We were on the scene at Nintendo’s E3 press conference, hoping beyond hope that they would announce an actual online service, or a Wii with an upgraded GPU for actual hi-def gaming.

We came away disappointed on both fronts, but at least we got to see some of their new game announcements. Lost in the sea of Even More Wii Sports and Fitness, we despaired of hearing of anything worthwhile.

Then, they showed Super Mario Galaxy 2. When the trailer began, an egg popped up, Mario jumped on it, and none other than Yoshi appeared. The crowd gasped in delight and a few ragged cheers arose from the tired journalists. Finally, hope.

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Icrontic reporter Bobby Miller has begun updating his blog with his personal experiences about Icrontic’s first year at E3.

Things were off to a rocky Monday start here in Los Angeles. Due to a long string of unfortunate events, I was on a separate plane from Scotty and Brian. I arrived in LA well over an hour after them, so we got off to a late start. We were all starving, and needed food (I hadn’t eaten anything since 6 PM, SUNDAY). Trying to find In-n-Out burger, we drove through a particularly rough part of town, and at this point we realized we were going to be late for Ubisoft’s press conference.

Ready to get your fill of what goes on in the life of a journo on the scene of a huge convention? Check it out!

Fresh out of the Nintendo Press event here at E3, I feel good about the things that Nintendo is working on, but I don’t feel like it’s as new a direction as they seemed to think it was. Their slogan this year is “Everyone’s Game,” which is apt for their new programs. What they want to do is create experiences which appeal to both the casual and experienced gamers. They are focusing on creating games that require skill, but with controls and objectives that are easy enough to understand that even the most novice gamer can jump right in.

One of their best examples of this Everyone’s Game model is the Archery segment of the new Wii Sports game, Wii Sports Resort. With the new Wii Motion Plus, players will need “real skill” in archery to be able to accurately hit the target, instead of skill in learning the controls. This, I think, is the right direction. Simplifying the controls and bringing the play of the games into the “real space” will make the games more skill-intensive and more accessible at the same time.

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With E3 just beginning to unfold, every gamer wonders what the future will bring. I would classify 2009 as a fairly slow year thus far. The three major consoles and two major handhelds are starting to age and, despite some renewed interest in PC gaming, we have yet to see a truly groundbreaking exclusive PC title. I fear that video gaming may have reached its peak popularity in the past couple of years.

The two major gaming stories in 2009 have been the industry’s resilience in a bad economy, and iPhone’s growth in the gaming sector. These are nice stories, but with the exception of the iPhone, all major gaming platforms seem to have reached their peak, and are starting to head slowly downhill. I think this trend all started with a disappointing E3 2008. We saw some interesting titles, but it was not exactly a year that gamers will look back on with wild fondness.
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More game. On day one, L4D 2 features more co-operative campaigns, more campaigns and maps for the Versus game modes than L4D 1, plus support for Survival mode out of the box.

Valve is once more taking us toe-to-toe with the zombie horde, this time with an all-new cast of characters, weapons (hell yeah chainsaw!) and baddies set deep in America’s sweltering southern heat.

The new entry to what is now the Left 4 Dead series will also feature new AI that can procedurally alter the game world in response to player performance. Left 4 Dead 2 can alter enemy populations, weather, escape routes, sounds and special effects to save (or punish…) you from that dumb pubby who went AWOL with an auto-shotty.

Get ready for smarter zombies, a smarter game, and a more deadly you on PC and Xbox 360 this November. Click the jump for the press release.

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It feels like it’s time to compile a list of game companies, vendors, PR people, and journalists who will be live Tweeting from the E3 Expo. Please DM, @primesuspect, or PM me here on Icrontic if you want to be added to this list.

WEBSITES:

ICRONTIC:
@primesuspect (Yours truly!)
@jokerz4fun
@UPSLynx
@thebutterflyman
@ghoosdum

MASSIVELY @krystalle

SIDEQUESTING @kewlrats

VIDEOGAMETALK @videogametalk

MACHINIMA.COM @billyshibley

DIGITALSOMETHING.COM @vgnews

TOTALGAMINGNETWORK.COM @MrKLM
@TGN

JOYSTIQ.COM @XanderSliwinski

STUDIOS/EXHIBITORS:

PANDEMIC STUDIOS (The Saboteur)
@sledgehammer70

EA GAMES :
@huskyhog
@isaacclarke
@danteteam
@brutallegend

SONY PLAYSTATION :
@sonyplaystation

Icrontic is going to the 2009 E3 Expo this coming June. We’ll be hitting this sucker full force, with a full complement of reporters on the scene to bring you all the hot shit in the gaming world.

We’ve currently got appointments lined up with Nintendo, Ubisoft, Bethesda, and Tritton, but we’re putting the question to you guys: What do you want to see? What do you want us to cover? Any particular thing you’re dying to find out about?

To follow all the E3 action you can search for hashtag #e3ic on Twitter, follow our reporting team consisting of @thebutterflyman, @jokerz4fun, @ghoosdum, @upslynx, and @primesuspect, or click on the E3 2009 meta tag to watch our web coverage.

We learned a lot from covering CES in January and plan on taking those lessons and making sure our coverage of E3 is everything you need it to be.

Take a look at the Exhibitor List and let us know who we should be talking about!