By Andii Williams

It's that time of year again! The time of year I get no sleep (mostly because I forget to book time off work) and get very excited for the upcoming year in video games. It's E3 time!

If you’re not up to speed on E3, it’s essentially the biggest event on the gaming calendar. Held at the Los Angeles Convention Centre each year in June, the main attraction is the often-spectacular (occasionally awkward) live press conferences where announcements on new games, hardware and software are made in front of an excitable audience of press and public.

And this year will be no different. Microsoft and Sony will both be in attendance, while Nintendo will continue with their E3 Live Event stream. Ubisoft, EA and Bethesda also have conferences lined up ready to show off what their respective studios are working on.

So what can we expect?

MICROSOFT

Conference time: June 16, 2.30am AEST

Where to watch? Xbox.com

Microsoft will be kicking things off and they will no doubt be pushing their exclusives. Forza 6, Halo and Gears Of War will all get time as I’m also sure Rise Of The Tomb Raider will. Sadly Crackdown 3 will not be making an appearance after Microsoft decided to save it from Gamescom in August.

Virtual Reality will be a hot topic at this year’s E3 and the Oculus Rift will surely get some time on stage after Oculus announced their exclusive partnership with Microsoft, allowing them to compete directly with Sony’s Project Morpheus.

We may also finally get some news on the often-rumoured 1TB hard drive Xbox. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if this came from both Microsoft and Sony. I don’t know about you but mine are full and continuously having to delete games to fit others on is tiresome.

SONY

Conference time: June 16, 11.00am AEST

Where to watch? Ustream.tv/playstation

Sony has to pull out some big guns this year. After all, their incredible success with the PS4 so far has been largely without some of their biggest studios contributing. And with Xbox topping the sales charts lately some big exclusives are needed to continue their momentum. Sony’s exclusive winter line up is almost none existent for AAA games so if one or two get announced to release this year that will certainly up their game.

Also likely to feature is Project Morpheus, Sony’s foray into the world of Virtual Reality. It has been highly praised in previous demos so I can’t wait to see what they show off here. Hopefully there’s a release date in there too.

And what’s happening with the Vita, Sony’s powerful little handheld? Hopefully there is still life left in it, there is a loyal fan base there that would love something big to look forward to.

Finally, the PS4 has been a real leader in console indie gaming. With upcoming games like No Man’s Sky and Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture I can’t wait to see what else they have to drive these innovative games forward.

NINTENDO

Conference time: June 17, 2.00am AEST

Where to watch? E3.nintendo.com

I really enjoy Nintendo’s new approach to E3. This will be their third time streaming Nintendo direct during E3 rather than putting on a conference. Sure you miss the electricity and excitement of the crowd during the reveals, but as a whole the presentation is much slicker, well thought out and often hilarious.

So what can we expect to see? Well we should get a closer look at Nintendo’s end of year line-up including Mario Maker, Starfox and Yoshi’s Wooly World. I’d also expect we get some release dates too. Nintendo has already moved Zelda to a TBC 2016 date and confirmed it will not be shown during E3. But I wouldn’t be surprised if we got another glimpse of it as their finale, maybe a title reveal? I hope so!

With Splatoon recently released to positive reviews I’m hoping to see another new IP make an appearance. Nintendo continue to struggle to entice other developers to their platform, so maybe their solution is to push new EP’s themselves.

We will also get a look at what’s coming up on the 3DS. The new 3DS was launched last year so I’m interested to see what’s next after Xenoblade, which will take advantage of the upgraded power under the system hood.

And finally – Amiibos. Give me more Amiibos. I will buy them all. 

Other conference times:

BETHESDA: June 15, 12.00pm AEST

EA: June 16, 6.00am AEST

UBISOFT: June 16, 8.00am AEST

SQUARE ENIX: June 17, 3.00am AEST

Head to the E3 EXPO WEBSITE for more.