E3 2003: The Best of the Show

After covering E3 for four years, I'm somewhat jaded about the show. E3 is merely a big light show, where you get to hear company lines about games, do a few interviews, haul around a bag with your laptop, notepad, and recorder, all while hoping your feet and shoulders don't give out. And usually, most of the details are all included in the company press kits that you're given at each booth.

Needless to say though, just screenshots and fact sheets wouldn't do some of the games on the floor justice. I want to take a quick moment to recognize those titles, as well as the ones that didn't look so hot and the ones that made me ask, "what the hell are they thinking?" So without any further ado, the good, the better, and CRYSTAL CHRONICLE.

HALF-LIFE 2: Incredible stuff, and probably the hardest game to actually see at the show. The media couldn't even get in after Thursday. But CINESCAPE got a look at it and walked away with pants soiled. Easily this was the best game at the showfloor, and has shot highly to the top of our most anticipated lists.

HALO 2: The Master Chief is back, and so is Bungie with the follow-up to the award-winning original game. The demo was real-time gameplay, and showed the Master Chief wielding a weapon in each hand, a new precision rifle and updated graphics. Just the though of fighting through new environments on earth screams potential.

ROGUE SQUADRON III: REBEL STRIKE: Something about this appeals to me a lot. It's got better graphics than the first GameCube ROGUE SQUADRON, the ability to play through those missions with two-players cooperatively. A bunch of new missions as Wedge or Luke. With Wedge sticking to space while Luke takes care of more ground missions. All in all, it seems to be a winner.

GRAN TURISMO 4: Sony's GT4 looks stunning. The graphics are photo realistic and I just about wet myself when I saw the Grand Canyon. Many more cars this time around and the physics engine has been adjusted to make sure that players get the closest to the real thing as possible.

MARIO KART DOUBLE DASH: I'm a sucker for MARIO KART, and I'm really looking forward to mastering all the new tracks in the GameCube rendition of the popular racer. The biggest addition this time is the 8-player LAN play that Nintendo is including. Should make for some great times this fall and some fierce competition.

THE RETURN OF THE KING: EA's THE TWO TOWERS was missing one thing: a cooperative two-player mode. RETURN OF THE KING has it, and I can't wait to play the final game. There was something very cool about playing with a developer as Aragorn and Gimli while we fought off hordes of orcs. Very impressive.

FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: The reason to own a GameCube, four Game Boys and four link cables is here. This is going to be the best cooperative game ever and will really force people to work together. This might have been my favorite game at the show, and I bet many people will never get to fully appreciate it, a shame really.

So that's my favorites, keep an eye on Cinescape as we keep looking back over what we saw in L.A.