I may be one of the newer guys here on staff at GameSpot but I'm not exactly new to E3. As we approach the 2005 show, I've been thinking back to the other E3's I've attended in the past. Back when I was young magazine writer living in Atlanta, I attended both E3's held there. A few years later I paid my own way to see the show in LA just before the debut of the Sega Dreamcast and NFL 2K. No game since has even blown me away as much as NFL 2K did the first time I saw it. I loathe the phrase "jaw-dropping" with the the searing blue heat of a one million supernovas, but the first time I saw that game in action, my chin hit the ground and I just haven't been the same since.

In terms of the Atlanta E3's, I was covering the shows from a much different perspective, that of a local technology magazine. As such I was there to report more on the business impact of the show to the local Atlanta economy than how Ultima Online or Fallout played. Truthfully, at that time, I was just rediscovering gaming on the PlayStation after a self-imposed exile during my college years (where I had found myself troublingly distracted by things like beer and girls). Because of this, it wasn't my ideal job but it was at least in the same ballpark.

Despite being mostly maligned in hindsight, the Atlanta E3s were amazing experiences for me. It probably had something to do with basically roaming the floor at my leisure, playing games when and where I wanted, and chatting up booth babes as much as possible without attracting security personnel. Sure there was depressingly hot weather and most of the companies probably hated coming all the way across the country to set up shop for a week, but I had a great time.

This year, things will be different to say the least. There won't be any lazy roaming of the show floor, I'll be the same extremely tight schedule as everyone else here at GameSpot. I'll probably only have time to play the games I'm assigned to cover and, being married means booth babes are out of the question. Still, I can't wait to get back to the glitz of it all, to be smack-dab in the middle of the hype and excitement of being there when new things happen, even if we already have an idea of what those things will be.