If Halo, Borderlands and Star Wars had a random drunken blue milk induced menage trois, Destiny would be its baby. At E3 we got a first look at the gameplay of Destiny. After the “Law of the Jungle” trailer got me to care about the story, I couldn’t wait to see how the game looked in action. It doesn’t matter if the game is on the PlayStation 4 or XBox One, it looks beautiful. But what stood out the most was that there actually looks to be some real variety to the world as it isn’t just another corridor shooter.

A combination of team based shooter combined with force powers and speeder bikes in drop in events is a pretty epic task but if anyone can pull it off, it’d be the team over at Bungie who has proven themselves to be masters of building worlds and multiplayer experiences. The drop in interaction seemed to run seemlessly, even on stage at E3 where some games had their share of glitches. Given the time to polish it before release, Destiny looks like it can be one of the game that delivers on both its promises and expectations of its audience.

As I’ve said before, one of my favorite parts of working with The Flickcast is the ability to check out some awesome trade shows like E3, Wondercon and Comi- Con and then have the chance to share them with our readers. On of best ways to do that has always been photo galleries. Now, I want to apologize a little (even though it isn’t my fault) that E3 has reduced the amount of booth babes at the show so there isn’t a plethora of photos from the show floor with half naked women.

But you have to remember, E3 is a trade show with industry professionals. It can’t be all T & A like Comic-Con.

This year was actually my first E3 and unfortunately I was only able to go to the show for one day. But I did get hands on with some stuff on the floor. I had the opportunity to play Diablo III on the PlayStation 3 and it actually felt like a very different experience than the PC version. Aside from it working properly, it also felt more like a button masher in the same vein as Gauntlet Legends. Also got to try out the new LEGO Marvel Super Heroes which was pretty awesome too.

While some arguments still rage after the E3 Press Conference backlash between the PlayStation 4 and the XBox One, what one can’t argue is the power of Activision/Blizzard in 2013. Whether or not you like their games, there is no denying that Activision/Blizzard is set to make a mint this year with the multiplatform releases for Diablo III, Destiny, Call of Duty: Ghosts and, of course, Skylanders SWAP Force.

In spite of Disney’s attempt to make its way into the collectible interactive figure game market with Disney Infinity, the legacy of the current Skylander player bases’ collections is going to continue to drive sales of both the game and the record setting release of new figures along with this iteration of the franchise.

In addition to the 256 combinations of new characters made by the 18 two part new SWAP force characters, there will be a horde of other figures both new and remodeled from previous series for players to collect as well leading to the largest expansion of the franchise to date.

Looking back at the events of the previous day, I believe two things happened. First, Microsoft went in with the plan of throwing caution to the wind and hoping for the best. Second, Sony had two conferences ready to roll out. And here is why.

After letting details out before E3 about what the XBox One would do to handle used games and DRM, Microsoft went out hoping their exclusives for the system like Dead Rising 3, Halo 5 and Killer Instinct would be enough to turn the tide on their perception and then announced the $499 price point. And then Sony went…

In just a few short hours, the E3 conferences begin and as we’ve all seen these can be the biggest moments of the expo and often influence the nature of the industry for the coming year and even further. In the past, these conferences have also made significant impact on who lost in the coming year as a lack of hype for certain companies made others look even greater by comparison.

The one given for this E3 above all else is that Nintendo doesn’t have anything big to reveal. While they will probably be making announcements from the show floor and through Nintendo Direct and shoving off various new games, potentially including new details on the upcoming Wii U Smash Brothers, they actually are not going to have a Nintendo Press Conference. After two years of lackluster results pushing the Wii U to the mainstream media through E3 press, Nintendo is backing off hopefully to reevaluate where the console stands in the market and figure out a way to focus back on their core audience they lost with the Wii.

With E3 just around the corner, the news cycle doesn’t start a few days early as publishers and developers look to get their smaller bytes out just before the flood gates open. It starts a week out. And with that first wave comes a look at LEGO Marvel Super Heroes. In the horde of stories coming out in the E3 before the next generation of console launches, Traveller’s Tales and WB Games were smart to get us these screens early.

The latest shots from LEGO Marvel Super Heroes shows some characters we already knew were coming to the game like Captain America, Wolverine, Iron Man and Thor in the staple of Marvel locales New York City and the newly announced Asgard. The crazy thing is Asgard and especially its rainbow bridge look pretty darn beautiful in LEGO. But with all the new visual glory coming soon from the PS4 and XBox One, it’s probably for the best we see these graphics now rather than after the Microsoft and Sony press conferences.

Yesterday, a video surfaced on a random YouTube page titled REVEAL PLAYSTATION 4 PS4 E3 2013 新しいプレイステーションE3プレゼ. Since most people over here in the US don’t read Japanese, they just assumed this as a mark of authenticity and speculation began running wild. Although later disproven when Sony, the king of “no comment”, actually remarked to Kotaku that the ad was a fake, the damage had been done and arguments had already began, friendships were ended and wars were started.

But why the debate? We have already seen what is arguably the most important aspect of the PlayStation 4 with the reveal and that was the gameplay. The only thing of significance “revealed” for the first time was the actual PS4 console. Does what the box itself looks like really matter? I don’t know about you but the box itself isn’t the visible focal point of my entertainment setup. While everything is either going into the XBox 360 or PlayStation 3, I never actually care to look at it as I am playing.