I only spent about half a day at E3 this year. I didn't have much of a posse and it's just not as much fun without some friends and plenty of time.

High Definition was dominant at the show. With the PC games, the Xbox 360, and the Playstation 3 all showing screen after screen of HD content, it made all the standard definition stuff look bad.

Hot games I saw:

Spore - Will Wright's new game is spectacular. I waited for the live demo and it was worth it. The game takes you Viva Pinatathrough the stages of creating life from individual cells to spaceflight. There are six parts to the game: cell, creature, tribe, city, civilization, and UFO. In the creature mode, you can make any kind of creature you want by dragging and dropping arms, legs, eyes, etc. onto a body. The motion is based uniquely on the mechanics of the creature you create. make a 3 legged dog, it has a 3 legged gait.

Crysis - Most amazing game visually of the show. Read Travis's take on the game. It's a must have upon release.

Viva Pinata - No photo of this, I was too in awe. Basically it's a sim game based on raising a population of pinatas that even allow you smash the pinatas. The pinatas can fall in love and raise babies that you can sell for a profit. Virtual Pinata sex and slavery ftw!

Magic the Gathering Online - I played Magic starting back in 1994. Today, it can be played online. Nothing new there, but I was told at the show that if you collect a set in the virtual world, you can request the real cards to be sent to you. An amazing idea.

And now, on to the pictures...

I stopped by the Disney/Buena Vista Games booth and was pleased to see the infamous Desperate Housewives game. Looks very Sim-like.

Here is a shot of the Pirates of the Caribbean MMORPG. Not very complicated, but it looked straightforward to play.

Remember the Flying Toasters screen saver? Well, it lives on as a game for your mobile phone.

Onto the Blizzard booth I went to see the Burning Crusade demos. Blizzard probably had 50+ computers set up and people were allowed to play all they wanted. Here's a shot of the jewelcrafting screen.

Of course, I had to the look at the new Tier 3 gear for Rogues. OMFG, this gear is simply unreal. If people can get a set of this level, they will be unstoppable by anything known in WoW currently. I don't know how they are going to stop Level 70s in Tier 3 from farming Molten Core.

This dagger is makes me drool.

Of course, the big news is the Blood Elves are joined by the Dranei as the new playable races. Here's the hottie Blood Elf female.

Neverwinter Nights 2 was show in a new perspective, similar to the current MMORPG style. The controls were a bit weird, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.

My mother wil be sad, but Destroy All Humans 2 is coming. The girls and I will be happy though. The original game was a blast.

Best named game of E3 2006. In Rocket Slime, you play a slime driving a tank that shoots rockets and cannons at other tanks and mountains. I am not making this up.

Second best named game of E3 2006. I don't know what the game was, but anything named WTF must be good.

They had cut down on the number of booth babes this year, but these 'character models' were allowed.

This is the Gundam game. Looked like a bunch of fun.

Posted by michael at May 14, 2006 10:32 PM