The Escapist‘s E3 Week: Monday Preview

Just watching Crysis 2 coverage might melt your video card.

It’s E3 week, and The Escapist is bringing you all of the juicy stories hot from the show floor! On the plate today: The Microsoft press conference gets liveblogged and we just might see some Dragon Age II…

There’s an old holiday standard that refers to the Christmas (et al) season as the “most wonderful time of the year.” I’m not saying that it isn’t, but for gamers, E3 is pretty damn close. This is the time of year where we get to glimpse the future – we get to see all of the shiny new goodies that our favorite developers have in store.

This year, Team Escapist is out on the E3 floor in force. While the show floor isn’t technically open yet, that doesn’t mean that we won’t be able to see anything awesome and new. Here’s some of the stuff that you can look forward to today:

Microsoft Press Conference: At 1:30 PM EST, Microsoft takes the stage to show its hand. You can almost assuredly expect more news on Project Natal – or should I say Kinect? – as well as Halo: Reach, Fable III, Crackdown 2, and Gears of War 3. We’ll be liveblogging this, so stay tuned!

EA & Ubisoft Press Conferences: They may not have the glitz or sheer oomph of the Big Three’s pressers, but EA (5:00 PM EST) and Ubisoft (8:00 PM EST) have plenty to show – and we’ll be at both of them. Expect Ubisoft to show more of the new Assassin’s Creed, Scott Pilgrim, and perhaps the long-awaited I Am Alive. Meanwhile, EA has Crysis 2, Bulletstorm, and Dead Space 2 up its sleeve.

Let’s not forget that EA is also the parent company of beloved RPG studio BioWare. If the rumored Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age II are real, then it’s a safe bet they’ll be announced at EA’s shindig. And we just might see Star Wars: The Old Republic, too.

The show doesn’t get really heated until tomorrow, but hopefully, today will set one hell of a spark.

To follow all of The Escapist‘s E3 2010 coverage, head to our official page.