Microsoft are the first of the big three to get things in motion this year, kicking off their press conference in style, and maintaning a good show throughout. Highlights include an exclusive playthrough of Rock Band, a set release date for Mass Effect, and some very interesting sales figures...

It's been an interesting week for Microsoft, with industry analylists expecting a 360 price drop (which sadly turned out to be untrue), and the company's decission to extend a 3 year warranty for Red Ring of Death plagued consoles. Neither of these subjects would take a focus as Microsoft's E3 press conference though, as the company set down to business and outline its plans for the year ahead.

HALO FANS PLAY TRIBUTE

As journalists and industry figures took their seats and made themselves confortable in the Santa Monica High School open air auditorium, the setting for Microsoft's E3 conference, the show quickly got into hight gear as a string of familiar music notes rose from the stage; a group of young Halo fans, who also happen to be their own band, have been given the honour of opening the event by playing the iconic Halo music live on stage; a soft rock focus with a strong violen backing.

The name of the band for those of you who are curious; Corporeal, a group of five Halo fans from Libertyville, Illinois.

Peter Moore takes to the stage, applauding the talent of the band and paying homage to the love and interest of the fans that has kept the series going, before getting into the meat of the presentation.

First words of note by Moore: "Every demo and game you see here tonight be out this year"

PETER MOORE ROCKS OUT. BADLY!

Here's where it gets interesting. The first presentation of the night is the upcoming Rock Band, a title aiming to merge the guitar, drums and singing all into one game. What took most by surprise was when Moore himself picked up the Stratocaster inspired Rock Band guitar and started playing, along with the game's developers, including series developer and "The Longest Journey" creator Alex Rigopolous.

Unfortunately, Moore's attempts at playing the Rock Band guitar were so terrible that they actually pulled his amp out, much to the audience's amusement and laughter.

MASS EFFECT HAS BIG EFFECT

After a terribly boring preview of... a Viva Pinata party game.... yawn, Moore continued onto one of the 360's most hotly anticipated exclusives, Mass Effect. Keith David (Goliath from Gargoyles, geek fans) will be lending his voice talents to the lead road for the title... WHICH WILL BE RELEASED IN NOVEMBER!

Excuse me while I go hyperventilate for a moment.

INDUSTRY GROWTH AND FUTURE

After killing half the audience with the earth shattering announcement of Mass Effect's much closer than expected release, the company decides to pile on the industry figures, which go as shown:

5.6 million 360s sold since lauch. Highest installed userbase of all current formats. Since Wii/PS3 launch, $2.4 billion has been spent on 360 related items. Interestingly, whilst the Wii is currently the highest selling console on the market, it is the 360 that is selling the most games; almost double the amount of the PS3 and Wii combined.

Moore decided to teach all gamers a quick history lesson by reversing back to 2004, a year when 3 tittles defined 1/3 of the Christmas sales; Halo 2, Madden, and Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. This same games line-up is set to occur against this year, like a nostalgic lunar eclipse, in the form of Halo 3, Madden '08, and Grand Theft Auto IV, which Moore strongly believe will set the 360 up as the leading console on the market for many years to come.

IT'S A MONTAGE!

Insert generic montage for purpose of covering all the titles that most people don't care about, and a few that everyone is desperate to get their hands all, all of which are slated for release this year: Beautiful Katamari, Lost Odyssey, NBA: Live 08, Mass Effect, Fatal Inertia, plinter Cell: Conviction, NASCAR 08. Eternal Sonata, BioShock, NHL 08, Assassin's Creed, Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, Simpsons, SHarry Potter, Half-Life 2: Orange Box, Call of Duty 4, Stranglehold, Guitar Hero III, Madden NFL 08, Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, Crash of the Titans, Medal of Honor: Airborne, Tiger Woods 08, Ace Combat 6, Bee Movie Game, Rock Band, and Naruto.

SCENE IT? SCENE MORE CHARISMA IN A CORPSE

Microsoft corporate VP Jeff Bell took to the stage next, desperate to steal the limelight of varius other competitors and sound interesting in the process, instead proving to be a complete and utter bore. Bell presents new 360 tittle Scene It? , based on the hit boardgame (in the US, at least) and displays a "new" controller that seems to bear more than a passing resemblance to the Buzz controller. The title is "designed for the whole family", which essentially boils down to "We're trying to appeal to the group that Nintendo has so successfully won over, and this is our rather miserable attempt at doing so".

Trailer for a new Naruto game follows. The world finally realises it doesn't care about emotionally angry blond haired teenagers trying to "find themselves" and promptly forgets this entire segment of the show.

ELECTRONIC ARTS IS OUR FRIEND!!

Continuing to bore us all to death after the conference's great start, Bell details E.A.'s commitment to the Xbox 360, whose newest sports titles will run "twice as fast" as last year's game... whatever the hell that's supposed to mean. Little realising that most gamers know anything about sports and failing to understand it's own market, Bell brings on famed NFL star Reggie Bush of the New Orleans Saints, who just so happens to love the 360, to "vouch" for the game's quality. Of course, Bell then proceeds to get his ass handed to him when the two go head to head in one of Madden 2008... which is sadly the only point in the conference in which Bell shows any sort of charisma or personality.

IT'S A MONTAGE!! PART II

The next part of the conference focuses on Microsoft's very successful Xbox Live, announcing that the service now eclipses over 7 million users, and Microsoft are aiming for the 10 million mark by this time year.

And now, it's time for another montage: Spyglass Board Games, Golden Axe, Space Giraffe (BY JEFF MINTER! YOU HAVE TO GET THIS!), Track & Field, Marathon 2: Durandal, Switchball, Tetris, Puzzle Quest, Super Puzzle Fighter II, War World, Sensible World of Soccer, Every Extend Extra Extreme, Hexic 2, classic Sonic, Wing Commander Area, Buko Sudoku, among others.

It seems Disney and Microsoft are bed-fellows now as well, as the Xbox Live Video Marketplace will be chuck full of the latest Disney releases from now on, just in time to coincide with the launch of the Video Marketplace in Europe and Canada, no less. Titles will include: Tarzan, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Emperor's New Groove. From Touchstone, the movies include Waterboy, Unbreakable, Armageddon, Brothers Grimm, Bringing Down the House, Coyote Ugly, Primeval, The Queen, and Venus

RANDOM FILLER CRAP

Someone a little more charismatic finally takes to the stage; Microsoft Games Studios head and corporate VP Shane Kim, focusing his attention or highlighting what really matters to all of us... the games.

Kim talks his way through what is turning out to be an extremely strog line-up for the 360, mentioning Blue Dragon, Lost Oddyssey (both by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi), Mass Effect and Halo 3 as some of the strongest gems this years.

Racing titles get a mention; Forza 2 is apparently the biggest 360 in Europe, and Project Gotham Racing 4 is set for realease latter in the year, with an entirely new vehicle added to the mix; motorcycles. For fans, this should prove to be a very exciting addition.

Kim also mentions Fable 2, Too Human, Halo Wars and Alan Wake as some other major titles that consumers have to look forward to this year, strengtening an already impressive line-up of titles.

Lost Oddyssey, the anticipated brainchild of Final Fantasy creator Hinonobu Sakaguchi (which character design by famed Final Fantasy artist Yoshitaka Amano and music by famed Final Fantasy music composer Nobuo Uematsu) gets the momentary spotlight with a full blown trailer. Yes, the lead might have long spikey hair, and yes, he may be overly emotional and angst-ridden, but my god does he look good doing it!

IT'S A MONTAGE! PART III

Random Games for Window information and trailers follow, presented by Cliffy B (yes, that's what they call him). It appears that Gears of War and Viva Pinata will be heading to the PC later in the year, will full Windows Live support.

Another montage of titles, this time for PC, follow: Universe at War, BlackSite: Area 51, Opposing Fronts, Age of Conan, Lost Planet, Bee Movie Game, Flight Simulator, Zoo Tycoon 2: Extinct Animals, Juiced 2, Viva Pinata, Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, World in Conflict, Age of Empires III: Asian Dynasties, BioShock, Crysis, Kane & Lynch, Company of Heroes and Hellgate: London, among others.

MORE RANDOM FILLER CRAP

After a quick look at a number of different windows titles, including Call of Duty 4, something appears completely out of the blue.... why's it's Grand Theft Auto 4 for the Xbo 360! I bet nobody expected that one! So what's so special about this that we haven't already seen in the previous GTA4 trailer? Well, real time footage for the trailers is direct from the 360 version, and more excitely, it appears that the game is going to have downloadable episodes which will be exclusive to Xbox Live!

Resident Evil 5 also get a little love, with an very well crafted trailer feating some disturbingly well detailed zombies. Resident Evil 5 is the only title from the show that won't be released this year!

ASSASIN'S CREED DEMO!

The Assassin's Creed demo would turn out to be one of the major highlights of the show. You can find a full rundown of the demo at the following link.

- Assassin's Creed demo blows audiences away!

HALO 3

Halo 3 would make up the closing act of Microsoft's E3 Press Confernence, offering some exclusive information relatiing to the franchise; a live action short, a new console themed after the game, and an entirely new trailer. Full details can be found at the following link:

- Microsoft unveil new Halo 3 trailer

THE CLOSING WORD

"Our cards are on the table. This is who we are, and what we will deliver to you, this holiday."

Microsoft seems very confident, and its E3 presentation certainly gives the company plenty of reason to be; short on major surprised, but packed to the brim with quantity, and rather substantial amount of quality.

If you've actually managed to read this far, I'll leave the opinions on the conference up to you.

If you're interested in watching the conference in full, you can find it at the following link:

- Microsoft's E3 2007 Conference

Tags : Assassins Creed : corporeal : E3 2007 : halo 3 : Mass Effect : microsoft : peter moore

Comments

By: Corrine On: 11:06 Jul 11th, 2007 Offline	Holy crap this is a big article. "Every demo and game you see here tonight will be out this year" frankly impressed me, and some of the games listed make me think about getting the 360. The sheer libido of this console for new games is rather impressive, especially compared to what else it out now. If Microsoft keeps this up I may look into saving some money to put into their pockets. I wonder which system will benefit the most from E3 this year - the 360 is certainly prepared for it.

By: Zombie Hugz On: 11:30 Jul 11th, 2007 Offline	Assassin's Creed, FTW.