Live Blog: Microsoft's E3 Press Conference

Posted by Ramon Aranda on 07.14.2008

411mania is here at Microsoft's big E3 media briefing. Check ou tthe live blog for all the udpates from Los Angeles.



Hello everyone and welcome to 411mania's live coverage of Microsoft's E3 press conference here at the LA Convention Center. Keep it glued here as the brief is set to begin at 10:30 am PT!

10:30a: And we begin. Sitting here next to Tommy Coloma we are ready to go.

10:32a: We are reminded about the big franchises that succeeded over the last year such as Assassin's Creed and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. We are promised brand new games! Ok now on to the videos...first up Fallout 3. The teaser is a commercial of how family's (within the game) can purchase a Vault-Tec to protect themselves from nuclear blasts.

10:36a: We are now seeing live gameplay footage of the game. YOu can play as first or third person. An eyebot strolls through the street looking around. The Pip-Boy 3000, which holds all of your stats and information is attached to yoru arm. The game looks amazing. The grahpics are top notched and we see an enemy get blown into smitherines....we see in bullet time, someone's limbs blasted off with a shotgun - all while playing in marching band music lol.

10:39a: We're told the game has over 100 hours of gameplay which we had heard about all ready. You're basically walking around in a wasteland. You can play the game being a good person or a bad person. We're also told that the Xbox 360 and PC version will have exclusive downloadable content.

10:42a: Now it's time to check out Resident Evil 5...and it's a playable demo! YES!

10:43:a: The game is taking place in Africa and you are Chris Redfield. The demo is putting chris inside of a wore down building and is blasting away some enemies. Oh shit!! There is online co-op!!!! The backup partner is Sheva Alomar (spelling?). Chris cannot cross over to another building so Sheva comes over and helps Chris. Chris gives her a boost and she jumps over to the other building where she must fend off incoming foes who run like the dickens....they kind of remind me of the creeps from RE 4. Chris uses his sniper rifle from the other building and is blowing heads off. This looks badass.

10:46a: Now Sheva blats a lock and Chris can escape the building onto the other side. Now a cutscene....a new variation of the chainsaw enemy from RE4 and the demo ends, d'oh! But wait...one more thing....March 13, 2009 will be the release date for the game.

10:49a: Now Peter Molylneux is out. He says Fable II is finished and everying claps...about time Peter! We get an opening scene from the game which shows the town you'll no doubt be inhabiting at some point. We see the townspeople and then you, as a little kid who just got shit on by a bird.......hahaha.

10:50a: There are purple orbs around the game that signify that your friends are playing their own single player game. But this means you can activate it and bam, just like that your friends will jump into your world....SWEET. Of course you both have your own unique world and character. You can hang out at the bar and get drunk, or play games. We see the character go home to his wife and kid along with his buddy. The demo ends but we will certainly have more time with the game later this week. The game releases this October.

10:55a: We get a trailer for Gears of War 2 and Cliffy-B is out to talk about it. The locusts are back and are sinking cities and Dom and Marcus want to do something about it. Demo time! Oh and I think it just rebooted...d'oh. Ok here we go again..and this time it works. Marcus and Dom cross a building and are met with some baddies. Marcus gets a hold of one of them and uses it as a shield before breakign its neck. Cool stuff. More action in this destroyed construction site and suddenly the building collapses. They seem fine but now they look for a cavern.

10:59a: From a rooftop, Marcus does his best Rambo impersonation and mows down locusts without remorse. Now a Brumak finds them and all hell breaks loose. The pilot gets killed off and Marcus wants to kill it. But then again, they think about riding it instead and demo is over!! Interesting... 5-player co-op mode is included where you try to kill off hordes of Locusts. November 7th is the official release date.

11:02a: Time to talk about sales and install base. They have more than 5 million units in sale than the PS3. 3rd parties are making $2.2 million in software sales. We get a prediction that the Xbox 360 will outsell both the PS3 and Wii this generation...big words!

11:06a: 10,000 movies and TV shows available on Xbox Live.NBC and Universal Studios will join the lineup of partners for Xbox Live content. This includes content form USA and SciFi.

11:09a: Now John Schappert is up and he wants to talk about innovation...so what's next? He says the system udpate will change things! Let's see how.....Oh and we see the new Vista inspired interface. The dashboard looks prettys weet! You get instant access to all of your content using multi-layered windows. Your gamercard will in fact use a new avatar as was rumored a few weeks back. You can personalize this avatar with new clothes, accessories, hair, etc. The avatar system is explained. They development team wanted to make the dashboard experience more personal. You can see your friends' avatars so you can associate that with their Gamertag. The avatars basically create a community. There is a community channel so you can see who';s online with their avatars instead of just a list of Gamertags. There's a new thing called "Live Party" Up to 8 friends can chat and interact or play games together. You can always chat as a party. We are shown to the Photosharing party and see who's showing what. You can stream photos and share them to your party.

11:15a: We now get to see the Primetime channel. Anyone on Live can be in their own game shows. We get to see a short trailer of "1 vs. 100", a massive multiplayer game show. The bonus? You can actually win REAL prizes...sign me up! We now see the Game Channel. We're shown "UNO Rush" and your friends have jumped right into an UNO game coupled with those avatars. But wait, there's more!

11:18a: Geometry Wars 2 is announced!! This looks insane with multiplayer mode. It comes out next month. Now a sequel to Galaga?? Yep...Galaga Regions is announced and is brought to you by Namco Bandai. This will also be available next month and exclusively on XBLA.

11:20a: Whoa "Portal: Still Alive" is announced, from Valve! Thsi will be for the XBLA with new levels and achievements. Now we hear Cartman...wtf...ok, there will be a Southpark-based title for XBLA, but no gameplay or teaser footage. Community Games are shown off which are from XNA users.

11:22a: Netflix has partnered up exclusively with the Xbox 360. So if you are a Netflix subscriber, you can get content at no additional cost on Xbox Live. Now that's what I'm talking about! If you have your party of friends, you can share the movie you are watching with them. That's dope.

11:30a: We get to see the next Viva Pinata and Banjo game. Now we see "You're in the Movies". Looks kinda funny when you finish recording and put your actions into a final video.

11:38a: Time to talk about Guitar Hero: World Tour. A new guitar is included as was announced previously. As for the track list, there will be more than 85 songs just at launch. We're shown GH Tunes, where gamers can create their own tracks and post them online. Two more announcements: 360 gamers will be able to download an R.E.M. Track pack with three new songs before anyone else. Metallica is joining forces with GH: World Tour.

11:42a: A new (exclusive) music title for the Xbox 360....We get a video package of two players using two microphones to play karaoke. then someone p ugs in an iPod and suddenly there's new music playing...the game is called "Lips" which is available this holiday. This is being developed by iNiS, who brought us Elite Beat Agents. This will be the first game that lets you sing from your own music collection from your Zune or iPod. It will also include two wireless mics that light up during our performance. Seems like a pretty cool piece of software. We now get a live performance on stage by Duffy.

11:48a: Before the show is over, we get to see some clips of Rock Band 2 which launches exclusively for a short period on the Xbox 360. The entire set list is shown on the screen...umm...but it's huge so we can't read it...nice joke hah. Noteworthy stuff: Guns n' Roses will have a brand new track in the game from the new album Chinese Democracy. Bob Dylan and AC/DC ("Let there be Rock") will also be in the game exclusively to RB2. Downloadable tracks from Rock Band 1 will be exportable into Rock Band 2. A new track pack will be available around launch for free. 500 songs by late next year!

11:54a: Oh oh...there's one last announcement..and its from Square Enix...."Infinite Undiscovery" releases this September while "Star Ocean: The Last Hope" comes out in Spring 09. "The Last Remnant" comes out this holiday season. We get footage from Last Remnant....Looks epic! The trailer should be available on Xbox Live later today and we get the actual release date...November 20th worldwide. Will also be available on Games for Windows. Square Enix has left the building...

12:00p: Wait wait, there's one last announcement from Square Enix as the prez comes back on stage....and its a video...and it looks amazing...and and....it's FINAL FANTASY XIII and I want it NOW!!!!!


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