This week I've spent an embarrassingly large amount of money, much more than I usually do in a month; and most of it has been on a total whim.

On Tuesday I was surfing the web for some Gears of War related swag, noticed a cool Gears wallet, immediately bought this fine leather Bilfold for 12.99. I don't need a new wallet, I just bought it because it was there, although this one is rather swish I must say...

Today my wallet came in the mail. I decided that I should hop along to the local safeway to take some money out. Before I knew it I had taken out 50 pounds for a provisional Drivers license form and spent a further 14 pounds on a copy of "There Will Be Blood". It looks good but I could have rented it.

Then, in the afternoon I got bored looking at GS and Giantbomb so I decided to check out who's online. I found Rawrmaster playing Rockband, a game I have on more than one occasion slammed for being a massive rip off in all ways possible. One hour later I had 1 plastic drum kit, a flimsy (and slightly broken) Fender Strat, a Mic and a copy of the party game of the century. The price I hear you ask... 130.00 GBP.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME?

http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/AndrewRyan/

The revolution begins!

It's over. The biggest gaming event of the year ended last night after four long but enjoyable days of madness. When I think of the amount of time I've spent in that chatroom this week I'm filled with a weird kind of pride at my achievement and a little shame, after all I did spend almost 12 hours a day sitting in the same spot. Not even air traffic controllers spend that much time on their uncomfortable computer chairs. But none the less it was an informative and hilarious Gamespot E3 event this year and it all started with the Microsoft Press Conference.

I logged onto Gamespot at around 5PM on Monday night, well aware that I was going to be waiting a little while for the stream to start but I wanted to be poised to get into the infamous Chat Room 0 that I've been talking smack in for a couple of years now. Then the website crashed. This frustrated me but because I was so early I was optimistic that they were just doing a final check up on the servers before they unleashed the stream. I waited something like 45 minutes for it to begin, missing the first 15 minutes of the show and pretty much missing the entire Resident Evil 5 demo. Not a good start indeed.

The conference moved on though, straight into the hands of Cliffy B (sorry buddy, but it's FAR from time to grow up) and Gears Of War 2, a title I'm looking forward to quite a bit. The GOW single player that they showed really made me excited; as a Gears fanatic I noticed quite a bit more details than the average viewer, such as the Lancer's bullet tracers being different and the cross hair being much more adequate than before. Overall the action shown in the demo really pumped me up for Gears 2, it looks like they're finally starting to settle into the game they built, and are ready to make it a far more satisfying experience to play by your lonesome.

Fable 2 is the next game that made me get all tingly inside when I seen it working finally. It looks like the boys and girls at Lionhead have listened to the rather disappointed fans of the original Fable and have fixed a few concerns the fans had. The game seems a lot more of a sandbox than before and that's exactly what the people expect. I want to be able to do about anything I want in this game, like Oblivion only with the same quality feedback and rewards found in games like KOTOR and Mass Effect.

The rest of the games mentioned (asides from RE5 but we'll get to that later) filled me with a considerable feeling of "meh". More party games, more rhythm games, it seems like Microsoft are getting so pissed at Nintendo's limelight they're gonna Bogart their idea's instead of trying to top them.

Who else swore out loud when Microsoft demoed the avatars? I know I did. It went something a little like this—"What the flying f*** are you dumb f****** thinking?" and I stand by that initial reaction. It seems in this industry when a competitor thinks of a cool idea and you do not the standard procedure is to copy their ideas and try and pawn them off as your own. I don't like that and I don't like avatars. Not to mention the needless Dashboard update (that looks a little TOO much like the PS3's user interface) that goes along with the little blighters. Listen Mr. Multinational Company if you wanna impress people think of your own ideas and fix your own problems with your own ingenuity, not some Japanese guy's.

The next bid deal in MS's event was their partnership with Netflix (whatever the hell that is) and the further expansion of their global movie downloading conspiracy. I'm gonna let Dr. Cox take this one.

The rest of the conferences meant nothing to me but I watched them anyways. I'm no fanboy but I've seen nothing in either the Wii or the PS3 that makes me want to go out and buy them and quite frankly I still don't.

Nintendo waffled on for what seemed like an eternity about Music games and DS games and on and on and on and on and on and on and on about whatever the f*** Iwata was talking about at the beginning. Did anyone else loose him at the same time he said "hello"? No offense to Nintendo fans but I have no idea how you can survive with this console alone. Nintendo's great commercialist plan worked and now their driving the nail further into the wood with all this new "casual" crap that I can't stomach. If I wanted to stand about my house wailing around to badly played Saxophone muzak I'd well, do it without spending any more than 14.99 on a CD. If your family is so screwed up that it needs a bad music game to bring them together then Jesus, go to counseling because Wii can't save solve that problem. Oh and that wifey with the glasses needs to go. I don't care what degree in PR she has her voice is as painful as a bullet to the groin.

Sony was o.k, same old stuff really only with a lot MORE crap. The production values in this presentation was by far the best out of the three but that didn't stop them grinding it to a halt for what seemed like an eternity to talk "numbers". It's a game conference Sony (and Nintendo, and Microsoft, I just chose now to talk about this because they were the biggest culprits) we want to know about GAMES. Not now many PSP's are currently being used as door stops around the world. Little Big Planet looks amazing, as usual but asides from that I seen nothing there that makes me want to reconsider my original statement. And AGAIN with all the movie downloading crap! If you wanna rent a movie people get off your fat surpluses and walk to blockbuster, at least there you can pick up some popcorn!

With all that stuff out the way it was time for the real fun to begin— Gamespot's E3 coverage. All the best stuff happens at this point in the event. Gamespot have all the best games on for much longer than they get in the conferences and generally show the games in a much more honest light. I waited in the chat for it to begin, only to be hit by the "the lag bug" that seems to infect random Gamespotters. It took me a further hour to get to the bottom of what I thought was the problem (old version of firefox) which meant I totally missed the Gears 2 demo. I was pissed off but now that it was working I had more fun to look forward to.

The first day of E3's coverage was a laugh and a half. The chatroom was buzzing with hilarious, often stupid conversation and the coverage itself was no less hilarious. I love Gamespot's amateurism, I always have. It makes me laugh out loud whenever someone missed their queue and isn't seasoned enough to skip past it and get right on with the show. Kristens "I love live shows" comments were particularly silly and hilarious. The games shown on the first day were a mixture of good and bad as always with Fallout 3 coming out on top in my opinion. That game looks amazing. Unfortunately I didn't get to see it at the MS Conf so this was my first introduction to the game and I have to say it's a must buy for me. The aesthetic look of the game is enough for me to get pumped up but now that I know what the game plays like I have to say it's in my top 3 of E3 08.

Day two was a lot more eventful with a slew of great games to show, including Killzone 2, Little Big Planet, Spore, The Force Unleashed, Mercenaries 2, Resident Evil 5, Lego Batman and Fable 2 taking to the stage. Picking a favorite in that line up is an impossible task, all I know is that the Fable 2 demo was hilariously off the wall and made me even more excited about the possibilities in that game. Resident Evil 5 looks like it's coming along brilliantly. The same basic gameplay features are still present but the new setting and apparent increase in enemies on screen promises to make the game even more terrifying than the fourth iteration. Mercenaries 2 is another must buy for me, having played the original to death. It looks like more of the explosive same and that's not a bad thing if you're an explosion junkie like me.

However day two did contain one of the most awkward Gamespot moments I've seen in quite a while. During the Dawn Of War 2 session the form for sending in questions broke down due to over use (not anyone's fault). Unfortunetly it happened right before my good friend and driving buddy Don Francis (now a regular Johnny Carson) was about to ask the PR guy some questions. Don fed him opportunities to talk about his own game but the bald bastard didn't take the bate causing Don to have to cut the interview short after only one user submitted question. "Jonny" then became incredibly rude and quite frankly childish calling out Don on his usage of "The plural" (questions) instead of the singular. Don, and all other representatives of Gamespot at this point you should have showed that cheeky bastard the door and told him not to let it hit his ass on the way out. I have no idea why you let him get away with that ignorant, Pre-Madonna like tirade. I later found out that Ricardo had apologized to him and promised him a pick up interview later on in the day. Way to tuck your tale in-between your legs boys!

Day three was a boring, uneventful day in E3 land. Homer's hilarious side reports from the field kept the day going strong but without any really big games to show the event fell short of its previous days. Soul Calibur IV looks incredible, I'll definetly be buying it in a few weeks. After that it was onto a few more o.k games then Guitar Hero On Tour. Asides from being a total rip-off of Rock Band and a shameful attempt to cash in on its success it seems pretty cool. I especially liked the decision to allow you to use your Rock Band drums and things instead of having to buy there's. That was an unusually kind gesture from a Game dev, bravo!

Then it ended.

I've been watching E3 Live now for three years in a row and I've enjoyed every one of them. The games and the coverage are nice but the real stars of the show are the people in the chatroom, whom without I would have been unable to watch all that crap without falling into a deep sleep. This E3 I was glad to see a number of my fellow Scots in attendance which made the experience a far more colloquial one than I'm used to. Just saying the word "Bawbag" in a chatroom of people who understand it was enough to make be giggle. Seriously though you guys are awesome, and make the somewhat daunting experience of sitting in front of your PC for a whole week that little bit easier. Room 0, I'll see you some other time. Much sooner than I'd like if I'm perfectly honest!

Anyways folks those are my thoughts on E3 08. If you have any death threats please forward them to here and not my PM box, that way you can swear like a mad man without your mommy finding out!

It's been a trip folks but for now I'm happy to say thank you to Gamespot for putting on a great show and "cheers bud" to the dudes in the chat. Like you all I'm just happy that I survived E3 2008!

FBI Deputy Director Alvin Kersh: You ever hear of King George the III?

John Doggett: You answer my question!

FBI Deputy Director Alvin Kersh : He was King of England when America declared independence in 1776. King George the III kept a diary. On July 4th he made an entry in it: "Nothing important happened today"

John Doggett: What the hell does that got to do with me?

FBI Deputy Director Alvin Kersh: A revolution started, things that changed the world forever, and even kings can miss them if they are not paying attention.

Happy Independance Day!

Another hero of mine dead. I guess I better get used to it since all of my favorite actors and comedians are old men now.

George you were awesome, and wherever you are now just pray it's not Milwaukee.