GDC 2012 has just kicked off. We're live on the show floor

GDC is less console iteration and booth babe than E3.

The Games Developers Conferencehas just begun in San Francisco. Devs from every corner of the industry are congregating to talk about their craft. It's a very exciting time.

GDC is less console iteration and booth babe than E3. It's more about quiet announcements and candid industry chatter. That said, this year's show is already shaping up nicely, especially for us PC gamers. We have men on the ground, sniffing out scoops in real-time.

Will Valve open the Pandora's box that is the Steam Box? What's the mystery game that EA are due to announce on Tuesday? What will Sid Meierhave to say in his keynote speech? Are Hitman Absolution's crowds extremely good or a bit good? Read on for the highlights.

The conference begins low-key but unpredictable. Today, we'll be attending various talks from indie developers and meeting up with Paradox Interactive. Tuesday is a similar affair, though some Planetside 2news might break later on.

Things get really exciting on Wednesday. Lord of Civ, Sid Meieris doing a talk on Interesting Decisions, Notchis having a Fireside Chat, Square Enix are talking Deus Exand Valve are talking TF2. There's also rumours of a mystery game getting announced by EA in their Game Changersconference. It could relate to more Sim City news, or something even more exotic. IO Interactive will also be unveiling Hitman Absolution's outstanding-looking crowd tech.

We've got a bundle of interviews on Thursday with some of your favourite devs, but we can't give away too much yet. We'll also be attending postmortems on Portal 2, The Old Republic, Fallout, The Witcher 2and League of Legends. It's going to be one hell of an insightful day. Keep an eye on our GDC 2012 tagfor more.

Biowarekick off Friday's schedule with a talk on Contrast and Context in Story and Cinematics. There'll also be discussion from Zyngaand PopCap, an analysis of recent Indie hit Dear Esther, along with chats on experimental play sessions, game dev parent's rants and the nature of game reviews. We'll almost definitely have something to say about all that.

And then it'll be over. The most exciting developments won't be on the schedule, so keep an eye on our GDC 2012tag for more. Excitement!