As I was walking away from the convention center, I waved to the South Hall, officially proclaiming this year's Circus Maximus over.

There are many ways to look at a show like E3. You could compare it to a fusion between a circus and a genetics research laboratory, you could call it a rave party for the obese populace of this planet, you could call it a monster ball, but seriously, there's something about it that I find pretty sweet. It is fucking colorful. And I don't mean that literally either (although I could). The show celebrates freakiness but in an individualistic manner, and that sort of makes me happy to be a gamer.

E3 2006 featured more games this year than there are republics in the ex Soviet Union (so over 20,000). When I got to the show, I wasn't really expecting much from it, but a few games did manage to spark that desire in me to play them right away. Thank ye, Lord!

Sure, this is a business for me, and I run around networking as much as I can (i.e. asking people if they would have sex with me for three million dollars), but it still all comes down to liking the games you see. And really enjoyed certain games on this show; some more than others. So here we go; my picks for the best games of the show.

1. Spore - Electronic Arts - Everyone's saying how EA isn't innovating. It's not that, man. It's just that they release so much generic sequel-age, the actual innovative content sort of gets lost in the flood. Props to Will Wright for pushing the boundaries even after making a game that sold more copies than the "Like a Virgin" single.

2. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars - Activision - Dudes! Fun, fun, fun. The sheer scale of the battles and the utter coolness of the weapons make this the most enjoyable and varied online FPS experience that is yet to hit the market. Don't think the other games come close, and yes, that includes BF 2142.

3. Everyone's expecting me to put Gears of War here, but I won't. I didn't like it all that much.

4. Gods & Heroes - SOE - Sure, you're all now wondering if I have found a good crack house in South Central LA. Well I might have, but that's not it. This game is sort of coming out of nowhere, but it seems very, very fun. The combat is awesome, the art is great. I like it.

5. NeverWinter Nights 2 - Atari - One of the most promising titles I've seen at the show this year. The mod creation tools are amazing, the art quality is exceptional, and Chris Avalon, the guy who worked on Planescape Torment and wrote the stories for KOTOR games is doing the dialogue for this one. 'Nuff said I think. Seriously, this one should be very good.

6. Supreme Commander - THQ - It was just a trailer, but it looked so damn amazing that given Chris Taylor's record, I'm truly expecting good things from this one next year.

7. Medieval 2: Total War - SEGA - The combat looks absolutely amazing. The guys at Creative Assembly have done a lot of work on making the 2D turn-based portion more fun and intuitive. Did I mention that the combat looks more awesome than ever before?

8. Crysis - We've said so much about this game already. Yes, it has mind-blowing graphics, but that's not the most important thing. The combat seems very, very fun. Go CryTek!

9. Finally, last but not the least, the game of the show according to ActionTrip.com

MASS EFFECT - BioWare 

The game is like KOTOR taken to the next level. The bar has been raised. Way up there. The combat, the dialogue, the beautiful original universe that BioWare is creating, the simply astonishing facial expressions on the characters... Mass Effect is just amazing. Best of luck to the boys at BioWare.