Well, it's been quite a month. Between the always amazing E3 in LA, and JavaOne I was whipped! So, after J1, I took a week off to recuperate and, well, it didn't happen. Too much happening at home and I'm still sick from all of the traveling. Oh well, they were great trips regardless! Here are extremely brief recaps:

Electronic Entertainment Expo

What to say about this year? Two more systems join the next generation of game systems. The PS3 and the Nintendo Wii (I kind of like the new name!) were there in full force and both were amazing. Every developer I spoke to that stood on line for 2+ hours just to see the Wii all had the same reaction: amazing and unbelievable! It seems that Nintendo, once again, will knock it out of the park with the Wii. Coupled with the Nintendo DS, the “House of Mario” is stronger than ever!

While I did not wait 2 hours in line to see the Wii, I did get a chance to play with the PS3. All I can tell you is that the PS3 truly represents the next generation when it comes to graphics. Just about every demo looked amazing and silky smooth (except Madden). I know a lot of people are complaining about the price point of the PS3 and I don't get what the fuss is about. Sure it is expensive, but you are getting more features packed into the box than any other game system on the market, now or ever before! In fact, if I want my PC to play games that look like the PS3 games, I would have to add about $400-600 in parts. So, from my perspective, the PS3 looks like a bargain! WRT the multiple SKUs, I think Sony handled it better than Microsoft for 2 reasons. First, both systems come with a hard drive, so developers can count on it always being there. Ans secondly, all of the core functionality is the same, including wireless for both systems.

The Xbox 360 game that most impressed me was only shown behind closed doors, and it was awesome! BioWare's upcoming space RPG, Mass Effect, looked sweet! That is the game that I will buy a 360 for!

Oh, now for the obligatory “who will win” prediction:

#1 PS3

#2 Nintendo Wii

#3 Xbox 360

Anyway, there a ton of photos already on the web, so I won't reproduce them here. But here are a few of my personal photos:

The Masters of Disaster!

Me and my Hong Kong posse! You know how we DO!

BIG brains behind MindControl Software. You like their games.

Again, how awesome was E3? I was cold-cocked by a dude with a PowerGlove! AWESOME!

JavaOne

Jeff Kessleman and I demonstrated the same demos we did for GDC this year and it was a big hit! Many people stopping buy were equally impressed with IMI's Cosmic Birdie racing game and were glad to see that Java continues to make strides in game development. It was a good conference, even though I had to work the show floor with a slight fever and for way too long! Many pics and details about the conference on the official JavaOne website. Here is one press photo I received:

Anyway, lots of catching up to do. More details next week!

Oh, special shout out to Joe for the ride to the Sony party and an extra special thanks to Scott!