E3 round-up: day one

Here we are, teetering on a tall stack of several pages of news and announcements from E3. Don't look down, it's a long way. If it all had to be summed up in a single image, it would be a picture of someone armed with a bow fighting off a dog to a deep wubby throb. That was E3 day one.

But don't take my word for it. Thanks to the pre-E3 press conferences there's plenty to talk about, and plenty to watch. Even beyond the shouty marketing of the Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft and Sony conferences, there was plenty of PC gaming news fizzing away. Here's a round up of what went down at E3 today in one vertical digest. Acrophobes beware.

• Ubisoft's surprise announcement, Watch Dogs was the highlight of the day. The demo, which was apparently running from a PC, showed a trenchcoat wearing hacker hunting down a target in a beautiful, rainy city. If you haven't seen it yet, do check it out.

• Zeno Clash 2 is a thing! Hooray!

• Also in Ubisoft's conference, Assassin's Creed 3 went out for a jaunt in the snow, which ended very badly for some local wildlife and a British captain.

• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive got a release date and a nice cheap price point. That'll be Valve's only announce of E3 this year, most likely.

• In an announcement that's been so well telegraphed the chaps playing zero-G ping pong in the International Space Station saw it coming, Battlefield Premium was announced. Buy all of Battlefield 3's upcoming expansion packs for slightly cheaper, and get bonus stuff like dog tags and fancy camo.

• We got a closer look at Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 as well. It wasn't exactly surprising, but did feature flying war drones and a sniper rifle that can shoot through walls.

• Need for Speed: Most Wanted has been rebooted with an updated version of Criterion's multiplayer Autolog system.

• In horror news, Dead Space 3 will have a co-op mode, though it's hard to tell if it's really a survival horror game any more. There was a big focus on glowing weak spots and huge monsters in the E3 showing.

• News arrives of Tera's next update, which will overhaul two character classes and add new dungeons.

• Firaxis put out a rousing trailer for XCOM: Enemy Unknown just between the EA and Ubisoft conferences.

• South Park: The Stick of Truth brought a much needed gasp of humour to Microsoft's sorry showing today.

• A new planet, a new race, a level cap increase and a free trial are on the cards in Star Wars: The Old Republic

• In other republic news, Arma 2: Army of the Czeck Republic DLC was announced earlier.

• Blizzard have quietly released StarCraft 2 Arcade .

• Watson milks the limelight while standing in a puddle in this trailer for the Testament of Sherlock Holmes .

• Gandalf bricks it in the face of Lego Balrog in this LEGO Lord of the Rings video.

• I'm told the key to tiltshifting is to tilt and THEN shift, but it is rolling on 4am here in the UK and I don't know what I'm saying any more. Allow me to distract you with these SimCity shots .

• Here are the very first moving images of World of Battleships , at least showing a CGI imagining of what it'll be a bit like perhaps.

We'll be back bright and early tomorrow, ready to hit the show floor, grab some time with developers and see some games. Stay tuned to PCGamer.com for the latest, and let us know in the comments what you think about the show so far.