Some history. Remeber Comdex? That was THE computer convention on the West Coast. Many, many moons ago Comdex would be jammed (JAMMED!) with people and had sections for entertainment (both naughty and nice). Then E3 kicked in and siphoned off the gaming audience. Then AdultDex took care of the rest of entertainment. Comdex got boring. The crowds left and Comdex died.

E3 started in L.A, moved to Atlanta for 3 years, saw attendance plummet, and came back to L.A. where it belongs (next to Hollywood). I've missed only a handful of E3s, including last years so I looked forward to going this year.

Shades of Comdex! It was jammed, JAMMED! E3 is supposed to be for industry and for those over 18. I suspect that rule was broken quite a bit. E3, as expected, was loud and very painful to these old ears. Having the sound up so high that all you get is distortion serves no one.

I went to see what the latest trends were and to see if I could find any jewels in upcoming games.

One immediate trend was that near everyone carried a Gameboy (and a cellphone). Can't blame them. They play them while waiting in the insanely long lines. There was a certain irony to seeing a bazillion people in line to see the latest Playstation stuff while playing Gameboys. I didn't see any PSPs other than displays. And something called Gizmondo had a nice corner to themselves. Gizmondo looks like Gameboys baby brother. Good luck to them but I saw no reason to carry yet another portable device.

If there's a winner to E3, I'd give it to Playstation. They had the nicest selection of upcoming games and the Playstation 3 looks formidable. The PSP may end up a winner (at least for me). But the greatest travesty also belonged to Playstation. Amongst all the first-person shooters, and other derivative games, buried in Segasoft was a single demo PC devoted to what is arguably the greatest sports simulation of our times. Football Manager 2005 may not be a familiar game name to American but to the rest of the world, it means quality - the best soccer/football sim out there. The game, the series used to be called "Championship Manager" when it was with Eidos but the devlopers had a falling out with Eidos and switched publishers. Eidos kept the name and even released a new game but it's not the same. Don't be fooled. The latest "Championship Manager" is not near the quality of the old version. Anyway. Sega had a single machine showing off this great game. One machine! Sure, the graphics aren't 3D snazzy but they don't need to be - what you have is an extremely detailed simulation. Unlike other sports sims, these folks are to the point where they're working on detailed player personalities plus expanded managers otpions for dealing with such. To top it off, they're working on a PSP version. For me, that's an incentive to get a PSP.

If there's a loser to E3, I'd give it to all those people developing MMOs (Massive Multiplayer Online). *Everyone* was working on MMOs and I can't blame them. If you get a decent MMO, you're looking at a nice chunk of revenue every month. But there's so much glut, that I suspect next years E3 will not see many of the current developers. Personally, I'd think twice before going up against Everquest, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars but that's the risk.

That said, E3 was all eye-candy. Near every game was graphics, graphics, graphics and long game play - anything to keep your eyes involved in their product. Games have stopped being short diversions and have mutated in to life styles, demanding hundreds of hours of involvement. Not necessarily a bad thing for some but I saw few original ideas. One company showed three pirate games, essentially three variations of the same engine. Snooze. With such a glut of games, people - kids in particular - just don't have time to play everything. Overload. Overload. Overload. Where are we going? Will anyone be able to think without a screen in front of them?

Star Wars VI
Or is it III. Whatever! Took my two oldest kids to see the latest and greatest this past weekend. I had never seen the first two episodes in this last trilogy and it seems I didn't miss much.

In this latest episode, the graphics were stunning in a good way. The plot was stunning in a cool way. The acting was stunning in a bad way.

The visuals were overwhelming: massive battle scenes; beautiful planetscapes; lava - just magnificent and breathtaking. But I expected nothing less from Lucas.

The plot took a while to get going. It pretty much caught its steam about the second half but it gave the audience what they wanted: the links to the original Star Wars. The making (literally) of Darth Vader - to loud applause from the audience. The births of Luke and Leia and how they ended up going to different households. The exile of Yoda. The last few minutes of the film were most of this takes place left me with shivers.

The acting and dialogue were utter crap. To have Yoda act better than most everyone else is shameful. In particular, the beginning of the film with Anakin and Obiwan taking on a vast horde of enemies with the smart-ass, buddy-buddy wisecracks was too painful. It was like watching Butch and Sundance but without the cleverness or fine acting. Achhh, bad George!

But, the kids loved it. I'd give it a B for being the last of the trilogy and for fulfilling expectations. If it had better lines and deliverance it'd get an A.