E3 2008: One More Thing – Of Nukes, Zombies, Beasts and Bird Dung at the Microsoft Press Conference

Mon, Jul 14, 2008

"One more thing."

It’s the trademark line of Apple’s Steve Jobs, used right before the master of the lowercase “i” drops a bombshell on the consumer electronics market, announcing a revolutionary new piece of hardware or a price drop precipitous enough to throw competitors for a loop. But “one more thing” was also in attendance at rival Microsoft's E3 2008 press conference, which kicked off with demos and video of the latest triple-A chapters of Fallout, Resident Evil, Fable and Gears of War.

Fallout 3 Atomic Blast Although the Cold War-era infomercial bore the disclaimer “Not An Actual Atomic Blast,” the first such bombshell was no doubt Fallout 3, demonstrated live by Bethesda executive producer Todd Howard.

Fallout 3 targeting

After Howard wowed the crowd with the sheer destructive power of the game’s heavy weaponry (coupled with the Bloody Mess perk, “which lets people die in ridiculously violent ways”) and the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (see above) he uttered the magical words and announced exclusive Fallout 3 DLC:

“We’re going to be doing some substantial downloadable content for Fallout 3, and it’s going to be exclusive to Xbox 360, and Games for Windows.”

Substantial quantities of Horse Armor? We kid.

Resident Evil 5

Next up, Capcom producer Jun Takeuchi introduced Resident Evil 5. The game's director and co-producer were on hand to show off some fairly ho-hum co-op between Chris Redfield and newcomer Sheva Alomar (One scene had Chris serving as sniper support while Sheva mowed down disturbingly human baddies with AK fire) but also some flashy assists the pair can use to clear obstacles.

There was an aura of disappointment in the room when Takeuchi cut the demo short right before the pair were to face off against Señor Chainsaw in a narrow alleyway, but he enlivened the room with his "one more thing" -- the release date. Resident Evil 5 will see simultaneous worldwide release on March 13th, 2009. Friday the 13th. Get it? We will.

Peter Molyneux, humbled in years past for overhyping the first Fable, was relatively restrained when speaking of its sequel... but that didn't stop the very first words of his presentation from producing applause. "Fable 2 is finished," he declared, before motioning for a trailer to begin. The CG footage followed a little bird flying down a narrow dirt road to a bustling castle town (accompanied by the sound of a full chanting chorus) before depositing a fateful load of droppings squarely on the head of a young boy to our amusement. Molyneux explained that this young boy (or girl) will be our protagonist; and that Fable 2 is "a story about how you grow from a kid into a full-blown hero."

More exciting was Molyneux's reveal of the game's online co-op mode. Local co-op is impressive enough -- simply pick up a controller, plug it in to your friends' console and press start -- but Lionhead seems to be striving to make the online co-op just as simple. "Albion Orbs," little purple glowing spheres that float ghostlike around the world, represent the exact position of your friends playing their own single-player game of Fable 2; and can be thus be used to link up over Xbox LIVE at any time. "I can walk up to them, press a button, invite them to my world and 'bang' -- they're there," Molyneux related -- and then demonstrated with a ready assistant.

Molyneux's one more thing (to be honest, he said "one last thing") was also a release date -- Fable 2 will arrive this October.

Gears of War 2 MS Press E3 2008

After the synapse-blowing trailer you'd typically expect for an action-packed shooter, Cliff Bleszinski took the stage to personally demo as much Gears of War 2 carnage as possible. From the controversial "meat shield" hostage disposal maneuver to the comfortably toasty flamethrower, the artist formerly known as CliffyB took out dozens of Locust with backup from Senior Producer Rod Ferguson. Locust shields were wielded to great advantage, then planted into the turf as makeshift barricades; enemy grappling hook assaults were thwarted with careful bursts of fire; and an upgraded Hammer of Dawn was wielded to the dismay of one very crispy alien invader.

Gears of War 2 MS Press E3 2008 Flamethrower

The demo ended in a brief cutscene where Marcus suggests that in Gears 2, players won't just fight the giant Brumak monster as previously revealed -- they will ride it. Grunts the grizzled marine, "They can ride 'em. So can we." Bleszinski concluded with a pair of short and sweet Gears announcements. First was the addition of a new mode, "Horde," where five players team up to battle waves of increasingly difficult Locusts (think Invasion from Unreal Tournament 2004), and second was a solid release date. Gears of War 2 will see worldwide release on November 7th, 2008, exclusively on Xbox 360.

At the tail end of Microsoft's press conference, Square Enix President Yoichi Wada took the stage to moderate applause -- understandable, we suppose, as Square Enix's three core Xbox 360 titles (Infinite Undiscovery, The Last Remnant and Star Ocean 4) had been announced at least a month prior. The presentation, consisting entirely of brief trailers, was also fairly dull, although release dates were quite welcome -- as previously revealed, Infinite Undiscovery will hit North America on September 2nd; Star Ocean will ship Spring 2009; and The Last Remnant will arrive on Xbox 360 November 11th, 2008. It will also be available for PC -- and likely PS3, as Wada said the game would arrive "first on Xbox 360" and the slide read "only on Xbox 360 this holiday."

Microsoft Press Conference E3 2008 Final Fantasy XIII

However boring Wada's presentation might have been, his "one more thing" brought the house down. Tapping Don Mattrick on the shoulder in the middle of the Microsoft gentleman's closing speech, Wada cued one last trailer... for Final Fantasy XIII. On Xbox 360. You heard me right -- arguably PlayStation 3's biggest remaining exclusive after Metal Gear, Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIII is coming to the Xbox 360.

Bethesda, Capcom, Cliff Blezinski, CliffyB, E3 2008, Electronic Entertainment Expo, Fable 2, Fallout 3, Final Fantasy XIII, Gears of War 2, Jun Takeuchi, Lionhead, Microsoft, Peter Molyneux, Resident Evil 5, Todd Howard, Unreal Tournament

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E3 2008: The Microsoft Experience | GameCyte Says:
July 14th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
[...] Microsoft’s E3 2008 press conference revealed a veritable stockpile of bird dung exciting titles for core gamers and a few key partnerships that may make the Xbox 360 your media [...]

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