Sony

The PS3 games look great, obviously (Sonic and GT:HD, especially; tennis was also fun), but the bottom line? $600 dollars is entirely too much money to spend on a console. Factor in a few games and an extra controller or two (not to mention an HDTV, if you're late to the party), and we're already in the neighborhood of oh, say... a used car. Not good. I guess it's worth noting that PS3 games in Sony's booth had a grainy, sort of... unresolved look to the textures and such. Don't know what to say about that. I'd chalk it up to connection issues, but christ -- they should have all that figured out for E3, you know?

Needless to say, God of War 2, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and others looked fantastic. PS2 will obviously have strong support in the forseeable future.

Microsoft

What can I say? I'm impressed. 360's software line-up was killer, and I'm excited about extended functionality with the console. Good times ahead, I presume. Halo 3 and Gears of War, FTW!!!

Nintendo

I can't really compare Ninty's E3 showing to past events, nor can I put their games in the context of a traditional comparison -- I know... that sounds lame. Yet, I'm totally serious. The cold hard reality is that even though Wii's games are a bit lacking (for the most part) in what I'd normally consider "next-gen" graphics, they're seriously fun -- more-so than pretty much anything at E3 (just ask the hundreds-strong perimeter at Nintendo's booth at any given time). When I'd finish up an entire day on the show floor, bouncing from booth to booth for 8 long hours, I'd wake up the next morning and drive to north LA with the excitement of a small child. I'm 26 years old, and Wii makes me giddy about video-games again. Plain and simple. Without getting too technical, that's just the way I feel.

That said, I'm dissapointed that GBA and Gamecube were absent from the show-floor. Super Paper Mario? Earthbound? Hello, Nintendo! Anyway, the DS line-up made up for the lack of these systems, in my opinion.

So that's my impression of this year's event (the short version). There's a ton of other happenings I'd like to discuss (meeting Reggie and others, for example), but I'll save that for our more comprehensive collection of impressions. In the meantime, feel free to bash, comment, compliment... whichever you feel is necessary.