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E3 2009 Microsoft Conference Thread

Chiggs said:
Very good conference for Microsoft. If the implementation is right, Natal is going to be huge. Loved Conviction, Halo ODST, Halo: Reach, and Crackdown 2.

Big disappointment for me was Alan Wake. Gameplay looked very dumb.

Why did it look dumb? Can you give examples?
 

Dizzan

MINI Member
My thoughts.

Good work by MS to secure next metal gear. Obviously not exclusive though.

Halo Reach, Crackdown 2, SC, Forza 3, Alan Wake should satisfy the hardcore.

Awesome functionality with all the video streaming, facebook integration etc.

Natal is impressive but it needed to be shown in real games not these tech demos. It was a pretty embarrassing showing. I think they should have kept it for the next xbox.
 

BigAT

Member
Did they announce when the changes to Netflix would be implemented?

As someone who borrows the Netflix service of my roommate who has an awful taste in films, this is a VERY welcome change.
 
traynuvthawt said:
want to ask again if anyone knows when and where to get the whole conference.

my girl wants to watch it with me when she gets home.

Any of the major sites, IGN, Gamespot, Kotaku, etc should have it soon
 
jetjevons said:
The trolls are really coming out of the woodwork. Nice try guys but that was an absolutely fantastic conference.

And now MS has Metal Gear too...


Come on dude a MGS game in which i did not even hear the word exclusive been trow out,and for your information MGS 2 was release for the original xbox this practically means nothing.


The conference was good,not great but good allot of tech that well implemented could give some nice quality time,i was just not sold on what was show Natal talking,some great games but the ones i am mostly interested where multi like COD,FFXlll,but i did like what i saw about Allan Wake it sure looked interesting and Crack Down 2 si also a game i would love to play since i like the first one very much.
 

jmdajr

Member
BlazingDarkness said:
Thoughts;
New peripheral for Tony Hawk - couldn't give a crap
FF13 for Spring 2010 - looks great as ever, the footage was pointless though, cutting off with Odin so quickly, seems like FFXIII was shoehorned in a little
MW2 Exclusive Maps - lame, this kind of exclusive is pointless
New Arcade game by EPIC - not my kinda thing, cool i guess
CRACKDOWN 2 - never played the first one, might be good?
L4D 2 - not my kinda thing
Splinter Cell Conviction - not my kinda thing, but it does look amazing graphically
Halo 3 ODST and Halo Reach, beta included with ODST - i couldn't give any less of a crap
Forza 3 - not my kinda thing, looks well made though
- I start to lose faith in the conference here, but suddenly!-
Alan Wake - looks amazing, definitely day one
Zune Video Store, HD1080P, Streaming - nifty, but i'm not sure i'll bother with it
Facebook/Twitter - don't give a crao
METAL GEAR RISING - the last of the original Playstation franchises taken? I'm hyped for it, though i will buy it for PS3 (i expect it's multiplatform)
Xbox Fluid Camera - seems kinda nice but that 'experimental' stuff usually gets boring fast, so i probably won't buy it
Milo - the tech behind it is amazing, but it looks really creepy, and i'm not sure where the fun is.

Overall: Great showing from MS, much better than last year (though you could argue their crux was another Playstation franchise game) but there's a lot of other amazing stuff in there

wow so what do you like? :)
 
bluehat9 said:
Where was Rare?

Yeah, seriously. I bought a 360 because of Rare and I REALLY was expecting them to show something at the press conference. Maybe they'll be releasing some more info over the next couple days as to what they are working on...
 

esbern

Junior Member
this sums up the show

zt64ix.png
 
I'm now *really* interested to see what Sony has to offer in response to this tomorrow. They'd better start getting busy, but I suspect that after seeing that presentation they're currently locked in a dark room rocking back and forth while sucking their thumbs.
 
gantz85 said:
If he's trying to create a fully interactive AI then it's simply not possible at this stage in time. Basically Milo has to pass the Turing Test and I am EXTREMELY sure he won't be able to do it. Plus, just on a basic level, they HAVE to get Milo to generate natural speech which is completely synthetically composed. I've studied AI for two years in University and I call smoke and mirrors.

Fair points, however.

It is rather negative to suggest that because fully interactive AI is currently not possible, it should not even be attempted. Indeed what we saw of Milo for forward thinking, but let's not dampen the ambition.
 

Spider from Mars

tap that thorax
I was disappointed with the lack of Mass Effect 2, but other than that this press conference was infinitely better than last years. I expect Sony to deliver another "down to business" press confrence like last years and Nintendo to roll out the weak shit and not give a fuck. Unless there is a Zelda or Mario announcement, then total redemption.
 

Master Z

Member
Jinfash said:
I don't know why some of you are laughing at that? That conf left me feeling the same way too and I don't even own a 360 (yet).

There are those of us that can be excited without going into retarded fanboy mode.
 
it was alright.

I love the fact that they started the press conference with an overpriced skateboard peripheral and then ended it with a video of a kid showing you that you dont need it at all-
:lol
 

jacobs34

Member
There is more stuff being announced for Microsoft at a luncheon, including "Games on Demand service coming to Live in August with 30 titles" via Garnett's twitter.
 

Cosmozone

Member
To be fair, the image recognition software seem to work pretty good. Still I'd advise to add a piece of plastic you can wave around for some games. I'm interested if there's depth recognition, that would put it actually on top of M+, but I think there isn't.

Milo has potential, although it's pretty hard to create proper AI to utilize it. If it only weren't a HUMAN BOY. That's so creepy.
 
I love how they showed off the tony hawk skateboard controller at the beginning, then later showed a skateboading game using the camera that appeared to do the same thing without the stupid plastic skateboard. :lol
 

Chiggs

Gold Member
fortified_concept said:
Why did it look dumb? Can you give examples?

Yes, for a game that touts itself as a psychological thriller, the gameplay seemed to consist of shining a flashlight at shadow monsters, going to point x to retrieve an item, then riding back and forth on a cable car only to encounter a scripted attack.

It did nothing for me whatsoever, and I've been anticipating this game for quite some time. I fear the open world aspect of this game is now long gone.
 

adelante

Member
Gary Whitta said:
I'm now *really* interested to see what Sony has to offer in response to this tomorrow. They'd better start getting busy, but I suspect that after seeing that presentation they're currently locked in a dark room rocking back and forth while sucking their thumbs.
I REALLY appreciate MS not flaunting their sales figures/charts (if there's any to begin with)...they got right down to the point and I won't be surprised if Nintendo or Sony "follow" suit!
 

SovanJedi

provides useful feedback
This sounds like a very impressive conference. They had exclusives, they had guest appearances, they had casual community site integrations, they had motion controls and AI pets... Yeah, sounded really impressive.

Almost none of the games appeal to me, other than Alan Wake. The camera sounds fun though. A large-screen painting canvas will be loads of fun to mess around with for sure.
 

Hy_

Member
Really good conference from MS.

+ Mentioned this earlier, but MS does a really good job of showcasing 3rd party multiplatform games while giving the impression that it's only on 360.

+ Alan Wake was fantastic! Best thing they showed.

+ Halo OSDT/Reach looked good. Not a huge fan of the series but fun games to play through.

+ Splinter Cell V looked neat how they integrated the UI into the environment. Old SC gameplay but make Sam more agile and fast = win.

- Natal was meh. Eyetoy can do this. It's really all about the software and Peter's vision is grand, but execution is what I'm worried about.

- Do not want Facebook integration in my dashboard. Optional download? I hope so.

B+. Time for a smoke break.
 
riskVSreward said:
Honestly, fuck the haters. That was the most impressive e3 conference... maybe ever.

let's come back down to earth, shall we? People here are on both extreme sides of the spectrum. Great showing by MS, but uh.. n/m proceed.
 

Fatalah

Member
Dizzan said:
Natal is impressive but it needed to be shown in real games not these tech demos. It was a pretty embarrassing showing. I think they should have kept it for the next xbox.

You are insane. My heart is still racing from Natal.

Holy shit man, are you from the future? This stuff doesn't impress you? :lol
 

Ten-Song

Member
I'm not sold on this Natal thing for the same reason I ended up thinking the Eye Toy was stupid. With something like the Wii Remote, I'm doing dumb waggles, sure, but at least I'm holding onto something. There is a tangible device keeping me connected to the game. With camera games, I end up just throwing my arms in the air wildly because there's no context or depth to help me match the movements on screen.

If it works, that'll be awesome... right now though, I can't help but to think that this is just like last year and how they pushed "You're in the movies!"
 

chubigans

y'all should be ashamed
esbern said:
this sums up the show

zt64ix.png
:lol

Gary Whitta said:
I'm now *really* interested to see what Sony has to offer in response to this tomorrow. They'd better start getting busy, but I suspect that after seeing that presentation they're currently locked in a dark room rocking back and forth while sucking their thumbs.
Man Gary, I just dont understand how you can say this. It was a great conference, but nothing truely surprising, and more than half of it not coming out this year.

Meanwhile Sony has new hardware and potentially a price cut with some of their top tier franchises. They could potentially do really awesome tomorrow.
 

agm2502

Member
So which of the guest will appear in the Sony conference? Epic or Kojima? Didn't all the MS leaks get confirmed so far? My bet is Kojima and Epic are both at Sony's conference.
 
Natal looked great, but that's just it -- LOOKED great. on video. I guess specific special guests can see it backstage somewhere in some form, but that just underlines how far along it is... which is to say, not far enough yet.

We won't be seeing anything out of Natal for some time now, probably not until after next year's E3. At least nothing significant. This actually reminds me of a lot of the earlier E3s from this generation in that they're showing "promise" as opposed to actual games (for Natal only). We'll see how it eventually turns out.

Overall the conference was just blow after blow to Sony's midsection. The games, the media capabilities, the continued additions to Live that make PSN look really amateurish in comparison. We'll see how the Zune HD hooks into it. But it's looking very, very smart.

It's amazing to see how much Nintendo has really changed the industry, though. I don't think they'll be affected much by this, besides maybe considering a camera for their next console. As for now, natal isn't coming out anytime very soon, and Nintendo has a pretty huge jumpstart on both the hardware and most importantly, the software side of this whole equation.

I'll be looking at how Natal shapes up though, beyond just the concept videos and simple tech demos, which looked interesting but not that impressive -- you could probably have done the ball kicking game and the paint demo with the EyeToy if you had a microphone handy.

Overall though -- WOW. Awesome show. A lot of great games, and hey -- Alan Wake might actually come out.

Did I just miss it, or did Assassin's Creed 2 really not show up?
 

Garryk

Member
JimtotheHum said:
it was alright.

I love the fact that they started the press conference with an overpriced skateboard peripheral and then ended it with a video of a kid showing you that you dont need it at all-
:lol

Thought the same thing.
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
I think people are both overreacting AND underreacting to the Natal/Milo demo.

The potential is gigantic. IF we had the AI to do it, gaming is revolutionized as interactions between the player and NPCs bring a depth to gaming that we've never seen before.

The problem, though, is that we DON'T have the AI yet. The only way to accomplish what Molyneux speaks of is to lengthen the production process to effectively record specific lines for each SPECIFIC interaction.

Notice how Molyneux said he's had the technology for several months and what we saw was a 3-minute tech demo. We're talking many, many YEARS of development for a full-length game at this point in time.
 
jacobs34 said:
There is more stuff being announced for Microsoft at a luncheon, including "Games on Demand service coming to Live in August with 30 titles" via Garnett's twitter.

What about the games aspect of ZuneHD?
 
I have to say this press conference delivered. Missed the very beginning, but I guess I didn't miss much. Tony Hawk apparently.

Even without all the other nonsense they showed, Forza 3, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Crackdown 2 and Alan Wake was pretty much all I needed to be satisfied. Shame only two of them will be out this year though.

My thoughts on the camera thingie can be summed up in four words; "BAM! There it is." If the thing at some point works as well as they've envisioned maybe it'll be a cool piece of technology. But flailing your limbs around and making elephants doesn't sound like something I'd wanna spend my time doing.

I was intrigued by Molyneux's implementation of it though. But even more so by whatever the hell kind of AI they've been designing over at Lionhead. If that wasn't scripted I'm seriously impressed.

Also, lightning bolt action. !

Yeah, delivered I'd say.
 
gofreak said:
I'm pretty sure they announced more new 08 games at last year's show than 09 games at this year's.
They announced the Portal port, the South Park game, and that nu-retro shooter. Oh and 1 vs 100. Nothing else.

So two XBLA games. This year got one. And technically Forza 3 was announced here.
 
Man, I think some of you guys are simply insatiable, or so stuck in fanboy mode to give Microsoft any credit.

I liked the conference overall, it delivered a decent mix of things near and far to look forward too.

Random thoughts:

- Shadow Complex: Ugh. Metroid, but without generic marines instead. Hooray?
- Modern Warfare 2....yeah, that's a Call of Duty game alright...
- VS XIII and MGS4 still belong to PS3, sad. Now it's just a question of whether this Rising spin off is worth anything.
- L4D2...couldn't this have just been a new map pack? A sequel? Now? Too soon.
- Forza 3: Well, the trailers make it look for fun than Gran Turismo. Will it finally just let me import images I make in photoshop?
- Halo ODST...yeah, that's a Halo game alright...
- Twitter, Facebook: Yeah, just add a browser and be done with it. Maybe that's too much freedom for this walled garden.
- Splinter Cell Conviction: The demo looked fun, but I wonder how many times you'll get found and killed before you can ever get near pulling off a perfect run like that.
- Alan Wake: I can do survival horror...but I sorta want to play this anyway. The light dynamic looks interesting.
- Fluid Camera: It has potential, yes...but if the Wii means anything, its functions will just get shoehorned into further generic shooters. Now I can play an FPS, and lean in real life? Oh boy! I can't wait until I play a video game while standing on a Tony Hawk Ride board, holding a Wiimote and Nunchuk, having my movements recognized by a Fluid camera.

Mylo looked neat too, but there's no way that it'll work as well as it is advertised. It is a nice step into having interactive computerized avatars, though.
 

charsace

Member
They showed off great games (one of them being FF13 360 footage), had the Beatles and Spielberg, and showed off amazing tech and people weren't impressed?

I would really like to know what some of you wanted. Robot Trent Green packed into every 360 arcade? God to appear and tell us he's real?
 
i'm still impressed by this conference.. it's by far the most interesting MS E3 press conference i've seen.

i can't wait to get Alan Wake footage, the flare scene was amazing
 

Busty

Banned
gantz85 said:
I have to say the conference was a little disappointing for me as I was expecting an unveiling of key new IPs for a hardcore audience. The whole conference was mostly predictable.. it's quite shocking how we were all speculating that Microsoft had been keeping gigatons for the conference and bam. Almost everything there was what we knew.

I kind agree with you but there is no denying that while I too was disappointed at the lack of any new IPs being announced I thought that on the whole it was a good conference.

The pacing, the reveals of the new tech and total lack of any deathly dull marketing numbers or stats really made the whole thing fly by.

I don't imagine that Nintendo's conference will be so 'tight' in pacing and lack of corporate chest beating.

I suspect that Sony didn't come to make up numbers. They are going to be doing their best to really go one better this year.
 

chubigans

y'all should be ashamed
jacobs34 said:
There is more stuff being announced for Microsoft at a luncheon, including "Games on Demand service coming to Live in August with 30 titles" via Garnett's twitter.
Wow, that's huge! Why the hell didn't they announce this?!
 

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
One thing I was pleasantly surprised about was the lack of third party cockblocking this year. They didn't even announce Tony Hawk as any kind of exclusive (though that may still happen..). I was suuuurrreee MS was lining up some former multiplats as some kind of 360 exclusives to help fill out their lineup this year.
 

Jocchan

Ὁ μεμβερος -ου
Got home late for the conference, and read about some of the biggest announcements. Is the vid already available for download anywhere?
 

Suikoguy

I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
Hy_ said:
Really good conference from MS.

+ Mentioned this earlier, but MS does a really good job of showcasing 3rd party multiplatform games while giving the impression that it's only on 360.

+ Alan Wake was fantastic! Best thing they showed.

+ Halo OSDT/Reach looked good. Not a huge fan of the series but fun games to play through.

+ Splinter Cell V looked neat how they integrated the UI into the environment. Old SC gameplay but make Sam more agile and fast = win.

- Natal was meh. Eyetoy can do this. It's really all about the software and Peter's vision is grand, but execution is what I'm worried about.

- Do not want Facebook integration in my dashboard. Optional download? I hope so.

B+. Time for a smoke break.


Pretty much what I thought,
Natal is all style right now, it's either going to be seriously innovative, or another demo toy like eye toy has turned out.
 

Dabanton

Member
Gary Whitta said:
I wonder how many of the people calling Natal lame/retarded etc are those same people who predicted that the Wii and motion control would be the beginning of the end for Nintendo...

I would expect it's the usual lot they always fail to see the big picture,the tech shown was amazing when the man or woman on the street gets a look at this it will blow their socks off,that Milo app was breathtaking.

I'm always disappointed after these kind of events that people who call themselves 'gamers' always come out with the most kneejerk reactionary comments and with their rants prove they have little to no imagination or foresight

They want gaming to be a 'respected' but want it to all be on their own selfish terms.
 
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