Microsoft's Livestream is about to kick off! Watch it live here!

We're also running our traditional Liveblog which you can check out. I recommend checking it out if you want to watch me go slowly insane!

Now last year, Nintendo didn't have a traditional E3 briefing. No stage, no live show. Just a forty-minute Nintendo Direct video, filled with Iwata, footage of games... and promises. Not as many aswe've seen up to now, but promises nonetheless.

Back in June 2013, it seemed like Sony pretty much stole the show from Microsoft with their E3 briefing. But do their promises still hold up now, almost a year later? Following yesterday's look at Microsoft's big press conference from last year, it's time to examine Sony's.

E3 is a-comin'. Next week, great gaming companies will take to the stage to show off all kinds of games and make all kinds of promises, as they did in the past. Like last year, for example.

Did you cheer when Sony delivered that epic smackdown retort to Microsoft’s unpopular policies during its E3 press conference this year? Did you gasp at the shiny newness of The Division? Were you choked up at seeing Mega Man in the upcoming Smash Bros game? You shouldn’t have been. The hobby/medium that you’ve loved has no pulse anymore. Only one man has the spine to tell it to you straight.

This year's E3 turned out to be one of the more interesting and exciting conventions in recent memory. Unfortunately for yours truly, I was stuck across that pesky barrier, commonly referred to in geography classes as the Pacific Ocean. But that didn't keep me and other interested peoples here in Japan from checking in on the happenings online.

E3 is for showing off the games that everyone will be talking about in the future. It’s a show about building buzz. And, this year, according to the various members of the media who dole out the Game Critics Awards, Titanfall is a game that folks should be paying attention to.

The Game Critic Awards, of which some editors of this website are judges, have announced their nominees for the 2013 Game Critics Awards: Best of E3 awards.

Maybe you’re on the fence about Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and its whole pirate-centric motif. Well, you should let this latest clip reveal one crucial gameplay element to you: pirates were basically partying all the time. And lead character Edward Kenway can just sit down and have a drink with his fellow salty dogs when they’re chilling on the beach.

Nintendo may not have given an "official" E3 press conference, but that doesn't mean it skipped the show entirely. If you didn't get up early enough to watch the Nintendo Direct and its accompanying announcements (or if the lousy feed crapped out), you may be wondering just what was shown. Maybe you'd like to watch a shorter version with more jokes?

I have this problem having what humans call "fun" at E3. You see, to me, E3 is work -- a pressure-cooker of exhaustion, hand sanitiser and confusing PR campaigns centred in an incredibly sad and weird part of Los Angeles.

In a season of new Mario Karts and Donkey Kong Country games Nintendo hears the calls from supporters and critics to make something new. The answer: we're already doing it.

Taken from a video by the folks at Digital Trends, this GIF is kind of unreal, and I can't stop watching it. Just another example of what it can be like for women to be at a convention like E3.

The rumour windmill spun out of control this week as a number of people speculated that Bethesda had shown their newest Fallout game behind closed doors at E3, but the publisher says that's just not true. It started with a tease by 2old2play.com writer Derek Nolan, who hinted that he had seen something unannounced at Bethesda's booth during E3 in Los Angeles last week. Gaming forum NeoGAF picked up the tweets, and the breathless speculation began. An unannounced game? At E3? Fallout 4?

One of the most interesting parts of Sony's E3 conference was Quantic Dream's 'The Dark Sorcerer' demo. The process is interesting: Quantic Dream tends to put together demos that give them an idea of what new technology can afford them, then they use it to make ground breaking video games. We spoke to Guillame De Fondaumiere about that process, and also about Quantic Dream's upcoming title Beyond: Two Souls.

Remember all the insane games you used to play at slumber parties? Remember how much fun you had? Well the Danish do as well, and they made a video game about it.

After the 3DS sequel to the classic Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, after the Wii U release of a Wind Waker remake, we will eventually get an original Zelda game on Wii U. It's being made now. Nintendo's barely talking about it.

You might not have heard about the security guard that groped a journalist at this year's E3. Or the writer who gave a PR woman his business card by slipping it in her dress. Or the women presumed to be booth babes simply because of the way they looked. E3 is the busiest time to be working in the games industries or as a reporter covering the scene. It's the biggest, most important event of the year. But with roughly 50,000 attendees, it's also sometimes the creepiest.

Now that E3 has come and gone and we've gotten an idea about what's coming next in terms of games, what's tickling your fancy? Whats games jumped out at you as must plays? What are you lusting after?