E3 2007: Microsoft E3 Conference
We report all about Microsoft's E3 Conference
Feature by Sirus

Microsoft opened with a fairly amusing bit with a group of halo fans playing the halo theme live. I enjoyed the violin and what it added to the music that I already liked a lot more than the game. They showed some footage of rock band, a game that many gamers have been excited to see footage of. Peter Moore was really bad in his attempt at playing rock band but no where near as bad as the ugly female employee for the company. Thankfully the song from the Hives made it bearable. I would be more excited for rock band if it wasn’t likely to cost more than four full price games.

Next, Microsoft announced a viva piñata party game. While this announcement is surprising, I am sure as hell not going to get excited about it. It seems as if this game is not based on the characters in the game seeing as how they have no personality but instead characters in an animated series based on the original game. Next Microsoft spent a good amount of time going into all sorts of sales figures and boasting that they are the only console on which you can buy the top 3 selling franchises of the last generation, Halo, GTA, and Madden. Microsoft is now spouting some crap about record growth from these big franchises which I am not very excited about at all.

Next Microsoft showed a montage of gameplay videos which played out pretty much like good game, ea, good game, ea, good game, ea. I was surprised to see them pointing out Dynasty Warriors Gundam and Beautiful Katamari because they are aiming for such a niche audience. A small amount of lost odyssey footage along with mass effect, ace combat, and bioshock kept the montage from being totally boring. Oh wow now Microsoft is expecting us to get excited about a 360 version of a good selling board game. I have never heard of this crap called Scene It but the controller that they are trying to sell with it looks 10x more kiddy than anything Nintendo has ever even hinted at releasing.

Microsoft started showing off footage of a Naruto game for the 360 which they assume people want to play. Now Microsoft is making a big deal about the EA games which will now be running “twice as fast”. Reggie bush is out on the stage to play madden against Peter Moore, BORING. Yay live arcade montage, this will be interesting. Looks like the only good thing on there is bomberman live. I guess those are aimed at the mainstream audience instead. Now they are showing a montage of Disney content that they say is going to be on XBL to download after the conference is over. Thankfully this includes Miramax films as well.

Microsoft then showed off a demo of PGR4. They brought up some of the developers to show off the weather effects that they have and the motorcycle you can now drive that you couldn’t in PGR3. The game certainly looks nice and shiny. Now Microsoft is trying to explain powerful experiences they will have for us with Alan Wake (no trailer) and Halo Wars (no trailer). We already knew about those games though. Next, something about a story 1000 years in the making. Ooooh its Lost Odyssey trailer! Wow that trailer looks so emotional. The voice actor in the trailer is talking about how the main character, being immortal, has to deal with lifetimes of pain, death and battle. Instant system seller.

Thank god Microsoft realizes that they have some great rpgs in their lineup this year and are going to flaunt them. Now they are showing Mass Effect. The trailer looks solid but isn’t wowing me as much as the Lost Odyssey one. Oh now Microsoft is showing some stuff about PC games coming up. Looks like they are going to release Gears of War and Viva Pinata on PC. Gears of War is going to have 5 new chapters on the PC version. Hopefully they are going to have some way for 360 owners to access the same content. Microsoft is now claiming there are 10 million gamers on Vista but I bet they really are just counting individual Vista sales. LOL pc game montage looks almost exactly the same as all the generic crap that made the 360 montage suck. Few good games but all I would want to play is Crysis. Too bad it wouldn’t play on my POS pc.

Now they are showing the Call of Duty 4 trailer. Looks like one that was leaked beforehand though so nothing too exciting. Graphics are certainly nice. They are telling us that they are going to have an online beta for CoD4 soon so check for it online. Now they are showing off a demo of Assassins Creed being played by the developers. Thankfully these developers are attractive. Game looks a lot better than some of the previous videos and looks like it might be a system seller. Now to end it, Microsoft is giving us a summary of all the stuff they just showed us in case we weren’t paying attention. Quite a list of games with something for all types of gamers.