Today was fairly simple. After being convincingly told it was worth it, I waited almost 3 hours in line to play with the Wii (”we”) this morning. Worth every minute. Took the little motion detecting controller in my hand and played convincing virtual games of tennis, golf and baseball.

This, my dear gamers and non-gamers alike, is what you’re all going to have so much fun with this winter. Wii will have wii parties and wii will love it. You’ll sii.

Then I headed over to Sony and took a look at what the Insomniacs are working on. It’s called Resistance Fall of Man and it’s a first-person shooter. It’s a first-person shooter with great graphics. It’s about as original as… well, a first-person shooter with great graphics. Seems everyone’s got one. Who cares?

“Uh-huh, uh-huh so when are you releasing another Ratchet?” They could only say they were, but no word at all on when. They couldn’t even say they’d have any of it to show at E3 07.

Why is it that the none of the three great platformers (Jak, Ratchet, Sly) showed anything on console this year? A great, profitable and fun ecological niche has been vacated, people. Someone make something to fill it up. Please. I’ll buy your game. I will not buy Insomniac’s (or any other) average shooter.

The only good bit of platforming news is that I downloaded the Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters demo onto my PSP and played the one level, and the good old Ratchet is back. But you know… it’s on PSP. Busy making their shooter, the Insomniacs have given their license over to High Impact, who are making the PSP Ratchet title. Some of the sounds are different and none of the music was in, but the essential core gameplay is there. I enjoyed the demo and will buy the game.

We continued with a turn on Guitar Hero II. This time, you can play in harmony with a friend, choosing lead guitar, rhythm guitar or bass. It was fun to rock out with an audience.

Still, sadly, most of the gamers and creatives I talked to at this show told me that they roamed the showroom floor looking for an innovative game; the next Katamari, the next Psychonauts. The closest thing (beside the Wii stuff) was Viva Pinata, which is a kind of Animal Crossing meets the Sims, but on drugs.

Finished the day off with Dead Rising, a gory zombie game that is innovative in that you can use anything in the environment - and I mean anything - as a weapon. Oh what simple, basic fun it is to walk around a shopping mall swinging around cash registers, benches, golf clubs and even hacked off limbs, gorily beating the crap out of zombies with them!

Someone needs to make a Wii version of that.