Ok, all the heavy hitters, minus Nintendo, were on hand for this TGS.  People were buzzing about games I've never heard of, clamoring over the PS3 and the 360 (suprise suprise), and cameras were getting shut off left and right by zealot japanese security guards.  God bless freedom of the press!

But something seems, oh how to put it, strange about this 'tails-side-up' industry event.  E3 it's not...so what is it, exactly?  Then there's the fact that everything is unfolding in Japan...and I slow lose track of what I'm looking at.  I start hearing names of games that I've never heard of and can't translate fast enough (because my Japanese to English dictionary is the crappy pocket sized edition).  The video images are great, but I have no idea what's going on, and there are no translators anywhere - so no industry players to step up to the microphone and give us the heads up. 

By the end of the show, I feel like a lost child wandering through a see of noise and flashy colors that don't really mean anything to me - an anti-zen non-connectivity (if that translates correctly) that leaves me with my mouth hanging open - not because I'm shocked and amazed...but because I'm left with so many questions to ask I don't know where to start.

After E3 was over...I felt that I had a good grasp on what was coming, what to look forward to, and what made these games that were on the horizon "different" "above the curve" and "worth paying attention to".  TGS...flashy pictures with the 'Charlie Brown' "Wha-wha whaa-waa" voice playing over everything. 

Perhaps it's because this event is not set up for an american gamer like myself.  As an Otaku and an International Gamer who feels like he'd try an strange Japanese fusion game to see if the water temperature is to his liking (I do