China Joy is Shanghai's annual "digital entertainment expo," and until this year it was quite ghetto. Like, melty-makeup fantasy models, sweaty, mouth-breathing photographers, and cos-play kids crashing an internet cafe high on neon and construction dust. Some of these elements persist, but after China's lift of a 14-year ban on home video game consoles last year, Microsoft and Sony are throwing down major loot and everyone else has stepped their game up too. Sadly, China Joy is just not that bat-shit crazy of an experience anymore, but gamers, cos-players, and curious types will find a lot to like here if they can handle the crowds. Unlike previous years, gaming is now a major focus. Tons to try. Endless halls with everything from Halo to Gran Turismo to new Chinese consoles, PC games, high-end gaming peripherals, top World of Warcraft players competing on stage LIVE, mobile gaming demos and much more. I met one gamer who traveled all the way from Wuhan for this. I guess there were a few thousand other kids like him there. The question is, now that gaming consoles are legal here, will the game industry start changing its ways to cater to the Chinese market, much like the movie industry has? The coolest shit at China Joy this year: Sony's virtual reality headset, called Project Morpheus. This test game Tera sucked, but the technology is promising. Turning your head all the way around and still seeing a full screen of a digital world is pretty damn cool. Was hoping to test Oculus Rift, but meiyou. Also, some really high-end 128GB USB keys that looked like they were designed by an exotic weapons company for billionaire gangsters. It's kind of like a never-ending acid trip in a digital train station. You can still find some countryside beauty pageant shit, stewardesses of the ChinaJoy experience ever-ready for creepy uncles with long lenses to take their photo, cos-play kids passed out by piles of McDonald's wrappers (only Fish Fillet right now - thanks to McDonald's expired-meats scandal), hair in all colors, SWAT team members, trash, SCREENS, Spider Man…But sadly, this is not THAT crazy for someone who's lived their xx years in China. The craziest moment occurred when I got electrocuted by a sketchy cell-phone charging station and got thrown back a few feet. Don't mess with that. And yes, if you like boys and girls that look like real life anime, there are so many models — so sassy, so pouty, so ready for the cameras.

Take a look at our gallery by Brandon McGhee to see what went down. China Joy runs through this Sunday, daily from 10.00am–5pm. Tickets are 135rmb on the weekend. More info here. Prepare for huge crowds, aggravating lines, heat waves and poor AC placement, sweat, and smells. Recommended because hey, it's something different from Yongkang Lu.