The Stupid Gamer

Sorry for the sloppy format, but it’s the best we could do for you. Here are the notes from the conference, in case you missed it.

Don Mattrick
-Biggest sellers touted (Call of Duty 4, Mass Effect, Assassin’s Creed, BioShock, etc.)
-New franchises driving market expansion (Rock Band, Scene It, etc)
-Fallout 3, Resident Evil 5, Fable 2, Gears of War 2

Fallout 3
-Retro black and white video intro showing “ad” for Valut-Tec
-Pans out to desolated city, man holding a gun
-Rest of trailer will debut online in hours, will show harshness and humor of Fallout 3
-Live demo of Fallout 3…started by controller issues ;)
-Looks incredibly detailed, smooth
-Post-apocalyptic Washington DC
-Can play in 3rd or 1st person
-Character’s wristwatch shows skills, stats, perks, etc.
-Can play stealthy, combat-driven, or use speech to influence
-Can cue up moves when attacking enemies
-For some reason, Yankee Doodle and other patriotic songs are playing in the background
-Pretty gory…body parts are flying about
-Game has over 100 hours of gameplay, can explore massive areas of Washington DC
-Can be good, bad, or somewhere in between
-Demo ends with character using “The Fatman”, a mini-nuke weapon
-Game will have “substantial” DLC for 360 and PC

Resident Evil 5
-First time RE series on a MS console
-Demo shown, played by RE5 director
-Resident Evil 5 takes place in Kijuju, Africa
-Hero of the game, Chris Redfield investigating bioterrorism incident
-New organization called BSAA sent Chris
-Online co-op mode shown
-Chris’ partner named Sheva Alomar
-Also an agent of BSAA
-Chris tosses Sheva over a gap that neither could cross alone perviously
-As expected, it looks a lot like RE4 done in HD
-Teamwork very important to getting past obstacles and enemies
-I see exploding barrels everywhere
-Chainsaw man variant from RE4 attacks as demo ends
-Out March 13, 2009 in North America

Fable 2
-Fable 2 is already finished
-Trailer shown, apparently a glimpse at the opening of the game
-Setting is in a snowy environment, Albion has a strong European vibe
-Bird poops on a kid’s head…kind of an odd way to introduce your character
-Orbs on the screen represent your friends playing the game, can invite your friends to co-op by heading up to orbs
-Your hero/world will be unique to your experience
-Marriage shown off
-Same goofy communication/interaction system using d-pad
-Game will be out in October, 2008

Gears of War 2
-Huge battle going on, Marcus Phoenix looking on as he’s using a an enemy as a body shield
-Voice has changed for Marcus (seemingly)
-Cliff Blezinsky (sp?) says that response has been very positive
-Co-op play shown with Dom and Marcus
-Buildings are burning, crumbling, story dialog happening as the game is being played
-Scale is much more open than we saw in Gears 1
-Cover system looks smoother
-Using downed enemies as body shields before cracking their neck
-Already new enemies shown, some huge
-Graphics definitely better
-Flamethrower looks nasty and mean
-Escape sequence from a burning building that leads right to a Brumak
-They saddle up a Brumak and prepare to ride it to close the demo
-New mode announced, called Horde. 5 players take on waves of Locusts
-Out November 7, 2008 exclusive to 360

Back to Don Mattrick
-People will spend estimated $48 billion this year in games
-Games leading driver in entertainment spending
-Over 5 million units ahead of PS3
-$2.7 billion in sales (software) last 12 months…leading industry
-Highest revenue of the big 3
-Saying 360 WILL SELL more consoles than PS3 this gen (pretty bold to say at this point)
-12 million Xbox Live members, a new member every 5 seconds
-Xbox Live sales over $1 billion since 360 launch (includes DLC and media)
-Over 10,000 movies and shows on Live larger than any satellite or cable operator
-Movies and shows 1/3 of paid downloads in the US on Live
-NBC and Universal joining TV and movie lineups, USA, Sci Fi channel as well
-Movie clips shown of what’s available
-Audience gives a pity applause (all we care about is the games, MS!)

New 360 interface
-Looks nice, but might slow navigation a bit
-3D avatars (I told you!)
-Avatars are very customizable, will show on Gamercard, ideas proposed by Rare
-Community channel added, integrated with Avatars
-Live Party supports up to 8 people chatting, interacting, or playing games
-Neat photo sharing ability with the party

-Xbox Live Primetime channel coming this fall
-Primetime full of game shows for Live Party players to play along
-Primetime demo shown with game show (1 vs. 100)

-Attempting to open up a new frontier in interactive entertainment
-Dynamic content and scheduled programming coming to Live

-New Games Channel coming
-Uno Rush announced
-Games can be launched for entire Live Party by party leader

Geometry Wars 2 coming to Xbox Live Arcade
-Multiplayer!
-Enemy attacks look more organized
-Seems like a beefed up Geometry Wars: Galaxies

Galaga Legions
-Looks like Galaga with the Pac-Man: CE upgrade
-Available next month, exclusive to Live Arcade

Portal: Still Alive
-GladOS voice fills the arena
-2008 timed exclusive to 360
-New levels, achievements

South Park
-Coming to Xbox Live Arcade
-No real details, just a 5 second teaser

Xbox Live Community Games
-Coming in Fall
-Tons of indie devs putting out content
-Looks like WiiWare

Netflix Partnering with Microsoft
-Only game system allowing to watch streamed videos
-NO ADDITIONAL COST
-Uses an “instant watch queue”
-Can share and watch Netflix videos with Live Party…pretty amazing stuff

Shane Kim on stage
-Mentioning already announced big games (Prince of Persia, Mirror’s Edge, Call of Duty)
-GTA IV DLC exclusive this year on Live
-Showing Rare’s newest efforts

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts
-Trailer is a mix of gameplay and pre-rendered footage
-Banjo is taking supplies and parts into a building/workshop
-Banjo game will be on air, land, and sea
-Vehicles and customizing them are important to game progress
-Available for the holiday season

Viva Pinata: Party Animals
-Trailer looks all real-time
-New regions allow for over 100 different types of pinatas
-Xbox Vision camera allows gamers to scan pinatas in via cards
-Available for the holiday season

Scene It: Box Office Smash
-Very Wii-esque trailer showing different gamer types joining in to play
-Can play with Live Party
-First retail game to use avatars
-New questions via Live Marketplace

You’re In the Movies
-Will ship with Vision camera
-Make, uh, you’re own movies
-Share them and whatnot

Guitar Hero IV
-Metallica’s new album exclusive to GH III/GH IV
-Will be available same time as digital and disc download debut

Lips
-Microsoft’s karaoke game
-Comes with microphone
-You can use your own music
-Blonde girl on stage demos the game…terribly annoying song

Rock Band 2
-Debuts in September exclusively on 360
-Entire soundtrack for the RB2 disc announced…can’t see it because it’s SO FREAKING SMALL
-Noteworthy tracks/artists – Chinese Democracy track (Guns ‘n Roses), Bob Dylan, AC/DC exclusive to RB2, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Motorhead, Devo, Modest Mouse, Beck, Jane’s Addiction
-20 Bonus tracks available in the Fall
-Most tracks ever on one disc
-All DLC forward compatible
-Almost all tracks can be imported from RB1 disc to RB2
-Over 500 songs by end of the year

Yoichi Wada – President of Square-Enix
-The Last Remnant, Infinite Undiscovery, Star Ocean shown to be coming
-Last Remnant trailer shown
-Final Fantasy XIII shown for Xbox 360
-Sony fansboys just crapped themselves out of frustration
-MS fans suddenly will love Final Fantasy
-Honestly, it’s a true megaton score for MS, especially if launches at the same time
-Planned for release in both North America and Europe

End of show.

Great showing by Microsoft, overall. Lots to go over in the next few weeks.