Whilst out at E3 last week, Jeff from PlayStation.Blog.US managed to get some quality time with Zipper Interactive at the MAG booth for an in-depth demonstration of the epic 256-player shooter.

Here’s the 2nd in our “Virtual Booth Tour” series: MAG (click here for the guided tour of God of War III).

You’ve probably seen some quick demonstrations of MAG, but that’s not enough time to do this complex game justice. In this video, Zipper Interactive designer Ben Jones takes us through the flow of a massive 256-player battle.

Apologies for the audio pops – it was quite loud on the show floor!

We’ll have more video booth tours coming this week!

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Today’s the day! The web has recently been awash with rumours and speculation about Sony’s E3 announcements, but now you can find out exactly what’s coming soon for PlayStation as the SCEA Press Conference gets underway in sunny LA.

The show starts at 7pm BST / 8pm CEST and Jeff from PlayStation.Blog.US is blogging live throughout – check out his updates below…

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It was eerily quiet around the LA Convention Centre on Monday, with the only activity coming from frantic crews applying a last lick of paint to the show stands and the few earlybird visitors taking pictures of the outside and working their way around the massive venue.

I’ll have pictures of the PlayStation stand for you very soon but, in the meantime, I can tell you that it’s looking spectacular and that many of the games you asked for in my first post are going to be playable. As I type, I can hear the pitter-patter of Heavy Rain falling behind me…

What I can show you is some behind the scenes photos from Room 502, which is kind of like SCEE’s living room while we’re here: a gorgeous space where we’ll invite journalists and retailers to try upcoming titles and interview the developers. It’s a real marvel in terms of design, with bright colours, quirky trinkets and funky furniture scattered among huge screens hosting cracking games. Here’s a few pics but there are plenty more on Flickr!

I’m also trying to arrange appointments to see all of the games you’ve been asking for. It’s going well and I’ll be meeting up with the developers behind Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, SingStar, VidZone and many more, although I’m still waiting to find out when they’ll all be slotted in. I’ve just received an invite to go and try a demo of FIFA 10 tomorrow and will be posting later in the week with my impressions and quotes from those in the know. If you have any burning questions for them then let me know in the comments.

Tomorrow is when it all kicks off so check back throughout the day for a cornucopia (word of the day) of announcements, revelations and discussion points from SCEA’s press conference, which takes place at 11am, LA time.

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The SCEE team landed on the eve of E3 and our first port of call was to meet Jeff and Chris of the US blog as they held their annual pre-E3 meet with the community.

Fresh of the plane from Heathrow and with jet-lag and Jaffa Cakes in hand (thanks for the tip, X201), I hopped in a cab to Mama’s Hot Tamales Café to meet scores of PlayStation fans hungry for games and tacos.

An eager queue snaked around West 7th St. as the first 100 in were guaranteed entry to the SCEA press conference on Tuesday – some had camped outside the restaurant early that morning, such is the demand for this huge gaming event. Wearing stickers bearing their names and PlayStation Network IDs, those lucky enough to get in chatted, ate and got an early play of SOCOM: Fire Team Bravo 3 on PSP.

There was also a tournament where teams competed for PSPs and copies of the game;

Check out Jeff’s report from the event on PlayStation.blog US to see who picked up the coveted prizes.

The biggest cheer of the night came as Jeff and Chris took to the stage (well, a table) to thank everyone for coming and to announce that the lucky 100 would not only be there for Tuesday’s big announcements, they’re also invited to E3 itself and will get their hands on the biggest upcoming games.

It was lovely to see so many PlayStation fans sharing the E3 excitement and it has certainly got us thinking about what we can do back in Europe.

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