Chris Faylor, Editor:
Whereas past E3 press conferences have been filled with numbers and other boring bits, both Microsoft and EA kept up the pace with frequent announcements. There wasn't any time to sit back and be bored--I could get used to this.
The biggest surprise of the day was undoubtedly the revelation that Final Fantasy 13 is heading to Xbox 360, and will arrive alongside the once-exclusive PlayStation 3 edition.
But to me, the biggest news of the day was word that Xbox 360 users will soon be able to install any game to their hard drive for faster load times. I love the idea of optional game installs for better performance. I've long wished it was a feature on more than just a select few PlayStation 3 games, so I'm thrilled to see it finally appear on the 360.
Other major things for me? The entire Rock Band 2 track list--hell yes, Bob Dylan. Over 10,000 streaming TV shows and movies on Xbox 360 via Netflix, which will finally push me to get Netflix. The fancy new Left 4 Dead character designs.
Lastly, as multi-platform releases become more commonplace, I'm amazed to see that the exclusivity deals have now shifted to game-expanding downloadable content. For example, Fallout 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV are both getting Xbox 360-only DLC.
Nick Breckon, Editor (Transcribed from imaginary conversation):
"What? I don't have time for this, Faylor. I'm gonna go get owned in Gears of War 2."
Aaron Linde, Editor:
With E3's "day zero" out of the way and the first official day of the conference swiftly approaching, I've already met a number of show prerequisites: I've gotten lost, I have a blister on my foot, and I've been pleasantly surprised.
After last year's ho-hum E3, I hadn't held out much hope at being surprised, especially when Microsoft devices division VP Don Mattrick promised something for everybody, core and casual alike.
Despite my cynicism at his blatant PR talk, that's pretty much how it turned out. Core games like Gears of War 2 and Resident Evil 5 leading the way, followed by the dashboard update, Lips, and other content geared towards the casual crowds.
The extra bits--Portal: Still Alive, Geometry Wars 2, and more--made it that much sweeter. And the news of the HDD game installations seems like the latest step in the long haul towards fulfilling the wishes of the community.
Steve Gibson, Shacknews Founder and President:
The RAGE footage was the first thing that wowed me all day. That's actually too generous, it's the first thing that got me to sit up.
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techx4
replyTurned out to be a pretty good first day, lets hope the rest of e3 follows suit
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I thought it was a rather dull day tbh. Nothing to amazing short of the FF13 drop. But short of that i was ready to write MS off as a terrible Press event.
