Kicking butt is always a very tiring task. We spent 3 days - a total of almost 20 hours - playing Rainbow Six 4: Lockdown and America’s Army. And even though none of us had played the games, we were pretty much undefeated. Ok, so we lost to the dev team of RS3:Lockdown, but come on, they’re the dev team! And we lost to this team once or twice, but I think my hand motion pretty much sums up who the real winners are. I’m not a sore loser… really!

Honestly though, even though I was at E3 from opening till closing during all 3 days, I felt like I hardly saw anything! It was all a blur – the big booths, flashy displays, big screens, humungo paper bags and crowds of people. I did a lot of “watching people play” seeing as all the good games were taken by the time I was able to walk arund! I was dying to try out Okami, the new Halo 2 maps, see the Spore demo, Xbox 360, PS3 and all those goodies, but alas. No luck and no time. I did, however, get to see Peter Jackson’s King Kong preview, which rocked! The idea being a human and King Kong in the same environment and world was so creative. Oh, and meeting Elijah Wood was definitely a plus. And as an added bonus, it was great to meet some of our fans and just hang out with them (memories of long walks, sushi and salsa). Good times. I wish we all could have actually sat down to chill and play some games, but maybe next time.

I have to say though, the highlight of my 3 days in LA had to be the midnight showing of SW:ROTS. Now you know why I disappeared from the Xbox community party so early. hehe. I would have normally started my wait in line 12 hours ahead of time, but as you can see, I had prior obligations. Even though I didn’t get to the theater until 9pm, I was lucky enough to score some pretty decent floor seats (plus I even had some backup balcony seats thanks to the very kind CRM). So with 3 hours and counting, I was a giddy little girl. Plus sitting next to other Star Wars fans always sparks fun conversation that you can only have with other fans. Who else wants to talk about “Should Han have shot first?” or “Yub yub song vs. no yub yub song"” or which line of toys is the best? The He-Man like POTF ones? The original 1977s? Maybe the VOTC? And the costumes are always the best! I was happily sitting in front of a Padme look-alike, a Darth Maul, a Darth Vader, another young jedi, and some random guys dressed in togas. I saw Han walk in with a Jawa and I even thought I saw a man dressed as Queen Amidala (he was really tall!). I also had a perfect view of some pre-show light saber dueling action. But when the movie started, that’s when the show really began. I hate SW spoilers so I won’t mention any here, but I laughed, I cheered, I cried, I proudly waved my light saber. And when the movie was over, it was incredibly bittersweet - a perfect ending to my first day at E3.