Well, a day late and with a massive computer scare hopefully averted, it is nevertheless time to look back and dish out the most coveted awards in the business; those which I care to dream up in my sleep. It's been another great E3, and I have a few shout out to get through before we get to the awards themselves. First, to all the staff at GameSpot who helped to bring us the largest amount of video content ever for a single E3, and who despite several technical hitches, persevered to give us an excellent show. Hats off to all of you, because without you, E3 simply wouldn't be E3. Also many thanks to all of my fellow Moderators for expertly handling the +1,000 people who were often besieging the chat rooms, and for making this E3 feel both friendly and special. Also shout out to the small band of guys who were in Room 4 during GameSpot's Day 2 Stage Show: You were all marvellous, sorry I couldn't be there with you on Day 3. :) Again like last year if you haven't already, I recommend checking out Giant Bomb's great trio of Bombcasts summarising many of the major events of the show, and also have some pretty incredible guests (Paul Barnett I love you!).
My impressions generally was that E3 this year was excellent, although at the corners you could see the madness E3 once was in the past starting to return in some places, due to it being large, over the top and in your face again. Perhaps next year E3 may need a bit of trimming around the edges to prevent it from becoming chaotic. The quality of games generally was exceptionally high, and I for a time struggled to find games suitable for the Worst Exhibited Game category. Still, anyway, onto the awards. I've tried to give each category five nominations, with then a winner and a runner-up selected. Feel free to disagree with my selections: They are merely my personal subjective choice. And that was E3. Sims gang, represent. :P
Highlights
Best New IP
Brink
Bulletstorm – Runner-up
Kung Fu Rider
Rage – Winner
Sorcery
Biggest Surprise Announcement
GoldenEye
Kid Icarus: Uprising
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit – Runner-up
Portal 2 on PS3
Twisted Metal – Winner
Most Impressive Press Conference
Electronic Arts
Nintendo Company – Winner
Sony Computer Entertainment – Runner-up
Best Chat Room Meme
BEARDS – Winner
Skittles the Tiger – Runner-up
Best Exhibited Game
Crysis 2
Dead Space 2
Fallout: New Vegas
Portal 2 – Winner
Rage – Runner-up
Lowlights
The Kuhn Prize for Despicable Use of Phrase "Paradigm Shift"
Sony Entertainment's Jack Tretton – Winner
The 3DRealms Award for Best Game We Didn't See
Batman: Arkham Asylum II – Runner-up
Sid Meier's Civilization V
Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Winner
Diablo III
Singularity
The Politician's Certificate for Biggest Waste of Time
All Kinect casual games at Microsoft conference – Winner
Innergy demonstration at Ubisoft conference
Kinectimals and "Skittles" at Microsoft conference
NCIS cast crash GameSpot's Stage Show, Day 2 (2nd Year) – Runner-up
The Sims 3 on consoles philosophy at EA conference
The Big Rigs Trophy for Worst Exhibited Game
Bionic Commando Rearmed 2
Bodycount – Winner
Sonic Colors
The Agency
WWE All Stars – Runner-up
