I wonder if anyone still remembers what happened at E3 2001. Fortunately, there's plenty of websites ready to refresh our collective memory, reminding us that it's already been five years since Duke Nukem "When it's done" Forever last made a public appearance! We started digging for old time's sake, and managed to bring back this DNF trailer presented by 3D Realms at E3 2001, which some of you might remember, while most of us either forgot about it completely, or never even knew it existed. Obviously, George Bourssard and his team didn't lower themselves to attend the show in Los Angeles - not that they would've had anything big to show us, with so many truly amazing next-gen shooters all around the showfloor.

But let's not stop here, because there were plenty more titles M.I.A. at E3 2006. Remember Team Fortress 2 for instance? Cause my memory is getting really blurry, with nothing but Valve's empty promises feeding it once every couple of years. They said they'd keep us updated after the release of Half-Life 2. And did they?

But hey, let's look on the bright side: at least S.T.A.L.K.E.R. finally came back to E3 this year. Right? Right?! Well in theory it did. However all that surfaced so far about GSC Game World's oh-so-innovating shooter are a few measly screenshots posted by IGN, without any hands-on impressions anywhere [yet?]. But don't worry, it's coming out September, sure.

Irony aside, I was really disappointed to find no news about Project Offset. At least let's hope that the ex-Blizzards from Red 5 Studios will make good use of the Offset engine in their future MMO (announced in February).

What else was missing from E3 2006? Only a few less-known titles, such as Project Delta (announced at E3 2004 and presented only through some artworks at E3 2005), or Psychopath - said to be developed by Titan Productions with the help of director John Carpenter (The Thing, Halloween, They Live). Maybe next year... but don't hold your breath.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)