E3 Show Wrap-up

OK, we do this every year: run the gauntlet of body odor and halitosis that is the Electronic Entertainment Expo for three solid days of earsplitting noise, huge crowds and games that may or may not see the light of day in the next two years. Then we are expected to sum it with a 'Best Of' post after it's all over. So bear with us:

Best of Show - Dragon Age (BioWare)
We were most impressed (even at this early stage) with Dragon Age. This is the first game we have ever seen that the end result looks better than the concept artwork. BioWare has outdone themselves blending everything good about Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights and Knights of the Old Republic into this stunning new title. This was flat out, the best thing we saw at all of E3. While the completed product is still far off, AT is very excited to play it once it is done.

Best PC Title - The Movies (Lionhead Studios)
The Movies will suck more productivity from people's lives than any other title so far. The ability to manage a studio, produce and manage every aspect of a movie, then upload the finished product to the web for people to watch and comment on, has us eagerly anticipating the player created masterpieces we will witness when the game finally hits retail.

Best PC Title Runner-up - F.E.A.R. (Monolith)
E3 2004 was a show of sequels and as such, we didn't find it terribly exciting. Hell, Half-Life 2 is still the talk of the show, and seeing how that hasn't changed from last year, we're kind of itching for some unique, new franchises to whet our appetites for 2005. One such franchise is Monolith's amazing new shooter game, F.E.A.R.. Monolith has a proven track record when it comes to developing immersive and highly playable PC shooters, and when you combine that with the top-of-the-line technology that's powering the game it's easy to figure out why we're so excited about F.E.A.R..

Best Console Title - Halo 2 (Bungie)
Bungie is one of those truly remarkable design teams that rarely does anything wrong. They go to great lengths to ensure that their products are very close to superb and done with the utmost attention to detail. Believe us when we say, folks, that all that becomes very evident when you get to spend some hands-on time with Halo 2. Come November Xbox gamers will be going nuts over this one.
On a side note, one other game that deserves a mention here is GTA: San Andreas, but Rockstar didn't have a strong presence at this year's E3, so we opted for Halo 2 instead.

Best Hardware - PSP (Sony)
Gimme!

Best Hardware Runner-up - Video Array (Alienware)
Here's a quick explanation of this technology for those of you not in the know. Nothing truly revolutionary, but it's damn sweet and we want it!

Video Array, Alienware's exclusive patent-pending innovation, enables two high-performance PCI-Express video cards, (exact cards from the same manufacturer) to process graphics commands in parallel, thus significantly increasing the graphics performance. It includes proprietary software and hardware, including a video merger hub which ultimately merges the individual signals into one image.

Can you say 3dfx SLI technology?