Will Wright is finally making a game that does not start with the word "Sim," and he's here in San Diego to tell Comic-Con fans all about it. Spore mashes evolution with intelligent design -- and you get to be the intelligent designer (well, you get to be the designer, intelligence is optional).  You start with a single-celled organism that eventually moves out of the water, builds villages, civilizations, and finally a space empire.

Spore lets you build any creature that your brain can imagine, however cute or depraved that might be.  And you don't need years of training in 3ds Max to do it!  "One of our design targets was that in 20 clicks, you should be able to roughly replicate a Pixar character," Wright told me.  I made my first creature, Beelzecub, in about an hour
.

The mad scientists at Wright's lab have figured out how to make these creatures come to life using a technique called "procedural animation."  "Since we don't know what the player is going to create, we had to teach the computer to do what the animator typically does.   So the computer kind of steps back and analyzes this creature, looks at where the legs are, and figures out, 'how would that thing walk?' And then it figures out, 'how would it eat, how would it show emotion, how would it be happy or sad?'"

Well folks, the annual video game pilgrimage that is E3 just wrapped up, and chances are - like every year - you were left out in the cold, shivering and mumbling curses at the attendees of this industry-only event.  Never fear, the gaming industry will have a nice warm fire for you at Comic-Con (Dear Fire Marshal, this is an expression, I have no knowledge of any arsonist plans by the gaming industry at Comic-Con).  Activision, Capcom, EA, Marvel, Midway, Sierra, Sony, THQ, Ubisoft... the list goes on.  They will all be vying for your attention at the Con.

Video game companies even have some plans for you that the lucky punks of E3 didn't get to experience.  You'll be the first ever to test out Sony's new MMO, DC Universe Online.  Firesky will be showing off their MMO, Stargate Worlds, based on the wildly popular TV show.  And, if you don't count the Japanese (our archrivals in the getting-games-first war), you'll be one of the first in the world to try out Street Fighter IV.

Now, to the panels.  Here are my top 10 picks.