E3 2013: PS4, Xbox One and More Things We're Nerding Out Over

Next-generation consoles, budget-friendly video games and more have us thrilled for Los Angeles event

This week, geeks, cosplayers and—most importantly—the biggest game developers in the universe will descend on Los Angeles for E3, a.k.a. the  Electronic Entertainment Expo. The annual event gets all manners of gamers hot and bothered, and this year the excitement is at an all-time high thanks to the next generation of consoles by Sony and Microsoft. Both held exclusive press events already to debut the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but this could be the first time the media (E3 is an industry-only event) and vendors get to try them out.

 What games will you be playing this fall? Next year? What changes are occurring in the industry? Which celebs will unleash their inner geek at a lavish LA party? Here is what we'll be nerding out over this week:

1. What Will Playstation 4 Look Like? Sony spent two full hours in February announcing their new console with cool titles like Killzone: Shadow Fall, the DualShock 4 controller and much more, but they never actually showed what the darn thing looks like. Odds are, it'll be another black monolith to squeeze into your already-filled entertainment center. Will it be tiny like Apple TV or huge like Xbox One? Speaking of...

2. Xbox One: Games Please? Microsoft did show off a DVR-sized unit at their press event last month. The new moniker "One" seems to be referring to how these machines are now all-in-one devices: streaming Netflix, ESPN Sports and HBO Go. The 360 and the PS3 became "app" devices over time, but Xbox One (and PS4) have been designed from the ground up to be your living room's entertainment hub. That's great and all, but can we see what awesome adventures we'll be having better still, playing? Besides the latest Call of Duty: Ghosts.

3. Jack Bauer Gets It Done in Metal Gear Solid 5: Konami announced that main hero, Solid Snake would be getting a new voice: none other than 24's Kiefer Sutherland. Does hitting triangle enable him to say "Who do you work for?!" when interrogating a suspect? Many exclamation points if Sutherland attends the show.

4. The Wolf Among Us: They'll be plenty of $60 titles (Infinity, Watch Dogs) to get excited for, but Telltale Games wowed us last year with digital download The Walking Dead: The Game. (Our pick for the best videogame of 2012!) This time they're using another popular comic book, Fables (think Once Upon a Time, but much cooler) for their latest. Wolf (as in big bad) arrives in installments like Walking Dead did. Is this the future? At $5 a pop, we hope so.

5. Indie Games Will Rain Over The Show: Favorites like Limbo and Journey garnered much attention at previous E3s. What will be the cool, quirky alternative to all those shooters? With less cost and an emphasis on old-school level design, they are the grunge of games. Like Rain, which takes place in an invisible world made visible by tiny water droplets. (We did say quirky.)