Here's a quick wrap-up of the conferences today. I'll leave the opinions for the guys' podcast later tonight but in general I think Microsoft and EA came off pretty impressive with Ubisoft coming off a little dry. You can expect the same coverage from us tomorrow. In the meantime I think I might watch this rerun of Revenge of the Nerds (for the second time today).
Remember we've got videos for almost all this stuff so make sure to check out that portion of our site for ad-free video viewing.
Microsoft
- Xbox Live soon to recieve 1080 HD streaming, Facebook/Twitter/Last.fm integration.
- Xbox peripheral Project Natal "makes you the controller". Essentially a camera that can recognize your movent.
- Beatles Rock Band looks better then expected with a unique art-style that goes through each phase of their career. Yoko, Paul and Ringo show up.
- Alan Wake is not only still being made, but looks great. Lots of lighting and slow-mo effects.
- Infinity Ward showed off some Modern Warfare 2 gameplay footage featuring some epic ice-climbing and snowmobile battles.
- Metal Gear Solid Rising will be a X360 release. It's a totally new game.
- Lionhead is working on some crazy Life-gaming with "Milo" a virtual character you can interact with through Natal.
- Halo: ODST looks like a team-based Halo game. Halo: Reach also announced but unknown as to what genre it is.
- Left 4 Dead 2 is a surprise sequel due out in the Fall.
- Tony Hawk shows off Ride, his newest game that uses a skateboard controller.
- Crackdown 2 is confirmed.
- Forza 3 is confirmed and looks a lot like Forza 2 with sharper graphics and nice skinning options.
- Shadow Complex is a metroid-like shooter that will be an arcade download game.
- Joy Ride is a free kart racer that uses your avatar's in game.
Electronic Arts
- Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic is a triple threat from BioWare. Very impressive stuff.
- Peter Moore showed off lots of Sports stuff included Fight Night Round 4, EA MMA, Madden online franchise options, and NCAA team builder.
- Need for Speed SHIFT shows off some impressive in-cockpit views. They're giving away a BMW at their booth.
- The Saboteur looks like it's coming along nicely with a unique undersaturated style.
- Crysis 2 will be released on the X360, PC and PS3.
- APB is a quasi-MMO with lots of action and morality choices.
- Brutal Legend looks pretty sweet. More gameplay show with part 2 of the Jack Black video shown.
- Littlest Pet Shop shows that EA is heavily focused on attracting a younger audience to their games.
- EA focused on fitness games for the women's market.
Ubisoft
- Assassin's Creed II cinematic shown. First game sold 8 million units. Looks great.
- Splinter Cell: Conviction one of Ubi's biggest games this year. Demo footage shown was the same as the MS conference.
- Working with James Cameron on a game based on his film Avatar. It will be a 3D game.
- R.U.S.E tabletop demo shown. Continues to look like a great hardcore strategy game.
- Ubisoft is really pushing their pairing with Hollywood to their shareholders.
- Red Steel 2 will be bundled with the Wii Motion Plus. Controls look better then the first game.
- Rabbids and TMNT are two games being targeted at the younger Wii market.
- Ubi is focusing hard on the "Tween Market". Many games targeting at girls.
- Like EA, Ubi is also focusing on fitness games.
- Working with Pele on a kid friendly soccer game called Academy of Champions.