Microsoft E3 Press Conference 2009

Long post ahead,if you're short on time,I would suggest you to check this out later, my highlights on the 2009 E3 Microsoft Press Conference. No I wasn't at the actual press conference, I was watching it live via web-cast. I hope you'll enjoy the highlights,as I've spent 3 hours compiling this.

Game announced at E3 Microsoft Press Conference.

The Beatles : Rock Band


Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr doing the unveiling.Then Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison went on stage making an appearance but said nothing and leaves the stage.

The Beatles : Rock Band ships with 45 songs, with exclusive song to the Xbox 360 : All we need is love. More downloadable contents will be available shortly after (more $ needed)

Some of the songs announced :

• "I Saw Her Standing There"
• "I Want to Hold Your Hand"
• "I Feel Fine"
• "Day Tripper"
• "Taxman"
• "I am the Walrus"
• "Back in the USSR"
• "Octopus's Garden"
• "Here Comes the Sun"
• "Get Back"

Apparently it supports three singers at one time and allow them to harmonize together! Apart from that, couldn't notice anything new.



Tony Hawk's Ride

Tony Hawk makes an appearance to introduce his latest gaming franchise, The Tony Hawk's Ride featuring it's new controller. A miniature skateboard. Not much info given on how it's used except that you stand on it and edge front and back.

Best comment : "Tony Hawk is hawking his fake board for his real game".



Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

Not really interested in this one, there's a cool mountain scaling part though, surreal. Then some gunfight scene with a radar built in the gun. I'm suddenly reminded of Crysis. But the accuracy of the guns seems way better than the one in Crysis. Then it all ends with a snowmobile ride shootout. I should start playing the first game as the story seems interesting.



Final Fantasy XIII

Well nothing much revealed for the latest installment of final fantasy. They explained how the battle system worked. There's 4 active time gauges to be charged now. More gauges = stronger attacks/spells.

Also for the first time ever, they revealed the Esper/Summon Odin. Instead of just one single flashy magic attack. You can team up side by side with it to do combo attacks. I think.


The baby chocobo looks awfully cute.



From this point on, these games will be Xbox 360 exclusives

Shadow Compex

2D shooter game. Next. Okay, it feels like Metroid



Joy Ride

Cartoonish game, you are able to trick out your ride, catch huge air and drive your avatar wild



Crackdown 2

Awesome trailer. Reminds me of Batman overlooking Gotham city then jumping down.




Left 4 Dead 2




I can't begin to express my feelings when I saw the preview of the trailer. Yes I'm pumped that there's a sequel coming out, but BARELY 1 year after the initial 1?!?! I can't help but feel that the first L4D wasn't really worth the purchase now. My fingers are crossed now in hopes that the sequel will offer discounts for the owners of the first game. *crossed*

Splinter cell

Interesting. But not my choice of games. Next



Forza 3

Schappert goes on stage with an Audi R8, commenting on how he wants the game to feel like owning your first car. Or something like that.

Game previews starts of with him in an R8 doing some laps and finally ending with a crash to show that the game features full body rollover for realism. Then claiming this game to have the best graphics up to date compared to any consoles / games. An obvious cheap-shot at Gran Turismo.

Oh and there's also customizations! Not to mention over 400 cars will be featured. And the ability to create and upload hi-def videos of Fast and Furious'ish style driving to be shared over the Xbox live community. I'm definitely bought. That is, until Sony's own press conference tomorrow *crosses fingers for Gran Turismo release*



Halo 3 : ODST

Pass



Halo : Reach

Pass



Alan Wake



A psychological action thriller. Now this one looks good. You play as Alan Wake i guess, a writer. Gone on a vacation, then his wife goes missing and he needs to locate her. Then at night, things go bump,shit gets thrown around in the forest.Then you go around with a flashlight and apparently spirits appear and when you shine your light at it, it actually incinirates/injures them. Coming soon @ Spring 2010



Metal Gear Solid Rising


It's now on the Xbox 360 instead of being PS3 exclusive. Announced by the man himself. Hideo Kajima. Complete with exclamation sound entrance. But this latest installament isn't about Solid Snake. Apparently it's about Raiden.




Latest innovations by Microsoft

Last.FM + Xbox live
Another reason to be glued to your sofa.


Netflix on Xbox 360.

Sky TV tie-in with no additional hardware required. now all movies will be in full HD 1080p. Participating countries to be extended to 18. And you no longer need to wait for the movies to be downloaded. It's INSTANT now.

Also Enjoy movies/shows with friends from around the world at the comforts of your own couch. Your friends are represented by mini avatars at the bottom of the screen and you are able to send cheer/boo commands



Facebook tie-in

Nothing to shout about, access FB from your Xbox and see which friends have Xbox with Facebook. See your friend's photo etc.



Twitter on Xbox 360

Self-explanatory



Project Natal - The latest motion sensor controller by Microsoft

"This is a full-body experience, not something you can just do on the cough by waggling your hand with a controller" - an obvious cheapshot to the WII

Move over Wii, Microsoft is coming in with their latest innovation. A motion sensor that is able to sense your every motion. Think web-cam

Full-body motion capture goodness. I'm impressed. Let's see, there's voice recognition for game show games for gatherings. There's facial recognition. Also you can scan any external objects and the controller recognizes it and puts it in-game. I.E a kid scans his skateboard front and back, then it's imported to the game.

You are able to log-in to your account via facial recognition. How cool is that? How about flipping thru songs/movie listings with your hands from your sofa, that's possible too.

Project Natal's capabilities shown in video : http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10253576-56.html

But the best feature (also the last) is the imaginary friend demo Milo/Mylo :

A computer generated character who you can hold ACTUAL conversations with in a realistic way.

Mylo was shown actually understanding speech, passing items to the player and receiving items from the player too (A drawing by the player), as the player drew on a piece of paper,and scanned it on the sensors.



Finally this concludes the Microsoft E3 Press Conference 2009, I hope you have been enlightened by this post as much as I have, looking forward to Sony and Nintendo's press conference to see what they have up their sleeves. Which will be shown on June 2nd 11am and 9am Pacific time respectively.

P.S. I was having troubles earlier viewing the start of the press conference on Gametrailers.com so I moved to Gamespot.com and it proved to be wayyyy better.