Since Sunday was an especially short day (10am-4pm), one had to have their priorities set or just not bother showing up.  Those who hadn't gotten a chance to see Metal Gear Solid yet went one way, while the rest of us headed to Intel again for their first 100 people daily giveaway.  This time, it was actually really sweet: a long bendy USB fan and a bracelet that's actually a thumb drive.  The fan works great, but I couldn't get my pc to recgonize the thumb drive.  I'll try it on my work PC tomorrow, but my prospects don't look good (hey, it was free).

Other than that, it was all about playing more Super Smash Bros Brawl to get the 4th and final Wii t-shirt.  I played twice within the first hour because I realized that once the general public was allowed in at 11am, it was going to be next to impossible to play again without missing out on a lot of other stuff.  On my last play, I used Bowser and actually won!  They sent me to the main stage to compete against the other 3 winners for that round's championship.  I played as Bowser again and even got the Super Smash Ball, but found it impossible to do much as Super Mega Bowser (or whatever he's called when he's 10 times the size of everyone else).  I didn't win, but it was good to finally make it to the big kids stage.  Yay me.

T-shirt count for today = 8.  That brings the grand total to 23.  I can never again complain about not having a diverse wardrobe of video game t-shirts with unconvincing slogans.

I arrived a little earlier than the previous days only because it opened an hour earlier AND it was Saturday, a day that would likely see a large turnout.  Being that 110 traffic was light and my new secret subterranian parking spot was just as easily accessible as the previous two days, I got there in no time to find an even smaller group than the last two days (even though I was there with roughly the same amount of time prior to door opening).  This did not bode well for the event, but it got me on the floor nice and quick.  However, over the course of the day, the place started to fill up, with about 50-70% more people than the previous days.  Not a stunning improvement, but it was definitely a bigger crowd, which meant it was harder to get repeated plays on Super Smash Bros Brawl and get free t-shirts.  Plus, the show was an hour shorter.  I was surprised at how much of a difference this made in my schedule.  The raffles scattered throughout the hall were all happening at the same time, which meant for the first time at E for All that I had to miss out on something to be at something else, weighing my odds.  It almost felt like Comic-Con for a minute there...

Before I get into today's happenings, I want to mention something very important I forgot to mention yesterday: My souvenier t-shirt count.  That total was 9.  Friday's total is 6, bringing the grand total so far to 15 (if I can still do math at this hour).

Oh, and yesterday, when the doors opened to the general public, they were led onto the floor by a marching band.  Today, a celtic band, complete with bagpipes, entertained us while in line and led us up the escalators when the doors opened this morning.  It's actually a pretty cool way to start the day.  It gives the crowd energy and makes the opening of the doors that much more fun.  I'm curious to see who shows up tomorrow. 

Once again, I was one of the lucky early birds who scored an Intel branded freebie: a vinyl drawstring backpack/bag containing a frisbee and a skullcap (a hat, not a literal skullcap... that's just gross).  I made my rounds, re-entering contests where I could, getting my high score listed as one of the top 5 high scoring Ms Pac-Man players for the day (it lasted only a few minutes before I was bumped out), and of course made my first trip of the day to the Nintendo Wii Super Smash Bros Brawl game (I would return 3 more times that day and I wasn't the most frequent repeat customer, for sure).  I did my best to not play Guitar Hero 3 (fear of death by embarassment was my primary motivation), but I did pick up a few stickers to accessorize the guitar I'll never have.

This ain't your daddy's E3.  And honestly, despite the obvious comparisons and some people's desire for it to be E3, it really isn't meant to be E3 or what E3 used to be, which was an industry-centric showcase for all things electronic, primarily gaming.  This one is for the people.  And by saying the E For All Expo is not your daddy's E3, that can actually be a good thing and a bad thing.  I could rant about all the things I think should be here at E For All, but I'll try to let you be the judge over the course of this weekend.  I really will do my best to leave my overall opinions of this innaugural event until the end of the week (I'm not making any promises).

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Contrary to what you might have heard, I survived Comic-Con and made it back home alive. (Although my laptop crashed and my digital camera was lost along the way -- neither have yet been recovered.) Before I finish out our Comic-Con coverage (a whole week late), I wanted to offer you the chance to see some of the coolest stuff we got to see this year. Many of the great exclusives we were privy to have been posted (legally!) online, and here they are, in no particular order:

• National Treasure: Book of Secrets full trailer
• Beowulf teaser trailer
• The Spiderwick Chronicles teaser trailer
• Indiana Jones IV on-set announcement: Karen Allen returns as Marion Ravenwood!
• Narnia.com hasn't yet posted any of the materials shown off at Comic-Con, but there's a great vlog featuring Ben Barnes as Prince Caspian, with clips of lots of footage.

And just for fun, here's director Jon Favreau's personal vidcam footage from Comic-Con.

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  After the buzz of the Paramount panel on Thursday, the Marvel Films panel was one of the most eagerly anticipated gatherings at the convetion, not just for its subject matter, but for the big stars it brought to little ol' San Diego, such as Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Robert Downey Jr, Gwenyth Paltrow, and Terence Howard.

This afternoon, WETA's Richard Taylor lead a special panel from Walt Disney Studios for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, the hotly anticipated follow-up to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Director Andrew Adamson (who also directed the last film) joined the panel live via satellite from Prague, where filming is just three weeks away from wrapping.

The big news to come out of today's hugely-attended Heroes panel is that Kevin Smith is the first writer/director to sign on to helm an episode of the spin-off anthology series, Heroes: Origins.

Six episodes of Origins will air following the end of the flagship show's second season, each detailing the life and discovery of another individual with superpowers. While set in the Heroes universe, each of these episodes will be completely self-contained, though it's been said that at least one of these new characters could be incorporated into the main show's cast in the third season.

I was astonished to find, this morning when I arrived at the Convention Center, that the line to get into the special screening of the Bionic Woman pilot episode, was lined the entire length of the rear of the building -- and then wrapped around to run that same length again. (That's longer than the line to get into the exhibit hall, which is really saying something!)

It didn't take long to figure out what was up with this unusually long line. The Heroes panel was scheduled for the same ballroom, just two sessions later. Nearly everyone seemed to have the same idea: come for Bionic Woman, stay for Heroes to guarantee yourself a seat for the latter. In fact, I wouldn't put it past NBC to have planned these sessions this way to give Bionic Woman the biggest possible audience viewing.