The developers have gone home, the booth babes are back in their normal clothes, and the cosplayers are already planning for next year. The Tokyo Game Show finished last Sunday, and it was--as usual--a hectic yet enjoyable ride. GameSpot AU was there in force in 2009, and you've already read all our coverage when we worked as part of the global GameSpot crew. We'll have more GameSpot AU-specific coverage from the show in the next few weeks, but in the meantime, check out our overall impressions. Plus, we're joined by a special guest--the winner of our Sony Ericsson TGS competition!

　　Hackin' zombies with a chair. Oh yes.

　　Randolph Ramsay:

　　Top Game -- Dead Rising 2

　　My favourite game of the show wasn't even on the show floor, or anywhere on the TGS premises. Dead Rising 2 was paraded in front of journalists in a nightclub in Tokyo, with producer Keiji Inafune saying he preferred to showcase the game in this way rather than behind a small, curtained off room at TGS (where all mature-rated titles have to be when shown in a public space in Japan). Even though what we saw were only small snippets of single-player and the newly-announced multiplayer, it was enough to get me more than excited to take on the zombie hoardes again, if only to see what other insane weapons will be available for undead carnage.

　　Top Moment

　　Once again, this event didn't technically happen within the TGS surrounds, but it did have plenty of impact on what people were talking about during the first day of the show. Halfway through Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Kaz Hirai's keynote on the Thursday morning, you could sense something exciting was happening--and it wasn't because of anything Hirai was saying. No, it was because Nintendo had cheekily decided to inform the world of their Wii price drop right in the middle of the Sony chief's speech. Oh Ninty, who knew you had such a wicked sense of humour...

　　Top Image

　　One of the things I most look forward to every year at the Tokyo Game Show are the hundreds of cosplayers who come out in their amazing get-ups. You've probably seen plenty of them in our photo feature, but those are just a small sampling of the costume craziness that happens during the show. But amongst all of the flashy fashions, creative outfits, and barely-there costumes we snapped during TGS, this shot has to be my favourite. I snapped this melancholy Onion Knight while lining up to take a picture of another cosplayer (yes, you have to politely line up to take shots), and it bought home to me the enormous amount of effort it must take to be a serious cosplayer in Japan. Think about it--putting in all that time to create a costume, lugging it all the way to Makuhari Messe (which is about an hour away from Tokyo), and standing in front of thousands of people, not knowing if they're taking pictures because they think you look cool or because you look plain weird. It must take a bit of emotional strength, and for that, I salute them.

　　Laura Parker:

　　Top Game -- Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

　　I'm a huge fan of the Ace Attorney series and I must admit, when I first heard they were giving Miles Edgeworth his own game, I was confused and slightly disappointed. However, after playing through the 20-minute demo at this year's TGS, I have changed my mind. The reason behind the spin-off is that the head writer, Shu Takumi, has been spending all his time on a brand new IP titled Ghost Trick. A Capcom rep told me they decided to use Edgeworth because a lot Japanese fans had given positive feedback about the character. The game play was very similar to the other Ace Attorney games only this time, because Edgeworth is a prosecutor, the focus was on crime scene investigation rather that court-room drama. It was a fun little demo that involved searching for clues and piecing together facts using Edgeworth's new 'Logic' system--I was impressed with the new third person perspective which allowed for a top-down perspective on the game play mixed with close-ups of the characters during the dialogue bits. However, my initial suspicions were confirmed: Edgeworth just doesn't have the same punch as Phoenix Wright or even Apollo Justice. Where Phoenix was savvy, Apollo was naïve and hilarious; Edgeworth is none of these, and his dry observations don't make for very interesting, or funny, dialogue. I guess Capcom realised this because they inserted old Dick Gumshoe back in there to serve as Edgeworth's sidekick, and while he does provide some of the comic relief, I'm of the opinion that this isn't going to be as strong a title as the previous games in the series. I only hope Takumi hurries up and gets back to it because I'm aching for another Apollo game. Meanwhile, check out GameSpot's preview of Ghost Trick.

　　Top Moment

　　I was lucky enough to go to the Microsoft Creator's Panel to hear three very talented Japanese game creators talk about the potential of Project Natal. While I wasn't completely sold on Natal itself, it was amazing to hear these three celebrated figures of Japanese game development discuss their ideas and their creative process. There was also a very heavy science-fiction feel to the whole panel, as the future of games and technology itself was touched upon. My favourite part of the discussion centered on the potential of a technology like Natal when applied to other industries, like medicine and science. All three creators agreed that the game development industry can be a leading force in this field, showing the rest of the world how to implement and take full advantage of new technology. For more topics that were discussed, check out GameSpot's coverage.

　　Top Image

　　I took the left-hand side photo on the first day of TGS (a business day, closed to the public) and the right-hand side photo on the last day of TGS (a public day). I put them together because I think it encompasses TGS beautifully--the excitement, bright lights and crowds can take their toll very quickly. In fact, there was no shortage of fatigue during the four days of the show. I came across many fallen soldiers, some sleeping upright, others lying in the corners of the show floor and some even dozing while waiting in line at the booths.

　　James Kozanecki

　　Top Game -- Left 4 Dead 2

　　Zombies? Check. Circus? Check. Left 4 Dead 2 being my game of TGS '09? Check. Release date in Australia? Denied. I didn't originally plan on checking out L4D2 at TGS, but it wasn't until we interviewed Kim Swift from Valve about the game's Aussie banning that I started to get a hankering for some zombie action. The Classification Board's big beef was with the gore and melee attacks that "cause copious amounts of blood spray and splatter, decapitations and limb dismemberment as well as locational damage where contact is made to the enemy which may reveal skeletal bits and gore". To be honest with you, the CB has summed up the most awesome parts of L4D2 into one sentence. There's something really satisfying about chopping the top of a zombie's head off with an axe, or blasting a zombie in the back with a shotgun and seeing his skeleton exposed. Swift told us after the interview that Valve had spent a lot of time watching classic zombie films and trying to recreate the extreme levels of gore, and from the looks of it, the company nailed it. Here's to Valve and trying to get it into the country!

　　Top Moment

　　My favourite part of TGS didn't actually happen during the open hours of the show. In fact, it happened during breakfast on Friday and Saturday--yes, this is one of those stalker moments. I was sitting with a few other GameSpotters at breakfast one morning when Randy mentioned that Hideo Kojima was "here". Seeing as I'm not a morning person and that I hadn't really woken up by that stage, I thought Randy was saying that Kojima-San was here at TGS, not here in the very same breakfast room as me! A couple of minutes later I saw Kojima-san stand up and leave his table and that's when it dawned on me that Randy meant that he was here at breakfast. So you can guess that I wasn't caught off guard the next day when I got to see Kojima-San in his natural environment at the breakfast table, chatting to who I can only assume were other Kojima Production employees. AWESOME!

　　Top Image

　　TGS was crazy. Especially on the public days, as there were crowds everywhere and more than enough people yelling from all directions to try and get you to their booth. So when I stumbled over the small Zen garden-like area that was the Okamiden: Chisaki Taiyou booth, it was a pleasant surprise. Capcom really went to a lot of effort to decorate that booth and it definitely paid off. If you were willing to wait in line, the Okamiden booth could easily shelter you from the show floor craziness.

　　Nick del Pozo

　　Nick is our super special GameSpot AU reader who got to go to the show after winning our Sony Ericsson TGS competition. Nick has been a busy scribe, penning plenty of his thoughts and experiences about the show. Nick--also known by the handle of Penguinofire--has blogged about the big booths, games like Peace Walker, Okamiden, Red Steel 2, and plenty more. Be sure to check out his thoughts by visiting his blog here! Good work Nick!