Matt
Despite the fact that the entire writing staff of Australian Gamer appears to have synced their periods, I happen to think that E3 has shown some really interesting stuff. Sure the console manufacturers have nothing much to show except that they can continue their existing strategies of adequacy for another year... but the games, man, the games.

Sony showed Ratchet and Clank: Booty Call (it's actually Quest for Booty, but I like mine better) looks really good and will be episodic, hopefully not in a Half Life kind of way. The other thing that looks impressive is MAG (Massive Action Game, hopefully a working title) which is an action FPS featuring up to 256 players on a map. That can mean sides of more than 120 people in a battle and that rocks and rocks hard.


Then there's God of War 3. Shiny. Just a teaser but... Some of their more "little" games look like fun too, such as PixelJunk's nifty Eden, which reminds me a fair bit of LocoRoco CocoRoacho.

Excuse me if I skip Microsoft and Nintendo. I don't have a 360, and Nintendo have learned to bore me.

Outside of the big three there are plenty of exciting cross platform projects. Sonic Unleashed looks like a lot of fun and Mirror's Edge is undeniably good looking. Despite some of the early disinterest I had I'm finally keen for Prince of Persia now, having seen more, I'm really keen. Red Faction: Guerilla looks particularly interesting. The level of destructability is highly cool. I Am Alive has introduced itself with a bang, and will be one to watch.

Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft? Meh. Everyone else? Gold star!

AJ
Pretty much everything that was going to be announced at E3 has been... and frankly, I'm over it. When all the highlights of this year's E3 were already being shown last year, you know it's been a bad year. It's almost like no one had anything of any substance to show, but they got up there and went through the motions anyway just because they'd already booked the floor space. Resident Evil 5, yes we've seen it already. Little Big Planet, nice graphs.. but we've seen it already. Spore, yes yes yes... but we've seen it! New Xbox 360 dashboard, does anyone actually care? Wii Music, hell we saw that TWO years ago! Banjo Kazooie, seen it. Fable 2, seen it! Fallout 3, seen it! Too Human, seen it! Mad World, seen it! Gears of War 2, seen it! Mirrors Edge, seen it!! Scene It, ummm... SEEN IT!

Only a handful of decent looking "new to E3" titles were shown this year, and of them only a few aren't sequels. Games like MAG, Mad World and Left 4 Dead all look nice and all... but I get the feeling that they'll be making an appearance at next year's E3 anyway.

In honour of this year's E3; the E3 with nothing at all to show, a trailer that sums up E3 2008.... I give to you the trailer for the Duke Nukem Trilogy.

Oracle
I'm gonna cut straight to the chase and say what a load of crap. It seems publishers love being the first to show off their latest and greatest games without leaving a single announcement or trailer behind in what I like to call the last minute fireworks. I'm not sure about the rest of you gamers out there but I miss the good ol days of Nintendo playing a last minute trailer on Mario or Zelda or even Microsoft doing a sneak peak on their next top secret idea for Xbox Live at the very last minute. I don't know.. E3 has changed and nobody likes it when a company shows something epic off and walks off the stage without answering any further questions. Yes, I saw what Microsoft did with Halo today and I don't give a shit.


There were only a few trailers released today that happen raise my eyebrow. If you haven't seen Ghostbusters: The Video Game trailer I want you to stop reading and Google the latest E3 trailer. The games story is written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, the original directors for the classic 80 movies. It will also feature the voice actors of the original cast – Dan and Harold again as well as Bull Murray and Ernie Hudson. Ghostbusters is set to be a Comedy action title which I am praying to be a very enjoyable game and not another buggy Hollywood title.

And finally the Duke Nukem Trilogy trailer, awesome, simply awesome. Check it out. *cranks the volume*

Anna
When they moved E3 from being the big overblown mediafest to a smaller, contained mediafest I had hopes for better news and announcements from the big three. But frankly, from what we've seen this year, E3 is working out exactly the way they wanted to avoid. Its self-importance has outrun its usefulness and it's become one big pat on the back for the industry.

Everything they've announced is either unimportant or we've heard abut it before either officially or on the rumour mill. Everybody's mentioned anything of importance already so I'll leave my last note as one of ringing disappointment. Nothing in Day 3 has grabbed me.

Samo
It is true that the hollow shell left of E3 is really just a shadow of its former self. From day 2 and 3 I was hoping for some bang, some big announcements something to get me excited. But I'm sitting here now writing this short recap and to be honest, I'm struggling to think of anything that's worth mentioning. A few things got confirmed, some new updated videos were released, yup, not much else. Sad thing really, but when most publishers are holding their own events now a-la UbiDays where they don't have to compete for limelight, E3 becomes a secondary event to make a short appearance and say 'Hi, check out these new slightly higher res textures we added to the last video.'


Of minor note, today Take Two announced that the PS3 version of BioShock will have some exclusive downloadable content in the form of a few side quests and some new plasmids. But then they needed to announce that because the only way they'll sell the PS3 version is to add something different because everyone has already played it on either the XBOX 360 or the PC over a year ago. Sony are going to release a PS3 with a little bit more bigness, 80 being the major factor relating to space and it will be launched in Australia on the 27th of August. Not that anyone really cares.

In more who really cares news, it looks like Microsoft were meant to be announcing a new Halo title, but seeing as everyone else had already been put to sleep by the former addresses, they decided to pull it at the last minute in fear of everyone sleeping through it and completely missing the fanfare. Not that there will be any fanfare now that everyone unofficially knows about it anyway.

Brett
I'm not going to name names, but I think some people here at AG just aren't taking this E3 thing seriously enough and are just writing any old crap to fill in their daily reports. It irks me that my peers won't seriously embrace this transition period from traditional videogames to casual lifestyle simulations and I personally can't wait for the day that I can buy a console that looks like a 'wack a mole' arcade machine.

E3 has been somewhat of a disappointment however. There was no word from Microsoft regarding a release date for Coffeetime Crosswords II and Sony only announced 410 casual gaming products that weren't actually games. I don't think Nintendo turned up at all, and when I say that, I'm not suggesting that their presence was weak but rather that they all stayed home in Japan watching tenticle-sex anime.

I can't wait until next year, when once again Yug will have to threaten to stop sending me free games to get me to write something for the site.

Independant journalism, it's a tough gig kids, so pay attention in school or you'll end up writing for AG, or even worse, Palgn.

Cav
Is theCAVman getting too old for this or has there been nothing that really excites him over the last 72 hours. Yeah I know I've posted over the last couple of days and the odd thing has made me lift an eyebrow, but a hell of a lot of E3 has just been telling us more about stuff we know about in the first place. Star Wars? Yeah we know about that, just release it already. Raving Rabbids? They were funny the first time, not so much the second time. Is the third time really the charm? Lara Croft is at it again? People still buy the older games, there is no need to spray on another t-shirt Lara, you are still the money, girl. I didn't Pikmin the first two times and probably won't the third time.


80G PS3 will be in all PAL Territories by August 27th? Man, I still won't purchase one yet. I have other things to spend my tax return on and I am sure that 40 more gig will still make the price any more desirable to families on a budget. Wolfenstein? That ain't Wolfenstein! Basically I am not feeling as fulfilled as I expected to be. In my opinion the E3 has been like ordering a pizza with the lot and not getting any anchovies or olives – real kalamata olives not those Lego tyre looking things.

The best thing I did read about E3, I found at Kotaku, where they reported that someone was eavesdropping on the Sony Rehearsal speech and sending the info out to a website. Eavesdropping from three stories above that is. Now I give that guy points for effort. I wonder if he had a Spiderman costume on, hanging from the rafters trying to pull some Peter Parker action?

Phil
Contrary to popular opinion, the Duke Nukem Trilogy trailer is annoying.

I want to see some gameplay, not just a mess of still images! At this stage during the mess of E3, I'm not in the mood for jokes. Bah humbug.

Everything else lately seems to be Rock Band this, online content that. Every announcement of Rock Band or Guitar Hero can be summed up easily. It'll either be some famous band promoting songs, new downloadable content, or new instruments. There is no "surprise" anymore. It's a rhythm game, and will always be a rhythm game.


Miyamoto went ahead and said "We're making Pikmin." That's it. No new details, no images or footage. I find it hard to get excited about this (even though it's theoretically a "big" announcement), because we physically can't waste time thinking and speculating about games that have no information, when a million other developers and publishers are clamouring for attention all at once. It's difficult, but now I just want to start playing some of this stuff!

At the end of the day, I have to pick something that stood out over the last few days. For me, it would be Wii MotionPlus and Xbox 360 content. I simply can't wait to pick up a new and improved WiiMote and show off my superior swordfighting skills with 1:1 response. It'll be badass, nothing but badass. On top of that, there was a few new XBLA games that piqued my interest, including Bionic Commando: Rearmed and the original Banjo Kazooie, one of the best platformers ever made. Looking good, Mr. Xbox. Just hurry up and update already!

Jae
Well after a disappointing Day 2 I wasn't that motivated to get into the last day. I almost felt like writing a Brett-esque write up but all I can think of is a cup and ball game. Damn the ball won't get in the cup! The only game in which I didn't mention yesterday is the new Raving Rabbids 3 title. Since WiiFit is losing its balancing appeal I feel the need to play something else on that little white board. Of course it wouldn't hurt if someone surprised me at the eleventh hour, oh maybe Namco or Sega, by debuting a new Time Crisis or Space Channel 5 title using the balance board?...... I'm not giving up hope.


If anything I think this year's announcements give even less of a reason for E3 to return in '09. Overall lacklustre new IPs, no exciting sequels and no new notable hardware announcements mean this event is like my liver.

Dead.

Biggest highlight of the week for me would be the extent of music based titles like Guitar Hero World Tour, Rockband 2 and to a lower extent Wii Music and Rock Revolution. Lowest point would have to be Nintendo's disappointing showing. Better luck next time folks, but I ain't holding my breath.

Starks
Like a gold miner digging around in a river bed packed with copper, or perhaps Brett as he digs for nasally nuggets of goodness – By Jove, I think I've found a good one! Hallelujah! There is some creative thought out there! Or maybe I'm just looking at an old game with a different skin and a different story. I do hope it is the former rather than the latter, but in any case Velvet Assassin has me intrigued. Based on the life of Violette Szabo, a British agent that was parachuted into Nazi-occupied France during the war before she was captured and executed at 23 in February 1945, the story follows tales of her infiltrations and missions. The amazing thing of her story is she was a genuine infiltrator that was "...competent in unarmed combat, demolitions, explosives, communications and cryptography." Whilst the game itself looks like different version of Splinter Cell (Especially with it being a 3rd person shooter) the concept is one that excites me. Provided it is done well, I imagine this will successfully add something new and different to the war-torn genre of WWII games. See what I did there? Huh, huh?!


Finally, a Star Wars game that admits you never really wanted to be the good guy. The Force Unleashed is an exciting game, especially for a fan such as I, and the art and graphics itself is enough to make me drool. True, I don't own an HD panel, (I don't even think my CRT comes in as SD really, unless 'S' stands for 'Shitty') but I think this is going to be one of those games you are going to enjoy for what it is; Killing lots of gungans, force lightning those frustrating Ewoks for being such a terrible George Lucas idea, and using your light sabre in new and different ways when it comes to slicing and dicing. Can't wait!