Microsoft Pre-E3 Conference report

As the light finally starts fading from LA (mind you, it’s past 8.00 pm) the green glow of Microsoft’s E3 opening effort is visible half a block away. And so it should be – the conference location is Santa Monica High. That’s right – Microsoft is taking us to school.

In what is a cool (or gladiatorial, I can’t make up my mind) move, MS has seated us under the stars in an outdoor amphitheatre/assembly area. Despite my previous moaning about the new look E3, numbers look good. However, this is Microsoft – every year they get a little smarter with “crowd AI”. Gone are the days they had a paid section of hirelings sitting front and centre cheerleading on every announcement. My strong suspicion is they have gotten wise and scattered them throughout the audience. Plus being Microsoft, you know the staff aren’t dumb enough to dress up in suits. I scan the crowd looking for people rocking expensive brand label urban and “leisure” wear. There’s plenty of those, so I’m assuming it’s an equal split of company folk and MTV employees anxious to ride that gravy train to the next station.

I locate Andy Wells effortlessly. Andy can always be found in front of the other camera guys – whether it’s tenacity or organisational skills on his part I don’t know, but he’s clockwork in this regard. He reveals to me that my trusty gamertag has been displayed on the screen – a massive high def affair (the screen, not my gamertag). It gets me wondering how many of the assembled people I’ve abused online... and whether I may need to battle my way out of the joint like Maximus.

I bid Andy adieu, and find a nice comfortable spot of concrete to sit on behind a roped section with a high def TV in it. It takes me around 15 minutes into the show to realise that Jessica Alba or some other hottie isn’t going to be ushered to this spot, but rather its part of a series of screens functioning as teleprompters for the speakers – scrolling their presentation text as they chat.

As the visual stuff swirls on the massive HD projected screen, the lights sweep the crowd, and the funky music plays. The vibe is kind of like having your parents throw you an 18th birthday party. As long as you’re part of a very rich family, that is.

After five minutes of jotting notes and staring at the screen, it dawns on me that I’m yet to see the colour red on any of the slides and pics flitting across the screen. Maybe it’s just not part of the corporate palette, or maybe MS figures Xbox 360 owners in particular dread that colour, being as it is the sign that another Xbox 360 has hit the wall. And maybe I’m reading a little too much into things.

The announcer says the show is ready to commence. I quickly scan the crowd again and realise something. I’m the only one I can see with a notepad and pen. Have I missed some new technological marvel? Am I sitting in the wrong area? Has Microsoft invited a bunch of folks with photographic memories? Or will everyone just google-research it later? Your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps this is a good thing. Hunter S Thompson’s corpse may slow its rate of revolutions at the thought that a few less gamers don’t fancy themselves as gonzo journalists anymore.

Blue lights sweep the stage as a band comes out. I try to dredge up their appearances from the iPhone ads I’ve seen, but nothing is connecting. Then it becomes apparent that this is some random band (“from Libertyville Illinois!”) that are Halo fans.

A “spacey” backdrop starts kicking out Halo 3 action shots interspersed with closeups of the band – all of whom eerily resemble celebs. Daniel LaRusso has been given the night off by Mr Miyagi to play bass it seems, while what looks to be a young, hotter version of Tori Amos is on electric violin. Sylar didn’t get killed in the end of Heroes after all, he just got a better haircut judging by the look of the drummer, and Seth from the OC plays a mean keyboard. About the only guy who gets no video love is lead guitar, but maybe he’s a closet Playstation fan. Sadly no vocals.

A gigantic Master Chief fills the screen as the band closes up, and out strolls Peter Moore. The boss of Xbox looks relaxed, and his accent is as hard to place as ever. It’s like someone spliced a British and American accent flawlessly. After the customary Halo 3 reference (“11 weeks from tonight!”) PM welcomes us to the new E3. Apparently this presentation is being shown live on TV (MTV, would be my ill-educated guess) and PM also makes the point that every game shown this show will be coming out this year. Not bad.

Before you can say “wanna bet that promise gets broken?” out comes Harmonix. Looky here, we’re going to see Rock Band played live!. There’s the drum kits, there’s the guitars (they look bigger and more realistic than Guitar Hero's), there’s the mic, and oh – here’s Peter Moore on lead.

The song is “Main Offender” by one of my personal faves, The Hives. You can’t help crack a smile when three nerds and Peter Moore are rocking out, even if it is somewhat nervously. The drum kit looks solid, this is looking like a surefire must have. And even though Peter Moore needs to get some lessons in stagecraft – his guitar moves are terrible – this gives us a hint of what Xbox 360s priority will be in the next year or two: proving that it's not only a hardcore gamer machine, but a rollicking box of fun. Every analyst under the sun seems to harp on the subject, so it’s a decent tack to take.

PM screws up a couple of times mid-song by accidentally hitting pause, but things are quickly fixed by the Harmonix chick on vocals. Definitely a good way to kick things off.

Next up is Viva Pinata Party Animals. The crowd is a little less pumped here. It looks like a mix of Mario Party and Rayman Raving Rabbids. Good to see the Krome Studios logo prominently featured though.

Spoiling all those subtle suggestions Xbox 360 is the funster's machine is Mass Effect. Lots of serious dialogue, aliens, opera music and dramatic cut scenes. Out this November.

Peter Moore then starts talking facts and figures. First up is a slide from PriceWaterhouseCoopers that says this year people will spend more money on games than recorded music. Oooo sickburn! What follows is a whole raft of slides proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that Xbox 360 is the dominant console loved so much by the world that it hurts, and that PlayStation3 (and Wii to a lesser extent) are transitional pond scum that any developer would be mad to waste their time on. This is pretty similar in tone to what Sony will also come out with, but to both companies credit at least they don’t have an embarrassing cadre of media fans who slavishly cheerlead every such statement made. Instead we all sit in stony silence and take our medicine while PM gets to the point.

PM closes out by showing stats saying the 2004 holiday period was the best ever for games. At that time the killer games were Madden, GTA and Halo. I know Madden was huge in Australia, right? This coming holiday season, PM is suggesting, history repeats itself – a huge spending season on Madden, GTA and Halo. And voila – there’s his point. Only on Xbox 360 can you get all three.

Cue a hype reel of the killer games coming out this year on Xbox 360. Three titles get a decent cheer from the crowd. Valve’s Orange Box, 2K’s Bioshock, and the one that gets the loudest is Ubi’s Assassin’s Creed. There goes the theory that I'm surrounded by paid actors - they're cheering louder for the third party titles than they did for the Viva Pinata.

Out comes Jeff Bell, Corporate VP of Global Marketing. Oh boy, now we’re in trouble. He's on a mission from head office to educate. First of all, Xbox 360 is fun for all the family, not just sweaty nerds screaming obscenities at each other over Xbox Live. And to prove this, Bell triumphantly announces that the board game “Scene It” is coming to Xbox 360. Having played this game in real life, not a console, I can safely say its like an infuriating version of Buzz, only not as fun. Just my opinion, of course. Then Bell whips out the innovative new controller. Which looks like someone has taken a Buzz controller and given it a Xbox 360 paint scheme. Shame on you Xbox, don’t you know ripping off people’s controller ideas is Sony’s job!?

Bell then talks up how Ubi’s Naruto game will be an Xbox 360 exclusive. Of course, “Ubi” and “exclusive” can be hazy terms. We see a trailer of Naruto gameplay action tied to some sick Japrock, and it shapes up pretty well. The lack of crowd response indicates to me that in the interest of promoting cooler gaming for MTV, Microsoft has issued a surgical strike on all anime fans. If they have, you won’t find me bagging them for it.

We move onto sports. Bell starts talking up EA. Apparently this year's round of EA Sports games will be twice as smooth framerate-wise. Speed is the mantra. To back that up, apparent NFL celebrity player Reggie Bush comes out to play a couple of downs. Here is where things get funny. Teleprompter text has cued up some trash talk, and to their credit Bush and Bell just make it up as they go along. Which sounds a lot better than the lame efforts that some flack had written for them - that is still scrolling down the teleprompter screen as they play! Of course, I knew Reggie was going to break away and use superior speed (that word again) to score a touch down before it even happened. How did I know? Well, apart from the fact I have "powers", I read the teleprompter and saw the congratulatory speech that had been lined up for Bell to say. So when the play on screen caught up to the script, Reggie took his bows and left. Spontaneity – gotta love it!

Bell – who is obviously paid by the word – then gets into Xbox Live. The service now has over 7 million members, and Bell’s claiming forecasts will see them over 10 million by this time next year. Not a bad little earner this one.

Of course if you’re talking Xbox Live, you need to talk Xbox Live Arcade. In addition to Sonic the Hedgehog and Golden Axe – both available as of now supposedly – a reel of coming games were shown that was pretty impressive. Some great looking original titles featured alongside some classic names. Not just Sudoku and Puzzle Quest, but immortals like Sensible World of Soccer and Track and Field. What I would give for both of these games to be playable against others over Xbox Live.

We then start checking out video on demand through Xbox Live Marketplace. Of course, the fun parts of this service are an abstract concept to Australia, because we’re too cool to get them yet on our Xbox 360s. What is interesting (or scary, depending on where you work) is that Bell specifically made a point of comparing performance to “other cable providers”. That’s right – video on demand on Xbox 360 is being used by MS to aggressively target home viewers who may not know videogames from a proper democratic voting process, to make a laboured comparison.

A reel of 'hot' movies coming to Xbox Live this year shows – everything from turkeys like Déjŕ Vu through to critic's choice material like The Queen. Bell announced that Disney movies are also now available on Xbox Live Marketplace. And from now on all Disney films released in cinemas will end up on the service too – in HD format as well.

The good-ish news is that a “global rollout” is on the way and the love will be shared by year’s end. If we’re classified as falling into “Canada and Europe”, that is.

So far MS has been doing a pretty good job of splitting the content 50% casual and 50% hardcore. That tilts a little to the full-on side when head of Microsoft Games Studios, Shane Kim comes out. Shane is a classic Microsoft powerbroker – a guy who did his time under previous management and is one of the canniest operators the company has working in games. He kicks off reiterating the September 25 Halo release, and also praises the success of Forza 2, saying by month’s end one million copies of the game will have sold. Boom.

Car talk provides a smooth segue to Project Gotham Racing 4. And wouldn’t you know it, motorbikes are in the game. New locations such as Macau and Shanghai (the location Bizarre devs used as they demoed the game on stage) will feature. PGR3 looked very slick, and this outdoes it in subtle ways – dynamic weather conditions (including snow), and the promised inclusion of tradeable game video via a feature Bizarre have dubbed “PGR on demand”.

Shane (very) briefly touches upon Peter Jackson’s involvement with Halo, the development of a new Halo story, and also runs us through a trailer for Lost Odyssey, which is both earsplitting and entertaining in that unique Japanese way, i.e looks sensational but you still don’t really know how the final game will end up playing or looking like.

Finally, we head to Games for Windows and Shane hits his stride. Viva Pinata is coming, rah rah, and hello, Gears of War is coming too. “Surprise!”, quips Kim in what I thought was a rather welcome touch of irony.

Cliff Blezinksi comes out to run us through Gears on PC, and without a doubt it’s one of the hottest looking things you’ll see on your trusty box. And playing Gears on a massive screen is thoroughly recommended. Cliffy B sends a few chills up hardcore gamer spines when he announces co-op on Windows is coming courtesy of Games for Windows Live, grr. There’s five new single player chapters, a new multiplayer mode plus a new arena.

Then Cliff and a mate (sorry, a “pal”) jumped in to a confrontation with that humongous creature from the Gears ads, only in a brightly lit open area. Simply – this was some of the most atmospheric and full-on action I’ve seen in a game. It seriously could have been a movie clip. A scarily good look at a game that’s bound for both Windows XP and Vista.

Shane exits stage left, and Peter Moore returns to chat briefly about Games for Windows Live, and why it’s going to change your PC game loving life forever. The first reason isn’t that compelling at first glance – Sega, Eidos and THQ are all on board as partners. Then PM drops the comment that the popular currently Unreal Engine (#3) will feature built in support for Games For Windows Live, and you start getting that scary feeling that you too may end up paying MS an annual fee to play games on your PC. Moore closes by dropping some big names who are down with the plan (to what extent isn’t explained) - Crysis, World in Conflict, Age of Conan, and yes punters – Hellgate London.

Moore then starts talking Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat. And out pops two Infinity Ward chaps to demo the game. Let’s say from the outset that this game looks sensational, to once more borrow Activision’s Bonecrusher Graham’s fave word. Rogue Ukrainians appear to be stirring up hell and firing off nukes, so it’s up to the US Marines to put a world of hurting on them.

The demo starts off with you in a grassy field. Getting to his feet literally right in front of you is a ghillie suited squad member. Unless you know what to look for there is no way you detect them prone at a glance – this looks simply exceptional. The models to move with realistic authority.

Indoor textures look sublime on this game, and the firefights retain that cinematic CoD feel. There appears to be a stealth emphasis in play here – at least in this game – with you and your squaddie partner lying prone in (another) field trying to lay low as a line of enemies sweep steadily before you – your partner urging you not to engage as the numbers are too high. And at this point the demo is stopped.

Infinity Ward say an online beta is on its way, so good news. This game looks seriously hot. Lets hope there’s a solid multiplayer mode to accompany it.

The Grand Theft Auto IV trailer plays, largely so Moore can point out both trailers released to date have been captured off Xbox 360. He adds that two new episodes for the game will be out by “Spring” (US I’d surmise) 2008. The implication – only on Xbox 360 will you get the full story. Should be interesting to see what Rockstar ends up throwing Sony to compensate, if anything.

Moore then makes a point of bringing up Japan, a bold move given that Xbox seems about as popular as SARS there. He points out that Virtua Fighter 5 (another one time “exclusive”, wasn’t it?) on Xbox 360 will be the only version playable online. Presumably so people can enjoy the same kind of terrific network coding that Street Fighter 2 and Virtua Tennis 3 enjoys. Ahem.

He then goes on to confess one title – the title he’s about to mention – will not be out this year. It’s Resident Evil 5. A seriously cool trailer gets played, with Moore promising it will be available for download off Live on July 26. I admit I’ve never been that into Resident Evil, but this looks like something scarily special.

The crowd gets more animated when Jade Raymond and Patrice (something) come out to showcase Assassin’s Creed. The photogenic duo who are so instrumental in bringing this game to next gen look like they could be one of the uber hip crowd plants that I just know are here, somewhere. Patrice runs us through a mission in Jerusalem, with some refreshingly sarcastic commentary from Jade. The game looks terrific, as we all know, but framerate is still pretty sketchy. Hopefully this lifts, as the action looks pretty useful. In the mission shown, you have to nail a slave trader. Patrice displays the crowd dynamic, the ability to divert unwanted attention, and the free running aspect of the game.

The combat sequence shown looked alright, but the action seemed to owe more to Prince of Persia: Sands of Time than Splinter Cell. Probably because they didn’t have firearms and high tech in the days of the Crusades (yes, ok it's a stupid comparison). We close out with a look at the chase AI. Apparently different quarry will react to your pursuit in different ways. It may end up being something that sounds better than the reality, but let’s wait and keep an open mind, shall we?

Then a curious diversion as Peter Moore runs through a Halo themed live action / CG sequence put together by a name director and famous CG outfit WETA. Moore makes comparisons to Star Wars and talks about how Halo 3 merchandise – including the Halo 3 Special Edition Xbox 360 – will spawn a billion dollar franchise. Is this meant to be final confirmation Halo movie is on the way? Did I miss something? Buller? Bueller?

By now Peter Moore has certainly earned his daily 20k or so salary (sheerly guesswork on my part). “Our cards are on the table”, he says with a combative glint in his eye, obviously daring Sony to ante up. And of course, things close out with a Halo 3 sequence – in-game action looking slick in that “Halo” kind of way, backed with some seriously cool music. Then the lights go on, the pride of Libertyville, Illinois comes out to serenade us a final time, and we walk off into the night.

In summary, a professional, well executed affair. Wow factor was a little low on the ground, but then again – this year will be won or lost in games sales, not bold new hardware.

So it’s fair to say MS stuck to the script, ticked the casual gamer boxes it needed to, and once again appealed strongly to hardcore gamers. It would have been good to see a gesture based controller showcased, but hey, small steps. Stay tuned for Andy's video wrap!