Here are my selections for the best and worst of E3 2009. Runners Up are listed in alphabetical order and do not indicate a ranking. I'm really interested to hear your take on each category, so please do so in the comments!

Best Overall Game: ModNation Racers
Runners Up: Alan Wake, Assassin's Creed 2, Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer
Rationale: There were a lot of great games shown at E3 this year, so choosing the best was no easy task. As a PC gamer, choosing the PS3-exclusive ModNation Racers may be a bit of a shock. However, the appeal of a Mario Kart-inspired racing game with user-generated content a la LittleBigPlanet is too grand to overlook. The ease of creating your own tracks provides this game with insane potential.

Best Xbox 360 Game: Alan Wake
Runners Up: Mass Effect 2, Splinter Cell: Conviction
Rationale: Though it may not sell as many copies as Halo 3: ODST or Halo Reach, Alan Wake promises to bring something unique to the table, and the demo shown off at E3 certainly intrigued. My only fear is that it doesn't live up to that potential.

Best Wii Game: New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Runners Up: Mario Galaxies 2, Metroid: Other M
Rationale: Who would have thought a 2D side-scroller would be the best game shown from the Nintendo camp? Mario Galaxies 2 and Metroid: Other M may have the superior graphics (and maybe even superior gameplay), but New Super Mario Bros. Wii has that nostalgia factor going for it. Throw in a little co-op action and a few new suits, and Nintendo certainly has a big winner in its hands.

Best PlayStation 3 Game: ModNation Racers
Runners Up: God of War III, Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Rationale: I've already talked about ModNation, so let me give a quick shout-out to the runners up. God of War III is going to be huge, no question about it. Taking one of the biggest PlayStation franchises and melding that with the PS3 graphics is a no-brainer. Heavy Rain was surprisingly not shown during the Sony press conference, but if you watched GameSpot's Stage Demo for the game, it certainly is very promising, and its unique gameplay and structure make this one to watch! Lastly, Uncharted 2 simply looks great. The gameplay video Sony showed looked amazing; the graphics were great, the animations smooth and the cinematic integration was seamless.

Best PC Game: Star Wars: The Old Republic
Runners Up: Assassin's Creed 2, Dragon Age: Origins, Supreme Commander 2
Rationale: A lot of the games shown off at E3 will be arriving on the PC, but Star Wars: The Old Republic is one of the few that is exclusive to the PC, and with good reason; you just simply can't pull off massively multiplayer online role-playing games on the consoles. Sure, there have been some MMOs, but nothing like the scope of PC MMO's like World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings Online. SWTOR has the potential to be HUGE. I don't think it'll be able to topple WoW, as it may be a bit much for the casual crowd that WoW attracts, but SWTOR should enjoy success with hardcore RPG fans and/or Star Wars fanatics. Although the last Star Wars MMO (Star Wars Galaxies) didn't do so hot, with RPG-powerhouse BioWare behind SWTOR, I have high hopes!

Best Game Not at E3: Diablo 3
Runners Up: Bioshock 2, Crysis 2, Portal 2, Starcraft 2
Rationale: The fact that Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 were not shown off during E3 is no surprise; Blizzard decided not to attend. Nevertheless, that doesn't change the fact that both games are sure to be huge hits, and it certainly would have been nice to see more of either of them. I'm giving Diablo 3 the slight edge simply because it'll probably suck up more of my time than Starcraft 2. The other three runners up, Bioshock 2, Crysis 2 and Portal 2, are a little more surprising as no-shows. All three games have been confirmed, so you'd think they'd be shown off at an event like E3. Alas, they were not, and I think many of us were disappointed at that.

Game That Should Have Been Unveiled at E3, But Wasn't: Half-Life 2: Episode 3
Runner Up: The Orange Box 2
Rationale: I was hoping for something big from Valve; nay, I was expecting it. But instead of unveiling Half-Life 2: Episode 3 and/or The Orange Box 2, Valve announced Left 4 Dead 2 instead. WTF? Not to take anything away from L4D2, but L4D was just released within the past year, whereas we've been waiting for HL2:E3 for years! Yet, there was no announcement, not even a small teaser trailer. I love Valve, seriously, I do. But seriously, WTF?! Maybe Valve just figured that no matter when it releases HL2:E3, it's going to sell? After all, every single HL2 owner is going to buy it. Regardless of whether they have purchased Episodes 1 & 2, once all three are available, they will, there's no question about that. Still, come on Valve, throw us a bone here!

Best Cinematic Trailer: Star Wars: The Old Republic
Runner Up: Assassin's Creed 2, Dragon Age: Origins
Rationale: For the past few years, cinematic trailers have always been amazing, but unfortunately they don't really tell us anything about the gameplay (just go watch any of the cinematic trailers for World of Warcraft). Nevertheless, they're still highly enjoyable to watch, and three of them stood out above the crowd this year: Star Wars: The Old Republic Deception Trailer, Assassin's Creed 2 Carnivale Trailer and Dragon Age: Origins Warden Trailer. I give the edge to SWTOR simply because it's Star Wars for crying out loud. How can you not enjoy any trailer that features light saber duels?

Best Press Conference In-Game Demo: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Runners Up: Assassin's Creed 2, God of War III
Rationale: When I saw the Uncharted 2 demo during the Sony press conference, I was like "no way this is actual gameplay!" But indeed it was. The action looked intense, and as I said before, the graphics looked very smooth. Assassin's Creed 2 may have arguably been the best demo, featuring a new flying machine and dual-blade assassinations, but Uncharted 2 was simply something I wasn't expecting, and I was blown away.

Most Surprising Press Conference In-Game Demo: MAG
Runner Up: ModNation Racers
Rationale: MAG (Massive Action Game) may look like your typical modern first-person shooter, but with its 256-player battles, it certainly brings something new to the table. In the past, we merely heard that this was possible, but never actually saw it in action. When Sony fired up MAG during its press conference and showed a surprisingly smooth 256-player battle taking place, we finally got to see what MAG is all about; massive action. From what GameSpot showed of Sony's booth, MAG was also the focus of a fairly large section, allowing several players to test it out for themselves (though there were certainly far less than 256 systems set up).

Best Stage Demo: Dragon Age: Origins
Runners Up: Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer, Splinter Cell: Conviction
Rationale: It's not often we get to see an epic battle in previews, and you can't get much more epic than a huge dragon. The Dragon Age: Origins Stage Demo certainly whet my appetite, and the rather lengthy dragon battle showed off some melee action, spell casting, shape-shifting, and culminated in a pretty sweet finishing move.

Biggest Surprise: Left 4 Dead 2
Runners Up: Final Fantasy XIV, Halo Reach, Metal Gear Solid: Rising
Rationale: In all honesty, we should have seen this coming. Despite L4D not even being a year old and despite Valve promising ongoing updates, releasing a sequel is more practical for Valve because of the Xbox 360. Valve reached the Xbox 360's memory limit when it came to Team Fortress 2, thus not allowing them to provide the TF2 updates that PC players have enjoyed. Though I am merely speculating and this hasn't been confirmed by Valve, I'm almost certain this is the reason why L4D will be getting a sequel so soon rather than updates. I don't fully blame Valve for this decision, although I really hope PC gamers who own L4D get a break in the form of a (substantial) discount.

Biggest Disappointment: Half-Life 2: Episode 3
Runners Up: Beyond Good & Evil 2, Portal 2
Rationale: Though I think it's pretty obvious, it's important to note that I'm not disappointed in the games themselves, but rather their non-appearance at E3. We know for a fact that all three are in the works (development of Beyond Good & Evil 2 and Portal 2 has been confirmed, and one can assume HL2:E3 development has already begun, despite lack of official word). So why were they absent from E3? Beats the hell out of me!

Best Press Conference: Sony
Runner Up: Microsoft
Rationale: Microsoft's press conference was great, and was certainly a good way to kick off E3, but for me, Sony was number one. Sony showed off more true exclusives and for a lot of them, they showed actual (amazing) gameplay footage, including the first time we saw Assassin's Creed 2 gameplay.

Worst Press Conference: Ubisoft
Runners Up: EA, Nintendo
Rationale: This was a tough call, but Ubisoft gets the nod for worst conference. The only redeeming part of Ubisoft's press conference was the Assassin's Creed 2 cinematic trailer. However, those five minutes toward the end of the conference couldn't make up for the rest of the snorefest. I mean, how could Ubisoft think it was a good idea to let James Cameron talk for ten minutes without showing even a second of his game, Avatar??

Best Booth: Ubisoft
Runner Up: 2K Games, Warner Bros.
Rationale: Despite having one of the most boring press conferences to ever grace an E3, Ubisoft made up for it in its booth. Ubisoft seemed to have the biggest booth at E3 and watching Homer try to traverse it was entertaining. Despite some silly tween games for the Wii, Ubisoft has a lot of great games on the horizon and they were showcased extremely well. In addition, they had a giant Avatar mech! 2K Games gets props for recreating Borderlands' planet Pandora and Warner Bros. gets credit for having a Batmobile!

Best Developer: BioWare
Runner Up: Ubisoft Montreal
Rationale: RPG specialist BioWare showed off three highly-anticipated games at E3; Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic. As such, this was a no-brainer. Ubisoft Montreal showed off two pretty big games itself with Assassin's Creed 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction. All these games show great promise!

Best Publisher: Electronic Arts
Runner Up: Ubisoft
Rationale: I'm not counting Microsoft, Nintendo or Sony in this because that wouldn't be fair. EA gets the nod because it featured a ton of big names, such as Dragon Age: Origins, Left 4 Dead 2, and Mass Effect 2, not to mention its big sports titles, such as Madden NFL 10 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10. Ubisoft featured such gems as Assassin's Creed 2, James Cameron's Avatar, R.U.S.E. and Splinter Cell: Conviction. With all these great games, I guess this is why these two publishers held their own conferences, huh?

Best GameSpot Staff Member: Homer Rabara
Runner Up: Kevin VanOrd
Rationale: I considered abandoning this category because, in all honesty, all GameSpot staff deserve a huge round of applause. Without any one of them, the event would just not have been the same; at least not for us GameSpot members. I for one relied on GameSpot for ALL of my E3 coverage. Nevertheless, Homer really knows how to fight his way through a crowd to show us a little bit of everything and it was humorous watching him bump into random people along the way. Kevin VanOrd gets runner up because he asked great questions and even elaborated on what GameSpot members were sending in.

Best Post-E3 News: E3 2010
Runner Up: None
Rationale: After two years of smaller shows, E3 was back to its big bad self this year, and it was a huge success. Gamers were happy, retailers were happy, and most importantly, developers were happy. As such, it didn't take long for E3 2010 to be confirmed and booked; and yes, the current "big" format will remain. E3 will be back in the L.A. Convention Center June 15-17, 2010. Seriously, how could any other post-E3 news compete with that?