Hirai will speak at 2.00pm Japanese time (9.00pm PST, 12.00am EST, 5.00am BST, 6.00am CET) which means a lot of people in the US and especially the UK may be sleeping. Don’t worry though, as soon as you awake on Monday morning the web will likely have exploded with news following the conference.

Batman: Arkham City

An even better version of the best Batman game to date, but now taking place across a large chunk of Gotham City rather than just Arkham Asylum? Of course we’re into that — even if the new trailer that premiered at the Spike VGAs showed no gameplay. For fans not familiar with that trailer’s villain Dr. Hugo Strange, here’s a quick primer: Strange is a psychologist who becomes obsessed with Batman, deduces his true identity, and takes to dressing as the caped crusader. This follow-up seems huge if both Strange and Two-Face have major roles, in addition to other classic villains like Joker and Mr. Freeze.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

It’s odd to think that a team composed mostly of members of the Rainbow Six Vegas development team will be making the next Deus Ex installment, but from what we’ve seen so far, they actually have a damn good handle on it. Wise decisions such as, “be inspired by the first game while largely ignoring the disappointing second game,” and, “maintain the multiple play-style design approach” help a lot in that regard. Plus, it just plain looks great, and seeing every mission so far finished in a variety of ways gives us confidence. This is easily an action-RPG that we can’t wait to sneak/shoot/talk through.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

It’s hard to get excited about a game when all we really have to go on is a title and a brief trailer that shows cavern wall. But when the game has Elder Scrolls in its title, goose bumps start to form. While it’s not clear if Skyrim will be powered by a new graphics engine or not, this is still one of the best fantasy franchises of all time — every entry has been remarkable dating all the way back to Arena. With so many lessons learned fromFallout 3, Bethesda has a lot to live up to and we expect Skyrim to be one of our game of the year contenders this time next year.

Child of Eden

Ask developer Q Entertainment, and they’ll tell you this isn’t a follow-up to the PS2 and Dreamcast music/shooter fusion Rez. But ask anyone else, and they’ll tell you Q is just being cute and doesn’t want to put that label on it. This is Rez 2, just without the name, and it’s one of the prettiest, most unusual-looking games slated for next year. The Kinect controls were rough at a recent preview event, but with a controller this seems like far and away the safest bet around for hardcore rail-shooter fans.

Mass Effect 3

If you’ve played Mass Effect 2, then there’s probably no need to explain why we think Mass Effect 3 is one of our most sought-after games of 2011. The universe that BioWare has created is just as detailed as any established science fiction property, and it’s amazing they’ve been able to craft a story as compelling as it already is. We’re looking forward to more hybrid shooter/RPG action (hopefully, with a bit more RPG added back in now that the shooting is damn good), and more importantly, another jaunt through the galaxy (and Earth!) with Commander Shepard and crew as they fight to save pretty much everyone from the invading Reapers.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Naughty Dog has always been a fine developer, but it’s their crafting of Nathan Drake’s adventures that pretty much make them the definitive PlayStation 3 developer. Recall thatUncharted 2, besides being a significant improvement over the first title gameplay-wise, is also pretty much the best looking game of the past few years. What Naughty Dog did with urban combat and snow, they are now turning towards sand and who knows what else. Another fantastic looking game with tons of tiny details (look at how the fire propagates throughout the room in recent videos), another sharp script that rivals movies in terms of delivery and content, and more gameplay enhancements

Gears of War 3

Someone must have walked into Epic Games and shouted, “make it better!” (we’re assuming design director Cliff Bleszinski). Oh, and they listened! There are a lot of welcome improvements to Gears of War 3 so far — such as four-player campaign co-op, and dedicated servers for multiplayer. We haven’t even seen the real campaign itself yet; we’re hoping that we’ll get a chance to finally meeting Adam Fenix (protagonist Marcus Fenix’s father) and fighting the new Lambent (along with the familiar Locust). More is better, and Gears of War 3 knows this. Besides, curbstomping (whether online or on an unlucky A.I. Locust) never gets old.

L.A. Noire

What’s most refreshing about Rockstar’s next game is how decidedly “un-Rockstar” it is (likely a by-product of being developed by Team Bondi instead of internally). Rather than another sprawling open-world criminal action game in a satirical fake city, we’re getting a more focused graphic adventure game where you play a cop in real-world Los Angeles. The MotionScan technology which makes digital actors look eerily like actual actors is pretty slick, but we’re more intrigued by the blend of shooting, driving, puzzle-solving, and just plain talking. Plus, it’s neat how every case is based on a real-life mystery, and we’re looking forward to being better detectives than the original fellows who investigated the real version.

Last Guardian

The team behind PS2 classics Ico and Shadow of the Colossus has been working on their first PS3 game for a long time, with a concept that looks to pull aspects from both of their previous games — the sneaking gameplay of Ico, the giant creatures of SOTC — and an art style that’s far more detailed and beautiful than they’ve been able to do in the past. Much like the team’s other games, The Last Guardian should be a mix of an emotional story and action/puzzle mechanics. And after about five years in development, Sony says it’s actually shipping at the end of 2011. Fingers crossed.

Project Draco

Law enforcement agencies are already looking into the PlayStation Network outage and data breach. Now the Department of Homeland Security is joining the investigation, according to a report on NextGov, a site dedicated to covering the intersection of technology and government.

“The Department of Homeland Security is aware of the recent cyber intrusion to Sony’s PlayStation Network and Qriocity music service,” DHS spokesman Chris Ortman told the site. “DHS’ US Computer Emergency Readiness Team [CERT] is working with law enforcement, international partners, and Sony to assess the situation.”

CERT is a subagency dedicated to helping companies that are the subject to cyberattacks evaluate their vulnerabilities and then recommend steps to remedy them. The goal is to take the lessons learned from the attacks and then offer them to other government agencies and private companies to promote overall cybersecurity.

“We’re all in this together,” said Patrick Burke, a senior vice president in the national security sector at SRA International, a DHS contractor. “We all need to understand that. There’s an adversary that we’re trying to defeat.”

NextGov also re-confirmed that the FBI is helping Sony track down the hackers whose attack has kept the PSN down for a ninth day. “The FBI is aware of the reports concerning the alleged intrusion into the Sony online game server and we have been in contact with Sony concerning this matter,” FBI Special Agent Darrell Foxworth said in a statement. “We are presently reviewing the available information in an effort to determine the facts and circumstances concerning this alleged criminal activity.”

Those direct losses are likely the least of Sony’s woes though. Indirect losses from the lack of consumer trust and confidence in the system will likely cost much more. Legal compensation is another potential cost. The Ponemon Institute speaking to Forbes placed the average cost of a criminal data breach at $318 for each record lost. At 77 million registered users, that makes for a hefty sum of just under $24.5 billion, and that doesn’t take into account any costs associated with regaining consumer trust.

Hulu has already offered a free week of service in response to the downtime to subscribers, and Kotaku says that Sony has a range of special events and compensations planned this weekend for DC Universe Online and Free Realms. Who knows what Sony will need to do for compensation to gain consumer trust in the coming months.

And of course there’s the expense of making sure that this doesn’t happen again such as security investigation costs as well as rebuilding the network. Sony has asked developers to install a new SDK with advanced security features during the downtime to keep history from repeating itself.