I awoke without the help of an alarm, even though I'd set the alarm the night before. But my body woke me up at 10:15 a.m., a quarter-hour later than the theoretical alarm time. Groggy and venom-tongued, I stumbled from my comfy bed down to the streets, looking for a coffee shop. I arrived at the convention center quickly, as I now knew what route to take. I shuffled up the escalators to the in-building coffee shop, where I waited for probably forty minutes for a large hot chocolate (I hate coffee). It was made with an inferior product to what I'm used to! Unabated, I wandered toward the expo hall with demos in mind.

The first game I played was Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. Ladies and germs, it's the exact same game we've been playing since Dawn of Sorrow. The only difference is that ALL of your weapon and magic attacks are dependant on your MP. There are some standard moves which you learn (like a rubber-band-like jumping mechanism) which do not require MP, but everything from knife throwing to sword-swinging does, which is bizarre. The demo was short, and the girl at the DS "booth" claimed that Konami would only say that the game was coming out this fall. I will give Konami some credit for changing some of the monster sprites, but otherwise it's a pretty standard portable Castlevania.

Next up: Kirby's Super Star ULTRA. Was I impressed? No. If you still have your old SNES and the original game, you're fine. The demo consisted only of "Spring Breeze," the first game on the SNES cart, and everything from the character sprites to the animations were exactly the same. There are some new 3D cutscenes, which did not excite me.

I was able to download a demo of Prince of Persia DS at a DS download station, and I can tell you all that it sucks. It's a sidescroller that's controlled almost entirely by the touchscreen, kind of like Phantom Hourglass but not nearly as polished. The demo lasted all of five minutes, and at least four of those minutes were tedious and unenjoyable.

But enough about the DS, let's talk Wii! Let me assure all of you that Wario Land: Shake It is the next big Wii game for the fanbase. It is a beautiful game that is very reminiscent of the old Game Boy originals. Like those titles, Shake It is a straight 2D platformer. The big difference here is that Wario can pick up and shake things including bags of money, enemies, statues, etc. The goals in each stage differ, but getting plenty of loot is always a top priority. I can't describe how well the game plays and looks. There's a real cartoon vibe there, influenced in a small way by how anime cartoons "move." I loved it.

I got to play Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Force Unleashed wasn't on the show floor), and while it's impressive in its own right, I almost feel like the Wii is holding it back. The character models are a bit blocky, and model outlines are a little fuzzy. I was impressed with how well the lightsaber combat worked, though. Even without the Wii Motion Plus, swinging the Wii Remote in various directions was mimicked onscreen very precisely. Only the player vs. player combat was shown, though. Whether the single-player mode will offer anything different, I can't say. I hope so, though.

I watched people play Mario Sluggers, Wii Music, and Animal Crossing, and I cried inside. Wii Music is awful. I didn't partake, but the entire game amounts to pretending rhythmically swing the Wii Remote to a song. If you don't get the rhythm right, the game doesn't care. And nobody had fun playing it. The Miis onscreen just bop and sway to whatever you're doing. The graphical presentation just isn't there. I heard one of the Nintendo reps explaining to somebody that the game is for the whole family, and anybody can sit down and enjoy it, no matter what their skill level. Meanwhile, ten feet away, people were ROCKING THE F*CK OUT in Guitar Hero: World Tour.

Animal Crossing looks like crap. And I don't mean that it looks boring (which it does), but that, graphically, it looks like poop. The Wii is a powerful piece of hardware, folks. It can produce beautiful games like Mario Galaxy and Umbrella Chronicles. Animal Crossing looks like something the GameCube could outdo! It was also odd that the world rotates as you walk around, so things pop up over the horizen. I miss the good ol' isometric viewpoint.

Please don't make me talk about Mario Sluggers. It makes me feel frightened and confused.

And then we get to...THE CONDUIT. Now, I was unable to actually play the game, but I watched many, many people play, and I asked Tim (from the forums...his avi name escapes me at the moment) how it played, because he played it. Bottom line: If THE CONDUIT were on any other system, even the PS2...we would not be giving it a second glance. I know, you guys were really looking forward to THE CONDUIT, but you heard it here first--it's nothing special. The worst sin is that it's generic-looking. Decimated city, lots of bipedal alien soldiers and gunfire. Whoopie. There is a distinct lack of lighting, and the environments look blocky and bland. Aliens are greenish yellow. That never changes--even the boss was greenish yellow. Tim described the control scheme as finnicky, and he said that it's very similar to Metroid Prime 3, but not as refined. This doesn't surprise me. None of the people I watched were able to aim with any real accuracy. The crosshair was going crazy. Overall, aiming seemed jerky. Tomorrow, I hope to actually PLAY the game, but the line today was horribly long.

The big event for me was the Fallout 3 screening. I waited in line for probably an hour to see the half-hour demo on a big screen. Reps handed out little cards to everyone. There were five or six different cards, with different "attributes" like Intelligence or Strength. Tim and I thought they were just cheap swag. The demo was insane. You get to blow up a damn village with an atomic bomb and fight mutant crabs while creepy 40's music plays on your radio. You can target specific body parts on enemies and blast their heads off with an iron stake. You can activate helper droids which fire brutal laser beams at opponents, and knock dudes across the room with a gas-powered melee glove.

It's awesome.

When the demo was over, we found out that the cards actually meant better swag. Depending on your card's rarity, you got one of several prizes, the best of which included an Xbox 360, 5 years of Xbox Live, whatever Fallout version you wanted, and a bunch of other cool stuff. I got the most common card, which meant a poster. Yippee. Tim got a hand puppet, that lucky dog. After that, we stood in line at Tycho & Gabe's autograph signing. I got the boys to sign my Fallout 3 poster (now suddenly more awesome!) and my PA collection book.

We then ran into a theater for another demo screening--Prince of Peria and Far Cry 2. Prince of Persia looks devestatinglyl awesome. It seems to combine the environmental exploration of Sands of Time and/or Tomb Raider: Anniversary with the freerunning mechanic of Assassin's Creed and a unique one-on-one combat system. The game is stunningly beautiful, one of the best-looking games on the show floor. Ubisoft is doing a cross-media promotional thing for the Prince, including a comic (art by Gabe, shipped with the limited edition), and special online backstory videos. Far Cry 2 was just as impressive, but I'm not a big fan of the FPS genre. Those who DO like shooters should know that Far Cry 2 looks wonderful. You can set fires in shacks or grasslands, and the fire spreads. Water ripples with every action, trees sway in the breeze, and enemies react very intelligently to your presence and actions.

Then I came back to the hotel room, because I was freaking beat. I missed the two panels I wanted to see because I was stuck in lines, but I'm glad I saw the demo screenings, and I can't turn down autographs by Gabe & Tycho. Tomorrow I hope to play a few more demos and attend a 2nd Q&A session. If you want to meet me, Tim and I should be attempting to play Fallout 3 and/or Starcraft II between the hours of 10 and 11.