E3, Stay Home...

Right now, it's a wonderful time of the year for everyone.  Blossoms are all over the place, the warmth is just right (unless you live where I live and the weather has bipolar syndrome), and the exercise nuts feel the need to be all over the place (especially the middle of the road when I'm on my way to work).  I feel like running down the street while singing "June is Busting Out All Over."  However, I don't think I'll be doing that, because, while all of those previous characteristics of June are pretty great, it isn't what I look forward to the most about the month: the Electronic Entertainment Expo!

"Booth Babes" are a rare species of female that only come
out during the summer months then disappear.

Yes, ladies and germs, June also means the start of the season of the Nerd, where every nerdy trend imaginable finds three to four days out of the year to recognize how awesomely lonely its participants are... unless you're a gamer.  Seriously, gaming is something that is getting sexier and sexier!  Awesome!  But that's besides the point...
Anyway...
Did I just hear "my hand wakes up when I do" while listening to the latest TOROcast? O.o  Still getting distracted. Sorry.

Okay.  The Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3, is the biggest gaming event of the calendar year.  If you're a gamer and are all about the gaming news, not just the boxed products, then this is the event for you.  Nearly every developer and producer in the video game industry comes out to play and show off their stuff to make their stock holders either incredibly optimistic or insanely terrified of the next fiscal year.  Games that are coming out for release soon are having demos for people to play, betas announced and release dates unveiled (unless you're watching SW:TOR  >_<).  Basically, it's a big car show for video gamers, but you actually get to drive the cars that are on the show floor.
This year, E3 is happening in Los Angeles from June 7-9, with the main press conferences happening today, June 6th.  These conferences are where big heads from the different major players in the industry come forward and talk for around 1 hour about what their gaming system/company is going to be giving the gaming world.  I for one love the conferences because that's where you see the biggest releases.

Here's the list of the Press Conferences for today and tomorrow (all times are PST):
Today:

• Microsoft - 9:30am
• Electronic Arts - 12:30pm
• Ubisoft - 2:20pm
• SONY - 5:00pm

Tomorrow:

• Nintendo - 9:00am

Portable home gaming?  Hmmm... awesome? Yes!

Expect SONY and Nintendo to be the ones that people will be watching the most.  These guys have a lot riding on E3 this year.  SONY is going to have to give something awesome to destroy the lasting memory of the hack that left the Playstation Network down for about a month.  Perhaps that something will be focused around their new portable gaming system, so pay attention to that one.  Meanwhile, Nintendo will be the focus of a new gaming console.  "Project Cafe," as it's referred to, should be expected to get its proper name and details at the Nintendo Press Conference.

Overall, I'm pretty excited for the expo this year for a number of reasons, but mainly Star Wars The Old Republic (better known as SW:TOR) and Mass Effect 3.  I love the stuff that BioWare brings to the table for any of their games (Dragon Age II wasn't a complete failure, but it wasn't as well received as its predecessor) and am really anticipating both of these games' release.

Now, I know there's a lot more to E3 than what I've covered here, but life continues on outside of my blog.  So, I shall have more input later tonight concerning the conferences and their subsequent announcements.  Stay tuned.

Oh, and if you want to watch live streams of the Press Conferences IGN should have them streaming live.