Life is a bit nuts right now. In the last two weeks I took a trip to Colorado to see friends, to Iowa for the funeral of my hero and to LA for 3 days of rock awesomeness at E3. In the next two weeks I’m taking a Greek final and leading a team of 10 on a mission trip to Nassau to serve folks living in poverty with HIV and AIDS; needless to say, I’m a bit exhausted.

However, amid everything that is going on I can’t seem to stop thinking about all of the innovation and creativity that poured out of the LA Convention Center last week. I am so excited to get my hands on the likes of Tomb Raider, Halo 4, Guardians of Middle Earth, and the Last of Us as they roll out later this year and next. One of the surprise standouts for sure was Watch Dogs; I really love the approach that it takes on the inherent dangers of inter-connectivity, social networking and the general age of technology that we live in.

A few quirky games from the indie sector have been haunting me as well. Songlines from Samantha Vick was really cool in the ways that it married the act of creation with music, something that totally hearkens back to the poetry of Genesis. And I can’t seem to shake the Johann Sebastian Joust monkey on my back. I would have never thought that you could play a video game without a TV and it might be fun but damn, that game was so addictive!

The jury is still out on my impressions with the Wii U. On one hand Nintendo Land was simple but engaging and games like Zombie U look friggin awesome but on the other hand it kind of feels like I’ll be able to get a similar experience on my 360 when Smart Glass comes out this fall… and that’s free. Although whether I get the Wii U at launch or not I know I’m bound to cave when Nintendo inevitably comes out with the next Mario Kart on the system; what can I say, the joy of crushing first place’s joy with a blue shell is my Achilles heel.

Something that I’ll totally be keeping an eye on in the coming months is Disney’s new flick, Wreck-it Ralph. The ideas of predestination (are we only made for one job/purpose?) total depravity (even if we were born into a broken, bad state, i.e. as a bad guy, does that mean we have to remain that way?) and community of sinners (we support each other through our broken/bad guy states) are outrageous! I am so excited for this movie to come out in November!

Overall, E3 captured the same nerdy gaming magic that it does every year. There may have been a hearty handful of sequels but there’s nothing wrong with an extra dose of great games. The whole thing felt a little bit like the drawback before a tsunami and it only makes me more excited for the waves of innovation that will be rushing in between now and next year!