Puppies, protozoa and skipping rocks

Next stop, Electronic Arts, the interactive behemoth that also happens to be the home of Will Wright, creator of the "Sims" and "Sim City."

Wright was showing off "Spore," a simulation of evolution, exploration and conquest.

You start as a multicellular organism fighting to stay alive in a primordial soup. I’m not kidding.

Eventually you evolve into a swimming trilobite-type creature and from there into a land animal that over eons gets a bigger brain, discovers fire and starts grunting a primitive language.

EA In "Spore," you start as a multicellular organism and progress up the evolutionary ladder.

Before you know it the game changes from an eat or be eaten to a grander "Civilization"-like setting where your creatures are building cities and bullying the neighbors.

The cool thing with "Spore" is that you affect how your creatures evolve. Those traits you set early in the creatures' evolution manifest themselves in strange ways throughout the game.

Conquer the world and move on to other planets. Then the solar system. Then the galaxy. Then other galaxies. And the great thing is that no matter how many galaxies you conquer, the traits you originally chose in that primordial soup are still in the DNA.

Deep.

"Electronic Arts" was also showing off "The Godfather," a game based on the movie. And while the game play I saw won’t lend itself to the non-gamer, it nevertheless looks cool in that 1940s New York sort of way.

According to "The Godfather’s" executive producer David Martini, the setting is a "living world."

David Mcnew / Getty Images A video game they can't refuse? Attendees watch as a character is shot in the eye in EA's "The Godfather" on a 360-degree display screen at E3.

"We’re moving down a path that has memory and consequence," he said. Meaning that you don’t want to get Sonny angry. Screw up in one scene and you may be sleeping with the fishes in the next.

I’ll have to take his word for it because at E3 there is no time to really get your hands on a game. Only first impressions.

Speaking of games based on movies: "Scarface," "Jaws" and "King Kong." All at E3.

I would have liked to have spend more time with "Shadow of the Colossus" for the Sony PlayStation 2. It comes from the makers of "Ico," a game that told a story of love and loyalty without falling for the ham-handed shtick most games fall for.

If "Shadow" is anything like "Ico," it may have crossover appeal. The game certainly has eye-candy going for it what with giants and grey hazy horizons and a hero with a gleaming sword.

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