Microsoft E3 2006 Conference Thread

I'm surprised there hasn't been more mention about the fact MS pretty much confirmed PC and 360 users will be able to play each other over XBL.

Keyboard & Mouse Vs. Controller.

Uh oh.

Here's hoping there's an option to filter out PC players or something should it prove to be a huge disadvantage to use the controller.
 
Watching MS con right now... Damn! They really came loaded.

Viva Pinata looks really good. I'm more of a gun/action guy so it's not for me, but AC/sim fans should dig it.

GOW is amazing btw...
 
Suerte said:
I'm surprised there hasn't been more mention about the fact MS pretty much confirmed PC and 360 users will be able to play each other over XBL.

Keyboard & Mouse Vs. Controller.

Uh oh.

Here's hoping there's an option to filter out PC players or something should it prove to be a huge disadvantage to use the controller.
For many games, it won't matter. They seemed focused on Live Arcade at the conference. For something like that it's fine; for FPS yeah it's different.
 
Scotch said:
Well after seeing the conference I can't say it was all that better than the Nintendo one. A little too much boring Gates talk in the end. Still, it was excellent compared to previous Xbox E3 conferences. The lack of J Allard sure helps too.

+ The whole Xbox Live / Windows Vista integration. Really cool.
+ Contra, Lumines
+ Forza 2 this year + wireless steering wheel
+ GTA4, Halo 3, obviously
+ Gears of War, wasn't really convinced before, now I am

- Shadowrun. Almost looked like a regular shooter without rpg elements. Visually disappointing as well.
- Not enough Mass Effect, Too Human




the conference had way too much CGI. I would say more than Sony considering how much inengine Sony showed. Forza/Fable 2 might as well not been shown.

I thought the vista/mobile bit at the end with gates was terribly boring.


Highlights:

GOW

HALO3 teaser.


I think MS came off worst in the end. There was no surprises. And nothing new in the end that wasn't a CGI movie.

SomeDude said:
gotta give microsoft props for getting GTA4 exclusive (or atleast for probably over a year). That game alone will make people get and XBox 360.


How old is this?

:lol :lol :lol

the exclusivitiy lasted all 15 minutes before the rockstar PR hit the internet

the whole conference's impact fell apart when that news was announced. Makes you wonder why moore bothered to waste time getting "inked"
 
To be honest, some people can't be blamed. Gamespot's live blog stated it was an exclusive title. They made a mistake. I also had Eurogamer's live blog opened and they didn't mention it being exclusive, so I was like "Wtf" when I saw some people going nuts. Gamespot is to blame there. Either way the news is big because there is no year long wait between release.

Btw, it's funny seeing people try to spin it like MS did bad. :lol :lol I know it's hard to do.:lol
 
m0dus said:
Do you need refills on your meds? because you're sounding psychotic :lol Seriously, how long did it take you to convince yourself what you were writing is remotely based in reality? God, stay out of the thread if you seriously have no interest invested in the machine or the games.

m0dus Cuckoo for Xbox!


hmm..


someone on this page is going OMG FORZA2... but it was all CGI. Same for Fable 2. I've already said it. And mistwalker showcased 1 cgi trailer that was somewhat old.

MS didn't bring much to the table in the end. The 1 thing I thought they'd won, they shared. And they didn't land a single SE title.
 
Kuroyume said:
To be honest, some people can't be blamed. Gamespot's live blog stated it was an exclusive title. They made a mistake. I also had Eurogamer's live blog opened and they didn't mention it being exclusive, so I was like "Wtf" when I saw some people going nuts. Gamespot is to blame there. Either way the news is big because there is no year long wait between release.

Btw, it's funny seeing people try to spin it like MS did bad. :lol :lol I know it's hard to do.:lol
Yeah. The source I originally got it from said nothing about exclusive and I was wondering about where it came from.
 
Aryuken said:
The flatout best conference has much less replys because...this is GAF, there's more fans of sony and nintendo.
And honestly, there's very little, probably nothing to hate from the Xbox 360 conference, it was all ACE, so it gets kinda hard for Fans of other systems to come in here and start bashing.

But we have seen some of them already, but only the brave ones. :D

I was bored to hell when Gates came out and kept blabbing about Windows and Vista and Pocket Windows and blah blah blah blah.
 
MS was pretty disappointing, weakest of the three. The only one that delivered was Nintendo, although Sony was saved by Final Fantasy XIII, Metal Gear Solid 4, Heavenly Sword and (to a lesser extent) Lair.

Halo 3 looks cool, but that's hardly a suprise.

Gears of Wars isn't too hot though. Animation isn't great, gameplay is same old same old cover, fire, cover, fire. AI is as dumb as a cow. Whole game is very stereotypical, and the gore effects look downright idiotic.

Mass effect is shaping up nicely though. Forza 2 and Fable 2 all CGI.
 
Falch said:
MS was pretty disappointing, weakest of the three. The only one that delivered was Nintendo, although Sony was saved by Final Fantasy XIII, Metal Gear Solid 4, Heavenly Sword and (to a lesser extent) Lair.

Halo 3 looks cool, but that's hardly a suprise.

Gears of Wars isn't too hot though. Animation isn't great, gameplay is same old same old cover, fire, cover, fire. AI is as dumb as a cow. Whole game is very stereotypical, and the gore effects look downright idiotic.

Mass effect is shaping up nicely though. Forza 2 and Fable 2 all CGI.

Trolls are the best part of GAF. Honestly, what conference were you watching? You say H3 wasn't surprising but FF, MG4, HS and Liar were? :lol

Logic is an impossible concept with you people, isn't it? What would you have said had MS showed 20 minutes of Forza 1 running in higher res on 360?

MS came, they raped, they left. It's really as simple as that.
 
I love how certain people are now grading e3 conferences on "surprises" , not the actual content. Kind of funny really, who cares, its the content that matters not if you knew about it or not.

And the CGI arguement is just too ironic and funny
 
GashPrex said:
I love how certain people are now grading e3 conferences on "surprises" , not the actual content. Kind of funny really, who cares, its the content that matters not if you knew about it or not.

And the CGI arguement is just too ironic and funny

That's because for Sony fanboys they had the biggest surprises perhaps?

Look we actually were blatant enough to steal ideas from Nintendo and MS, and now we are going to make you pay to bend over! SURPRISE!
 
I've been at work all day (hell, I'm still here) so I haven't had a chance to see anything yet but glancing over some of the responses here, I'm guessing that 1up's Shane's doom and gloom podcast predictions for MS didn't come true...heh.

Hopefully they'll have another podcast tonight.
 
would like to throw my two cents in. Lost my other user name since it's not cookied here at E3 but went two both conferences today (Nintendo and Microsoft)...

and well..

Microsoft blew them away. Nintendo sorely lacked Super Smash Brothers like they pretty much promised at last year's event when I went. Microsoft was solid all around with presentation and software. Plus they had an after event where you could get exclusive demos with the creators of the games across at the Rosevelt Hotel. Was able to sit in with Too Human and Blue Dragon (Sakaguchi was there but didn't speak much as Artoon Mitisugushi (spelling) spoke for the majority.)

Microsoft and Nintendo definitely were heads and tails over Sony this year. I did enjoy Nintendo at the end with the three figure heads playing the Wii. Oh yeah and if Arne is watching... this is Dakota!!
 
Nintendo had the most solid conference. If they had shown off some great graphics, then it would be an awesome conference.

I missed the MS conference, had a Final to take. How did Halo 3 come out? :)

EDIT: That Ive seen, sheesh lol
 
gamergirly said:
Nintendo had the most solid conference. If they had shown off some great graphics, then it would be an awesome conference.

I missed the MS conference, had a Final to take. How did Halo 3 come out? :)
So you are telling us that Nintendo had the best overall conference (fair enough), and then you admit you did not follow the MS conference. Interesting ;)
 
At least we can all agree Sony had the worst conference. I'm an nbot but MS REALLY impressed me.
holyshit at halo 3
 
Hi res H3 screens :D :D

h3_e32006_ChiefIntro.jpg

h3_e32006_cortana.jpg

h3_e32006_structure.jpg

h3_e32006_ChiefVisor.jpg
 
A quick google search brought this up:
http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/3528/Halo-2-Announced/

An official, downloadable version of the "Halo 2" announcement trailer will be available soon. This is the same trailer shown to the press at Microsoft's X02 event, and features two-and-a-half minutes of in-engine footage as well as an original musical score by Bungie's award-winning composer, Martin O'Donnell. For now, please head to http://www.bungie.net or click the links on the left for exclusive screenshots from the trailer.

I don't want to get hyped like I did for Halo 2. So although I'm sure Halo 3 will eventually look awesome, I'm not going to base anything from this teaser.
 
m0dus said:
not sure. however, if you check out the comments they made regarding 3, IIRC they've stated that they used all game assets, and the current build of the halo 3 engine

from gamespot, apparently:

"The demo shifted away from the crater to the part of the level you see the Master Chief walking in from. He was controllable, which means that the trailer is pretty much what the game will look like. Lehto was able to zoom in on the Master Chief with the camera, and you could see the many different ways light reflected objects onto him. For example, you could see light reflect off the ground and onto his armor. A new materials system shows the difference between his armor and the rubber undersuit. It's so detailed that if you bring the camera close to the Master Chief's visor, you see everything in front of him reflected in it, right down to the ammo counter in his rifle."

That's not going to be enough to shut the haters up, is it?

:/
 
Not horrible. Gears of War stole the show. Halo 3 is too early to rummage up any real feelings(I'll get all choked up at next year's true unveiling).

Seems a lot of big showfloor stuff didn't get peddled during the event which is a bit confusing, but at least some new announcements got mentioned. Shadowrun looks all kinds of stupid based on that trailer though. I need to play Fable 1 before the sequel hits now.

GEARS OF WAR!
 
woodchuck said:
A quick google search brought this up:
http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/3528/Halo-2-Announced/



I don't want to get hyped like I did for Halo 2. So although I'm sure Halo 3 will eventually look awesome, I'm not going to base anything from this teaser.

[UPDATE]: Shortly after Microsoft's presentation, we had an opportunity to get a close-up look at Halo 3 with Bungie representatives. We spoke with Brian Gerrard, one of Bungie's community managers, as well as TJ Cohen, the cinematics director. Cohen stated that the trailer was a good example of where Halo 3 is going, in terms of fiction. By that, he means that the story is epic in scale, but dark as well, and Bungie is going for a distinct mood, since Halo 3 will represent the end of the trilogy.

The Bungie representatives made it clear to us that the trailer was running in real-time on the Xbox 360. The trailer is set in the African desert, and it was taken from roughly a third of the way through the game. Cohen noted that the constant battling has taken its toll on Master Chief, and you can see that by the many scars and gouges in his armor. The flashes of Cortana seen in the trailer fill you in on the state of her mind, and the Forerunner structure seen in the distance at the end of the trailer represents a pivotal point in the story.

We next met with Marcus Lehto, Bungie's art director, who filled us in on the technology as he gave us a fly through of the locations in the trailer. The crater seen in the trailer is three miles across, and it's all rendered in real geometry. Halo 3 has a new global lighting system that now lights everything uniquely from the same source, which explains just how that setting sun looked that good as it illuminated everything in the trailer. Halo 2, on the other hand, used a lighting system that lit everything separately. Meanwhile, parallax mapping is able to give depth to structures in the distance, such as the clouds above the crater. A new particle system offers different levels of light diffusion to take the quality of the atmosphere into account, and that makes for different layers of light.

The demo shifted away from the crater to the part of the level you see the Master Chief walking in from. He was controllable, which means that the trailer indicates just how good the game will look. Lehto was able to zoom in on the Master Chief with the camera, and you could see the many different ways light reflected objects onto him. For example, you could see light reflect off the ground and onto his armor. A new materials system shows the difference between his armor and the rubber undersuit. It's so detailed that if you bring the camera close to the Master Chief's visor, you see everything in front of him reflected in it, right down to the ammo counter in his rifle.

It goes without saying that Halo 3 looks really impressive. We'll have to wait to learn more, but we'll keep you up to date with any developments.

http://www.gamespot.com/e3/e3story.html?sid=6149725

Seems a lot of big showfloor stuff didn't get peddled during the event which is a bit confusing, but at least some new announcements got mentioned. Shadowrun looks all kinds of stupid based on that trailer though.

I really think they didn't have enough time, and choose to the games that will be shown on the floor, speak for themselves.
 
FiRez said:
well the teaser of H2 indeed used the same engine that the final. The problem was that nothing from that footage appeared on the final game.

Major changes were made to the engine though. Reflections in the visor were removed, the lighting engine was changed quite a bit, etc. Ended up looking MUCH different.

This looks much more reasonable, but I'm still gonna reserve judgement until it's in it's final state.
 
Good conference, but not mindblowing and a little overhyped by fanboys. Same goes for Nintendo.

To be fair, Sony lowered the bar so I can see why people are thrilled.
 
I dunno if this is news or not but, Unreal Tournament is coming to 360.

I expected it, but the recent IGN Feature on UT2K7 for "PC and PS3" had me a little worried.

EDIT: Source. It's in there.
 
FiRez said:
well the teaser of H2 indeed used the same engine that the final. The problem was that nothing from that footage appeared on the final game.

bungie scrapped h2 engine halfway through development
 
Catchpenny said:
Good conference, but not mindblowing and a little overhyped by fanboys. Same goes for Nintendo.

To be fair, Sony lowered the bar so I can see why people are thrilled.

They didnt lower anything. They just raised the price
 
Theres also some other interesting things I havent seen mentioned yet:

Xbox 360 Memory Unit (256MB). With four times more capacity than the original, gamers can easily store and transfer even more Xbox 360 saved games, Xbox Live profiles, full Xbox Live Arcade titles and other entertainment content downloaded from Xbox Live Marketplace.

The Xbox 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows connects existing and future Xbox 360 wireless accessories to the PC, allowing gamers to enjoy the Xbox 360 Wireless Controller, Xbox 360 Wireless Headset and Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel on a second platform.
 
Mike G.E.D. said:
Theres also some other interesting things I havent seen mentioned yet:

Now that's just silly. Announce a larger memory card before you announce a larger HDD. With all the Marketplace demos Live has been offering, isn't it time to keep that bigger HDD promise?
 
Top Bottom