If I ever go to E3 again, I will not book an early flight for Monday. I learned my lesson well on this trip. I left for the airport to take the first flight my preferred airline had (which means it was early as all hell), after having slept for about thirty minutes the night before because I was up all night thinking about E3. Then you add a full day of press conferences and free drinks at the Transformers MMO party on top of the no sleep, and you wind up with an interesting mix. Somehow, however, I was victorious, and with bags under the eyes still managed to survive the first two days of my E3 adventure.

OK, enough of my sad tale about no sleep, an early flight, and too many free drinks. Let me get to the games that you want to hear about. Many of the titles I saw during the press conferences (though with limited actual gameplay) were filled with fantastic-looking cut scenes. I did have some hands-on time and private viewings of a few, and while you really can’t tell how the final product will be, I can still throw my thoughts out there on my first impressions.

The top three games that I saw that I know are going to be best-sellers and superior in every way are Mass Effect 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and Battlefield 3. I know those are not underdogs of the industry, but what I actually saw and experienced of these titles was gaming gold. I left The Old Republic out of the above list because it resides on an entirely different plane, and calls for its own separate thought collective. You’ll get to read that story tomorrow.

Mass Effect 3 takes place after the second installment and continues the story. You can’t not like this one if you enjoy a good story. Unless, of course, you hate the company and have preconceived negative thoughts about every game they put out. Either way, Mass Effect 3 continues Shepard’s story, and he has to fight off the Reaper invasion on Earth. Tell me how bad ass that is!

The second game that I know a lot of people are waiting for is Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 3. It continues the story and multiplayer greatness from the second game, and the opening sequence of the level they showed in the private meeting room was amazing! If someone would had told me that the guy showing off the first level was playing on a console and not a powerful PC, I would have slapped their face and recommended metal help. Luckily, I saw it with my own eyes. The game just looked fantastic and you can expect everything you loved from the second game to be in the third.

The last of the top three games of the near future I saw is Battlefield 3. I have only had limited experience with the previous titles of the series (mostly Battlefield: 2142), but, the gameplay they showed during the EA press conference was unique. The gameplay was flawless, looked incredible, and I already felt like I was in the middle of a war, even though I was only just sitting in a theatre drooling. The tank battalion advancing to the fight looked godly. I know a lot of people love to say that playing this game on the PC would be better than on the console, and in that I would agree, it just looked amazing.

So far…so good. My E3 experience has been wonderful, and the only thing that awaits is my hands on with The Old Republic. In that hands-on I will be screaming, sweating, and shaking with excitement.