by Ben Silverman

You'd think, by now, I'd have a great way to start these post-E3 wrap-up pieces.

After all, E3 2003 marked my seventh show out of a possible eight. It's my fourth year as a judge for the Game Critics Best of E3 Awards. I know most of my PR contacts by the sound of their voice and smell of their liberally spread hair gel. I've shameless flirted with countless booth babes, maxed out a credit card on a mid-show cheeseburger, been crammed into cramped hotel rooms, fruitlessly attempted to fix broken computers, lost my voice three times, passed out in at least a dozen odd places (a baker's dozen if you include the convention center itself), beaten Gary Coleman soundly at Tekken, snuck into WAY too many stupid parties and have seen more games than Geoffrey Giraffe and his whole fan damily.

You'd think, by now, I'd know the drill.

But once again, the lumbering behemoth of electronic enormity has beaten me into a bespectacled pulp, bleary eyes and all. Having underestimated the ingenuity of geeks with credentials that make me look like a three-year old poking at a broken Speak-N-Spell, I have yet again allowed the gaming industry to pull a fast one.

In short, I have seen the future, and its graphics rock. Welcome to E3 2003.

In case you've been submerged in a tar pit for the past eight years, here's the deal. E3 is an annual convention celebrating the world's hottest upcoming gaming-related software and hardware. But don't think of your high school bake sale - this thing is BIG, with over 60,000 geeks attending this year's show. The 500+ companies on hand go to great lengths to ensnare the lion's share of this legion of A.D.D. patients, some with booths so cavernous that you can literally get lost if you wander in too far with tying a string to the door. Rapid-fire lightshows, 20-foot high video screens and sound systems rivaling a picnic at Dre's house battle for control of each attendee's flimsy attention span. It's a spectacle, surely, and it's also lots of fun.

Which is, after all, why we play games in the first place. E3 isn't really about the wattage; it's about the games that give meaning to our lives, at least the portion of which we spend on the couch. So with no further ado, let's dive into the belly of the beast.

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