The film world has Cannes, Toronto and Sundance, but for the ever-growing world of videogames there is no bigger, louder and more ostentatious celebration of the virtual world than the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).
Yet there's no mobbing by paparazzi here. The creators of the latest games can walk through the halls of the LA Convention Centre, where E3 is held, in relative anonymity. Instead, it's the games that are the real stars and E3 is the place where some of the brightest tantalise their audiences with behind-closed-doors screenings and movie-style trailers.
There were no prizes for guessing which would be the big-hitters at the 10th anniversary of E3. The chance to glimpse the latest footage from the sci-fi shooters Halo 2 and Half-Life 2 was undoubtedly one reason why tickets sold out this year.
Both games have been besieged by release problems; in Half-Life 2's case, it included code being leaked, an FBI raid on the suspected hacker worthy of the X-Files and pirated copies of the game appearing in Russian shops.
E3 audiences were rewarded with a concrete release date of November 9 for Halo 2, and there was even some sobbing in the aisles when the multiplayer side of the game was shown. However, all that could be prised out of Valve about Half-Life 2 (originally scheduled for release last September) was that a date was pencilled in for the summer. In anticipation, the Half-Life 2 booth was constantly packed, as the developers showed off the great looking in-game action.
One game that was conspicuous by its absence was Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, though a few details did slip out during the show. The game is set in the early 90s. Players will take on the part of a young black guy named Carl Johnson, who is forced to return to his dangerous home city of Los Santos after the murder of his mother. The game contains features that require your character to eat and work out.
There were plenty of top-notch fighting games shown, including Dead or Alive Ultimate, Death by Degrees and God of War. One of the most impressive fighting-cum-role-playing games was Jade Empire, from Bioware, the award-winning developer of Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Due out next March, Jade Empire transports you to ancient China, where players must master martial arts and magic to battle evil.
Despite the dwindling number of role-playing games designed solely for the PC, Bioware was keen to prove that, as far as it is concerned, the company is going to keep things kicking for as long as possible. Two brand new PC role-playing titles were shown to a select few: Dragon Age, which is still a way off from release, and The Witcher, a title based on Bioware's Aurora engine and set in the fantasy world of best-selling Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski.
Sapkowski wasn't the only sci-fi author to have a stake in this year's E3. Orson Scott Card, the writer behind Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, collaborated on the storyline for the Xbox/PS2 title Advent Rising. The game is the first in a trilogy set in an epic fantasy universe, based on the graphically stunning Unreal Warfare engine, and deals with exactly what it means to be human.
The proliferation of great games wasn't just offline. Online games were more prominent than ever, including many new games for Xbox Live and the announcement that EA would be Live-enabling its titles.
EverQuest II looks set to grip the western world in the same way its predecessor did (and will no doubt generate a few headlines in the process), while Lineage II is soon to do the same in the east. The pedigree of World of Warcraft and the inter- active and story-driven environment of The Saga of Ryzom also look like capturing many online hearts.
With the British games industry trying to ride out the turbulent times that have seen the closure of many studios, it was good to see many British titles on display at the UK State of Play pavilion. Some of the most innovative games at the show, such as The Movies, which allows you to run your own movie studio and make your own films, plus the sequel to the artificial intelligence masterpiece Black & White, were also home-grown. Let's hope titles such as these spearhead a resurgence, not only in the UK videogames industry, but in gaming innovation as a whole.
Also worth a look:
The Legend of Zelda - GC,
Destroy all Humans - PS2/Xbox
Thief: Deadly Shadows - PC/Xbox,
Fable - Xbox,
Pariah - PC/Xbox,
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodline - PC,
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - PS2
Silent Hill 4: The Room PC/PS2/Xbox
Doom III PC/Xbox
The Sims 2 - PC
Burnout 3 - PS2/Xbox
Gran Turismo 4 - PS2
