You've probably heard all the X06 announcements by now - Peter Jackson doing "interactive entertainments", 129 quid HD-DVD add-on, Sensible Soccer on Live, Halo Wars (RTS). Last night's press conference and today's hands-on sessions have confirmed Microsoft's confident and exciting offering - the next-gen is here and looking good.
A post show conference saw Peter Jackson quizzed on his announcement. His woolly, yet potentially groundbreaking, idea certainly generated a buzz but you have to worry about the spectre of CD-Rom style interactive movies. The game industry's traditionally sycophantic tendency towards Hollywood did rear its head - Microsoft's Peter Moore was sickeningly gushing in his praise for Jackson - but if anyone can nail this film/game vision down you'd bet on these guys,
The biggest cheer of last night was for Sensible World of Soccer - and rightly so - while the return of Banjo Kazooie made me smile too. But Doom on Xbox Live? Why bother? Sensi still stands up today, mainly because it offers something different to the footy games around at the moment. But why play Doom when you can play Call of Duty 3? Nostalgia isn't enough.
Gears of War is the biggie for Microsoft but I'm still not totally convinced. A session on the single-player game showed a huge amount of potential with a weighty, tactile feel to the graphics and controls. But I didn't fall in love - possibly because gritty futuristic cityscapes have lost their appeal, or maybe because someone spilt a cocktail on my jeans when playing. More playtime is needed before confirming whether Gears lives up to the incessant hype.
Elsewhere there was much talk of reaching out for casual gamers but the emphasis still seemed to be on driving and shooting. However I've just been in to see Mass Effect, with its wonderful conversation system that lets you interrupt NPCs, so faith has been partly restored. I've also got high hopes for Alan Wake and Assassin's Creed, both of which I'm seeing later today. I'll blog thoughts on these, and anything else I can see today, when I get back to the UK.
"5 days not 5 months", said a confident Peter Moore when talking about the delay between Gears of War's US and Europe release. And with the high quality of games on show here you can understand his confidence - the 360 is on a roll.
