Bleary-eyed, brain-hammered game journos have now recovered from E3 and most of the big news sites put their 'best of' round-ups online over the weekend. The clearly laid out Best of E3 2006 from 1up.com is easily the most comprehensive, providing winners and runners-up for each platform as well as in several genres. Pocket Gamer was similarly exhaustive within its handheld gaming remit.
IGN, meanwhile, goes for a somewhat less generous opinion piece in the shape of, E3 2006: It's A Wrap, while Gamespot takes the democratic route, basing its People's Choice Awards on the clicks accumulated by E3 news stories (there's a pretty even spread with three Xbox 360 titles, six from PS3 and five on Wii).
Elsewhere, Games Radar picks out its twenty favourite news stories while Game Pro is, as far as my lunchtime browsing session suggested, the only major site to talk about its biggest E3 disappointments as well as it's 20 favourite titles. In the former category, Microsoft's Halo 3 demo came in for the most seriously mauling.
From this unscientific swoop through the web's E3 reactions, a 'definitive' list of the top E3 titles has shakily and unconvincingly arisen...
Image courtesy of Pocket Gamer
PS3 Ninja Theory's martial arts adventure, Heavenly Sword, and in-house Sony flight shooter, War Hawk, seemed to grab the most attention. However, Ubisoft's promising Crusade-era stealth romp, Assassin's Creed, also caught the eye of discerning journos.
Wii Predictably, the latest Mario outing, Super Mario Galaxy, and the inventive, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves, emerged most proudly from the packed Wii line-up. Those who actually managed to grasp hold of a controller and give it a go couldn't get Wii Sports out of their heads though.
Xbox 360 Gears of War is still hanging around, drawing in superlatives like swirling houseflies. BioWare's sci-fi RPG, Mass Effect, attracted plenty of praise, too. Others noted Bioshock from Irrational games and Keiji Inafune's shooter, Lost Planet.
PC It was all about Spore again this year. However, those less convinced by complex evolutionary life sims opted for Quake Wars or Crysis, no doubt snorting their derision as they slaughtered their foes.
Handheld Yoshi's Island 2 was a common choice for biggest DS title, while the entirely unrepresentative LocoRoco impressed those PSP users tired of flashy shooters and racers. There were two Final Fantasy mobile phone titles at the show, but most agreed that Gameloft's conversion of Lumines was the most interesting offering.
Current gen consoles Even slimmer pickings than expected, it seems. God of War 2 and Okami delighted the PS2 boys, while Xbox fans made do with multi-format titles like Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Lego Star Wars II.
So, from what you've read, of perhaps even what you saw at the show, how wrong are these selections?
