I quote verbatim from the great Aaron Thomas:

"Nothing sucks worse than being pummeled by a washtub. NOTHING."

I simply can't argue with that.

We in the editorial department take great pride in the amount of preparation that goes into providing the best E3 coverage on the planet. I was no exception. I worked very hard to relax; busted my ass to then sit on it; and worked up a sweat--by working on a fantastic tan.

In all seriousness, while I got some good work done this weekend, I also took the time to enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells of Los Angeles and environs. Here are some highlights--and lowlights.

1) Kevin and Ryan's Excellent Adventure.

My friend Ryan, bless his soul, knew I was coming and wanted to make sure I got some refreshing moments during the chaos. To this end, he drove me to Raging Waters, a water park in San Dimas made famous as the water park in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Thus began my descent into hell.

The drive was lovely, I'll say that much. When you arrive at the park, you drive on this winding road above the valley in which the park resides. Below, boats raced about a rippling lake. It was serene, and set the mood for an exciting few hours of fun and excitement. I had bought a bathing suit, sandals, sunglasses, and more. Let me tell you, I was ready.

Raging Waters had other plans. First fiasco: parking. We pulled in and paid our $10, and were then waved towards a parking lot. When we arrived, we discovered the lot was full, and the employee directing traffic unhelpfully told us to follow the vehicle ahead of us. Well, the driver of said vehicle didn't know his ass from a hole in the ground, and led us to Bum****, Egypt. Eventually, we found our way back, 20 minutes and 5 miles later. And yes, we eventually parked and made our way into the park, where we paid $34 each and readied our pasty white bodies for fun and sun.

The locker room attendant, who moved as though he was swimming through molasses, had other ideas. As we drew close, a woman appeared to the side of the rental counter to get another locker: her key wasn't working. When Ryan and I reached the counter, Molasses Man slowly helped us and eventually handed us a key... the same key he had taken from the woman who had returned it. And like a moron, I didn't say a word. And, of course, the key didn't work.

Eventually, we got a working key, and I changed into my fancy Target bathing suit and donned my stylish--yet functional--sunglasses. We got in line for the Dragon's Den slide, where a sign warned us that there were no single riders (the innertubes were two-person tubes), and that there was a maximum 400 pounds per raft.

Now yeah, I'm a big guy, weighing in at around 250 pounds nowadays. Ryan is bigger than I am, so we knew we'd overreach that 400-pound limit. However, we watched as several single riders slid down and assumed we would have no issues riding separately. The innertube guy handed us tubes separately, also allowing us to assume we would be permitted to ride separately. Of course, we would happily have gone together, but assumed safety restrictions were the reason behind the 400-pound limit.

You know what happened. In a humiliating turn of events, after waiting 45 minutes in line, we were not allowed to ride and were forced to walk, red-faced, from the top of the ride to the bottom, through throngs of children and adults. Angrily, we decided to leave: three strikes and they were out. Guest relations were unmoved and refused a refund, so Ryan and I buried our sorrows at a Mongolian Barbecue.

2) Playing Games--Good and Bad.

My sorrows were further forgotten with a good amount of co-op play in Lego Indiana Jones, my new favorite Lego game (better than the Star Wars titles, in my opinion). I also put others to shame in Guitar Hero III, which I had never played, but was pleased to show off in. I am surprised at how much being a string player has helped my skills in GH and Rock Band. Playing one of those virtual instruments is nothing like playing a real one, but there are two advantages an actual string player has, I think. Firstly, we are able to easily separate the actions of one hand from another. The second issue I can speak to as a violinist, and I assume other string players could corroborate. I know that the use of the fifth fret button can cause headaches in hard and expert difficulties, but it gives me less trouble because different positions come naturally. All I usually need to do is think of moving from first to second position as if I am playing a violin, and I can find my way around those difficulties rather well.

That doesn't mean I am an expert, of course. I skipped the GH games and went right to Rock Band when it was released, but playing guitars in these games feels so natural to me that I have never run into problem. Rock Band Drums? Not so much: my ankle starts to hurt in no time flat. Maybe I need to get to the gym and buff my right ankle up. But only that. I'd be this weird, muscular-ankled freak. How awesome would that be?

I also played that free Yaris game on XBL Arcade. No. Just no. It isn't worth "free." Toyota should be paying people to play it. I shudder just thinking of it. No physics, no shadows, no reflections. Again, just no.

3) Chatting With The Peeps.

I know it's still fashionable to long for GameSpot's good old days, in these Jeff-less, Brad-less, Alex-less days. What some of those folks don't see (they are too busy beating the dead horse) is that we have an insanely talented groups of people working for us. Chris Watters, Tom Mc Shea, Sophia Tong, and other wonderful new folks--these are people that I trust as much as I would trust our editors of yore. Read their work: you will see passion for games, a beautiful grasp of language, and respect for our audience. I am privileged to know these people. We love this site, and we are honored to be part of its present and future.

Need proof? A jet-lagged Sophia Tong, previews editor, flashed me a winning smile. Like all of us, she loves games and has a lot to say about them. Watch for her and all of us this week on the live stage show. We're proud of what we have done, and hope you will let us create a new "good old days" for you.

http://forums.gaspowered.com/viewtopic.php?t=29882

I am always disappointed when players dismiss unacceptably buggy software, because it encourages developers and publishers to release more buggy software. I am much more disappointed when the developer points fingers anywhere but at their own product as the source of the problem. I look forward to seeing an official announcement from Aspyr, Gas Powered, and Hellbent regarding these issues.

It is no secret: Supreme Commander on the 360 is even buggier than Universe at War, and the more I play (I am a glutton for punishment; I want so bad to enjoy this game, and it keeps punishing me for it at every turn), the more embarrassments I encounter.

This morning I have been researching a possible achievement exploit for our On the Spot cheat segment. With Supreme Commander running on two machines, I sent a bunch of level 2 tanks towards the opposing spider scouts. At first, the tanks started to pummel the scouts, until suddenly, the scouts all disappeared off of the screen and my tanks stopped attacking. I checked on the other machine, where the tanks had disappeared from view there. So now, I have to stop the match and begin again, just to see if my exploit idea will work. It was bad enough that the game froze for 10 seconds at a time a few times on both machines during this process, but this bug is infuriating. Oddly, I was able to attack structures and the ACU, but those scouts simply disappeared.

Then upon looking at the leaderboards, I discovered the leaderboards had been reset, and I had lost my online ranking. Irritating.

I will blog more about Supreme Commander's awful technical issues in the next week, but for now, I am saddened that such a great game has been reduced to a mere shadow of what makes it so marvelous. I am about to begin Kane's Wrath--a game that I hope renews my faith in PC-to-console RTS ports.

I put a lot of work over the last few weeks into a feature called "Cheaper by the Dozen," which is a look at 12 free massively multiplayer games. It's been an experience, and if it garners some traffic, I would like to make it a continuing feature, with looks at other free games. Certainly I could put together another 12 MMOGs to cover for a future installment, and there are a ton of free downloadable and web games I think would be fun to cover.

Take a look at the feature--and if you have any ideas for games you'd like to see covered in a future edition, reply here and let me know!