If it’s one thing I hate, it’s when a laptop refuses to turn on. Generally, the moment a laptop just doesn’t want to turn on anymore, you can be rest assured that you are about to spend big money. In my own case, since it refused to even turn on, the range of potential problems all boiled down to a bad battery, ruined chasis (i.e. ground has gotten loose somehow), or the motherboard was cracked. Given that my laptap was new, this was not encouraging.

So, in some despair, I took my laptop to my local Best Buy. My only goal was to get a diagnosis of the problem before I sent it in for warranty work. To do otherwise is to invite a never ending litany of “we fixed it” “no you didn’t” with HP. I approached the Geek Squad technician and told him that my laptop would not turn on at all. I started to speak at some length about how the power supply still provided power, how the charging indicator would still light up, how I took out and replaced the battery to make sure the contacts were lined up properly, and so on. Rather than listening to my homegrown attempts to diagnose the problem, he calmly took out the battery and pressed the power button a few times. Then he replaced the battery.

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A few weeks back, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) showered gamers with a deluge of news and announcements highlighting the newest games in store for us this season and beyond. In addition, we saw a potential game-changing move with Microsoft’s unveiling of their self-aware Project Natal. We’re one step closer to Judgment Day with that one.

Anyway, I covered the Microsoft and Nintendo conferences in three separate Blog posts, which is becoming an annual tradition now that I’ve done two of them. Those pieces were focused on my reactions to the news coming from the console manufacturers, not necessarily about the games themselves (although it would be impossible to overlook that piece). This week, I intend to give you my Top 5 most anticipated games of 2009.

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(In case you missed part 1 and part 2)

2. Cool Fun in the Summer Time

Last summer, Microsoft launched a very successful promotion “The Summer of Arcade” where they released a spotlighted new arcade title each week for a month. During that time, the system saw some of its best titles including Bionic Commando Rearmed and Castle Crashers.

This summer, they repeat the promotion with some brand new titles that look like absolute must-haves. Of the titles coming our way, two jump out as instant purchases.

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E3 2009 closed with our busiest day of the show, including some more private demos, a sampling of the local cuisine, and only one minor setback, for which I have myself to blame.

Any of you who have read my reviews know that, in the past year, the majority of games that I have reviewed have been point-and-click adventures. Most of these have been published by Dreamcatcher Interactive, with whose representative was our first appointment on Thursday. One of Dreamcatcher’s frequent collaborators is JoWood, with whom they were sharing an E3 meeting room, and it was their RPG sequel Arcania: A Gothic Tale that kicked off our day. The Gothic series has had most of its popularity in Europe, but JoWood is bringing its latest installment to North America for a simultaneous PC/Xbox 360/PS3 launch this winter. In Arcania, you play as a hero who has a score to settle with the hero from the previous game, a king who has burned down your village as part of his seemingly unquenchable thirst for power. The developer has attempted to make this title more accessible to the non-European gamer, adding mini maps and quest tracking to the game. You play in a three-island sandbox featuring 300 quests (approximately 180 of them story-related missions) that can make gameplay last up to 80 hours.

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(In case you missed part 1)

4. Every Move You Make

This has nothing to do with Sam Fisher but everything to do with spying.

Now that Microsoft has made cyber stalking from the comfort of your couch as simple as can be, it’s high time that they start working on making Internet piracy completely undetectable. Where’s the love for those deviants?

Last year, Microsoft furthered their goal of turning the Xbox 360 into the center of your home entertainment by adding Netflix streaming into the stable of options available through the system. This year, they’ve gone and added more features with a defined focus on blowing out the social networking aspect of the system.

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At the tail end of this week, I turn the page on 36 and look ahead to see what 37 has in store for me. At that point, it’s official. I’m in my late-30’s. And yet, it’s somewhat encouraging that this peek into the wild woods of Geriatric Park comes at the end of my favorite week of the year.

The 2009 E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo) launched in LA yesterday with the big Xbox 360 conference, and the megaton charges that Microsoft lobbed were heard loud and clear (and streaming) a full coast away making my day and more importantly, tightening my grasp on my youth.

No matter how old I get nor how many new responsibilities I draft into the fold, I always look forward to the next great video game experience. I used to call it my vice, as if there were some reason that I should hide my passion, but I’ve stopped that. I work hard “damn hard” and I lead a very fulfilling life. But at the end of the day, when the world quiets and my children are nestled all snug in their beds, I like to steal a slice of time and journey to the world of make-believe. I may never keep the tax man at bay, but I can save the princess this day.

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Finally! A day goes by here in sunny LA without a major setback. That left us with an entire day to concentrate on nothing except the interesting and exciting new games on display at E3.

Fortunately, the problem in question cropped up almost immediately. We were supposed to have a private demo of Huxley; the PC-based MMO-shooter hybrid that has been in development for it seems like forever. While I was furiously tapping away on yesterday’s blog entry in the convention center media lounge, Turks made the trek to the booth where we were supposed to be seeing the game. As I was finishing up and getting ready to join him, he found me and said that our names were not on the list for entry into the demo room. This was very disturbing, especially since the Huxley appointment was one of the first ones we accepted when appointments started rolling in. If I had had the presence of mind to print out all of those confirmation emails, we wouldn’t have had this problem, but I’ll know better next year.

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A day filled with lots of great games and more personal disasters. It seems as if we’re cursed; practically everything short of the loss of life or limb has happened to Turks and I on this trip, but so far it’s been totally worth it.

Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first. After Tuesday’s show, we headed back to our alternate hotel to pick up our baggage and return to our original digs. The room is much more spacious than the shoebox we lived in for one night on Monday, but there was one significant problem: the free wireless Internet connection that we were supposed to enjoy was overwhelmed with users, so neither of us could successfully connect (which is why our podcast episode didn’t get uploaded until this morning and also why I’m typing up this blog post in the Convention media center instead of last night in the room). Also, there was another bit of drama that turned out to be less trouble than I expected. There’s a complimentary shuttle service provided by the convention that transports show attendees to our hotels. To prove that we’re entitled to this service, the hotels are supposed to give us colored wrist bands that indicate which of the seven bus routes we’re supposed to use. Our alternate hotel was more than happy to provide us with the wrist bands (even though we weren’t originally supposed to be there), but the folks at our original hotel refused to give them to us (the hotels aren’t on the same bus routes) because we didn’t book our reservations through the official E3 travel site. However, she was happy to tell me that we could purchase a wrist band at the convention — for $75 apiece. Now, normally I’m all about truth and justice, law and order, etc., but so much has happened this week that I have had enough, so we got on the shuttle this morning anyway, and as I suspected, the driver made no attempt to check our wrists. In fact, he was even willing to take non-attendees along with us for free. Finally, a break…

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And so it has begun. Turks and I have finally arrived in Los Angeles for E3 2009. But so far it’s been more tragedy than triumph.

Our tribulations began early. My airport shuttle was supposed to arrive at 6 am, but didn’t finally materialize until 6:15. The driver decided to make up for lost time by averaging about 80 mph in a hotel van on one of the busiest interstate highways in my area; after leaving 15 minutes late, I arrived at the airport 15 minutes early.

One other thing that I have learned about air travel since 9/11: if you’ve got a common last name, the government assumes that you’re a terrorist. Because I am a member of the fine and ancient clan Smith, US Airways denied me the opportunity to check in on the Internet or use the airport kiosks to print my boarding pass. A very pleasant and helpful lady at the ticket counter had to enter my driver’s license number in her computer to prove that I am really me.

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As I type this, I’m less than one week away from leavin’ on a jet plane to Los Angeles for my first Electronic Entertainment Expo. Podcast host Turks and I will be arriving at LAX at almost exactly the same time (if all goes well; how’s that for good planning!) and checking into our hotel, which will be E3 Central for our coverage of the biggest show in gaming. I’ll be posting my impressions of the show every night here on Avault, but here’s a look at the hoops Turks and I had to jump through just to get invited.

Flashback to early April. Registration for E3 has finally begun. Because E3 is a trade show, only industry professionals and accredited members of the media are allowed to attend. This meant that Turks and I had to submit a series of documents that not only proved that we are who we say we are, but also that we are legitimate members of the gaming press. This meant photocopying this, scanning that, then attaching them all to an official application for credentials. The E3 registration site said that it would take about a week for our documents to be scrutinized and an official approval to be sent.

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For all of our regular podcast listeners, and those that aren’t (might want to look into that – you’re missing out on some great entertainment, information, oh and yeah FREE GAMES) Turks, our Lead Podcaster extraordinaire, has had a new addition. No, it’s not an advance copy of Fallout New Vegas. It’s a baby girl.

Madison was born at 3:39pm on Thursday April 16th. She weighed 8lbs 13oz, is 21 inches long, and both mom and baby are doing awesome!!! Reports indicate that she’s not ready to Wii, yet, but Turks is already looking into teaching the future gamer how to operate the much less vigorous DS.

There are many things in life that can be described as truly satisfying. Graduating from college is one of those things. Moving out of your mom’s house is another. Heck, taking a well-earned number two can be considered truly satisfying in most instances (hey, it’s not gross, it’s nature baby). The list goes on and on, and that list is completely subjective between folks.

I bring this up because I want to share one of the most satisfying events in my life. I experience this event countless times a year, sometimes multiple times in a week…and hey, maybe a few times a day if I’m feeling frisky enough. It’s a satisfaction that I feel rivals the culmination of an academic career. It’s, of course, the feeling I get when I beat a videogame.

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What a long, strange trip it’s been…

In the spring of 2007, I was bored. Things were very slow at my daily office grind. I had a pile of games at home for which I didn’t have walkthroughs (yes, they’re a crutch, but I was gaming crippled at the time and needed them to get around), so I started scanning my favorite sites for the info that I needed.

And it was this which brought me to Avault.

I had been visiting the Adrenaline Vault for years for all kinds of gaming info, but mostly for the reviews. No other site that I frequented had the depth of information about games that Avault had. I hadn’t been back for awhile, so I was somewhat shocked to discover that the site had been dark. But I was equally delighted to discover that one of my all-time favorite gaming sites was looking for writers for the relaunch.

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Previously on Avault…

But what about the forums? Enter Kyle and the Andrews. Andrew Waterman is our brilliant software engineer, and Andrew Slane our fabulous (pronounced with the brightest SF accent you can muster) graphical designer. Slane (we refer to all Andrews by their last name here – there’s just too darn many of them) is actually the one responsible for our new “BuyIt” etc. icons. Whenever we need to add some pretty to the site – Slane’s our man. Kyle (Kyleicious to you 360 bubbas) completely revamped everything with his own hands. We relaunched the forums…and…we relaunched them again.

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Previously on Avault…

Backups are cool – when they work. Initially we thought that the fix would be simple – just boot up the backup. Unfortunately there wasn’t one. It hadn’t done its thing. There was no record of what once had been the Adrenaline Vault – or was there?

Deep in the jungles of darkest Brazil (okay, maybe in the suburbs, but work with me here) lived that well-known explorer of computer servers and databases – Saulo Benigno! What? You’ve never heard of Saulo? Then you’ve never been here. Saulo is the man behind the curtain, and fortunately for everyone concerned – a pack rat. Back in September, he’d been tweaking around in preparation for the new site design, and made a “just in case” backup. When the tweaking was done, a copy of the entire Vault was saved to his hard drive. So when the drums started to beat, and the scramble commenced, a hero emerged.

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