E3 2006: Word from LA

We've been in La La Land for just over 24 hours now, yet bizarrely it seems much longer. Mainly because we've successfully managed to get drunk at least four times since leaving grim old Blighty on Saturday afternoon – selflessly making the most productive use out of dead time. We've also eaten at the infamous Mel's Diner (food: good, security: lax) met all the freaks on the strip, saw the Doors at the Whisky A Go Go (The Doors! The Whisky!) and paid a drunken midnight visit to the Hustler store to grab a t-shirt (and nothing more - honest!).

Plus we've already eaten enough near-raw meat to poo our own height in stinking fecal matter at the UK games industry's Hollywood hangout of choice, The Saddle Ranch, where we met a couple of buskers who can play - note-perfect - seemingly every pop song ever invented. We requested Violent Femmes, Rolling Stones, Led Zep and a bit of Credence - and got them all. The bastards cleared us out. They must love E3 week at The Saddle Ranch. If we lived here permanently we estimate that we would most likely double in size every six days.

Less about our colons and more about the show proper, which is still three days away. Over the next couple of days, SPOnG will be attending all of the main pre-show conferences, to bring you the latest and biggest pre-show announcements from all of the big players – Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, Square Enix, Konami, amongst others, are all lining up to finally spill the beans on what they have been hiding in their cupboards marked 'top secret'. Plus, perhaps more importantly, we'll also try to bring you as many random pictures of any fit birds in daft costumes that we can manage to squeeze onto our memory cards.

Sony, so the reliable gossip amongst high-ranking execs has it, is likely to unveil the new, improved design for the PS3's controller tomorrow. Well, it couldn't really be any worse than that daft boomerang could it. Sony's bash kicks off at around 10pm UK time, so we should have all the details on all the announcements tomorrow.

What would really wow the crowds tomorrow would be any additional motion sensors that may or may not be built into the controller. If Sony has taken Nintendo's ideas (copied) and applied them to a next gen HD-based games console, then that would certainly shake things up a little. Of course this is all mere speculation until tomorrow afternoon, but either way, you'll be the first to read about it here. Plus all the latest PSP and PS3 news. SPOnG expects we'll be telling you how much your PS3 is going to set you back this Christmas, plus what the realistic chance of getting your hands on one before next spring is actually going to be.

Nintendo is steeled to take a load of flak on Tuesday morning about its rather unusual choice of name for its next console. SPOnG vows to punch any daft fanboys who start booing when the first Nintendo exec says Wii. We will probably stifle a little snigger though upon first hearing elderly Japanese men say Wii, it has to be said. You should be seeing the full, finalised line up of Wii games by around noon LA time (8pm UK time) on Tuesday. Plus, of course, new details and new assets on Zelda: Twilight Princess. SPOnG is pumped.

Microsoft is going to unveil new video footage of Halo 3 on Tuesday afternoon – shakycam footage of which will no doubt be on the Internet in around three and a half minutes after it's first been shown. An update on Bungie's own website says: “The level of secrecy is every bit as oppressive and confining for us as it is for you. Much, much bigger update next week. See you then!"

Well, SPOnG doesn't feel oppressed or confined by all the crazy PR secrecy, shenanigans and downright lies we are going to be bombarded with over the next five days. We just feel hungover. For the fourth time in one day?! And it's midnight. But in normal world it's nearly time to get up and get the bus to work. Oh god. Where are those Nightol Max?

Now that we've done all our week's drinking in one day, we'll make sure to try to stay sober (enough) to bring you all the up-to-the-minute news on all the week's most important hardware and games announcements. Plus we'll be hooking up with loads of industry big wigs who we will be trying to trick into telling us all their secrets and any snide anecdotes about their competitors sexual peccadilloes.

And if we have time, we really want to check out this year's Into The Pixel exhibition (see the flyer, up there to the top-right of this story) which looks like it might be a safe haven of culture in the middle of the bleeping, flashing, fanboy-infested nerd show. Oh, who are we trying to kid. It's E3. We're in LA. WOOHOO!