Another E3 has come and gone, and before I dive into my review and commentary on the show, let’s first take a look at the pre-E3 columns I wrote and see what I got right, what I got wrong and which predictions turned out to be nothing but pipe dreams…

I said: "Sega has always been their own number one supporter, and that’s no different this year."

The Reality: Sega seemed to be supporting Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft more than themselves this year. An enclosed booth meant that nobody got in to see their games without an appointment, so Sega’s presence at the show was seriously diminished. About half of the games they had to show were for systems other than Dreamcast, and a lot of the DC stuff was running as non-playable video only.

I Said: "I’m not expecting a super-deluxe-party-dome with dancing girls and a giant stage like last year, what with Sega’s recent cutbacks. Seriously, though, I’ll be disappointed if TJ&E 3 isn’t shown."

The Reality: Sega was the King of exclusion this year, and at E3, where levels of exclusion are everywhere, that’s mighty high praise. Congratulations, Sega, for keeping your fans out of your entirely enclosed booth. Yeah, I got to go in and see what 90% or more of the show attendees were missing, and honestly, I’m not as impressed as I’d hoped. No playable TJ & E 3 and a whole lot of stuff we all already knew about.

I said: "I also can’t help but notice that Samba de Amigo 2000 is not listed among their planned titles."

The Reality: No sign of the follow-up to the incredibly fun maracas game. The game didn’t do well on our side of the Pacific, so I guess that means we won’t be seeing the superior sequel here in any form other than imported.

I said: "For Sega to rock my world next week, I’m going to need to get some hands-on time with Toejam & Earl 3 and Phantasy Star Online ver. 2."

The Reality: One out of two ain’t bad? Phantasy Star Online version 2 was playable, and it does have a release date, so it’s a sure thing for U.S. PSO fans. Toejam & Earl 3, however, was shown only as a brief video snippet buried in Sega’s looping video of all of their games. It’s very early in development and it doesn’t have a release date (translation: expect this game to get the axe before the end of the year). 

I said: "…moving along, Eidos will show two new games in the Legacy of Kain series, and you know what? I couldn’t care less. I think that the first game was okay, the second was overrated, and Eidos is going to run Kain into the ground just like they did Tomb Raider…"

The Reality: Yep. Even Matt, a big Kain fan, agreed that Soul Reaver 2 is just more of the same and that Legacy of Kain 2 isn’t everything it should have been.

I said: "Koei has Kessen 2, which seems to take a fantasy-based approach to military tactics (with spells and flying soldiers), and could be fun, as long as it’s not as freaking boring as the original. They’re also going to show Gitaroo Man, their first foray into musical rhythm, which stars a guitar-wielding superhero. I am so there."

The Reality: Koei was the surprise of the show, in my opinion. Not only does Gitaroo Man rock hard, but Dynasty Warriors 2 plays better than the first game (although it really is just more of the same). Koei also had the sleeper hit of the game in Yanya Caballista, a sort of Jet Grind Radio meets Tony Hawk which uses a finger skateboard that snaps over the analog sticks on a dual shock controller. Although awkward at first, after a bit of practice it becomes second nature and actually works really well.

I said: "Konami doesn’t need to do much more than rest on the assured success of Metal Gear Solid 2 this year, but they’ve upped the ante by throwing Silent Hill 2 into the mix as well."

The Reality: The new MGS 2 video was very, very cool. Too bad Kojima doesn’t seem to have any new ideas about the series – we see the return of both Revolver Ocelot and the Ninja in the video, and there’s even a scene where Snake comes across a hallway filled with the blood-splattered carcasses of enemy soldiers, who came across yet another super-unstoppable unknown enemy.

I said: "Namco is all about Klonoa 2 this year."

The Reality: This one was pretty accurate – Namco had Klonoa 2 for PS2 and a new Klonoa game for GBA, which looked pretty good. I got the chance to play through the first level of Klonoa 2 and while it’s not very different from the first game, the graphics are excellent and the controls are dead on, so it gets my endorsement.

I said: "I think that Sony has a solid lock on Company of the Show, based on the merits of the games listed above. However, they could practically lock it in with playable Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 kiosks."

 The Reality: THPS3 was all over the place. This game is awesome – think THPS2 with bigger environments, tons of interactive objects and graphics and animation that takes it all to the next level. Neversoft didn’t touch the controls and they didn’t need to – THPS3 will be a system mover.

I said: "Yeah, it’s looking kind of bleak for the old Playstation." 

The Reality: PSOne games were the most accessible at the show… because everyone seemed to be avoiding them like the plague. I didn’t see anything outstanding for the system.

"…they’ve announced new titles in the Metroid and Zelda series for GameCube… A sequel to my favorite snowboarding game, 1080º…Capcom will show Resident Evil Zero… Lucasarts will have a little something called Rogue Squadron 2… How about Super Smash Brothers 2?"

The Reality: Out of the 6 games listed above, two were shown in any accessible form at the show – Rogue Leader and Smash Brother Melee. Both of these games are incredible and will sell GameCube systems.  

I Said: "Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 and Atlus’ Super Dodgeball Advance… Capcom will have some cool stuff to show as well ,and I’ll be scoping out Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Final Fight One and Mega Man Battle Network…I’ve heard mixed things about Konami’s Castlevania: Circle of the Moon… Super Mario Advance, Mario Kart Advance"

 The Reality: GBA is great! Everything listed above was shown and they’re all good, in some cases better than SNES versions of the same game.

I Said: "Dropped like an ugly baby."

The Reality: Yep. The only use for N64s at the show was to run GBA titles on big screens. There were a total of zero new games for N64 shown, not even Tony Hawk 2, which is still rumored to be in development for Nintendo’s newly orphaned system.

I’m just going to say this – I am not a fan of the Dreamcast controller and the XBox controller is even worse. That said, even games I was looking forward to, like Halo and Tony Hawk 2X, were rendered nearly unplayable by the oversized hunk of plastic with poorly spaced buttons that Microsoft believes is a superior D-Pad.