Microsoft E3 2010 Press Conference Live Blog

The show will go on without J. Allard. Microsoft's E3 2010 press conference is about to kick off. We're expecting to learn a lot about Kinect, its hands-free games, and scrumptious details from games like Gears of War 3 and Halo: Reach. 

What secrets will be revealed? How many release dates will be announced? We don't know yet, but our liveblog should put all the information at your fingertips.  Check it out below!    
  
== TEASER == All updates will be made in ascending order.    
  
[12:00 AM] Looks like it's over. Wow. What'd you think? 
 
[11:57 AM] Mattrick shows off the new Xbox 360 redesign. Looks like that rumor was legit. It's shiny, smaller, and apparently needs to stand. 250 GB hard-drive, built-in Wi-Fi. Will cost the same price as a normal Xbox 360. Shipping the new Xbox 360 to retailers today, should be available this week.
 
[11:56 AM] Mattrick is back. He believes in fun.  
 
[11:53 AM] I guess I missed the name. Now they're showing a first-person garage mode where you can look at and touch a shiny car. 

[11:52 AM] Turn 10 guys are out. Showing off an HD, 60 FPS demo of dude driving a car. 

[11:52 AM] Lots of killing stormtroopers and other normal Star Wars stuff.
 
[11:51 AM] Star Wars light saber game being demoed. Looks like it's on rails. 
 
[11:50 AM] Kinect launches in North America on November 4th. 15 launch titles. 
 
[11:48 AM] I, uh, yeah. There are beginner modes. The moves look pretty damn complex. I like this. 
 
[11:46 AM] Dance Central will include Lady Gaga and the Beastie Boys. DLC after launch confirmed. Full body and authentic choreography confirmed, too. 
 
[11:43 AM] MTV Games and Harmonix's dance game, Dance Central, being demoed. I like how this guy in back keeps bobbing his head. Wait, is this the Ghostbusters 2 Lady Liberty song?
   
[11:42 AM] Yoga class with a calm instructor closes out the demo. 
 
[11:41 AM] In all seriousness, this looks like a hipper, more accurate version of EA Active. I'd like to see some high-octane aerobics, though.

[11:40 AM] The first workout, a knee lift, is being shown. WATCH OUT, YOU MIGHT BURN 2 CALORIES IF YOU DO THIS FOR AN HOUR, FELICIA. 

[11:40 AM] Your Shape will have classes you can take like Martial Arts or Yoga.       
      
[11:39 AM] Your Shape does 1:1 movement pretty well. The demo currently being show is showing off its ability to analyse physical dimensions to cater an exercise program. 

[11:37 AM] Oh jesus. Please don't act like this game is going to be better than a gym.  
 
[11:36 AM] A trailer of launch games being show. Exercise game, that looks a lot like EA Active without controllers or a strap-thing, is being shown. It's called Your Shape.

[11:35 AM] You can post these pictures automatically to Facebook. Sure future employers will love those shots of you looking silly. 

[11:34 AM] Now we get to see some river rafting. Two people are controlling it, using collective momentum to steer the craft. The visuals look decent.  

[11:33 AM] Point of this game was to collect orbs while on rails. Kinect Adventures takes pictures of you during the game, kinda like a theme park without the $900 dollar fee. 

[11:32 AM] Kinect Adventures coming on. No river rafting yet, but dude's on a traincar of some sort with the same kind of physics that a raft would have. This game is supposedly designed to "get people off the couch."   

[11: 31 AM]  Five unique modes including "stunt mode."
 
[11: 30 AM] Now it's time for a Joy Ride demo, apparently. Chick is holding her hands up like she has a steering wheel in her hand.  I don't think she's using her foot.  

[11:29 AM] Now a montage of games that all look like Wii games. 
 
[11:28 AM] Kinect Sports is made by Rare. Also, man, Kudo is like a Jersey Shore version of Bono. 
 
[11:27 AM] On to a Kinect Sports bit. Two people are running against each other track-and-field-style.

[11:26 AM] You can adopt 40 animals in 30 unique activities In Kinectimals. 
     
[11:25 AM] The tiger just handed her a jump rope through the screen. She's swinging it with a gesture. 

[11:24 AM] All six Kinect games hitting this holiday.  Kectimals is being show. A little girl is massaging a virtual tiger (named "Skittles") and the stuff she's saying is straight freaking me out. She made it play dead. Now she's playing hide-and-go seek. I think. The tiger could just be retarded.   

[11:23 AM] We're about to see some Kinect games. Kudo is promising a big-time social experience. 

[11:22 AM] Kudo is on the stage. I love this dude's cheap sunglasses.  

[11:20 AM] Highlights and stats while watching. You can browse them too, apparently. Boy, I can't wait to see some, uh ... Rare games or something.   

[11:17 AM] Josh Elliot and Trey Wingo are about to present the demo. You get into a show by just clicking it from a menu. You can replay scenes. Real-time polls confirmed. It's also free for Gold, but I'm sure the games are mad expensive.

[11:16 AM] Ha. The Sportscenter dudes are announcing it. I love Trey Wingo. Josh Elliot? He's alright, not exactly as dreamy.

[11: 15 AM] Whitten says we're missing something. I hope he means games. Nope. It's ESPN. Over 3,500 live-on-demand shows and events promised. We're talking MLB, NBA, soccer and NCAA. No NFL, though.
     
[11:14 AM]  Whitten confirms Video Kinect coming to Live Messenger.
 
[11:13 AM] OH SNAP YOU CAN WATCH VIDEOS TOGETHER. Also, this fake conversation is wicked awkward. They should let me and my bros do this. We can watch dudes working out and talk about heavy metal things that we can lift. 

[11:11 AM]  Now they're demoing Voice Kinect. It's basically what we were doing before on Video Chat, except now we can talk to dudes on Windows Live Messenger.

[11:10 AM] Kinect (keep wanting to hear "connect" instead; making this hard) coming to every country where Xbox 360s are sold, says Whitten. He's going into robot mode. 
 
[11:09 AM]  He's talking about Zune Music. I think a couple of people cared. Some clapped, at least.

[11:06 AM] They're demoing Kinect's NXE interface. He waves to sign in. Waves twice to pick apps. He's saying "Zune" to start the Zune app. "A simple command to bring you to all the content you care about." He's using his hands to pick a specific movie. The UI looks really generic. Your hand is actually an on-screen mouse. No Minority Report stuff thus far, folks. Bummer. 

[11: 04 AM] Whitten is on stage. He's eating his microphone. I think. He's talking up Xbox Live. He's moves to Kinect, talking up its video and audio abilities. "A revolution for not just your games, but all of your entertainment." TELL ME THE FUTURE, SIR. 
     
[11: 03 AM] Now the Spartan jumps into some sort of UNSC space rocket and takes off from the city. It's pretty above the atmosphere. Oh snap, looks like third-person space fighting is go.

[11:01 AM] Yep, this is Halo. Spartan is rocking all sorts of dudes, tossing grenades and firing familiar weapons like the grenade launcher and the assault rifle. The demo takes us into a building. It's shaking as Covenant ships rock the city. Covenants are inside it; dude does a melee-move on the Elite.  
 
[10:59 AM] Reach trailer is a thing that is happening. Wide shot of Earth, and then we see Spartans landing on a rocky planet. A destroyed city looms on the horizon, black and broken. Elites are dropping from pods into the battlefield. 

[10: 58 AM] Bungie creative director Marcus Lito hits the stage. This is where we get our first look of the Reach's single-player. Says it's "the most ambitious game Bungie has ever created." 

[10:57 AM]  It's Crytek. There's a trailer, showing a Spartan-like dude. Game is called Codename Kingdom. 

[10:55 AM] Phil Spencer is back. Teases a new exclusive Microsoft Game Studios partner. 
 
[10:54 AM] We're getting a quick look of Fable III in trailer-form. It pumps up the fact that we'll be Kings who once lived lives of adventures. Lots of flashy battles, sweeping shots are being shown. Looks like Lionhead is using Fable II's visual engine.
   
[10:53 AM] Molyneux is on the stage. Pretty sure he's going to promise something. (He's totally reading off a teleprompter; good Moleynuex.) 

[10:53 AM] New mode called "Beast" being debuted on the floor this week.  

[10:53 AM] Gotta say, I don't really like the outfits here.  

[10:52 AM]  New monter-thing with scorpion tentacles jumps out of a flesh bag in a, once again, arena-like area in the middle of a forrest. It's taking a ton of bullets; team escapes through a door into a fortress.
 
[10:50 AM] The four are now fighting some sort of tentacle monster (the new Lambent-thing Cliff teased before the demo began.) The crew has banter during the action. NICE!
  
[10:49 AM] I think Marcus just speared a Locust with his rifle. AW C'MON. Same cover-based and health systems. You can revive your allies in co-op, as well as hand guns to them. 
 
[10:48 AM] Cliff and some co-workers are about to give a live demo of four-player campaign co-op. Anya and Sam, the female Gears, are being shown in the demo. 

[10:47 AM] Phil Spencer says every single game, demo, and "experience" shown will be exclusive to 360. Cliff Bleszinski is coming out.
  
[10:46 AM] Phil Spencer is out! PHIL SPENCER. 

[10:44 AM] Raiden just ripped out a robot's spine after slicing it up with his sword.  Now we're watching him just destroying dudes and cars with said sword. Slow-mo, multi-cuts confirmed. Looks like Kojima Products worked hard on a new viscera engine.
  
[10:43 AM] I have no idea what the producer dude just said, but I'm about to watch footage of MGS: Rising. Chances are I'll have no idea what's going on with it, too. 

[10:42 AM] Kojima of MGS fame is about to show the first footage of MGS: Rising. Kojima is "passing the torch" to his producer, allowing him to present the footage. 

[10:41 AM] Mattrick sounds like a scared robot. World premiere of Kinect experiences incoming! 

[10:40 AM] Don Mattrick is on-stage now. Announces exclusive multi-year agreement. Starting after the release of Black Ops, all DLC for Call of Duty titles will be exclusive to Xbox 360 for the next three years.

[10: 39 AM] Still in the helicopter. Field battle, then an abrupt end. 

[10:38 AM] For the interest of time, the demo skips to an outside level. The setting is an arena-like area in the middle of a jungle. Bad dudes are hiding behind boxes cleverly place for cover. After the fight, Lamia jumps into a helicopter, shogtun-style. He's driling dudes,  'copters, and other vehicles with missiles.  
 
[10:34 AM] Treyarch dude Mark Lamia is taking us deep into Black Ops. He's doing a live demo. The protagonist is crawling in a tunnel with a revolver. Rats are scurrying in the gloom. Dude Lamia is trailing gets surprised knifed. Nice!
 
[10:33 AM] "A lie is a lie." The big first look of Call of Duty: Black Ops is go. Explosions, crossbow, and helicopters confirmed.   

[10:31 AM] Eating my words. It's begun. 

[10:30 AM] Just FYI, these briefings often start late.  

[10:29 AM]  It'd be nice to see if that Xbox 360 revision is real, too. 
 
[10:26 AM] Four more minutes.
 
[10:24 AM] What do you want to see? Me? I want to watch Baird chainsaw a Locust or two. 
 
[10:17 AM] If you're watching the E3 Live Stream on GameTrailers, you just saw a promo for Hunted: The Demon's Forge. Digging the look of that game.  

[10:11 AM] The conference should officially start in 20 or so minutes.