"We forgot more than we remembered."

Likely the line that summed up E3 2013 for myself and the team out at L.A, as a mountain of announcements crushed our collective brains as we pinballed between interview appointments.

The objective view on the industry's biggest event comes solely from outside the bubble. Sitting behind desks back home proves a lot easier for the process of catching (most of the) information. RSS feeds are an awesome way to keep an eye out for any missed news nugget - it's opening a net and having a quick look at whatever's caught. On site? It's like being tossed into rapids without a paddle. Or a boat for that matter.

It's horribly invigorating. But you do tend to drown in a sea of information. Believe me, a week off after the show, and only trawling through stories now has lead to the words "they announced what now?" being uttered more than once.

That's what the weeks after E3 is like for most of those who attended - picking up the pieces and filling in the (massive) blanks from the show. There's definitely a lot more to be said about what was shown there - and we'll be doing just that in the weeks to come - but for now it's a case of catching our breath. Every year's the same, and I wouldn't change the brain overload for the world.

Ongoing issue in the form of a question: what do you carry with you on your daily commute? This is not a query regarding personal items. Well, anything that's not electronic anyway. But given we've a whole host of gizmos and multimedia tech these days, trying to weed out the non-essentials causes myself a headache before I step out the front door.

On any given trip, I've got a Kindle, iPad, iPhone, Nintendo 3DS, Canon SLR (plus lens) and laptop to consider, not to mention chargers for any adventures longer than a normal work day, and for handheld consoles, cartridges - and where to safely store them.

Arguably we don't need anything other than a phone to contact folk on. But I've noticed we've got increasingly comfortable in hauling a wide range of gadgets to cover any occasion that may so arise; it's a question I always put to the rest of the team come any press trip. "What's essential to you?". The answer varies widely.

For me, less weight and comfort is priority. I guess in a funny way I still have in mind Beyond Good & Evil's Jade. Future-tech in Ubisoft's adventure was such that the photojournalist had only two pieces of kit: a digital SLR, and a all-in-one device that could scan objects, phone contacts and play recordings. I loved the simplicity of that. Funnily enough in the era of tablets and a growing list of Apps covering every aspect of every day needs, we're actually fairly near realising that vision.

That's why I'm the supporter of the strive towards a all-in-one portable machine. I've got used to fast-typing on my iPhone 5 screen, letting me jot down rough articles during commutes. I've got some games (a mixture of classics that aren't ruined by touch controls and titles that could only be done on the format) loaded to dig into on down time. Music. Books. But while the device serves as my essential connection to the 'Grid' - email, social feeds, news streaming all at the tap of a button - I realise how reliant the device is on having a internet connection for 90% of its Apps. Lose the signal, and you tend not to bother with it. So even "all-in-one" device of Beyond Good & Evil still has its problems (never saw that as a plot device in the game).

I'm still working on the 'perfect' setup, both in devices and the bag to carry them all in, that'll serve my needs. But I do know I have to boil down the stack of tech that could come with me. Making that cut however, is harder than it seems.

Has the PS4 announcement stopped you buying games?

Maybe that's the wrong question. A better one: has the uncertainty of being able to transfer your digital collection causing you to hesitate buying anything new?

I'm readying to bruise my credit card on the PSN Resident Evil sale today. It's a kick, and comfort, to have the entire canon in one place, on one console. I made a lesser commitment to Final Fantasy weeks back, pooling the PSOne titles together on my PS3 HD during another discount drive.

My PS3 digital collection's less impressive than my XBLA one, which totals over 150 titles. Not much for seven years of play, but a substantial weight in GB. Now neither load might be coming with me come next-gen move.

Backwards compatibility was never a certainty. The lack of it was accepted back in the 90s, and it was still a fairly new concept at the start of this generation. (For example, I've bought Sonic the Hedgehog five times now as I've lost access to my original and second copies as generations pass). But we've had seven years in which our gamer profiles have weathered over a half a decade of achievements, trophies, saved games. Into this generation was borne the idea of console digital collections, and its grown rapidly. With connected smart phones, tablets, computers, we're used to transferring our digital libraries between machines. Ownership and access is expected to always be on, always be there.

It's a bigger issue, a key issue with today's consoles and their successors. During a team discussion today, the question "what is a digital purchase worth in the long run?" was raised. No one had a real answer.

If we're allowed to carry on our gamer profiles - and expect the internet to break in a collective rage if not - to our new machines, then a generation's worth of digital titles should come with us. Nintendo offered a halfway solution with upgraded VC takes for a few quid. But you can find an excuse in adaptation to new GamePad technology to cover the irk at spending extra on something already bought - what will Microsoft and Sony offer?

Preserving gaming heritage is admittedly a separate issue (though I like the idea of one console being DeLorean or Ark; calling up my gaming past at the press of a button). Service plans for PS4 are still being drawn up, so there may be a positive resolution. And if a new digital title gets Journey-like accolades, I'm still going to buy and try.

But as for the now: are you going to stop expanding your collection until you're certain you can transfer it over, or are you going to dig in and spend some time finishing the games you've already bought?

Belated Happy New Year to you all. Seven days late, but you'll have to excuse me as I'm warming the office chair for the first time in ages.

As fully expected in my last iPad Mag Ed column, the Xmas period saw my Tomb Raider plans fall apart. I didn't even crack on with Halo MP. I made a not-quite-NY resolution to finish games yet to be completed.

Satisfaction came in the form of the climatic moon base mission in Beyond Good & Evil HD (that reversed controller boss fight is still awful) and Red Dead Redemption. A game I put on at 10am one morning, thinking I'd only a couple of hours left, and was still riding cross-country 14 hours later. The ending, and that epilogue, was worth all the weird nightmares I had that night.

On a side note, we've got a lot of changes coming in over the next few months here at GR-UK, which I'll be telling you about soon enough. As for now (and as you may see the front page poll is asking), I'm putting it out to you fine folk as to what you want to see more of from us over the coming year. What do you like, what do you hate? Are we missing something entirely?

Let us know - and here's to another great year of gaming.

Four times. That's the number of times I've bought Crazy Taxi. Cost-wise, budgeting in two retail releases and a pair of digital downloads, that's near one hundred UK gold coins.

The Dreamcast original swallowed a whole summer. The GC version many a university night. The XBLA release roared to life - only for the engine to give out a month later. a decade on, the game had finally lost its attraction.

The iOS version however? Bloody hell. If I wasn't so self-conscious of whipping my iPad out on public transport, this portable take would see me missing every single stop I needed to make.

The three quid download was done on a whim: really didn't expect Sega's arcade time attack racer to translate to touch screen. Yet curiosity's your worst best friend when it comes to convincing you of the digestibility of quick-fix micro-transactions.

There's a few mechanical changes: Drifts have been assigned to double taps of the left/right buttons, as opposed to the gear change/turn system that worked fine for arcade machines (they could handle the abuse), but would break a iPad screen (I almost did, ineffectually trying the old style before the penny dropped).

And it works, really, really well. The clunky controls show their age, but for a quick fix - which Crazy Taxi always has been about -its workable. And the experience looses nothing in translation.

And it feels that, years after release, the game has found its rightful retirement home. Its quick fix gameplay and the mobile market go hand in hand.

It's a great adaptation, and I'm now genuinely looking forward to future Sega iOS ports.

Word of warning though: if you don't have a iPad 2 or later to play it on, ignore the game. Sadly even my iPhone 4 spluttered trying to run it, horrendous frame rate crippling everything good about the game.