While out in Los Angeles for E3, I was lucky enough to be invited down to play Street Fighter IV in a deserted warehouse. I interviewed some of the people there, and you can see it all in the latest edition of Start/Select.

Last week, I got up at 6.30am Los Angeles time to appear on CNET.co.uk's Crave podcast. Yet again, I ran over the big news of E3, including all the major press conferences and my favourite games of the show. It's a great podcast anyway, so if you're not subscribing add it to iTunes now.

Me and Luke have been heading around the LA downtown area taking lots of photos of E3-related stuff. Check them out!

Despite something of an identity crisis over the past two years, E3 is still the most exciting event on the gaming calendar. While it's unlikely that there'll be any major hardware reveals this year, I still hope there'll be some surprises in store when it all kicks off next week. I've just arrived in Los Angeles, so I've had an 11-hour flight to think about what I hope we'll see...

Nintendo
Nintendo's Q3/Q4 lineup is more or less unknown, which means that its entire E3 presentation will be a surprise. That said, the big rumour doing the rounds is that Animal Crossing will appear on the Wii, and that it will be released before the end of the year. As a massive fan of the DS version, this could be my most sought-after game of 2008 if announced, especially if it takes the massively multiplayer online route. That said, I expect Nintendo will lead its presentation with a new mainstream title along the lines of Wii Fit. As well as more games that use the balance board, the Big N will probably announce another big peripheral-based game to woo the mainstream. And hopefully another franchise revival!

Microsoft
When Microsoft's Robin Burrows came on the GameSpot UK Podcast recently, I asked him about the much-rumoured motion-sensitive controller for the Xbox 360. He did laughed nervously and trotted out the standard 'no comment' line. Unless my PR-translation skills have gone seriously awry I imagine such a device exists, and E3 is likely the place it would be revealed.

While it's disappointing to think that Microsoft would follow Nintendo's lead, I'd still be interested to see a US-take on the motion-sensitive idea. I'm pretty vocal about my love of the Xbox 360 as a gaming platform, so I hope we get to see something brand new in addition to the expected Peter Jackson games.

Sony
Sony has shown a lot of potential with games like LittleBigPlanet and Pixel Junk: Eden, but there's still a 'what next?' feeling after MGS4. They have Home, the oft-delayed social hub that I hope will be shown in more detail this year, as well as the movie download service announced at London PlayStation Day. As for anything else...I'm genuinely stumped at what they might have to show. A new model of PlayStation 3 with increased storage space? A new game from the Naughty Dog studio, perhaps based on Jak & Daxter? I'm genuinely not sure. The only inside info I have is that the company will announce something specific to Europe at an event on Wednesday night.

Out of all three hardware manufacturers though, Sony is always the one that surprises me with something cool tucked away in the corner of its booth. Games like Patapon and Echocrome seem to come out of nowhere, and often end up tearing me away from more traditional triple-A titles. On a purely personal front, I'm also hoping for more info or a playable build of Loco Roco 2, as it was just announced in Japan.

Sony always makes an effort when it comes to promotional items, and I particularly like this echocrome preview kit that I was sent today. Who's the woman on the front? Why's she surrounded by a rainbow when the game's in black and white? And perhaps most importantly, why make all this effort on the preview code when the full game's already available for download?

Only Sony knows the answers...