E3 This Year

    Wow, just wow. I have to say that E3 really surprised me this year. Usually it's either Microsoft or Sony who owns E3, but this year they both sucked. Sony was just plain boring, and Microsoft was as embarrassing as Sony in 2006 and Nintendo in 2008. Instead of talking too much about what anyone here has either already read plenty about or doesn't really care, I'll just list some of the games I'm looking forward to.

    Donkey Kong Country Returns - Holy crap! The Donkey Kong Country games were among my favorite games growing up, and the fact that DKCR is a throwback to those games is just awesome. It doesn't hurt that it's being developed by Retro, the company behind the Metroid Prime trilogy. Day 1 purchase for me.

    Gears of War 3 - Until I played Mass Effect 1 and 2, Gears of War was my favorite series this generation. Gears 3 adds 4-player co-op, Beast mode (like horde, but you play as various Locust monsters,) and a bunch of new weapons. Beyond that, a famous Star Wars novel author, Karen Traviss is writing this game's story (she's also written several successful Gears of War novels.) Definitely going to the midnight launch for this one.

    Metroid: Other M - Not too much to say here. It looked neat before, it still looks neat now. It's a very interesting combination of 2D side-scrolling and FPS, and it looks like it functions well. Getting this game for sure.

    Legend of Zelda: Skylight Sword - Still haven't played Twilight Princess yet, but I've enjoyed what I've played so far. From what I've seen, this one looks great. The fact that Skylight Sword uses the Wii Motion plus certainly doesn't hurt.

    The biggest surprise for me is how good the 3DS is. I don't have a DS and had very little interest in the 3DS until now. A 3D screen that doesn't require glasses? No idea how they managed that, but it sounds amazing. Not only that, but they revealed a number of good games for it. There are also tons of DS games I would enjoy playing, and the 3DS is backward compatible. A new Kid Icarus game seals the deal for me.

    Other games that interested me were Halo Reach, Kirby Epic Yarn, The Force Unleashed 2, the new Twisted Metal, Portal 2, and the Goldeneye remake. Halo Reach now has space combat and an updated firefight, which both look awesome. Epic Yarn might sound stupid, but it actually looks very creative. Considering Goldeneye will be a near-total remake, I'm reserving judgment for obvious reasons, that and I don't support Activision for a number of reasons including this.