E3 in Atlanta. I'd been looking forward to it for months: a chance to rub shoulders with dedicated gamers, a chance to see the progress on some of the most awaited titles in the (short) history of virtual combat.

We have so much coverage on this event that its difficult to know how to manage all of it! With seven of us at the show, and five of us flying sims in development, checking out strategy and wargaming titles, handling hot new hardware and generally running at full throttle for the better part of three days, you can imagine how much material we can generate! Its going to take the next ten days to bring you all of this coverage. Virtually all our material from E3 will go online, with only a few exceptions reserved for print.

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So what I want to do is give you some general impressions and also deliver my picks for our "Best of Show" awards. This way, you get a quick look over our shoulders and then we can spend more time giving you the in-depth coverage you have come to expect from us. Its gonna be good! My own best of show picks will be followed up shortly by the best of show picks from all of us who attended E3.

To begin, here are my picks:

• Best ww2 sim: MPS European Air War
• Best Modern: MPS F4
• Best Naval sim: Mindscape: Fighting Steel
• Best Other: Need for Speed III
• Biggest Surprises: Gunship III (MPS), Janes Fleet Command and DiD Wargasm
• Most Promising: Su27 2.0
• Best hardware: tie - Matrox G200/nVidia TNT
• Biggest E3 gripes : TV monitors vs. hi res, MS FF Pro vs TM gear, monitors mounted too high
• Most cool experience: talking to Colonel "Bud" Anderson, author of "To Fly and Fight: Memoirs of a Triple Ace"
• Most hyped product: Space Bunnies
• Best of Show: MPS Falcon 4.0

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First things first. E3 is not entirely a pleasant experience. Do we really need this level of noise? Its terribly difficult to get a good sense of an immersive game when you are constantly plagued by a deafening background cacophony, and having to shout to be heard is tiring for reviewers and producers. It would be a much more pleasant show if volume levels were restricted so that we could view individual games without the background noise from other games/booths.

Second, do we really need all these "babes?" Somehow our culture has come to accept that to sell anything we have to connect it to sex. Are these women beautiful? Yes. Should they be at a trade show? No. If we want to see underdressed women, we can go to the beach. Can a game stand on its own, or can't it? Kudos to the companies which avoided this approach. The most prominent poster at the Georgia World Congress Center: Space Bunnies. Now on to my list.

Its a tough choice this year for most promising prop sim, with Fighter Legends looking great and mixing a ton of fun, but I chose EAW for a number of reasons. First, its the only one of the batch with a fully dynamic campaign. Second, it is drop dead gorgeous, even at 640x480. It would be great to see anti-aliasing and TK told me that they will have something in place. Will EAW ever make it to 800x600? Its not impossible, even if unlikely, but we certainly won't see it this year.

Third, EAW was the furthest along in development, possibly excepting Janes Fighter Legends. But although Fighter Legends runs at much higher resolutions, the focus is less on continuity and immersion than on dog-fighting. Fighter Legends looks great, the padlock is super, but going head to head with Fighter Duel 2.0 for the best multiplayer dogfighting sim, Legends would lose out. Still, its barely beta and things can change.

My choice of Falcon 4 for best modern combat flight sim is almost a given. Su27 2.0 would certainly compete, but its too early in development to assess very easily. Total Air War is a close second, but lacks the breadth of features and its still not clear whether or not TAW will release with multiplayer available in campaign mode.

I've chosen Su27 2 as the most promising new simulation for a number of reasons: first, as a follow on to an excellent simulation, SSI/Mindscape are determined to exceed version 1.5 in every respect. Second, Su27 2 is the first instalment in a digital battlefield series that will incorporate a MiG 29 add on as well as other aircraft and possibly ships. Third, the mission planning, AWACS and dynamic campaign look to be as good or beyond anything we have yet seen. Finally, the graphics engine and physics are state of the art, including resolutions beyond 1024x768 and even incorporating wind and weather.