The enviornment in that demostration was unbelievable.  It actually made you think the world was in a seriously bat shit crazy war.  I was getting into it and I wasn't even playing.  Looks very immersive and intense.  Definite day one purchase for me.  There are just too many good games coming out this fall.

I give it an A-

The one thing missing for me was announcing one big exclusive we didn't know about. And where was Bungie and/or any mention of the Halo universe? Makes me worried that the Bungie game isn't anything huge.

The highlights for me:

1. FFXIII - Ouch for PS3. 360 has become an RPG player's dream.
2. Netflix - I already use Live and Netflix, so this is like I got a big present for free. That rocks.
3. Revamp to Live is expansive and deep. Dig into the feature set and you get lots of cool stuff. Group chat. Optional install of the entire game on your HDD so you don't need to run the disc drive. Easier partying up with friends. Yes the avatars are lame, but whatever. It might help with the casual market, which is good for their sales. But the cleaner look and easier marketplace will help a lot.
4. Lips just owns Singstar. I like Singstar and play it over drinks with friends and stuff. But the fact that you can plug in your iPod and play any song - turns your 360 into a karaoke machine that plays anything. Good stuff.
5. The arcade lineup looks awesome. Galaga is my alltime fave game - so that looks great. Portal is the most acclaimed game of last year, and they have the followup as an exclusive? Geometry Wars 2 looks great too. (Though I was surprised they didn't show Castle Crashers)


I was surprised that they didn't mention Madden at all. They emphasized that so strongly last year. I don't care about it at all, but I was surprised.

It was a D- up until FF XIII was announced. The conference as a whole still sucked but that's one huge fucking feather in Microsoft's cap.

You have to remember that they still haven't shown anything on their other first party games like Halo Wars and Halo Chronicles. Both are guaranteed to be massive games.

9/10 - The sheer megatonnage of an announcement like FF13 is just another example of MS as a force to be reckoned with. Also, this announcement will have huge repercussions on the HD half of the industry: either go multiplat or scaleback. We have no idea what was going on behind the scenes at Square-Enix. They must have been pretty close to the precipice to go back on exclusivity like that. Barring moneyhats, I do believe the era of the third party exclusive release is over until costs of development come down . The costs are just ridonkulous.
Fable 2 was the other one that blew my hair back. The rest was okay. The Netflix thing was cool.
Couple notes:
-You think Gootch and the rest of Mistwalker feel like a red-headed stepchild now ?
-I think the high fivin' by the G4 crew was just a bit...unprofessional
-The only way they would have got a 10 outta me would have been if Wada had a FF13 tat on his forehead haha
-Now more people can enjoy FF13, which is good

7/10 ... pretty bad overall, FF13 was the only big thing i saw there..

5/10

I'm surprised at how many of you think the conference "sucked" or was "boring". I have to wonder how many of you are PS3 fanboys. The new avatar based interface was a huge announcement (even though we kind of already knew about it). And don't say they stole it from Sony, because it wasn't Sony's idea anyway. It was Nintendo's.

The exclusive games--yeah, we already knew about them, but I wouldn't call them boring. Fable II is looking more and more like it's going to deliver on all the hype this time around. Gears of War 2 is said to be a graphical juggernaut and have hundreds of tweaks to the duck and cover system.

FFXIII: I think the entire internet exploded when that was announced. Even though it's not an exclusive, it's certainly going to take some more market share away from Sony.

And what about the Fallout 3 DLC announcement and the Netflix thing?

I give the press conference a 9/10, and I don't even care about Netflix or avatars.

I was going to give them a C-
'til I heard Banjo Kazooie, Netflix, and FFXIII

so, i giv them 'bout a B- for that (big BK fan, i am)

overall, i thought they needed the radiance and magnificence of Jade Raymond

8/10.... good but I was expecting more