Can anyone really say that he was genuinely impressed by it? I don't think so... some nice footage of good and anticipated games, an excellent redesign of the 360, and then, a Kinect-fest, reaching levels that are pretty close to Nintendo's '08 atrocity.

It's very unusual to see MS give a bad performance.

DAMAGE CONTROL, you can stop it.

Microsoft basically pulled the same deft dumbass move that Nintendo pulled last year. These press conferences have for better or worse become the secular tent revivals for hardcore gamers. They tune in to be enthused, and to be awestruck by hardcore gaming glory. The manufacturers are even promoting this mentality by having it running live on television, and across the internet.

The crime is in not appreciating the audience that is showing up. The conferences are not where you should be pimping your casual offerings to the casual market. Those are not the people that are watching with baited breath. They will see this stuff on Good Morning America, or will see it while their kids are watching Dora the Explorer.

You can't get by labeling yourself as a hardcore gaming spectacle, and then dump a massive pile of casual crap on gamers. They will justifiably get revolted. This was a piss poor performance by Microsoft, and a real let down for gamers. Who will now have to fish through hundreds of announcements to find the gems that should have made it into a press conference which should have been geared towards them. Microsoft should have stayed hardcore for the press event, and then had a major show floor demonstration to casual media. Which are the ones that will bring the news from the mountain top to the market they seek.

Seriously Microsoft really screwed the pooch with this one. A few key announcements will not cover up an hour of what amounts to tormenting hardcore gamers. They deserve to get reamed. Just as much as Nintendo deserved it last year. Well maybe not so much Nintendo didn't have anything remotely hardcore in their press showing.

My biggest complaint for Microsoft's conference was the lack of any big exclusive reveal. All we have is a trailer of a trickle of blood running down a man's body. How are we supposed to get excited about that?

The second worst thing about their conference was the lack of the Kinect price. Kinect was a huge part of the show and was made out to be the biggest addition to the 360 experience thus far. The date was announced for Nov. 4th, but with no price point, Microsoft isn't helping anyone's confidence in the product, including mine. Here's hoping for the best, because what I saw was pretty darn neat, especially the interface through Xbox itself.

Other than that (and that one guy dancing... ugh), it was a good conference. The gameplay reveals of CoD, Reach, and Gears 3 were fantastic, and like I said before, the Kinect stuff was for the most part great.

And of course, the Xbox Slim announcement was expected... but the "NOW" part wasn't. Awesome job on Microsoft's part for that one (I told everyone on MSN live: Take that Sega Saturn! ).

Hahaha, yeah! No way did that arouse me!!!!!

*shifty eyes*

Well, somehow I think they did: they are still relying in the x360 graphics capability. And it may work better than expected.

I was hoping them to be a little less conservative and show some radical ideas but they didn't. I don't want to be a resentful fanboy, but I think both the Kinect Star Wars and Metal Gear offering looked "nice" but at the same time quite boring after the first ten minutes. Explain something to me... How are those games nothing but "on rails" slashers?

From last E3 I'm holding that Nintendo's "nunchuck" was way more important that what people gave it credit for. Sony got it, and therefore, they offering may be more appealing for "hardcore" gamers.

Hey, i didn't say there's no difference between arousal and excitement.

Im not a sony fanboy but i do own a ps3 and yes im on it most days as its good to just wind down after a days work on my ps3. Now i never thought i'd consider getting an xbox  as the ps3 offers all the games i need and want, Except one type.... a good sword and sheild game set in the time of blacksmiths, blood, gore and large scale battles in europe, and after seeing that trailer for cryteks exclusive xbox360 game CODENAME KINGDOMS it has made me curious and excited. im definitely going to be keeping my eye on that game and if it ends up being what i think it might be i think i might be purchasing an xbox360.

Edge doesn't like too.

And about Natal: "Based on today’s demos, the true appeal of Microsoft's 'full body controller' lies, as many will have suspected, in everything but the games."

http://www.edge-online.com/features/analysis-microsoft-press-conference-0?

IGN loved it.