News > Microsoft Press Conference LIVE Blogging
July 10, 2007
GameWad is up late on the east coast to bring you a live report on Microsoft's pre-E3 press conference. All times in EDT.
11:35 - Peter Moore steps onstage and talks about the new E3, and how this is the first time Microsoft will be showing games that will ALL be released THIS year.
11:39 - Harmonix comes out to demo Rock Band. Moore sings...great?... Rock Band looks like a great multiplayer experience.
11:43 - Moore talks about Rock Band's multiplayer features. Names Nirvana, Black Sabbath, and The Who as some of the featured artists, with more to be announced soon.
11:44 - Brand new footage is shown of Viva Pinata: Party Animals. Moore describes it as basically a Mario Party -esque title. Mingames galore!
11:45 - Moore introduces Mass Effect, after which video footage is shown. The trailer makes the game look epic, with orchestrated music and clips of gameplay that suggest VERY deep plot development.
11:48 - Moore goes into economics. Game sales are on the rise; first year to surpass music. He moves on to Xbox 360 sales, specifically. Selling 2x PS3 since that consoles launch. In line with the Wii. Xbox has sold the most third party games. Third party games "cracked the top 10 list 18 times." $2.4 billion spent on Xbox hardware and software - 50% of the industry.
11:50 - Says top 5 selling games of last gen were GTA III, Vice City, San Andreas, Halo, Halo 2. Predicts GTA 4, Madden 08, and Halo 3 will drive a huge holiday season for MS.
11:52 - Video footage of PGR4, Stanglehold, Guitar Hero 3, Beautiful Katamari, NBA Live 08, Mass Effect, Fatal Inertia, Medal of Honor Airborne, Tiger Woods 08, Ace Combat 6, NHL 08, Assassin's Creed, Spider Man, The Simpsons, Splinter Cell Conviction, NASCAR 08, Eternal Sonata, Bioshock, Madden 08, Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, Crash of the Titans, Harry Potter, Half Life 2: Orange Box, Rock Band, Naruto....whew... I think I may have missed one or two.
11:56 - No more italicizing game titles for me... Jeff Bell is onstage. Talking about a board game planted on the 360...Scene It. Comes with new controller. Resembles a remote. Vertical orientation. One huge button on top with 4 in a line, straight down. Game comes with 4 of them, normal price.
11:58 - Shows video for Naruto: Rise of a Ninja. Lots of running in cell-shaded glory. Purdy blades of grass. One-on-one fisticuffs. Pretty over-the-top, like the anime.
12:00 - Talks about EA sports lineup, and how all the games will run at twice the speed as last gen. He's referring to the 60fps that these games will run at. Reggie Bush of the New Orleans Saints comes out to battle Jeff in Madden 08. Reggie whoops Jeff.
12:03 - Says that as of today, Xbox Live has gathered 7 million members. "One every eight seconds." Jeff moves on to XBL Arcade. "More than 100 games to choose from" by the end of this year, says Jeff.
12:05 - Video of new XBLA games. Sonic the Hedgehog is in there. Lots of small original titles. Old stuff like Track and Field and Golden Axe. A Doom-like FPS. Tetris Splash, Su Doku, Bomberman, etc.
12:07 - Sonic and Golden Axe available tonight.
12:08 - Talks about how XBL Video Marketplace far surpasses any cable company. Announces a partnership with Disney and shows a video of a ton of movies that are available TONIGHT on XBL.
12:11 - Bringing 360 Elite to Europe on August 24th. Introduces VP Shane Kim.
12:12 - "It's all about the games." Talks about Blue Dragon, Mass Effect, and Halo 3. No new info. Says games published by Microsoft games Studios has received the highest average review score of any publisher.
12:14 - PGR4 is demonstrated onstage. Announces that motorcycles will be included in PGR4.
12:15 - Over 120 cars in PGR4, in addition to the bikes. The game will have dynamic weather effects and is set in locales across the world. Players can share content online via "PGR on demand."
12:16 - Video is shown. The game looks incredible, graphically. Weather effects are sweet. Lots of dust particles and water splashing. Bikes doing wheelies, cars drifting around corners. Nice looking stuff.
12:18 - Kim back on stage. Talks of Alan Wake, Too Human, Fable 2, Banjo Kazooie, Halo Wars. Speaks of partnership with Peter Jackson.
12:19 - Shows video of Sakaguchi's Lost Odyssey. The game looks great, RPG action involving grander-scale battles, and a story spanning 10,000 years.
12:21 - Gears of War officially announced for Windows. (Viva Pinata, too)
12:22 - Cliffy B on stage to talk about Gears. Number one on Xbox 360 and on XBL. (we knew that, Cliff). On PC there are 5 new single-player chapters, a new multiplayer mode, new multiplayer maps...and a Brumak fight. He demos that battle. Brumak has a Troika mounted on it's head, it seems. Tons of lead flying as Cliff dodges between downed pillars. He cuts the fight short, so as not to spoil the end. Looks huge.
12:25 - Moore back on stage. Talks of Games For Windows LIVE. Sega, Eidos, and THQ are the first partners. GFWL built into Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3.
12:27 - Now mentions EA and Activision taking part in the GFWL project. Shows a video of various PC games. Hellgate: London, Stranglehold, Age of Empires, Bioshock, Gears of War, Crysis,Universe at War, Blacksite: Area 51, World in Conflict, Age of Conan, Lost Planet, Company of Heroes, Zoo Tycoon, Juiced 2, Viva Pinata, and Spider Man, among others.
12:30 - Talks of Call of Duty 4, for both the 360 and PC. Shows video. Lots of...Modern Warfare. Russian, American, British voice acting. Beautiful graphics. Video entirely on actual gameplay.
12:33 - Infinity Ward comes onstage to show of their game, live. Says it's all about variety this time around. "We're going deep, and we're going hard." Uh...ok.
12:34 - Scottish voice acting now, as they play the game for the audience in Santa Monica. Some camouflaged sniper action. Great real-time shadows. Entering a church....uh-oh. Ok, no shooting in there. On to the next area as a helicopter flies by. This game features lots of running through fields. Laying prone in grass now, avoiding conflict with large numbers of enemies. Demo ends.
12:38 - Announce an XBL-only beta. COD.com for details
12:38 - Splinter Cell Conviction. 360 exclusive.
12:39 - GTA4. Shows Rockstar's second trailer from June 28th. Tells the crowd that all the footage for BOTH of Rockstar's trailers was taken from 360 hardware.
12:40 - Two new episodes release before spring 08 for GTA4. ONLY on 360. (we knew that, too)
12:41 - 360 is the only place to play VF5 online. Devil May Cry 4 coming to Xbox 360
12:42 - Only game they are showing that won't release this year. Oh SHIT. It's Resident Evil 5. It looks to be set in Africa or the caribbean, where the citizens are afflicted with...something. Full trailer available on XBL on July 26th.
12:44 - The most attractive game producer ever, Jade Raymond comes out to show Assassin's Creed. Panning around the city from a bird's eye view, she says that everything you see is interactive. Leaps off a building to go after a target. Walks through the city of Jerusalem, using the crowd to..well, be even more conspicuous. Wall-climbing still looks amazing and seamless. Pushes guard off a building to draw attention, then goes where she wants to go. A quick kill looks great. The Assassin falls into a trap, and is surrounded. Lots of dialog. Fighting looks amazing. Everything is smooth, focusing on timed counter-attacks, which are based on the ANIMATIONS of the enemies. Altair's moves are awesome. I had a wow moment in there. They demo a chase scene, which will always be different, according to Jade. "Great kill at the end" - Peter Moore. Ha! Well, he's right.
12:51 - A live action short film is shown, offering a glimpse into the world of Halo 3. Assembly line footage - Spartan armor. Soldiers getting hair buzzed. Warthogs on the assembly line. Not really much worth screaming about here.
12:53 - Halo 3 Special Edition Xbox 360 console announced for November. It's all green, with a matching controller. Nobody applauds for about 30 seconds.
12:54 - Moore runs down the list of the Xbox 360's holiday lineup. Honestly, it is a LEGIT group of games. Gamers may not have enough money to play all of the excellent games on the way for the console this winter.
12:56 - "Finish the fight." A new Halo 3 trailer is shown. Lots of on-foot and vehicular combat. The game is looking better, graphically, than June's beta. Basically a montage of gameplay, ending with a close-up of Master Chief.
12:58 - Fin.
This was certainly an impressive pre-E3 conference. Microsoft showed off a lot of great games and didn't talk about much of anything other than what gamers are interested in. The only thing that was lacking from this event were huge, unexpected announcements, but either way, Sony and Nintendo have their work cut out for them to top MS.
I hope there aren't too many errors in there, but I don't feel like checking it over, so please forgive me. Enjoy the rest of our E3 coverage.
*Eddie R Inzauto - Senior Editor, GameWad.com
