EDIT: Ok I added some non-sleep deprived comments on Inside the Nexus to augment this babble below.
I had the chance to watch the Microsoft briefing on the G4 live web stream. The briefing opened with five Halo fans from Libertyville, IL (CORPOREAL) playing the Halo theme music live onstage. Sounds damn good.
Peter Moore comes strutting out and welcomes to the new E3. Announces every game and demo seen at E3 will be out this year. Proclaims greatest holiday lineup in E3 history.
First demo is up from Harmonix, ROCK BAND baby! Peter Moore and Harmonix employees (Greg, Alex and Helen) onstage with the rock band instruments! Nice! The microphone sounds like shit, but they look cool up on stage. Havent seen any screen images, just Moore and Harmonix playing on stage. Time for a commercial break on G4.
Moore announces more bands coming later this week. The Who and Black Sabbath mentioned.
Viva Piata: Party Animals video is shown and announced. 50 mini games included.
Mass Effect is the next announce preview, video rolls and is frickin awesome! On shelves in November, just in time for Holiday season.
Peter Moore talking about people spending money on games instead of music. Moore showing off installed base and showed Xbox 360 momentum since launch of other consoles. Xbox 360 sold more games in retail since Wii and PS3 combined. Two thirds of next gen 3rd party games sold on 360. This holiday, Xbox 360 shifting into a higher gear. Top five best selling games of previous gen. were three GTA titles and Halo 1 and Halo 2.
GTA IV, Madden 08 and Halo 3 creates the perfect Storm for sales this holiday season. Potential to drive third of all game sales second half this year.
More games to look forward too in a video montage, PGR4, Dynasty Warriors, Gundam, CoD4, Stranglehold, GH III, Beautiful Katamari, Lost Odyssey, NBA Live 08, Mass Effect, Fatal Inertia, Medal of honor airborne, Tiger Woods 08, Ace Combat 6, NHL 08, Assassins Creed, Spider Man Friend or Foe, The Simpsons Game, Splinter Cell conviction, NASCAR 08, Eternal Sonata, BioShock, Madden 08, Tony Hawk Proving Ground, Crash of the Titans (Bandicoat), Harry Potter and order of the Phoenix, The Orange Box, Bee Movie Game, Rock Band, Naruto, Rise of Ninja
MS Corporate VP of Marketing Jeff Bell introduced
Showing why Xbox 360 destination for every member of family. Title introducing tonight. Scene It exclusive to Xbox 360, Built from ground up, fully interactive, New trivia, movie clips and a new controller. Funky looking controller specific for Scene it. Has a big red button for answering, and standard four MS buttons. Get the game and four controllers for price of one game
Naruto: Rise of a Ninja video. Game coming to next gen exclusively to Xbox 360. Typical Japanese anime based on the cartoon.
Talking about EA commitment three years ago to Live. Said that games running at twice the speed and twice as smooth with NCAA 08. Reggie Bush(t) gets trotted out on stage to demo Madden 08 against Bell. Bush rips off a long ass run against Bell using himself lol Game is smoooooth looking.
Online leader in Xbox Live, promised to grow to 6 million members last year, but actually hit 7 million one year later. Added a new member every 8 seconds in over last year. Predicting 10 million members by next year.
Live Arcade getting some props from Bell. 45 million game downloads to date, with over 100 games expected by end of the year.
New XBLA titles: Bomberman Live, Undertow, Hexic 2, Sonic the Hedgehog, War World, Sensible world of soccer, Every Extended Extreme, Geono, Wing Commander Arena, F Frebazy 3, Track and Field, Spyglass board games, golden axe, Space Giraffe. Super Puzzle Fighter, Word Puzzle, Marathon Duarnthol. Poer Smash, Switchball, Tetris Splash, Puzzle quest, Boku Shokludo,
Two tonight are Golden Axe and Sonic the Hedgehog confirmed for XBLA tomorrow.
Xbox Live VM, added over 2,000 hours of content, 500 hours of HD content, twice the size of nearest cable provider. Leading the way in Digital Distribution. Spent 125 million dollars on DLC since launch,
Announce agreement with Disney, to bring library of hits, all in HD. This is a huge agreement for this product. All movies available TONIGHT to download in HD. All Disney movies coming to Xbox Live in HD.
HD video downloads going global later this year in Canada and Europe. Elite going global as well at same time.
MS Game Studios head VP Shane Kim
Kim is Pimped Halo 3, Forza 2 and PGR 4. Brian Woodhouse and Brian Howard take us through PGR4. Nice video, showing off Motorcycle, the weather feature is incredible (rain on the road), you can gesture at other players, contains over 120 vehicles. Ten total locations including dynamic weather effects. Only racing game to share photos and video on PGR on Demand. Newest trailer shown: The physics of the game appear to be top notch. Game will be available in September.
Titles on the way: Alan Wake, Banjo Kazoo, Too Human, Fable 2, Halo Wars. Peter Jackson and Bungie
Lost Odyssey video, exclusive on Xbox 360. Another fabulous looking game with a detailed story.
RPG fans get three exclusive RPG: Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Mass Effect
Games for Windows titles, Viva Piata and Gears of War for Windows announced.
GoW for Windows has new content game editor and big surprises. Cliffy B to give us the goods. Gears will be Live enabled, Cliffy B challenged someone on a 36
New Achievements, modes and arenas. Fight against the Brumak is a reality on PC. Cliffy B taking it on in his demo. Damn, good stuff! On Vista later this year.
Partners to support Games for Windows Live include Sega Eidos and THQ. Should have dozen titles by year end. Games for Windows Live will be built into EPICs Unreal Engine 3.
Video Montage of Games for windows, looking sweet.
A new title for both platforms, CoD4 baby! They showed the leaked trailer, Still is bad ass looking. Infinity Ward guys provide a hands on demo of CoD4. Says they are going deep and going hard. Jason West (project lead) demoed the game. Holy shit, the graphics and physics are incredible! Guys run and move like real peopleSounds are realistic as hell, objects react like real world objectsI want it now!
Exclusive to Xbox 360, an online multiplayer Beta http://www.charlieoscardelta.com/.com. Tried it within 5 seconds and server crashed already. LOL
Peter Moore back on stage to introduce GTA IV, showing the Special Someone trailer. All trailers were captured from Xbox 360 version. Two exclusive episodes (per $50 million payment) coming as well.
Moore announces only game that wont launch this year, but in game footage from 360 for Resident Evil 5! Looks incredible. July 26th release of full version of the E3 trailer on Marketplace.
Assassins Creed up next. Hands on demo. Everything interactive, based on historical Jerusalem Crowd can help or hinder you, know them as well as city. Showed a new trick to get into protected area, throw a guy off the roof and slash some dude to death. Nice! Chase AI is set so that no two chases are the same.AI throws stuff in your way to slow you down, crowd also reacts
Moore introduces a live action short for the Halo 3 featuring a Spartan equipment assembly line. Pretty sweet. Halo 3 on September 25h
A new console coming, the Halo 3 Special Edition console. It appears to be a Pro console done up in Halo green.
Peter Moore doing a recap of everything. And there is a lot. Thanking everyone.
Halo 3 video montage: Brand New! Wow, just wow. What a montage of single player mode..Just download it tomorrow.wow
Show is closing with CORPOREAL again.