The Electronic Entertainment Exposition (E3) begins in Los Angeles on Thursday May 13. It's an enormous games show where softies from around the world display their wares. Millions of pounds are spent on building the stands (now you know why games cost £40!) and publishers compete to see who can hire the most models to attract young bucks to take a look at their latest PC point 'n' clickers. Oh, and weekly trade papers CTW and MCV get really fat in the preceding week. Why? Because they need extra pages to tell you what's showing on everyone's stand (or 'booth' as us hoity toits call them).

Still, there is muchas excitement on the front page of MCV with a prediction that Hasbro could be about to "make one of the deals of the decade". Apparently, Hasbro are looking to buy up a major global publisher lock, stock and moreover, barrel. Producing poor 3D versions of Caterpillar is obviously not working for them at the moment, then.

MCV also reveals that Sega will announce at E3 whether the European Dreamcast will have online capabilities. It does in Japan. It will in America. So why not here? Plans for a summer launch of the PlayStation's handheld add-on PocketStation have been put back to September, says MCV. The later launch is an attempt to deflect attention from Dreamcast.

CTW leads with the news that Rage Software are looking to acquire development and publishing talent in the United States. "We have no relationship with anyone in the US at the moment and it makes sense for us to have a partner over here," said Rage MD Paul Finnegan in CTW. "Development is key to us, so we want someone that has strong content. We can't afford to stand still."

The other lead story details EA's plans for their Formula One racing game. They're backing the game, which will appear across all formats, to the tune of $10 million and plan to turn it into a FIFA-style franchise. Gawd help us.