This E3 was actually my second E3, but in many ways it was a very different convention. Last year, Gamervision sent four people and it was a quaint, small show. This year it had exploded, and we decided to be more focused and send two people (with a little help from Lady Sp8des as well). It was hectic, chaotic, and exhilarating. In fact, I ended up missing some of the biggest events and games because of how much there was to see, but i still managed to have a few memories I will always remember.

My Three Favorite Moments of E3:


Playing Mario With... Erm... Mario. Charles Martinet was at the Nintendo booth, and walked up to play some New Super Mario Bros. Wii with me and a few other people. It was... surreal. He played as Mario, occasionally slipped into the Mario voice. I can barely describe the experience.

Playing Split Second. While it wasn't my game of the show, it definitely has me excited. As I wrote in my preview, it reminds me a lot of Burnout, which is my favorite racing series to date. I didn't even know it was going to be there, so getting a hands-on with the game made me happy.

Seeing The Old Republic. I'm a Star Wars nerd, and sitting in the Jedi Temple and seeing the producers of Star Wars: The Old Republic play through some segments of their MMORPG made me excited beyond words. Hell, read my impressions, they're longer than most reviews I've written because I simply absorbed all of the information. I'm so happy it doesn't look like it's going to suck.



Quick Impressions:

There were also a few games that I didn't get an involved look at, but are worth mentioning. Even some big games I was only able to see for a minute or two before moving on, and don't feel like I had a close enough look to justify a full hands or even eyes-on. Here they are:

Battlefield Bad Company 2: Bad Company was one of my favorite games of last year, but I was only around the EA booth long enough to play one multiplayer match. It was literally the last game I played at the show, but I did notice two things: you can now spawn on any squadmates, and buildings collapsing on players has been added, and is awesome. It was also snowy, and looked cool. I can't wait.

Where the Wild Things Are: All right, it's barely worth mentioning (since I know most of you don't care about a movie-tie in to a G movie), but the game looks cool. Nothing great, but children who aren't scared shitless of Spike Jonez's interpretation of the Wild Things will likely love the crap out of this game.

Dark Void: It was fun, it was quick, and I died a lot. The game's gimmick is a jetpack and it worked fairly well, but I didn't have time for a tutorial so I didn't really survive very long. I'm going to have to spend more time with the title, but I have high hopes for whatever reason.



Lost Planet 2: Next on my whirlwind tour of Capcom's booth was Lost Planet 2, which was fairly intense. No one knew what they were doing, which hurts co-op a bit, but no one was complaining. We were fighting a huge bug, some people were in mechs, and at one point it ate and pooped me out. Awesome.

King of Fighters XII: I thought KoFXII was kind of ugly. No, I'm not joking. I don't know why, but it didn't look as good as even HD Remix, which is a shock for a game that looked so stunning in trailers. Maybe it was the lighting, the systems, the TV, or I was playing the wrong game, but I'm definitely going to withhold saying too much more until I play the full game.

E3 2009 may be over, but be sure to check back tomorrow, when Sarah and I announce the Best of E3 winners. In the meantime, be sure to check out the nominees, and everything else we covered, over at the E3 09 page.