So courtesy of IGN’s Livewire coverage I was able to catch Microsoft’s E3 Press Conference. I recommend going to check it out as they’ll be broadcasting all of the Big 3 Conferences this year. You have to download a firefox add-on but it’s relatively painless.
No big surprises, Gears of War 2, Too Human, Fallout 3, and Resident Evil 5 were the main games showcased. All of them look really pretty and fun, with the exception of Too Human. Burn…None look particularly innovative, but Fallout looks like it has few different ways to approach combat which is cool.
After the main games, Microsoft announced its new Avatars for Xbox Live and its more friendly 360 setup. With the avatars and the new dashboard setup it looks like they’re trying to take on both Miis and Home simulataneosly. They also emphasized a bunch of casual games like Scene It! 2 and Gameshow games. Quite frankly it all seemed a little half-baked and stupid.
They closed with a showcase of their music games. Rock Band and Guitar Hero seem cool, but I’m never going to get them. The Lipps, game did look interested. It was described as karaoke game in which you can upload any of your own music. If that’s true it’s something my wife would love. I have doubts about how much of your own music you’ll actually be able to upload.
Funny thing about that is Duffy karaoked to her own song “Mercy”. She sounded terrible, her voice must all be study production.
Some stuff did get me excited for the rest of the year, but a lot of that was dampened by the terrible marketing speech. Does Microsoft really have the largest install base still? I thought Wii passed them. And the main guy kept pausing for applause for his marketing speech which was really annoying to.
Anyway, check it out. It’s almost like being there without being there.