Welcome to Nintendo City! The home of the WiiU towers over the show floor like something out of a William Gibson novel. (Photo by Holly Frey)

HowStuffWorks.com Tech Editor Holly Frey’s done at E3 2011 — here’s her wrapup from day three.

Alright, on Thursday there was no messing around. I would have some special together time with the Wii U no matter what! The last two days, I visited the area of the show floor I lovingly call Nintendo City, but to get actual play time with the Wii’s successor would have taken a minimum of a five-hour wait in line. That’s not a typo or fever dream. Five hours, minimum. Some people allegedly spent a full eight hours waiting in line yesterday. (What did they do about bathroom visits, you ask? I have no idea.) So, I got up extra early Thursday and made sure to be one of the first people in line. Despite being among the first group of people through the exhibit-hall doors, I still spent my whole morning in line. No problem; I had kind of planned for it. Aside from mildly irritating my lunch date with text after text postponing my availability, it was all fine by me, so long as I got time with Wii U. I really love my Wii; while I often hear other gamers talk about how theirs just gather dust while they play their PlayStation 3s and Xbox 360s, I can honestly tell you that my Wii is used almost daily. I mostly use it as a fitness tool; I have about a dozen different fitness games in steady rotation, but there’s also plenty of “Epic Mickey” in the mix. I like to flail and I own that. So, I’ve been pretty eager to get some time with Nintendo’s latest console offering.

I was a little concerned about the sheer size of the new controller. It’s so big compared to … well, everything else on the market. Once I had my mitts on it, I was genuinely surprised by how comfortably it fit into my hands. The weight balances really nicely as it nestles into your grip. It was also lighter than I expected; I know I’m not alone in that revelation.

The first game I got to test out once my wait had ended was “Battle Mii.” It’s a fairly basic premise; players shoot it out in an arena setting, either on foot or in a spacecraft. Only the player with the new controller can pilot the spacecraft. I got my tail handed to me in a hurry, but I still had fun. This game would be great for families who want a low-violence way to shoot at each other. (That probably would have been very helpful in my house growing up.) It’s definitely cuter than most shooters — your Mii is your character, and the design style is similar to other Mii-based games like “Wii Sports Resort.” It also showcases the different experiences that multiple players can have with the new system. The person using the touch-screen controller sees something totally different than what the people using the old school Wii Remotes see on the television screen. Despite (or maybe because of) its simplicity, this could be a great party game, provided the person with the gyroscopic controller doesn’t fling it into a wall trying to get his or her bearings.

Next up was the “Japanese Garden” tech demo. This, too, is basic. You fly as a bird throughout an extraordinarily beautiful landscape. It’s sort of zen and relaxing, and it’s really just intended to show off the graphics capabilities of Nintendo’s new baby, which are captivating. The controller screen shows the bird’s-eye view of the experience, while the television screen offers up a cinematic third-person view of the bird as it glides through the environment. This and the HD demo of the Wii U made it abundantly clear that if developers want to really lay on some loveliness in upcoming Wii U games, they certainly have the opportunity to do so. I’m super excited to see Sega’s “Aliens: Colonial Marines” on this system. I have a sneaking suspicion it will make crazy good use of the touch screen.

The price point and release date are still in the mystery realm for Wii U, but we do know it’s supposed to be available in 2012.

Leading up to this week’s E3, my feelings for the “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” series have been lukewarm, at best. It’s just never been my thing. After the demo for “Modern Warfare 3,” however, I might be changing my tune. During the press demo of the game I attended, I was blown away by how gorgeous this first-person shooter looks.  I think Michael Bay would lose control of his bladder watching the explodey epic goodness. Most of the details on this sequel to the second title in the series have been known for a while: It picks up mere hours after the end of “MW2″, it has 20 multiplayer maps, and New York, London and France are under siege. Knowing all of those things already didn’t detract in the least from the wow factor of seeing the actual game. Detailed descriptions of the demo levels are literally all over the Web, so I won’t rehash, but I will say that watching the chase through the London tube system was spectacular. I do have to wonder if it will look as incredible with a less experienced player behind the controls, though. When I’m clunking my way through the game and getting killed every 10 minutes, will it still be as cool? The game play on this title looks better than the cut scenes of most other games, and while I suspect that playing through the whole thing will give me some sort of anxiety disorder, I’m in!

OK, here are some byte-sized impressions of other games I previewed or played with this weekend:

First up, “Star Wars” titles. While “Star Wars: The Old Republic” looks beautiful and incredibly engrossing, it makes me go “harrumph.” Why? It just doesn’t feel like the “Star Wars” universe anymore. I know the franchise evolves, and I’m down with that, but this one is so heavily cowboy-o-centric that it doesn’t even resemble the world I fell in love with as a kid. I’m sure plenty of other fans will think I’m being a curmudgeon, because every time the trailer ran on the show floor, people stopped in their tracks and started to drool.

I want to tell you about game play with “Star Wars Kinect,” I really do. Alas, I did not demo it. Why? I was genuinely afraid I would spaz out and kick the screen in the tiny demo booth. I didn’t want to be escorted out of E3 by Microsoft security, so I played it safe and watched other attendees spaz out. This is one immersive, Jedi-licious extravaganza. I wonder if holding a replica lightsaber hilt during game play would affect the Kinect’s feedback. Because I do not want to pretend fight with a lightsaber without actually having something in my hand.

“Gabrielle’s Ghostly Groove” for Nintendo 3DS looks like a combo of Disney’s Haunted Mansion and a Sanrio character. It’s darling. It also works better on the 3DS screen than most other titles, I think because the design is fairly simplistic to begin with. Gabrielle was doing her thing on the DS already, so this is an update to take advantage of the 3-D capabilities of the newer handheld.

Atari is really making an effort to regain relevance among gamers while trading on nostalgia with updated versions of its classic titles. Their re-imagining of “Centipede” is called “Centipede: Infestation” and it features big, big guns, a flamethrower and a giant buggly wuggly intent on eating your face. I’m not sure it will be a hit.

Warner Brothers is hoping to appeal to lovers of Gotham with “Batman: Arkham City” and “Gotham City Imposters.” “Arkham City” is beautiful and moody, and has clearly been informed by Frank Miller’s treatment of the vigilante hero, as well as Christopher Nolan’s film interpretation of the DC property. “Imposters” is like a wild ride on the back of a crazy person. It also has some incredibly fun design, and I expect to see these characters recreated by costumers all over the con circuit in the next couple of years.

And that’s the end of my E3 adventure. I wish this show lasted two weeks, because then I might be able to fully sample all the geektastic goodies consumers are in for in the coming 18 months. As it is, I now know where all of my disposable income is going for the next three years. Also, I can tell you that while show organizers claim that E3 stands for “Electronic Entertainment Expo,” it really stands for “Enthralling. Exhilarating. Exhausting.” I’m wiped out!