Unlike a SEAL team, we got to indulge in some of the "sweeter" things in life along the way, such as trying out games in pre-alpha and schmoozing with other people in the industry. Of course, the eye candy wasn't bad either (I know the Editor didn't enjoy it much but hey, I sure did!).

With my first step inside the Georgia World Congress Center I was immediately assaulted by a wall of sight and sound. It was like being in Santas workshop with elves gone wild as publishers and PR "babes" handed out demos like they were going out of style. The noise level was near deafening by certain booths, (Eidos comes to mind) and you couldn't help but get swept up in the euphoria of games mania. But if that wasn't enough to get your juices flowing, taking a step inside Sierra's, Activision's or Microprose's booths would!

But before I go ANY further: SCOOP! Mark Long at Zombie wants you all to know that Spec Ops 2 will be Green Berets, and not Navy Seals as originally planned. We'll have more info on this new sim as soon as we can get a stranglehold on Mark ;-D. If you've met Mark, you know this involves a certain challenge! (Can I have my arm back now, Mark?)

With storylines continuing in the Earthsiege universe under the new title Starsiege, Sierra's soon to be seen title looks like a great successor to an already popular storyline. Activision's new addition to the Heavy Gear universe, HG II looked extremely promising in its pre-alpha stage. Microprose and Zipper throw down the gauntlet in the mech genre with their addition to the Battletech universe, Mechwarrior 3 which is scheduled to hit shelves in spring of 1999. All in all it looks real promising for us mecha fans out there.

Back in the really-real world there's plenty on tap and some of these titles look like must haves. Sierra's upcoming real-time strategy game SWAT 2 gives us a crack at being in charge of the "bad boys" of the LAPD SWAT teams.

If that doesn't appeal to you maybe playing the role of terrorist does, as SWAT 2 will allow you to play either side in this very realistic sim. Empire Interactive will also be bringing us a turn based strat game called 101, 101st Airborne in Normandy, due date October of this year. Using a similar top down perspective as the Close Combat series, you will lead a squad of the old 101st through 30 missions as well as multiplayer.

To step back into the science fiction genre for a moment again us mecha fans have a lot to be thankful for. With the combined efforts of Microprose and FASA Interactive we will be able to take full tactical control of a Battlemech unit in the upcoming real-time strategy release Mech Commander. If you have the bandwidth I strongly urge you to get the demo, it's well worth the 116 meg download!

Another alternative in the mecha genre is the second in the Earthsiege strategy series with the sequel to the hit Mission Force: Cyberstorm, Cyberstorm 2: Corporate Wars. Both titles look outstanding and at the present time I cannot discern which I like better, decisions... decisions! It's great to have so much to have to play to decide isn't it?

Eidos also throws us a curve ball by taking some time away from Lara Croft and bringing us what looks to be an excellent real-time strat sim called "Commandos". Set in World War II this games strengths lie not only in its pristine graphics but its need for a tactical approach from the gamers standpoint. The commandos you are in charge of can do everything from scuba, climb walls, and set explosives as real world commandos would do. One of the coolest little things I love about this game is the way you can "take out" sentries quietly with a knife and then pick him up and hide him behind a building so as to not alert any of the other guards. Nice attention to detail.

In the first person shooter arena we also have alot to look forward to with titles by Redstorm Entertainment, TS Group and Novalogic. Novalogic has decided to forego the 3DFX approach for to ring in their first release with the brand new Voxel Space 3 terrain imaging system. Using this approach Novalogic will be bringing us viewable and useable terrain like those in a flight sim, in which the players can "see" great distances.

Novalogics first entry with Voxel3 will be Delta Force. This one looks like a LOT of fun.. More on this later, for now check out this early screen:

TS Group of Moscow will be bringing us "Private Wars" with a tentative Christmas release. TS Group founder Sergey Titov took some time to speak with me at E3 and show me the technology demo hilighting the games real world terrain and physics modeling of all in world objects. From the initial demo shown I was impressed with what TS Group is doing with the terrain. There were no forest "blocks" seen, just individual trees and foliage which the player can walk through. (no, you can't walk through the trees, just the bushes) this should make for interesting gameplay. The final first person shooter I want to talk about is the one that is my top pick, Rainbow Six. From Redstorm Entertainment, founded by the master of military fiction Tom Clancy, this game will be released to coincide with the novel of the same name. Fans of Clancy's work will be pleased to see some familiar faces (and not the faces from the movie Clear and Present Danger) as John Clark will be the leader of this multinational counter-terrorist group and even Ding Chavez will be along for the shootin' and lootin'. You can play this game from either a first person or third person perspective and will have complete control over your units composition, gear, weaponry and total tactical planning.

The tactical planning approach to this game is really nice as you are given "blueprints" of your take-down objective and use this to set waypoints and movement methods for each of your teams. In this game there are no magic health packs, just your wits, tactics and strategy to keep you alive to accomplish your mission. If you are shot, you die no second chances. It's about as real as it can get which really turned me on to this one.

The graphics are excellent 3DFX, motion captured characters and objects. The characters move ultra realistic and the immersion factor looks to be close to perfect. I'll be able to judge better in a few weeks when I get a beta in my hands but from the demo I was left speechless. Best part is this (as are all the others as well) game is multiplayer in either co-op or head to head mode. There is even real-time voice communication!

In the multiplayer arena we have a couple of real promising titles to look forward to in a couple of months as well. Tribes from Sierra is another title in their ever expanding Starsiege (Earthsiege) universe of multiplayer squad level troop combat. Primarily for Internet/LAN multiplayer use this game looks like alot of fun.

The other multiplayer game I found pretty addictive and extremely easy (learning curve is like 5 minutes) to learn was Multitude's Fireteam. This game is for teams of 4 to go head to head in several different fashions. The standard deathmatch and capture the flag as well as a CTF variant "base tag" are in there as would be expected but there is another flavor in this title that is both entertaining and amusing. "Gunball" is the variant where both teams attempt to carry the football across into their enemy's end-zone without "fumbling" (getting fragged). All the games are on a 10 minute time limit so teamwork is essential.

To aid in this Multitude is including an Andrea Electronic GameWare headset in each box from which you can speak real-time voice. I played this at the Multitude booth on a dial-up line at 28.8 with NO lag at all. Being the skeptic I am, I wanted to try from home as well and once I fired up my beta copy and connected I couldn't believe NO LAG! With voice and all there was no lag, the reason I truly appreciated this is I have had a horrible time getting consisten connect speeds above 26.4k, which can kill gameplay. But when I played this game there was still no lag at 26.4!

To round out the multiplayer arena I'd like to mention another promising title from Psygnosis, Global Domination. This games strengths are really going to lie in its multiplayer aspect even though it is also a single player game. This one brings me back to the days of the old card game Nuclear War and also to the PC title of the same name based on the card game. In this game you will be in control of your territories of the world through a computer uplink from which you can decide how you wish to attack your enemies.

Using either strategy or just plain old brute force you will have land based, undersea, surface naval sea and air based nuclear assets. You'll also have star wars tehcnology from which to protect yourself and allies. (Nothing more satisfying than seeing that mushroom cloud rise over your enemy, and toasting his defenses! As always it's fun to portray this type of event but none of us wishes to ever see it in our lifetimes or ever again for that matter. But for the PC it serves its purpose).

Now for my best of E3 picks:

Best Flight Sim - Falcon 4 - MPS
Most Promising Flight Sim - Gunship III
Best Strategy Game - Commandos - Eidos
Best Sci-Fi Combat: Mechwarrior 3 - Microprose
Best Multiplayer Game - Fireteam - Multitude
Best First Person Shooter - Rainbow Six - Redstorm

I must note that in the strat game their was a close tie between Mech Commander and Cyberstorm 2 for second place. In the Sci-Fi combat sim MW 3 just edged out Starsiege.

My biggest E3 gripe? I didn't get my picture taken with the beautiful Lara Croft. Oh well, there's always next year when they'll probably be showing Tomb Raider 4. :) Stay tuned for further coverage of those sims mentioned as well as others in the coming weeks and months, it's gonna be a great year!