The 2014 Game Developers Conference kicks off next week, so we're taking a moment to highlight some of our favorite upcoming sessions for the Main Conference that you'll want to check out. Advance online registration for next week's conference has now closed, but you can still register onsite at the registration desks in the North Hall of San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center. The registration area is open for varying lengths of time from Sunday through Friday, March 16-21, and you can find the exact hours on the GDC 2014 Registration pageCome from Soccer 13 pools and matches . Today we're showcasing a handful of GDC 2014 talks that exemplify the breadth and depth of the conference programming, with special emphasis on the Main Conference show opener: a Flash Forward session, headlined by PlayStation 4 lead architect Mark Cerny and former Epic president Mike Capps, which will offer the audience a brief rundown of some of the talks that are worth checking out during the show.

Flash Forward

This year we're kicking off GDC's Main Conference with the third annual Flash Forward session, starting at 9:30am on Wednesday, March 19 in the West Hall of Moscone Convention Center – open to all All Access and Main Conference passholders. This year the Flash Forward presenters have been hand-picked by the GDC Advisory Board, ensuring that the session will feature an eclectic mix of speakers that represents the full breadth of the conference. Those selected will have the chance to grab attendees' attention by taking the stage for a brief period of time — 30-45 seconds, tops — to present a rapid-fire overview of what their session is and why it's worth checking out. This year GDC Advisory Board members and game industry veterans Mark Cerny and Michael Capps return to headline the hour-long session, presenting their own take on the state of the industry before participating in what always proves to be fun, fast-paced event that highlights some of the best talks GDC 2014 has to offer.

Classic Game Postmortem: Shenmue

Yu Suzuki, the influential Japanese game designer famously known for his work at Sega, will be delivering a Classic Game Postmortem session on the iconic Dreamcast game Shenmue. Mark Cerny, game designer and lead system architect for PlayStation 4 will be on-hand to translate Suzuki's presentation into English for the audience during the talk, which will take place next Wednesday, March 19, at 2 PM in Moscone North. Suzuki, currently president of his own studio Ys Net, will talk for the very first time about the creation of the console classic Shenmue. Beginning with the origin of the title as a Virtua Fighter-based RPG on the Sega Saturn, he will take the audience through the long journey of the game that led to its ultimate release in 1999 on the Sega Dreamcast

Rant Apocalypse: 10th anniversary extravaganza

The popular GDC rant session turns ten this year, and organizers Jason Della Rocca and Eric Zimmerman are celebrating by bringing back the best ranters from years past. Rant Apocalypse: The 10th Anniversary Mega Session will feature Brenda Romero, Clint Hocking, Heather Chaplin, Ian Bogost and more, plus a slew of surprises and some good-natured shouting. Cutting through the clutter of polite industry chit-chat, the rant session takes on the issues that matter to developers in a no-holds-barred format. Of course, the rant session is about identifying solutions as well as problems. Topics will address issues of concrete importance to the game industry. Expect impassioned diatribes, cutting critiques and burning-hot manifestos. Of course, all of the announced talks are now available in the online GDC 2014 Session Scheduler, where you can begin to build your conference week and export it to the GDC Mobile App. GDC 2014 itself will take place next week, March 17-21, at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California. Advance online registration for the conference is now closed, but you can still register onsite in Moscone's North Hall. For more information on GDC 2014, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS. Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech