Microsoft E3 keynote is here, 10:30am PT / 1:30pm ET
While last night's gown-infused Kinect event may have revealed the new name and some of the games for the hardware formerly known as Project Natal, this morning's Microsoft keynote promises even more goodies. Xbox 360 Slim? You got us, but if there is one you can bet you'll learn more here. Clan support in Xbox Live? One can hope. Hulu? Alright, you're just being pushy now. Things get going at at 10:30am PT / 1:30pm ET, so keep this post locked and come back in a little while, okay? Until then, get your bingo cards ready!
[Update: And we're inside! Head past the break for our liveblog!]
12:02PM Also, since we're not in the business of keeping anything, you may want to expect a MASSIVE giveaway soon. Alright, we're off. Talk to you soon!
12:00PM And that's all. Can we go leave to play with our new 360s now please?
12:00PM It'll be in stores by the end of the week.
11:59AM It's shipping today. And everyone in the audience is currently being shipped one. WHAT?!
11:59AM "It's a brand new era of entertainment for Xbox. He's showing off the smaller Xbox we saw in the italian ad yesterday. 250 GB HD, built in WiFi. It's a more pronounced, more angular version of the inhale. The Wireless-N enabled console costs $299.
11:57AM The bigger question, of course, is whether or not it'll lap Gran Turismo. We're currently taking bets.
11:56AM Whatever the proper name of that release, it's coming in 2011.
11:55AM He's using Kinect to walk around a Ferrari Italia, highlighting different parts of the car to learn more about it. He holds the cursor over a headlight for a moment, and the screen fills with info. He climbs in, waving a hand to shut the door.
11:53AM Turn 10 takes the stage to demo a racing game that appears to include head tracking. It's a Forza game of some sort.
11:52AM It's the same footage from last night, it seems, Vader duel included. It's coming 2011.
11:51AM Now Star Wars. The mere title is shown, and the crowd bursts into applause. It's adorably Pavlovian.
11:50AM Kinect will launch Nov. 4, 15 titles at launch. Sonic Freeride, Active 2, Biggest Loser among them.
11:48AM Alex Rigopulos of Harmonix takes the stage. Lady Gaga, MIA, No Doubt, Beastie Boys are all in the game, and many will have the original moves from the songs' music videos. Though the original demo was pretty intimdating, we're now seeing the beginner mode, "Break It Down." The game's less coordinated director is on stage now, and he's ... well, he's definitely putting his heart into it.
11:45AM Looks like Just Dance, but, umm, funner.
11:45AM Here's the Harmonix Kinect game, Dance Central. And they're kicking it off with Bel Biv Devoe's "Poison." Ballsy.
11:43AM Now things get much more chilled out with a zen taichi class.
11:42AM Now she's punching on screen blocks, seems like much more of a game than a workout, not that that's a bad thing.
11:41AM As Felicia does squat punches, she gets feedback from her coach. There's also a running tally of how many calories she's burned and how long she's worked out.
11:39AM Felicia Williams of Ubisoft takes the stage to show off YS:FE. Felicia is rendered in the game as a weird orange lady, even down to her sweater. She's being scanned by SkyNe-- we mean Kinect, which calibrates for her height and weight.
11:37AM Now a trailer for a Kinect fitness game of some sort. There's jump roping and racing, but none of it is actual gameplay. The title is Your Shape: Fitness Evolved.
11:35AM Now, there's a rafting game, with the two jumping and leaning in conjunction to navigate rapids. There's still a certain jerkiness to avatar movements it seems.
11:34AM After he and his friend play, the game shows pictures of the two of them acting silly. So cool.
11:33AM Kinect Adventures: The demo dude rides a cart, ducking and moving to collect tokens. A friend joins him and the screen automagically goes split screen. It's super slick.
11:31AM Now, Kinect Joy Ride (nee Joy Ride). Using her hands to steer, the demoer thrusts her hips side to side to drift and thrusts her hands forward to boost.
11:28AM Shen and a young lady pretend to race eachother and leap over hurdles. In the replay, the theme from Chariots of Fire plays. Cute.
11:28AM It's got 40 unique animals and 30 activities. Kinect sports is up next. Shen from Rare demos, getting them crowd amped by waving his arms and enticing them to cheer. Also, he triggers fireworks.
11:26AM She plays jump rope with him, and he flips over the rope in slow-motion.
11:25AM When the young girl controlling the game hides, her pet tiger presses its paws against the screen looking for her. Guys, our hearts are MELTING.
11:24AM Kudo is showing off the first Kinect game. We've got Kinectimals up first. It's tiger petting, and it's ADORABLE.
11:21AM We're not big on the sports (OK, I, Justin am not), but it looks a great way to watch. Plus, it's FREE for Gold members.
11:20AM ESPN.com scores and highlights will be availble in game.
11:20AM There's also voice activated replays, in-game trivia, and other polls.
11:19AM 3,500 events in year one, most of them in HD. In the menu, avatars at the bottom of the screen. The player is asked who they're rooting for. Once he answers, his choice is shown in poll form at the bottom of the screen.
11:17AM College football, college basketball, but no NFL, NHL mentioned.
11:16AM ESPN logo, 3,500 events live and in demand, NBA, MLB, NCAA, soccer, Sports Center. It's an exclusive partnership.
11:15AM videoKinect also goes to Live Messnger members.
11:14AM As her sister moves, the camera follows her. Neither appear to be creeped out by this, even though it's PRETTY CLEARLY SKYNET.
11:14AM She selects a video from the bottom of the screen, it's in the middle of the screen as they watch it together. This feature encompasses news, sport, entertainment, "whatever is hot that day."
11:13AM After selecting the option, she's taken to a list of her friend's pictures. She selects her twin sister in Dallas. Video quality is great, both have local weather shown above their pictures.
11:11AM Now he's showing off videoKinect with Laura, an engineer on the service.
11:10AM Kinect works with Netflix, Last.fm, pretty much whatever services you'd want, it'd seem.
11:09AM He says "Xbox" to get its attention and "Zune" to log into that area. He's navigating the menu with his hand filling in as a cursor. He's now finding a specific moment in Alice in Wonderland by scrolling through with his hand. He says "Xbox pause" and it does so. "Xbox play" starts again. Finally, we're living in the FUTURE.
11:07AM Ron Forbes is on stage. He waves to sign in. He's taken to a connect hub, which seems like a simplified version of the main dash.
11:06AM There's that motorized tilt.
11:06AM OK, it's time for the Kinect hard sell, it would seem.
11:05AM It's a hard act to follow for good old Marc Whitten, our next presenter.
11:04AM It's the interior of a base. One of our team climbs in an shuttle and blasts off. Oh shit, it's a fighter. There's space combat!
11:02AM This absolutely looks like a step up graphically, but it's still unmistakably Halo. There's a fantastic animation of one of the Covenant ships being blown out of the sky, and the enclosed Covenant flipping over our heroes.
11:00AM We've got the team on the surface of the planet with Covenant dropping in, ODST style.
10:59AM Bungie's showing off the first look at the Reach campaign. We've got some strains of the main theme, a bit drummier and flutier. Those are words, right?
10:58AM To clarify: The trailer was live action. Not the game.
10:57AM Whatever this new project is, it's codenamed Kingdoms.
10:57AM Microsoft Game Studios newest partner is being shown off. We see a gladiator of some sort, blood dripping from his sword. It's live action, and this is, apparently, a Crytek game.
10:56AM Sorry, that was coming fast and furious, but is seems like one of the brothers, in charge of Albion, went tyrant.
10:55AM Hero seems to fuse two magics together and fire them off.
10:55AM Two brothers, one in charge of ruling it, one in charge of saving it.
10:54AM Fable 3 is coming OCt. 26!
10:54AM Also, Fable 3 is coming to PC too, right?
10:54AM Peter Molyneux is on stage. Have we talked about how much we love him? Cause we do.
10:53AM New mode called "Beast" being unveiled on the floor.
10:53AM Overwhelmed, the team's saved at the last moment by the Hammer of Dawn.
10:52AM There's a surprising about of enemy variety, the Lambent berserker is horrifying, and leaping 30 or so feet in the air.
10:51AM Tip of Marcus' gun is literally red-hot after firing off a burst, nice touch.
10:50AM Might be hallucinating, but Marcus actually looks buffer, and his arms are exposed.
10:49AM He's showing off four-player story-based co-op today. New mutated Lambents today, as well as a first look at female Gears Anya and Sam.
10:48AM Phil Spencer's on stage. Everything from this point on is exclusive to 360. Now welcome Cliffy B.
10:47AM He follows that up by cutting a van in half, and slicing a watermelon into several pieces. It's getting a huge response from the audience.
10:46AM Looks comprable to MGS 4, but more colorful. The game allows you to cut "anything." Which it demonstrates by showing Raiden slicing a dude into six or seven pieces in slow motion.
10:45AM A mutated, gun-wielding soldier stalks a hall until he's sliced in half by Raidien, who rips out his spine and takes his power. Oh, and that was zan-datsu.
10:44AM The sword action game is based on a word they created san-datsu. It's a portmanteau of "cut" and "take".
10:43AM First footage of the game in action, but he's going to let producer Shigenobu Matsuyama handle it.
10:42AM Oh shit, Kojima's taking the stage. MGS: Rising info incoming?
10:41AM Don's giving us the general pitch, hitting Kinect hard.
10:40AM Exclusive, multi-year agreement between Acti and Xbox. CoD map packs and add-ons will be first on Xbox in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
10:39AM Welcome to the stage, Don Mattrick.
10:38AM It's hard to tell if Lamia is on rails, but it APPEARS that he's actually controlling the copter too.
10:37AM Now we're manning the gunner's seat in a copter. A bridge is torn into flaming toothpicks by missle fire.
10:36AM Everything looks really excellent, from the stunning jungle environment (which seems lush and expansive) to the guns, which look very ... gunny.
10:35AM Skip to Laos, 1968.
10:34AM Definitely going for scares, with enemies jumping out from the darkness. Very un-CoD, but in a good way.
10:34AM His demo kicks off with climbing over some stumpy dead bodies in a subterranean tunnel.
10:33AM He is taking this VERY SERIOUSLY.
10:33AM Treyarch's Mark Lamia takes the stage.
10:33AM Call of Duty Black Ops. def. a lot of different eras. Dude rapelling, shooting through glass and swigning through. Hanging off of a helicopter and shooting. Know this is just a sizzle reel, but it looks shit hot.
10:31AM Think we just saw a new loading screen.
10:30AM Lights are dimmed. It's on.
10:29AM Uh oh, the big screen is warning us that these titles haven't been rated. If you see us hiding our eyes, you'll know why.
10:28AM That said, there's an old/current 360 on stage, so maybe they've hidden the new small 360 inside it. Now THAT's showmanship.
10:28AM Not seeing any obvious hidden products on stage, which makes us wonder if they're going to be showing a new Xbox off or not.
10:25AM We've been relegated to the "blogger" section of the theater. It's almost impossibly sweaty. We were trying to horn in on the "broadcast media" section, but the jig was up when they saw we weren't wearing make-up.
10:13AM By our count, there's no fewer than five Kinect units on the stage. So ... yeah, they'll probably mention it.
10:07AM A media desk, for those of us in the press to rest our weary feet. We'll need this after tonight's hands- and feet-on Kinect event more than this cushy media briefing.
10:00AM We're inside! Typical Microsoft keynote fair: lots of fluorescent green, lots of people, lots of white carpeting. This year, like last year, the stage features a "living room" set. Kinect, to connect with your kin. Get it?
