E3 was over on Thursday, but I again procrastinated on writing my thoughts and now its Monday... oh well, I now present my thoughts on E3 2009. First off, I didn't really watch the Nintendo or Sony conferences, so I can't really comment on them too much. In fact because of that I'm not really going to comment on what I saw in the Xbox conference either, even though that was a pretty good presentation. What I am going to talk about mostly is what games that I enjoyed seeing the most; since I was not there these are based off what I saw during GameSpot's live E3 stage demos. So here is a list in not particular order with comments on each game that I was impressed by.

Split/Second
This looks like an interesting arcade racer, it is made by the same team that made the exciting "PURE" last year. The coolest aspect is obviously the ability to set off big explosions that cause obstacles to come down on the track. We'll have to see how it turns out come Q1 2010.

Splinter Cell: Conviction
I never really tried a Splinter Cell game, but then again I never even really like Metal Gear Solid, so stealth action isn't really up my alley. But this new SC game looks like it is much different and way more $tylish than the first 5 games. It piqued my interest in the very least which is a good start.

Forza Motorsport 3
I loved Forza 2, it took up the gaming time of all of June 2007. I loved the paint shop (aka livery editor) and the gameplay was enjoyable. This game looks to be bigger (400 cars, 100 tracks) and better (new graphic, even more physics) than the second game... I'll be there the second it hits October 27th, 2009.

Modern Warfare 2
What really needs to be said about MW2? The first game (CoD4) stole 336 hours (14 FULL days of time) from my life since December 2007 and I am still playing it. I am hoping that I can continue to waste my life away with MW2 come November 10th, 2009.

Assassins Creed 2
I have a copy of Assassins Creed (1) that I haven't even played yet... the stage demo of AC2 has given me a reason to do so.

Mass Effect 2
I loved the first Mass Effect, but it had some issues that kept me playing through it the multiple times that I thought I would... bad MAKO controls, lame unexplored planets, texture loading issues... all of which are fixed in Mass 2. I couldn't ask for more in early 2010.

Singularity
I hadn't put any mind to Singularity, but it looks surprisingly good and has cool unique concepts in regards to time travel. Sometime in 2009 I will be able to put it to the test.

Closing Out
That covers E3, but I have been doing a few other things, first I finished X-Men Wolverine (for the 360) and that was a fun, but repetitive action game, which is probably one of the better movie licensed games out there (though that isn't saying all that much.) and I also started messing around with UFC 2009 Undisputed and while the gameplay is really fun and deep, I find the career mode to be mind numbingly boring and this coming from a guy that plays JRPGs. All you do is navigate a convoluted menu system, spar for 2 minutes, click some more menus and then have a match once in a while. If you are going to play this game do so with another person, it's sooo much better.

Finally, I have been playing Codemaster's 2008 racing game GRID (or RaceDriver GRID in other regions) and while I am enjoying it a bit, I have quickly remembered why I stopped playing it... the CPU cars are reckless. Sometimes it is not uncommon to get spun out by them on the first corner of the race and have to restart. The best thing to do is get to the front as fast as possible and never look back.

I am probably going to pick up a couple of things this week, Prototype looks to be interesting and I am going to buy the Big Surf Island for Burnout Paradise and I will talk about those on Saturday in NLU Weekly #79. I have said my piece and now I am outta here. Hey buddy I caught up! Loading Complete!