Well, not really. I'm watching the press conference on G4 and will post my comments on what they say here:
---------------------
11:30pm - It's starting now. Morgan Webb looks pretty good but why a pant suit? Hopefully she'll wear something a little more low cut tomorrow.
Five Halo fans from Libertyville, Illinos started the show off by rocking out the Halo theme. They actually sound pretty good. While they're playing a montage (MONTAGE) of Halo screen shots is playing on the big screen. Should have had some multiplayer fottage up there in my opinion. Pwnage to music :)
The chick on the violin is pretty cute in that geeky chick kinda way. By the way the keypad for the 360 controller goes on sale 9/4/07 for 29.99.
The big Kahuna, Peter Moore has just hit the stage. Tatoo's anyone? Let's see...
Every game they show tonight will be coming out this year so that's pretty exciting.
ROCK BAND STARTS IT OFF!!!! Live demo. Very excited about this one. Moore is rocking out with the guys at Harmonix. There were rumors floating around that RB is going to be exclusive to 360 that would be a definate kill shot on sony. Moore apparently sucks at Rock Band becasue he had to be brought back into play a couple times. The chick singing from Harmonix is pretty cute too. lol Moore paused it by accident.
-------------------
Ok. there's a commercial. I apologize is this is a little disjointed tonight. I'm just writing what I see and I will post my impressions during the breaks. Rock band looks pretty cool and I'm thinking, being that it started the MS press conference, that it may very well be exclusive. No confirmation wet so we'll have to wait and see. This looks to be a really strong lineup for this holiday season.
As a little sidebar, I'm getting a feeling that MGS4 may not be as exclusive as Sony would like it. I think that's Moore's next tatoo. If that's the case Prototype is not going to be amused lol.
-------------------
11:46 - They're back and Mass Effect is on. November for Mass Effect...too damn long. Apparently more people will spend more money on games than music this year. 360 is outselling the PS3 2 to 1 and is in a neck and neck race with the Wii as far as console numbers go. 360 seems to be the system to go to for 3rd party games, very interesting. The top 5 games of the last generation were the GTA games and Halo 1 and 2. The top 3 franchises (GTA, Halo and Madden) can only be found on the 360 together.
MONTAGE!! PGR4, Gundam, CoD 4, Stranglehold, GH III, Beautiful Katamari, Lost Odysey, Live 08, Mass Effect, Fatal Inertia, MoH Airborne, Tiger Woods, Ace Combat 6, NHL 08, Assassin's Creed, Spider Man: Friend or Foe, The Simpsons, SC: Conviction, NASCAR, Eternal Sonata, Bioshock, Madden, TH Proving Ground, Crash, Harry Potter, HL: Orange Box, Bee Movie, Rock band, Naruto
Jeff Bell is hitting the stage from Global Marketing. He's talking about the mass market. Scene It is coming out for the 360 built for the 360 and with a new controller. Then they went to commercial...
--------------------
Some clarification due to having to type fast. 360 is the only comsole you can find GTA, Madden and Halo together, GTA and Madden aren't exclusive to the 360 but Halo is. Analysts are saying that the "3 hit combo" will heavily boost sales for the 360 in both hardware and software.
--------------------
11:58 - Naruto video just finished. Jeff Bell seems to be the dedicated "Hey this console is for everybody, stop looking at the Wii" guy. He has just said that Madden and the other EA Sports titles will run smoother than last year (they better, Madden was choppy as hell).
Reggie Bush just came out to give a live demo of this years Madden. Bell just got owned. They game looks a lot smoother than last year and Bell said that Bush "schooled" him. Talking about Live now. 7 million members on Live and I still only play with 5 people lol. ARCADE TALK! 45 million arcade game downloaded
MONTAGE!! Bomberman, Hexic 2, Undertow, Sonic, War World, Sensible soccer, Every Extend Extra Extreme4, Geon, Wing Commander, Feeding Frenzy 2, Track and Field, Spyglass, Golden Axe, Space Giraffe, SPF Turbo, Word Puzzle, Marathon, Poker Smash, Switchball, Tetris Splash, Puzzle Quest, Sudoku.
2 new games tonight!!! Sonic and Golden Axe!
Talking about video marketplace now. Lot's of DL going on. Disney Agreement will bring classics to mp
MONTAGE!!! Going way too fast. Lot's of big movies though, the whole catalog. Includes Touchstone and anything ever touched by Disney apparently.
All movies available to DL tonight! This includes future movies that Disney releases, they'll all be on MP. Rolling out to Canada and Euroupe soon. Elite too!
Shane Kim hitting the stage! I like this guy, more upfront than Kutaragi. Kim;s talking about the games, good thing being that it's E3. Games published by MS recieved an average higher score than other 1st party titles. Talking about PGR4 now (which has motorcycles btw)
PGR4 demo going on right now by two of the developers. Showing off the bikes and they can race along side cars and do tricks to earn kudos. Commercial.
-------------------
It's nice that Sonic and Golden Axe are available tonight but weren't they announced at last year's E3? Big surprise (to me at least) was that a new version of Marathon is coming out for XBLA. And the partnership with Disney and it's properties is HUGE, especially that they are putting the movies out in HD. PGR4 looks good, I'll probably check it out. And apparently MS loves the Montages lol
-------------------
12:20 - Talking about PC titles. Gears of War coming this Christmas with a level editor and some other suprises for the PC. Cliffy B just hit the stage to talk about the windows version. Cliffy's rocking the fauxhawk, should have stuck with the shag do.
Playing co-op with "Rod" over Live on the PC. YOU GET TO FIGHT THE BUG TANK THING IN THE PC VERSION!!! That had better come out for the 360 version or I'm gonna be pissed. New achievements for the PC version too!
Peter Moore is back on stage. Talking more about Live Anywhere and Games for Windows Live. THQ, Eidos and Sega are new partners. Games for Windows Live support is now built into Unreal Engine 3. That's interesting. Now talking about Vista and there's a commercial...
---------------------
Mother Bitch....I wanted to fight the Brumak in Gears since the game first showed it now the PC players get to fight it!?! Interesting question I'm posing here: If Gears is Live Enabled for the PC will it allow cross platform play? And if it does are we gonna get some DLC with the Brumak? I hope so otherwise that segment is really going to anger me.....
----------------------
12:31 - CoD 4 being shown. It sure as hell is nice to be out of WW II. I was getting tired of that scenery. CoD looks hella impressive! Developers of CoD coming on stage for a live demo of the game. On the scroller under the screen - Viva Pinata: Party Animals? Must have shown that during the commercial. Scene it coming with one handed party controller for 60 bucks.
Back to the video. CoD looks scary realistic, very very detailed. It looks a lot deeper than the other CoD's. One thing I've noticed: No yelling. Every character in game is using their headset.
Demo ends with an announcement. CoD MULTIPLAYER BETA OVER LIVE!!! FREAKING SWEET!!!! Check charlieoscardelta.com
Splinter Cell: Conviction coming up now and it's exclusive to the 360, I forgot about that. GTA IV on now. They are showing the second trailer again and Moore confirmed that all footage shown thus far has been from the 360 version and it's been Real Time. Exclusive episodes will be available in the spring exclusivley for the 360.
Now talking about Japanese publishers. VF5 online (WOO!) Ace Combat, Eternal Sonata, DMC, Dynasty Warriors Gundam, Katamari, DDR amd something special....
RESIDENT EVIL 5!!!! Only game shown not coming this year, damn it....
July 26th the full version of RE5 trailer will be available on marketplace...
Assasins Creed being shown in real time now. This looks freaking amazing. The crowd physics are amazing and they all act differently, some help and some hinder. I must play this now!!!!!! This looks like Prince of Persia on steroids! Lot's of realistic combat and coutners in the game. "Boss" characters have their own "chase" AI and will taunt you you if you lag too far behind. CAUGHT HIM BY THE NECK AND STABBED HIM IN THE HEAD!!! Available in November....
Moore is back. Talking about Star Wars, where's he going with this? Ah, it's a build up to Halo 3. New Live action short about Halo 3. Lots of machinery being shown, like a factory and some dude got his head shaved. Showcasing "Real" marines in Halo 3 and the dropship.
Halo GREEN Xbox 360!!! With Halo GREEN Accessories!!!! Now I have to buy it, it's green....Dammit.
Recap of games coming out this holiday.....Blah Blah Blah.
At the End, new Halo Footage from the single player game. Looks like real time...
I SAW ARBITER NEXT TO CHIEF!!!
Abrupt Commercial
---------------------------
I have to say I'm raelly surprised that there was now mention of MGSIV. I was really expecting it. No new Peter Moore tatoo either. The line up looks really strong and like Peter Moore said, they have everything on the table. It's put up or shut up time for Sony, Nintendo's happy doing their own thing. They didn't say whether the Halobox 360 is an Elite or not.....
Speaking of the Elite, why is the Arbiter back? No word on if he's playable or not but he wasn't well recieved in H2, why bring him back?
The fact that there is a CoD 4 open beta is cool. And Assasin's Creen looks amazing. RE5 looks really good and the full trailer will be available later this month. I'm sure there will be new announcements out this week, we'll just have to wait and see. They really didn't talk about any '08 games (other than RE5) so there is probably plenty more to show. No price drop for the 360 was announced (kinda like a big FU to Sony) pretty much saying "Sony, bring the games". We'll see what the week holds in store so I'll talk more later. Godd Night Folks!!!