Welcome back, Quiksave! I hereby declare you alive once more!

The post-E3 fallout has embedded the seeds of wonder and excitement deep inside our video game gonads, (”vonads,” if you will) and animated discussion on the big games of the fall consumes all our free time.

Straight out of Nintendo’s press conference my long dormant fanboyism was reawakened and I tracked down a new Wii. The new Mario Bros. game, the Mario Galaxy sequel, and Team Ninja’s Metroid project took my breath away on Press Conference Monday, and renewed my faith in Nintendo, the granddaddy of Gaming, lately slated as a hardcore hater in favour of the casual market. They’re getting their act together, and the future looks bright for Wii owners old and young.

Heavy Rain, God of War 3, and Assassin’s Creed 2 all impressed at the big show, but how about Scribblenauts? You can really tell when a developer puts love into a game, when they show real commitment to a unique concept, and baby this is it. Over 10,000 creatures and objects available to play with, waiting for you to think ‘em up and type ‘em in. As far as I’m concerned, this is the only “must-play” of the portable world for the next little while.

The PSP Go is ludicrously overpriced, and though it’s got a sleek look to it, and I whole-heartedly approve of a step toward strictly digital media devices, that dog just won’t hunt, son. Off the top of my head, I can’t even think of any software for the platform I give half a damn about. Soul Calibur Broken Destiny looks nice and has great fluidity, easily as handsome a game as SC3, but really, what’s the market for a portable 3d weapon-based fighter? The PSP is a sinking ship, and as much as I’d like Sony to pick up the pieces and start making some money, the marketplace really doesn’t look to be balancing out as much as we’d all like, on the portable front as well as the console front.

By no means do I want to suggest the doom of the PS3; the lineup of first and third party titles gracing the system in the coming months is absolutely superb. The problem is an install base that just can’t seem to gain back any ground on Microsoft’s significant lead, regardless of the annual predictions of analysts who claim that each “next year” that comes along will be the year of the PS3.

Microsoft’s presser is being universally hailed as the champ, featuring Molyneux’s “Milo,” (pedophile joke here) Modern Warfare 2, Project Natal, and Halo galore. The latest rumour is that Natal is actually a staple component of Microsoft’s new console, a device to kick off the next generation. An interesting supposition, to be sure. Change is good, right? Then again, it seems as though developers are just hitting their stride in this generation of consoles. Big titles are starting to really grab hold of HD capabilities on the PS3 and 360, and motion controls are finally functioning the way we want ‘em to.

As it stands, my #1 game to look forward to is still Bioshock 2. A recent replay of the first game reminded me of how close Ken Levine and his team came to crafting the perfect game. The sequel, with a graphical upgrade and new gameplay options looks like a guaranteed home run. Other than that, Brütal Legend is on my radar, and I still spend most of my time with Street Fighter 4. It’s already been a stellar 2009 for gaming, and we’re gonna have us one intense holiday season, by the look of it.