Couldn't Stop Staring at the Screen: Limbo
Artsy-looking games aren't new -- see Braid and The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom for recent examples. But Limbo's ethereal, smoky black-and-white dreamscapes commanded small crowds of wide-eyed onlookers. The puzzle-based platforming was a bit slow-paced, but when the visuals look like this, you can't help but be drawn in. Other honorable mentions for "graphical wow": Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2, Rage, Crysis 2, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, and just about everything on the 3DS. -Shoe

Most Ironic Quote
From Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello, regarding his company's lineup: "We're more Sundance than the Academy Awards." OK, we know you've been trying, EA, but you really should put out a few more original properties like you did with Mirror's Edge and Dead Space before you put yourself out there like that. Need for Speed, Medal of Honor, Tiger Woods, etc. do not exactly make me think "Sundance".... -Shoe

Most Unnecessary Cynicism: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
During Nintendo's press conference, I Tweeted that it wasn't a good sign that famed game designer Shigeru Miyamoto was having trouble with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword's new control scheme (your Wiimote is your sword while your Nunchuk is your shield). If he's having a hard time fighting the most basic of enemies, that doesn't bode well for "normal" gamers. Later, he encounters even more difficulties while aiming and blames everything on technical issues due to possible interference with the crowd's wireless devices. Ha...nice try, Miyamoto.

Well, turns out, I was just too cynical, as always. On my first hands-on playthrough of the Zelda demo, I performed way better and way more accurately than what I saw Miyamoto do on-stage. I wasn't perfect -- I would've done better with traditional controls -- but I could tell that the game does play better under real-world conditions. Sorry for doubting you, Mr. Nintendo Man. -Shoe

Meanest, Most Hardcore Demos: Donkey Kong Country Returns, Super Meat Boy (tie)
When Omri and I tried out co-op Donkey Kong Country Returns, we asked what level we should try out. Nintendo PR Manager Kit Ellis, with a slightly evil smile, told me to select the mine cart stage. I knew what he was doing -- he just got done telling me five minutes prior that it was a particularly sadistic level that he himself had a lot of trouble with. He just wanted to see us suffer as well -- and he got what he wanted.

Tommy Refenes, co-CEO of Team Meat, stopped me on the show floor to introduce himself and say hello, so I decided to check out a demo of Super Meat Boy. Assuming I was some elite gamer, Refenes loaded up an advanced stage that took laser-precision platforming -- wall-jumping between buzz saws, sliding between buzz saws...basically, avoiding a lot of meat-flesh-ripping buzz saws with perfect timing. After some initial success, I reached an area where I died too many times in a row, so I looked around to see if anyone was watching (Refenes was busy talking to someone else), quietly put the controller down, and then walked away with my ego shriveled up like an overcooked hamburger.

If you're afraid old-school hardcore gaming is dead, don't pass these two up. -Shoe

Device I Most Wanted to Surreptitiously Put in My Pocket: Nintendo 3DS
Once I held a Nintendo 3DS in my hands, I didn't want to let go. The trailers, tech demos, and augmented reality games I saw only scratched the surface of this little device's potential. Think motion control revolutionized the industry? Just wait until developers fully wrap their heads around the design possibilities of three dimensions. -Brett

Biggest Surprise of E3: Disney gets serious
A Pirates of the Caribbean game that plays like Fable 2? A Tron movie tie-in that feels like Prince of Persia? An audacious epic starring Mickey Mouse from Warren Spector, one of the industry's most acclaimed designers? Disney had one of the strongest showings of any developer at E3 -- not a sentence I ever thought I'd write. -Brett

Worst Catering to the Lowest Common Denominator: Nintendo's 100 ladies
I expect booth babes at E3, but not from family-friendly Nintendo. And yet, at the end of Nintendo's press conference, about a hundred 3DSes appeared onstage -- physically chained to about a hundred very attractive women. The women then proceeded to set up near the back of the auditorium so we predominantly male journalists could ogle the 3D screen while the women shifted their weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other and forced a smile. I left the theater feeling dirty. -Brett

Best Last-Minute Surprise: Journey
On the last hour of the last day of E3, Sony unveiled Journey, the latest game from Flower creators Thatgamecompany. Creative Director Jenova Chen said that he wanted people playing Journey to feel small and in awe of the world. In an era of bulky space marines and characters with biceps the size of my torso, the idea of being genuinely humbled by a video game sounds absolutely refreshing. -Brett

Largest Group of Posers: The "Media"
I saw far too many people with media badges who didn't take out notebooks, computers, or recording devices at press conferences and demos. If they're not "working," why are they there in the first place? -Jason

Best Unintentional Use of a Fight Club Reference: EA's Gun Club
I want you to shoot me as hard as you can...then you get treats. -James

Biggest Sub-trend: The third-person shooter invasion
Everything coming out seems to be an over the shoulder, third-person shooter. Spec Ops: The Line, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, Mindjack, Mafia 2, Red Faction: Armageddon -- even Deus Ex: Human Revolution, for the most part a first-person-perspective game, gets in on the action. -Rob

Biggest Cock Tease: XCOM
Why run a gameplay demo that doesn’t reveal any new information beyond what we’ve already seen in the official E3 trailer? -Rob