Another busy day at E3. Perhaps too busy, actually. I thought that I had worked out my scheduling problems for this year’s show, but apparently I still have more to learn. First, to get some unpleasantness out of the way. Activision’s Dan Amrich and I were supposed to sit down for a chat this morning before the show, but we must have gotten our signals crossed, and didn’t manage to get together.

Now to business. After a quick trip to play the multiplayer shooter APB, I had to hoof it to the other end of the building to see developer DTP’s RPG prequel Dragonsang: The River of Time. Set 23 years prior to 2009’s Dragonsang: The Dark Eye, River of Time features a character creation engine that can generate hundreds of classes and races. You control all four of your party members, each of which has their own game-opening story (shades of Dragon Age). Combat is turn-based in this story, which could run anywhere from 40 to 80 hours to complete, depending upon how many side quests you decide to tackle. The PC-only Dragonsang: The River of Time will be available at the end of 2010.

And it was off again, back to where I started the day for a two-hour visit to the massive Electronic Arts booth. It’s not so much a booth as it is a hangar; most of the major publishers have display areas that are bigger than small homes. Aside from a large common area where attendees can sample EA’s new games, a series of private enclosures is set up on the edges of the booth where closed-door demonstrations are presented to uncommonly patient convention-goers. The media badge that I was given when I checked in was supposed to give me preferred access to these demos, and sometimes it did get me to the front of the line. But, as I soon found out, there’s media and then there’s MEDIA. Guess which category I inhabit.

Anyway, I did manage to get into several EA demos, most of which contained the same material that they showed at their press conference on Monday afternoon. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit adds the ability to play as either a cop or a racer, gives the cop fun toys such as electronic jamming and air support, and features a new online connectivity system known as Autolog, which allows players to respond to challenges leveled by their Internet friends and tracks each player’s progress. The game releases on all three platforms in November. The Crysis 2 demo shows off the new version of the Cryengine, which brought most people’s PCs to their knees when the original game was released. Aliens have invaded New York City, and it’s up to you and your spiffy upgraded nanosuit to kick ET’s butt back from whence it came. Crysis 2 hits retail shelves this winter for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. Also available to be seen in private were the new Medal of Honor, Dead Space 2, Bulletstorm and EA’s new versions of their annual sports titles, including Madden 11.

Next on the menu for the day: Paramount Interactive’s video-game adaptation of the 1990 Tom Cruise NASCAR drama Days of Thunder. Appearing in the private demo was actor Michael Rooker, who co-starred with Cruise in the film. The game presents faithful re-creations of NASCAR sprint tracks, running as many as 75 laps with up to 19 cars bearing the names of real pro drivers. There’s also an extensive car customization system, allowing you to add new paint jobs and sponsors’ logos, and a 12-player online mode. The PS3 version of the game is set to leave the starting line in September, with a road-track edition for the Xbox 360 coming later.

The highlight of my day? Rock Band 3, is stuffed to the brim with new features and technology that will have the Guitar Hero folks running back to the drawing board. The game features a much deeper set-list sorting system that allows you to organize the 83 songs on the disk and the more than 1500 other available songs to be downloaded from the Rock Band store using lots of new criteria, including song lengths, genres, definable keywords and more. Also included is a new mode called the Road Challenge, a two to four-hour abbreviated tour mode that’s perfect for parties. But the biggest news is not just the addition of three-part harmonies for all songs on the disk (previously introduced in Beatles Rock Band) or the two-octave piano keyboard that pretty much completes your set of plastic instruments. It was announced that an available MIDI controller will enable you to use the keyboard you already own as a Rock Band 3 peripheral. Also demonstrated was the Pro Guitar, which removes the big colored buttons from the guitar controller and adds six rows of small buttons meant to simulate actual guitar strings. And if that wasn’t enough, you’ll also be able to play along using a real stringed guitar. I didn’t get the chance to try out the new peripherals today, but I hope to do so before the show ends tomorrow.