Microsoft's E3 Conference

So Microsoft's big E3 conference just wrapped up and there were some good news to be had. Sadly there weren't really any "megatons" as far as I'm concerned, but a few announcements came close and were none the less surprising. Here's my take on the conference:

Biggest Surprises

Crackdown 2: Maybe not too surprising. There's been plenty of speculation about another Crackdown coming, especially with that Premium theme hitting a few weeks ago. Still, it's more Crackdown, and the city is infected with zombies. Sounds bad ass to me.

Halo Reach: I'm not terribly excited about this, nor am I about ODST. Still it's a new Halo game, I don't think people were expecting that. Surprise!

Metal Gear Solid Rising: It's not MGS4 on the 360, which makes this quite a bit more surprising. It's a whole new Metal Gear game that might feature Raiden? Kojima seemed to elude to the fact that he didn't mention anything about Solid Snake. Interesting!

Favorite Announcement

Final Fantasy XIII: We've known XIII is coming to the 360 since last year's conference. However now we've finally seen the first footage of the game running on 360. It looks great, but I'm still wondering how many disc it will be. My favorite part of this announcement though is that the game is coming Spring 2010, and the fact that they're showing a 360 build WITH English dub is proof that the localization is already underway. Oh we also got to see Odin!

Biggest Disappointments

Left 4 Dead 2: Yeah, I might get a lot of shit for this, but come on - really? I have no problem with there being more Left 4 Dead, even if I think a whole sequel is a little soon and happens to take place in fucking New Orleans seemingly. But is this our big Valve announcement? Fuck. Where's my Episode 3, or Portal 2, or something new and exciting.

Project Natal: Now this is really something I could give two shits about. Microsoft's new Motion Control camera is set to bore the gaming populace with it's shitty casual games that require way too much physical effort. Yeah, it's like the Wii. That's the problem. We already have all that waggle and Wii Fit. I don't need it on the 360 too. Plus the "games" they showcased looked terrible with the exception of Milo - which probably won't work as advertised.

Everything Else

The Beatles Rockband: I'm not terribly excited about this either, I'm just not very familiar with The Beatles. But it's certainly coming, and it's got an exclusive song on the 360.

Tony Hawk Ride: DON'T CARE.

Modern Warfare 2: I feel the same way I do about MW2 as I do about Halo. I'll certainly check it out, but I'm not super excited about it like everyone else on the planet is. Microsoft has a timed exclusive on two map packs though. Ouch Sony.

Shadow Complex: Gears of War 3 this is not, but this new Metroidvania XBLA exclusive from Epic has caught my interest. Even if we don't know a whole helluva lot about it yet.

Joyride: ...

Splinter Cell: Conviction: I've never really gotten into a Splinter Cell game, but have always wanted to. Maybe this will be the one? Hopefully it won't me too much like Assassin's Creed though like it was previously.

Forza 3: Yep.

Alan Wake: It's Remedy's new game, of course I'm excited. And it's looking pretty fucking awesome. Will it ever come out though?

Facebook, Twitter, last.fm: All coming to 360 baby.... yeah.... woo...!

*Update* on Demand: Looks like you'll be able to download full 360 games sometime soon. Prepapre for a painfull transition into digital distribution.

That's all for the Microsoft Press Conference. Check back later for some more links to videos and any possible updated information as it happens. Sorry for raging about that camera though. Damn.