It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

...well, for gamers, anyway. The Electronic Entertainment Expo (aka e3) has finally arrived, and boy, is it BACK! Until roughly two years ago, e3 was the premiere event for game companies to reveal upcoming game lineups and even new hardware. That all changed two years ago, when various coincidental factors caused the expo to become massively downgraded. It's pretty apparent from Microsoft's Press Conference today, however, that e3 is BACK and better than ever. Christening the event "Christmas is July" (err, June) doesn't do it justice.

This is the day gamers of all stripes have their eyes glued to their computer moniters (and now, with the advent of digitally distributed game content, video game machines themselves can now broadcast this information just as well) waiting for the latest breaking news about new games (today's hot items: Metal Gear Solid for the Xbox 360 and PSP, Mass Effect 2, and a remake of the classic adventure game Curse of Monkey Island, among others) hardware revisions (did anyone get to see the new PSP GO?) and rumblings of things still yet to come (the infamously secretive Sony game developer Team ICO is present and will reportedly be showing off their latest projects some time soon!)

I never designed this blog to become a news aggregate, but e3 is THE gaming event of the year (with the possible exception of the Tokyo Game Show in the fall) and offers plenty for gameheads everywhere to talk about. So, what do you think of the show thus far? What games/hardware/speeches stand out thus far? Anything particularly memorable? Or perhaps e3 is a snoozer of a spectacle for you?

Let's hear it, folks. Fire away in the combox below!

St. Justin Martyr, pray for us!