news

(Check here to see how the conference measured up to our predictions!)

______________________________________________

As we have been excitedly telling you guys all day, our fine team of Chris, Coop, Joe, and Mike are on their way to E3 at this very moment to cover every single little bit of news that breaks this week. Why are they still on their way and not actually there yet, you ask? Well, because traveling by plane can be fickle and flights get delayed. Apparently, coverage of the Microsoft Press Conference does not make planes take off on time or fly faster.

Therefore, it has fallen upon me to cover the Microsoft Press Conference from my desk here in Doylestown. Luckily, the thing will be streaming all over TV and the internets, so not to worry, I will keep you guys constantly updated. I'll be updating the page over and over as news breaks, so make sure you keep hitting that refresh button.

1:30 PM - It begins! Enter Don Mattrick for an opening speech. Xbox 360 is home to the biggest sellers in games: GTA IV, BioShock, Halo 3, CoD4, Assassin's Creed. Xbox 360 delivers the biggest and best hits for gamers. Yeah, yeah, let's have some news! Fallout 3, Resident Evil 5, and Fable 2 news coming soon!

1:34 PM - Hilarious 50s-style Fallout 3 commercial. You can find it on Xbox Live in a few hours

1:35 PM - Todd Howard comes out to talk about Fallout 3. It's about to be demoed live. Please reconnect controller!

We see the game shift seamlessly from first to third-person views. Nice. The game seems to be, well, working. Wow. This seriously looks awesome. Let's see someone get effed up with a grenade. Nice! "This is where the content might be inappropriate for some audiences."

You can hack a computer to take control of a turret. Hmmm, that sounds familiar... 

Fallout 3 described as a huge game with over 100 hours of gameplay.

Mini-nuclear bomb catapault? WHAAAT?!?! OMFG. Want now. 

Thus ends demo of Fallout 3. 

1:41 PM -There will be exclusive Fallout 3 DLC for the Xbox 360 and Games For Windows.

1:42 PM - Jun Takeuchi comes out to show the world the first playable demo for Resident Evil 5. WORD!!!!!!

Oh shit, online co-op mode! 

Two people are working together as a team to move forward in the game. It's pretty neat.

Ahhh, they're out of time! Already? Too bad, but RE 5 is shaping up to be awesome.

1:47 - RESIDENT EVIL 5 WILL BE AVAILABLE IN THE U.S. MARCH 13, 2009.

1:48 - Peter Molyneux announces that FABLE II IS FINISHED! YEEAAAHHHH!!!! We're going to get a look.

We see the opening, and it's gorgeous, and I want it, I want it now.

Ooh, we get to see how the Xbox Live co-op works. Um... it's fucking awesome. Orbs will appear in the game that represent your friends playing their single-player games. Walk up to them to invite your friend into your game, and bam, his or her character is there. 

The game will be out in October, we knew that already, but awesome, not delayed.

1:53 - Oh, here we go. Gears 2. What everyone has really been waiting for. Out comes Cliffy B after an awesome new trailer.

Oooh, he's holding a red controller. Looks like it's from an upcoming special Gears of War Xbox 360.

Here comes some gameplay.

Gorgeous-looking, no surprises there. We see some new shield mechanics. Oh, you guys are going to love this game. No doubt about it.

Explodable flamethrowers!!! For. The. Win. 

Brumak riding?

New mode: HORDE. Five-player co-op mode in which players take on waves of locusts.

NOVEMBER 7, 2008 release date! 

2:02 - Don Mattrick comes back out. Talks about the popularity of video games growing. Well, duh. Video games are now the leading driver of all entertainment spending.

Xbox 360 is leading the market, 5+ million units ahead of PS3, Don is sure to point out. The 360 also has the highest software sales by far.

"Xbox 360 will sell more consoles this generation than PlayStation 3."

The number of people on Xbox Live has doubled in the last year. Damn, that's impressive! There's a new member every 5 seconds! 

NBC and Universal Studios are partnering with Xbox Live. 

Commercial for movies available on Xbox Live, I feel like I'm watching HBO. Get on with the gaming news, already!

2:09 - Someone else from Microsoft takes the stage and talks about innovation. 

Software update... what's gonna happen... oh, it's the rumored Avatars and a whole new Xbox experience! Wow, the interface is COMPLETELY different. Hmm. It's neat.

Having personalized avatars on your gamercard should be fun. 

Wow, they're really trying to push these avatars, we're getting a whole segment just on them. I guess they can't just come out and say "They're like Miis for your Xbox!" 

Instead of seeing a list of friends on Live, you will see their avatars. Also, you will be able to have a Live Party, where up to 8 people can chat and play together. 

New channel: Xbox Live Primetime, in which you can be part of game shows and play with the Xbox Live community. Example shown is 1 vs. 100, played with avatars. That could be fun. 

New Games channel. New Uno, with the Live Party now playing together. 

2:18 - Xbox Live Arcade announcements: a new Geometry Wars is coming exclusively to Xbox Live Arcade next month. Trailer time.

A true sequel to the original Galaga is coming: Galaga Legions from Namco-Bandai. Available next month.

2:20 - PORTAL: STILL ALIVE COMING EXCLUSIVELY TO XBOX LIVE ARCADE THIS FALL. FROM VALVE, NEW LEVELS, NEW ACHIEVEMENTS, MORE PORTAL. AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Also, a new South Park game is coming, but who cares. PORTAL!!!

2:23 - Xbox Live and Netflix are teaming up. Man, is there anyone Microsoft isn't teaming up with? Sony, probably. Now you can get Netflix through Xbox Live. Neat.

2:27 - Shane Kim takes the stage. There are a lot of games coming out for the Xbox. Who knew? One of the games is Need for Speed Undercover, which I assume is this year's installment in the racing series.

2:26 - Banjo-Kazooie trailer.

2:27 - Nice, we get a look at Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise!

2:29 - Scene-It with avatars and new trivia and features. It will be the first retail game to use avatars.

2:31 - You're in the Movies announced. You can make short, campy movies starring your friends and family. Cute? Eh, I don't know. Comes with vision cam, will be out this holiday season.

2:37 - Shane talks about music games. Oh man, please, give us some Rock Band 2 news. No, he goes with Guitar Hero first. Sigh.

Kai Huong of Red Octane comes out to talk about Guitar Hero: World Tour. Will have "the greatest number of master tracks ever" on disc." Music studio will allow people to make and share music.

Why are the Eagles coming to Guitar Hero and not Rock Band? Whhhhyyyyyyy?

Metallica's new album is going to be available for download on World Tour, among other DLC. 

2:42 - Now we're going to see a ridiculously cheesy commercial for Lips, Microsoft's answer to SingStar. Coming this holiday season.

Keiichi Yano comes to the stage to talk about Lips. It will be the first game that lets you choose songs from your own music collection, from your Zune or iPod.

The motion-sensitive light-up mics are kinda pretty. 

Some chick I've never heard of comes onstage and sings a song I've never heard before. 

2:49 - Here we go, Rock Band 2 news!

Alex Rigopulos, CEO of Harmonix, takes the stage. 

The entire Rock Band 2 soundtrack has been officially released (prepare for an article on Gamervision shortly). Bob Dylan! Yeah! New Guns n Roses! Cool! AC/DC! ROCK!

Will ship with 84 songs, with 20 free bonus tracks coming upon release. Eat that, Guitar Hero!

All songs from the first Rock Band are compatible. No need for disc-swapping. 

There will be over 500 songs available for Rock Band 2 by the end of this year.

2:53 - Don Mattrick returns to introduce one more guest.

President of Square Enix, Yoichi Wada, comes onstage. Intriguing!

Infinite Undiscovery, Star Ocean, Last Remnant; all already announced, nothing new.

Infinite Undiscovery is coming out this September (Sept. 2 in North America, Sept. 5 in Europe, and Sept. 11 in Asia).

Star Ocean: The Last Hope is coming Spring 2009.

The Last Remnant will be available this holiday season. Ooh, trailer with a Nov. 20 release date! Pretty short, though. It will also be available on Games for Windows.

2:59 - Don Mattrick comes back on to call the press conference to a close. Hmm, a lot less surprises than I thought--oh wait...

Wada comes back out for one last trailer. No. It can't be. It CAN'T be...

FINAL FANTASY XIII TRAILER. FINAL FANTASY XIII ON XBOX 360. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. OH MY GOD. 

I AM FREAKING OUT!

Don Mattrick says good-bye.

Wow, and I thought there weren't going to be any shockers! 

Share this article: