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Report by: Angie Kibiloski

With the first batch of new PC games just beginning to pour into my office, I thought I would give everyone a look ahead at the upcoming season of game releases, and a look back at E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, that was held in Los Angeles in May, where all of the new games debuted. The convention was one heck of a party and provided an amazing opportunity to meet and greet people from all of your favorite game designers and publishers.

 First, a little about E3, which is only open to members of the Press and people involved in the Electronic Entertainment field. For the last 12 years, E3 has been a giant mega-convention style event, on the scale of what the COMDEX convention once was. The Los Angeles convention center is filled with gigantic booths, with multi-media presentations including 50 foot screens showing game demos, live entertainment, bright neon lights, sound effects, and general sensory overload. All in all, an awesome, jaw dropping experience. Next year this will all change, as the Powers-That-Be have decided that a more specified intimate atmosphere will suit their needs better in future years than the 3 days of spectacle and showmanship. I don't happen to agree, as part of the draw of the event is to go and experience what new and exciting sights there are to be seen each year, that are bigger and better than the year before. It is truly an event like none other. I am so glad that I managed to go this year before it changes.

Some of the booths were so much fun, that I didn't want to leave. EA Games had a giant 50 foot, 360 degree surround sound screen, continuously showing previews of their new games including their sports line-up, Superman, and Spore. You could just stand in the middle and spin around, watching the loud and colorful demo the whole time. It rivaled the best movie theater I have ever been to. NC Soft had a stage set up in their booth, with an industrial music group/fire dancing troupe called Mutator, who performed incredible music and pyrotechnic acrobatics periodically throughout the day. Activision had a team of skateboarders, featuring Tony Hawk, doing cool high-flying stunts. With over 400 companies exhibiting at the show, and each one of them putting their best foot forward, you can imagine the scope of the convention. There were costumed characters from the games, demos to be viewed, and each booth had stations at which to play their new games. I could have spent the entire 3 days just playing games. As well as being able to play games that won't debut for months, added incentives for you to fondly remember each company after the show came in the form of free stuff to take home. I accumulated a huge bag of stuff (swag), including t-shirts, buttons, pens, stickers, key chains, comic books, posters, and more.

The show is international, so one of the awesome things is to find out what is going on in markets outside the USA. Korean gaming is huge, and about to make its way into America, as well as up and comers like Track 7 Games from Greece and CD Projekt from Poland. You won't be seeing their games for a while yet though, but they are coming. The biggest trend in gaming at the moment, which really is international, is online gaming, whether it be puzzle games to play alone or in tournaments, or MMORPGs (Massive Multi-player Online Role Playing Games) that can be played by hundreds of people all at once, all interacting with each other in the same environment.

As well as online gaming, and brand new developments in next generation console games, there are so many exciting CD/DVD-ROM games coming out as well, and are way to numerous to do credit to a list. However, here are some of the titles that especially caught my eye, and that you should look out for in the coming months. Genuine Games, a Scottish company, is publishing a line of games geared specially for girls, called YooStar, which includes Fashion Salon and Girlzz. THQ is coming out with Broken Sword: Angel of Death, fourth in that series, as well as two games based on Disney's movie Cars. Atari will publish Alone in the Dark and Arthur and the Minimoys in 2007. Lucas Arts has LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy. And then there is my favorite publisher, The Adventure Company, with The Sacred Rings, Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express, Evidence: The Last Ritual, and The Secret Files: Tunguska.

All of these games, and more, are soon to be released in the upcoming months. I can't wait, and I know you can't either. As soon as they come through my door, and pass the Editor's Choice inspection of course, you'll find out even more about these exciting games and exactly why you should add them to your collection. And all of it will have been made possible by the good people that organized the E3 convention this year. You may not have been able to go to the party, but you'll certainly benefit from the goodies.

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