Microsoft E3 Press Conference Live Blog

8:41 - Don’t Worry Peter Moore hasn’t defected back to Microsoft to announce the Halo 3 console again. Did anyone buy that? Anyway this is the ‘Live Blog’ it’s not really a live blog it’s just a blog post that will be updated with thoughts and announcements as the conference progresses. Basically the same

8:44 - Oh check out the Microsoft Press Conference Preview that went up on the site earlier. They are basically spoilers though.

9:12 - Just heard about the MotionPlus. What a slap in the face before Microsoft show their Motion Controller.

9:23 - By the way it’s due to start at 10.30 which normally means like 11

9:32 - Actually I’ll take that back. Microsoft seem to be pretty good with their events.

10:03 - It’s starting soon…

10:08 - There is a giant whiteboard being projected onto the middle of the stage.

10:28 - Minutes to go and EA go an announce the Rock Band 2 Tracklist. Complete Tracklist.

10:32 - Don Mattrick is now on the stage, already talking about last years decent games

10:34 - I love listening to PR-Talk it’s so overly worded. Wait he just said Gears of War 2.

10.35 - A trailer starts to play, it’s set in the 1950s.

10.37 - The phrase ‘Not A Real Atomic Blast’ has already appeared on the screen after 5 minutes. It’s a FallOut 3 trailer. Man this game looks incredible and most importantly it looks like the original

10.38 - The full trailer will debut on Xbox Live and online in ‘a few hours’

10.39 - Did he just say live demo?

10.41 - Graphics look decent. Fallout 3 will be playable from a 1st or 3rd person perspective. In game radio on your pip boy

10.42 - Is that some Red Steel style combat there?

10.42 - 100 Hours of gameplay, sounds good to me.

10.43 - I’m pleasantly surprised. The targeting system looks good and he just used a Nuclear Bomb Launcher.

10.45 - Before he leaves he announces exclusive DLC for the PC & Xbox 360

10.46 - Jun Takeuchi just walked out in a fly looking umbrella hoodie to show us the first live demo of Resident Evil 5

10.47 - Got horrible flash backs to Army of Two

10.49 - Surprise. It’s a co-op focused game.

10.50 - It seems they’ve been rushed off the stage. He looked agitated throughout that demo.

10.51 - Peter Molyneux is now shoved on stage as he exclaims ‘Fable 2 is finished!’

10.54 - He explains what Fable 2 is then moves onto a live demo. He just showed off the way someone will be introduced to the co-op

10.56 - Was again a short demo but did what it had to do. Show off how good Fable 2 looked.

10.57 - Cliffy Bizzle just walked onstage after a short Gears of War 2 trailer was shown.

10.58 - Surprise another live demo. Although its a Gears 2 live demo. If you thought games couldn’t look better than the original, think again.

11.00 - All the old weapons are back. The games environment seems to be a lot more dynamic. A floor just fell while Dom and Marcus were on it.

11.02 - Whoever said ‘flames are this years water’ was talking about Gears of War 2.

11.04 - Another announcement. Hoarde Mode - up to 5 players can fight endless amounts of locust that progressively get harder. It’s also coming November 7th

11.05 - I’m glad I got one prediction right in an extra mode for Gears.

11.07 - Don Mattrick just came out and bigged up the games industry as a whole

11.07 - Still nothing about Lips, Motion Controllers or Forza 3.

11.08 - “Xbox 360 WILL sell more consoles than Playstation 3 during this generation” - Don Mattrick. They could be famous last words.

11.09 - One Billion has been spent on Xbox Live. They now have enough money for it to be free, right?

11.10 - I hope they mention IPTV

11.10 - NBC is now a parter of Xbox on demand. Score for The Office.

11.11 - So is Universal Studios. Europe get MGM & Constantine as extra partners.

11.12 - John Schappert, head of Xbox Live Services just stepped out. Already talking about Xbox Live’s continuing Innovation.

11.13 - They are showing the dash. It’s being updated… fade to black.

11.14 - OH DIP. A new dashboard has popped up. It looks great

11.15 - Here’s a surprise…. Avatars. They kind of look like Everybody’s Gold characters. Avatars have been produced by Rare.

11.17 - Back to the new dash. It looks very ‘casually’ focused

11.18 - Chat Party’s are announced. They are basically chat rooms with more than two people. Then multiple users can stream photos to each other

11.19 - Game Show channel entitled Xbox Primetime is shown. 1 vs 100 video is shown.

11.20 - It sounds like there will only be one game with one winner. People who don’t get in can play for fun ‘at home’ instead of ‘in the studio’

11.20 - You’ll win REAL prices.

11.21 - Uno Rush is announced. He just moved the whole party straight into the game because he is the ‘party leader’ sounds a lot like Sony’s Home.

11.21 - A New geometry Wars is coming next month. 4 Player co-op is shown along with massive amounts of things to shoot.

11.23 - eeeep. Galaga Legions will be the ‘true’ sequel to Galaga made by the same people who made Pacman Pro edition. These two games will be coming EXCLUSIVELY to Xbox live next MONTH.

11.23 - GlaDOS was just introduced as an exclusive to Xbox Live Arcade? Sorry did I miss something there.

11.24 - South Park game is coming… No more details than that.

11.24 - Yes that was an EXCLUSIVE for the Xbox Live Arcade as regards to Portal: Stay Alive. Lets hope its a fully featured 3D game.

11.26 - Netflix members will be able to access Netfilx online through the dashboard. Looks good.

11.27 - You can now watch films through your Netflix account online with friends through the Party system.

11.27 - Just had a quick look at the guide button press. That looked better than the real dash.

11.28 - Shane Kim walks out and starts list a lot of games. Most of them multi platform. A quick reference to the GTA4 DLC and then he moved on.

11.30 - In case you didn’t know Banjo is a kids game. A Trailer is played showing off the building features

11.31 - This is what I came here to see (Sarcasm aside) VIVA PINATA!

11.31 - They just explained ‘Pinata Vision’. That’s the thing where you scan in a card.

11.31 - Banjo Kazooie Will be released on the XBLA. He didn’t make a big deal over it though.

11.32 - Is this a Microsoft Press Conference. They didn’t build that up or show a video or anything it was just “yeah dude I think the original is coming sometime or something like that”

11.33 - A new Scene It game is shown

11.33 - You can download new question packs and use your avatars in it.

11.34 - Codemasters & Zoe Mode present…. Your In The Movie

11.34 - They just stepped over to Shane Kim’s Living Room. I like to think his living room really is in an auditorium.

11.35 - A game that uses the Vision?! Thats almost as shocking as the really bad jokes that are on display.

11.36 - Did nobody tell Microsoft about Eye Toy Play?

11.38 - That confirms it. Microsoft are re-releasing Eye Toy Play.

11.39 - Hold on. The game then compiles a ‘Trailer’ that is spliced together from the mini-games you play.

11.41 - Guitar Hero & Music talk now.

11.42 - Kai Huang from Red Octane walked out.

11.42 - 8 Player Battle of the Bands! More than 85 songs.

11.43 - Special Announcements…. Xbox 360 will get an R.E.M. Track pack first……… Long Pause. He’s noticed that his announcement just bombed.

11.44 - METALLICA, he raises his fist in the air…. Long Silence.

11.45 - Peter Bjorn & John plays….. It’s Lips

11.46 - Someone just plugged in a Zune!

11.47 - Keiichi Yano from INIS is now on stage. He worked on Elite Beat Agents. I wish they were talking about that.

11.47 - It lets you import your own songs?

11.48 - The Microphone lights up as you play and it’s motion sensitive. I’d laugh if that is the only motion sensitive controller talked about.

11.49 - Duffy is on stage singing her own song on Lips. I’m hoping that Lips has a game over screen

11.51 - She is waving the microphone around her face. Erm… ok

11.52 - “I’ve never had so much fun singing that song” - Duffy while showing the smallest amount of emotion known to man

11.53 - Rock Band 2 talk now. Shane Kim says good buy as Alex from Harmonix walks out.

11.53 - He talks about the full soundtrack on Rock Band 2. A small list is shown on stage. New Guns N Roses track will debut. AC DC will appear in Rock Band 2. There are actual responses from the crowd this time. I think Rock Band just won this show. Shame the full list was shown before the event on IGN.

11.55 - Froward compatibility gets a clap and METALLICA *raises fist* doesn’t

11.55 - Over 500 songs will be available in Rock Band as either DLC or disk based content by the end of the year.

11.56 - Mattrick walks out and presents the president of Square Enix…Yoichi Wada

11.57 - He is hyping up the Xbox 360?

11.58 - An announcement is coming soon….

11.59 - He’s talking about Infinite Undiscovery. It’s coming September 2nd (US) or 5th (Europe) to Xbox 360 Exclusively.

12.00 - Star Ocean is coming to the Xbox 360 in Spring 2009. A Trailer is on the Marketplace now.

12.00 - The Last Remnant is coming to the 360 this year…

12.00 - Here comes a trailer.

12.01 - November 20th, this year apparently.

12.01 - The Last Remnant will also be on Games For Windows. Thats the first time that taboo has been mentioned.

12.02 - Mattrick looks like he is rapping the Press Briefing up. UNTIL Yoichi comes back with one more trailer to show.

12.04 - HOLY FUCK. Final Fantasy XIII Confirmed for Xbox 360.

12.06 - Trailer looks good and I’m not much of an RPG fan. That’s one announcement that did get a reaction.

12.07 - It will be coming the same day as the Playstation 3. Remind you of GTA4 last year?

12.08 - Suck on that one Sony.

12.09 - Don Mattrick raps it up for real as the lights come back on. Although everything is still green. It was a good showing by Microsoft. They didn’t show the Motion Controller or Forza 3 but they did show a few surprises that nobody was expecting.

Stay Tuned for a complete rap up along with previews of tomorrows Sony and Nintendo Conferences. Those will also be live blogged. We also might get the EA conference liveblogged and that one is later tonight at 6PM or 2AM UK time.

Thanks for reading.