Best of Show - Playable
Jade Empire (Xbox)

Scott: This one has all the markings of yet another four-star title from the geniuses at Bioware. Rumor has it that the reason Bioware didn't work on KOTOR 2 was because they were hard at work cranking out Jade Empire. And, finally, we got to see the fruit of their labors. The entire GC staff was duly impressed (and keep in mind, it takes a lot to impress us). With real-time combat, compelling characters, and cracker-jack writing (the bits of the game I saw were really, really funny), Jade Empire is our pick for best of the show, and an early front-runner for game of the year honors.

Best of Show - Non-Playable
Half-Life 2 (PC)

Matt: I'm a bit of a sucker for games that try to push the envelope of storytelling and immersion. Even though Fable was playable, I still found myself more in awe of the strides Valve has made in the department of "you are there" dramatic, interactive experience. The gritty premise—frazzled ex-MIT nerd versus extra-terrestrial Big Brother—has a lot more potential than Halo 2's. It's actually about normal people trapped in a horrifying situation, and participating in that series of emotional events seemed very promisingly realized. The real-time character animations are a huge leap over what most games are doing, and the use of sheer physics to enhance gameplay for once seems like more than just a vague ambition. Overall, it really looks like a one-of-a-kind experience. If they can just get beyond the annoying linearity of the original Half-Life, they'll have reinvented videogames.

Most Innovative Title
AntiGrav (PlayStation 2)

Matt: Unfortunately, all the games that I know were the most innovative were one's I didn't see but heard about afterwards. With the exception of X-Tango and Katamari Damacy and the new Eye-Toy games, I most saw popular franchise titles. Of those, Fable seemed the most hell-bent on giving players the opportunity to do things they hardly every get to do in games… like fart. Otherwise, most innovations were completely relative to their genre. RE4 is hardly "innovative" in the wider scope of games, but it was such a departure from the rest of the series that it seemed damn near like the reinvention of the wheel. The Matrix Online deserves special mention for it's creative solution to putting slo-mo effects into an online, real-time game. It even has a lot of sober solutions to logistical problems that seem to haunt MMO's.

Best Booth
Namco

Brad: Namco's booth was really the best this year, retaining the largest amount of spectacle and bombast that other companies seem to have foregone in this weak economy. In a sea of monitors and bored reps, Namco stood head and shoulders above the rest with spectacular martial arts shows, a flock of hot booth babes, and numerous giveaways and contests. When I think of what the showier side of E3 represents (or at least, used to) Namco is the epitome of the experience.

Honorable Mention
Tecmo

Scott: I call it a tie between Namco and Tecmo. They both had very active, very alive booths, with Namco sporting hourly stage shows and Tecmo holding live Ninja Gaiden competitions and a Wheel of Fortune-like prize wheel. I agree with Brad—in a show that seemed quietly subdued, these two booths were welcome throwbacks.

Worst Booth
DSI

Erin: I was the only person in the booth and was still ignored as three reps sat around eating bagels and talking amongst themselves. More than half of the demos were of games already released, and the remaining few were glitchy as hell. I crashed two of the systems attempting to play them.

Honorable Mention
Nokia

Kyle: Besides being nearly empty for a large portion of the show, the PR team there seemed to have no idea what interests gamers, or youth culture in general. The low point was near the end of the show, where a big guy got up on stage and started rapping "When I say 'N' You say 'Gage'" and got little to no response. Pathetic.

Best Selection on Display
Konami

Erin: With games including Suikoden 4, Silent Hill 4, Boktai 2, Karaoke Revolution 2, two DDRs, Rumble Roses, Gradius V, Neo Contra and of course Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Konami's line-up was too strong to beat.

Kyle: Tie—Nintendo and Konami—both had a good mix of established franchises and new ideas… and quality video presentations.

Matt: On a visceral level, definitely Konami, although the strength of their sheer presentation seemed to make them think they could skimp on having well-informed reps, a serious minus if you ask me. Still though, I suppose I can't think of others that were much better. I couldn't decide if Microsoft was really cool or just really aloof by sectioning themselves off from everyone else.

Most Informative Reps
Tie... We love ALL these people!

Brad: Microsoft, and specifically the Fable reps. Although every rep I spoke with in the big X's booth really knew their stuff and were able to answer all questions, the Fable presenter took quite a bit of time to show me all of the small features and little things that would have certainly been unnoticed otherwise. This is what I come to E3 for.

Erin: Bandai—The guy who showed me around was very knowledgeable and cheerful, even after demonstrating three Digimon games in a row.

Scott: Namco. Easy access to designers and producers. You think we get excited about games? Wait until you see the way a producer or level designer's eyes glow when he talks about his game. I spent a few minutes alone in the VIP room in back, watching a few of the booth girls gorge on a plate of nachos. They even had an Asian woman giving massages. "You get massage?" she said to me. I politely declined; no way was I going to get a massage with all those nacho-eating girls around. "But it's free," she said. "Really, I'm fine," I said. When I was finally ushered out of the room, I overheard the massage woman say, "I don't understand him."

Matt: All the effective "reps" I met were actually designers who demo-ed their games to me personally. The Thief: Deadly Shadows guys at the Eidos booth were very informative, as were they people in Bethesda's private room who showed me the Cthulhu game. I thought The Matrix Online guys were pretty good as well (also in their private room) although one of them seemed so convinced his game was so "badass," I'm not sure what we would have done had I contradicted him.

Kyle: Gizmondo. Before I went into the booth I had no idea what the Gizmondo was. After I left, I had all the information I needed and more, plus guided plays of all the available demos. Now, if only the booth weren't so freaking noisy.

Most Ignorant Reps
Capcom

Brad: Not only were most of the Capcom reps I spoke to fairly ignorant about the games, I was often ignored, despite standing right next to them, obviously trying to get their attention. To make things worse, one of the reps actually made fun of me for voicing an opinion on one of their games. Talk about unprofessional! (However, the one rep who spoke with me about Shadow of Rome was actually great. Too bad they didn't have ten clones of her.)

Matt: I also got some resistance and hostility from the Capcom booth people for suggesting I should be able to get an answer as to why Way of the Samurai 2 will not include Japanese voice. They really just seemed to think that was a stupid, unimportant concern. Something's very wrong with that.

Dishonorable Mention
Konami

Brad: Konami may have had the best variety of games on display, but Matt and I both knew more about them than the person giving the tour. Not only that, he didn't seem to pick up on which games we were actually interested in seeing, blowing right by Neo Contra and Gradius V. Basically, a huge waste of our floor time.

Matt: God, that Konami guy was awful.

Best Hidden Gem
X-Tango (Xbox)

Erin: We've already gushed about X-Tango in our Hype-Worthy section, but unlike most of our other Hypies, X-Tango came totally out of left field. I had certainly heard nothing about it prior to E3 and was delighted when I discovered it down in Kentia Hall. A hidden gem, in the most literal sense.

Matt: I'd like to second Erin on X-Tango. It's got some of the sex appeal of Dead or Alive but with a little something that series never had: class. The gameplay is also innovative; a cute and compelling abstraction of leading and following in dance.

Honorable Mention
Katamari Damacy (PlayStation 2)

Matt: Otherwise, there was Katamari Damacy, an utterly wacked-out game from Japan that it looks like it's finally being localized. In it, you have to roll a sticky ball and pick up things which increases the ball's mass, which increases the size of things you pick up, from paper-clips, to cats, to tables, to people, to cars, to buildings, to cities, to mountains, etc. It's…very strange.