Well, I watched the press conferences. Certainly wasn't easy being here on the east coast. I stayed up till 1AM watching the Microsoft one when I have to get up for work at 6AM. I canceled lunch with a good friend so I could stay at my workstation and watch the Nintendo conference. And I got my boss to let me leave 1.5 hours early because the Sony conference straddled my commute home and I would miss it otherwise.

All in all, they were worth the hassle. Each conference had its highlights. I had problems watching the Microsoft conference on my computer, so I hijacked my roommate's computer and watched it with him. It was great to hear "Want!" out of him for 90% of the things Microsoft showed. Resident Evil 5 looks awesome and should prove to be as big of a success as Resident Evil 4 was. Gears of War for the PC got me really interested, but for reasons I'll discuss later. Oh, and MARATHON!!!!!

Nintendo's constant "We're awesome and everyone knows it" got old really quick. I'm also disappointed by Nintendo's continued interest in excessive accessories. These "accessories" extremely hurt Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles and I don't want to see such a thing happen again. Those dates for Smash Bros. Brawl & Mario Galaxy could have easily been done in a press release. There was no need to devote stage time to something like that. Stage time was much better served in the demos shown for Phantom Hourglass, Metroid Prime 3, & Wii Fitness. Ahh, Wii Fitness. Initially, I thought that it was more trash in the vein of Wii Play. But, the more I watched, it seemed like a good attempt to capitalize on the "Wii gets you moving and gets you in shape" idea. In fact, depending on the price, I may pony up for a copy, since I really don't get enough exercise.

Sony' conference was probably the best. I really liked how Home was integrated into the presentation. Sony's promoting it as integral to the PlayStation 3 experience, so it was nice to see them integrate it so well into the presentation. I liked new PSP, not for the slimmer design, but for the increased battery life & video out feature. I would love to see my PSP games on the big screen, but I never expected Sony to deliver on this. (Hey Nintendo, gonna gimme a DS player anytime soon?) I'm glad that the new model will be packaged with Daxter. I've heard a lot about the game and it's certainly something I'd use as a pack-in game. The Killzone 2 trailer was nice, as was Metal Gear Solid 4 still being an exclusive. But what got me most excited was the inclusion of mod content in Unreal Tournament 3. Granted, I would have liked it more in an Elder Scrolls game, but just the idea of mods on a console is enough to get me excited. I'm glad mods are taken seriously as an integral part of the game.

But back to Gears. The thing that surprised me the most about Gears was that it wasn't a 1st person game, it was 3rd. I had shrugged it off as "another Call of Duty-type" game. A very nice game, but just another FPS. That demo reminded me of Megaman Legends, a game I am extremely fond of. The two are probably nothing alike, but I'm now interested. So I go into work the next day and ask a coworker with a 360 if he knows anything about it. He starts raving about how awesome it is and how it plays similarly, but like no other FPS he's played before. He offered to lend me his copy, which I took him up on. Unfortunately, due to moving this weekend, I won't be able to touch the game Monday. Oh well.

In the end, it was all fun. In my opinion, Sony had the best conference, followed by Microsoft's sometimes boring conference and Nintendo's arrogant, but still worthwhile showing.