With E3 now a week, a country, and 2500 miles behind me, the exhaustion is finally gone, the craze abated, and I'm gradually regaining hearing in both ears. Life is returning to normal, and with each passing day, I start to wonder if it was all just a dream. But it wasn't. There's photo evidence to prove it, for one thing. More than that, though, there are enduring memories that will stick with me long after today.

Of course, I wasn't the only one representing Adventure Gamers at the show, so before everyone gets sick of me monopolizing the floor (probably much too late for that), let's hear directly from the rest the intrepid team that braved the perils of E3 alongside me.


Emily Morganti

This was my second E3, and it left me feeling optimistic. It's no secret that adventure games are thought of as a poor relation by many in the industry, and seeing so many adventures, shown by developers and publishers who were really enthusiastic about them, was very encouraging. The show had a really positive tone and the games we saw seemed to be of good quality, even more so than last year.

Even though we didn't get to see much of them, finding out that three new adventure games will be coming out for the Nintendo DS was exciting. Seeing Sam & Max up on the big screen at GameTap's booth was another highlight. Even before that, as Doug [Tabacco, AG webmaster] and I were walking out of the press room on Wednesday morning, one of the people working the door pointed at Doug's Sam & Max T-shirt and said, "Hey! I remember them!" Another small but nice moment occurred when I was playing Dreamfall outside Funcom's booth and a girl came up and stood next to me to watch. She said she's been meaning to get Dreamfall but hasn't had time yet. I asked if she'd played The Longest Journey and she said no, but that if she enjoyed Dreamfall she planned to play TLJ too. Then I handed her the controller and watched her play for a few minutes before I left the booth. It was a really tiny moment in the midst of a huge, loud show, but it made me feel good to know that someone else cared about Dreamfall. There are people out there who care about Sam & Max, and about Phoenix Wright. Adventure gaming seems to be finding its way back into mainstream popularity, at least to an extent. It makes me happy to know that new people are discovering this type of game for the first time—or rediscovering it after a long time.

The Nintendo DS is where it's at for great new adventures! We couldn't read the Japanese, but we understood the "touch" part.	Some dog and rabbity-thing are apparently making a comeback. The names vaguely rang a bell, so we took in the trailer premiering at GameTap's booth.

Christina Gmiterko

This week saw the end of another E3 convention — three days of gaming, hanging out with friends, and meeting developers. An experience that is both equal parts exhaustion and fun.

One of the highlights for me was certainly learning about games that I knew little to nothing about heading in. Foremost of which was Lexis Numérique's upcoming game, Experience 112. While still extremely early in development, this game's unique premise has made it stand out in my mind as a definite title to watch. Both this title and Lexis Numérique's sequel to the thriller MISSING (In Memoriam), titled EVIDENCE, looked like two of the most promising adventure games at the show.

Another of the meetings worth noting was our first look at Broken Sword 4 in action, with Charles Cecil walking us through it. This is a game that is still very much a work in progress and it showed, but Charles' enthusiasm for it was infectious and I can't wait to see the finished product.

Above everything though, it was just great to spend time with my fellow Adventure Gamers staff members; catching up with the old and just getting to know the new. It's because of them that this whole E3 experience was survivable for me.

Next stop: the Orient Express. Unfortunately, Poirot would go nowhere near E3. Clearly he's smarter than us.	The weather is predicting Heavy Rain from Quantic Dream, but we thought the trailer was overcast.