the old one."

E3 2009 is returning (almost) to its larger trade show roots and that will definately include the return of the booth babes to the exhibit hall area. Spike TV knows this as well and for its upcoming Gametrailers.TV pre-E3 2009 special they are breaking out not one but two Hollywood actresses-babes.

Rose McGowan, who is handling the voice for one of the characters in the just released Terminator: Salvation, is being promoted as the co-host (with Geoff Keighley) of the special and Number Six herself Tricia Helfer also will make an appearance (no word as to why yet). The special itself was taped outside E3's venue (the LA Convention Center) and Spike TV states it will have a number of "exclusives" including new gameplay footage from Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age: Origins, Aliens Vs Predator and more. The special will be shown on Spike TV at 11 pm on Thursday and of course will be posted on Gametrailers.TV afterwards.

Well we can finally breath easy; E3 2009 will indeed be bringing back booth babes for its larger and revamped event in June. How do we know this? Because the G4 cable TV network is asking folks to pick which lady will get the honor for being their booth babe at their E3 2009 exhibit booth.

Their web site has posted up 10 potential E3 booth models for G4 Each lady gets a sexy picture and a biography which we predict will go unread. You are asked to rate each each model and presumably the one with the highest rating gets the "lucky break" of being G4's E3 booth model for three days in June. By the way the cable network plans to offer 22 hours of coverage of events at the show during E3 week.