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The View from Backstage

Posted July 15, 2008

It’s my first E3 and I was very excited to see my first Microsoft E3 Press Briefing. What I discovered is that some of the coolest photos happened behind the scenes.

Dan

Here's the Xbox.com/Inside Xbox crew in our backstage work space. Major Nelson is twittering the Press Briefing.

Dan

This is my buddy Reeve ClamPower Baily, who is busy editing a video for Inside Xbox. I'm not sure what trixie360 and Highbury Gunner are doing.

Dan

All the video geeks and media monkeys pause to check out Peter Molyneux's Fable 2 Demo.

Duffy

The lovely Duffy, singing her hit song "Mercy." All the guys were ogling her at rehearsal, so I got this photo especially for Highbury Gunner. -- Pix3l Monkey

Borderlands First Look

Posted July 15, 2008

At the 2K Games showcase, Gearbox Software’s Randy Pitchford gave us a first look an early version of Borderlands. The game’s a co-op first-person shooter with strong role-playing elements, such as quests to solveand skills you can level up. (Pitchford said it may be the first “RPS.”) In the demo we saw, you and your partner were fortune hunters, on a quest to recapture stolen enemy technology from a group of bandits hiding out in an iridium mine. The action was fast-paced, with lots of alien creatures such as carapaced Skags keeping you in combat even when you’re not facing humanoid enemies.

The environments of the desolate settlement world looked fantastic, but what was really impressive was the combat. The demo started with co-op vehicular combat, with one person driving and the second player shooting, Warthog-style. In first-person combat, the developers have added over 600,000 weapons so far. (Yes, you read that correctly.) Weapons are procedurally generated, mixing characteristics such as accuracy, range, and power, with features like scopes and poison effects. If you pick up weapons you don’t need or like, you can sell them between missions at the settlements. As you gain more combat experience and level up, you can enhance skills such as accuracy or reload times.

Borderlands won’t be out this year, but after that impressive early demo, it’s gained a top slot on Ryan’s and my “Most Anticipated Upcoming Games” lists. –Denny Atkin, Gamertag: Editer

Gears Horde

Posted July 15, 2008

GoW2

You know a game is good when there’s just as deep a crowd surrounding the game stations as there is at the open bar, and it so was last night at the Gears of War 2 multiplayer party. We’ll have a full article discussing the game’s various multiplayer evolutions soon, but I’d like take a second to chat up the newly announced and standout game-type, Horde.

Horde pits you and four comrades against waves of ever increasing, ever more dangerous enemies, or as Denny put it, Gears of War meets Space Invaders! What I really like here are the breaks between each enemy wave. Defeat one and you’re granted a few welcome seconds before the next, more powerful wave begins, allowing you to regroup and reset your strategy, or in the case of last night’s party, sip your libation of choice and gloat over your dominating stats. Just as important, you’ll find a bar in the upper left hand corner that tracks how many enemies remain in the wave, so you always have at least a rough idea of where you stand.

GoW2

Also, while largely cooperative, you’re given a score after every wave you successfully defeat, so competition is still very much a part of the proceedings. Trust me, you don’t want to be the guy sitting on a single kill in a room full of journalists with access to an open bar.

Loud and rambunctious as the bar was, there wasn’t a great deal of fluid teamwork on display, though after shouting a few suggestions and instructions to the guy sitting next me, it’s apparent that good, defensive tactics and communication can work wonders in this game mode.

Okay, gotta go. Housekeeping just knocked on my door and I gots to skedaddle to the convention center. Look for more Gears of War 2 multiplayer details soon! – Ryan Treit

Behind the Scenes

Posted July 15, 2008

Go backstage at the Microsoft press briefing with this all-around view.

Press Briefing

Posted July 14, 2008

Jump into the show with this 360-degree view of the press briefing.

The Director

Posted July 14, 2008

Left 4 Dead

Valve’s cooperative (up to four players) zombie apocalypse shoot-em-up Left 4 Dead looked in fine form at EA’s press briefing, but it wasn’t just the gore-filled action that piqued the crowd’s interest. Rather, it was Gabe Newell’s announcement that a dynamic, AI-powered “director” would shape the game’s content on-the-fly depending how you and your team play.

Given as an example, Newell showcased two different teams at a zombie infested gas station. The first group, who had been struggling along, encountered a small trickle of undead that they dealt with swiftly before moving on.

The second, more skillful group encountered a massive wave of aggressive, sprinting zombies that threatened to overrun them. Better yet, when the good guys polished them off, the gas station crumbled and exploded in a huge pillar of flame and flying debris, punctuating the end of the fight. The point here is that the “director” scales not only the difficulty, but also the visual and dramatic rewards, all on the fly.

Seen in person the feature is outstanding, but it really only gets better the more you think about it. This is what E3 is all about. Discovering new features like the "director" that not only work for the highlighted game, but could really change the way we play games going forward. Gotta love it. – Ryan Treit

Duffy and TriXie360

Posted July 14, 2008

TriXie and Duffy

What a day, and it’s still going. The crew and I arrived at the Los Angeles Convention Center at 7:30am to prep for the big show—our annual Press Briefing. Major Nelson and I ran around shooting video, and I was lucky enough to get the chance to interview Duffy, the British pop star who performed her hit “Mercy” at the briefing. She looks like Brigitte Bardot and sings like an old Soul Diva. She was super friendly and we chatted about singing for jaded gamers, her amazingly successful year and her plans to hook up her Xbox 360 on her tour bus. Watch out for the interview on Inside Xbox this week. -- TriXie360

E3 Starts with a Bang

Posted July 14, 2008

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The Microsoft Press conference just wrapped up, and as the crowd files out, conversations are all over the place. The news that Final Fantasy XIII will be available Day 1 on the Xbox 360 generated huge buzz as the attendees filed out, but fact that the New Xbox Experience update coming for the Xbox 360 is akin to launching a new console generation without requiring anyone to actually buy a new console is definitely attracting big attention.

We saw games we’ve been anxiously anticipating. The first-ever live demo of Fallout 3 showed stunning post-apocalyptic detail. Guitar Hero World Tour is bringing us The Eagles and Metallica, and Rock Band 2’s going to deliver AC/DC and a debut single from Guns n’ Roses. We also got a look at some awesome new titles, including the incredibly cool looking party game Lips, the hilarity of You’re in the Movies, the fast-action of Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2, and the Xbox LIVE Arcade update of one of my all-time favorite games, Portal: Still Alive. Plus, a South Park game coming in 2009!

A highly anticipated update to one of last E3’s crowd-pleasers: Resident Evil 5 is coming in March, and will feature co-op play! Peter Molyneux always gives good demo, and after seeing him show how “ambient orbs” make connecting with your friends in Fable 2 for co-op play an unobtrusive experience that never pulls you out of the game, October can’t come quick enough. Following the co-op theme, Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski showed an amazingly intense Brumak battle and announced 5player co-op in Gears of War 2’s new “Horde” mode. Are you sensing a theme here? Nobody can touch Xbox LIVE’s multiplayer experience now, and it’s getting even better.

E3 2008 02

Not just through games, either. The “new Xbox experience” isn’t just going to put a better-looking, easier-to-navigate face on Xbox LIVE, it will also add some slick features like LIVE Parties that can join games together, avatars, and the new Xbox LIVE Primetime channel where hundreds of players can join together in games like 1 vs. 100. One of the coolest things mentioned, though, was the ability to combine a LIVE Party with the new support for Netflix instant watch to let you watch and chat about movies at the same time with friends all over the country. Virtual MST3K, anyone?

Those are just some of the highlights. My “Insider Moves” cohost Ryan Treit was at the conference as well, and once he pulls his jaw off the floor, he’ll be posting a full report on the event in the Articles section soon. --Denny Atkin, Gamertag: Editer

Countdown to the Show

Posted July 2, 2008

The 2008 Electronic Entertainment Expo is back in Los Angeles this year, and it promises to be one of the most exciting yet for Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE. It's an industry-only event but we've got your inside ticket to the show, bringing E3 home to you with Inside Xbox on your console and here on Xbox.com.

Our battle-hardened crew will be storming the floor of the L.A. Convention Center, kicking off on July 15 and running through July 17, to bring you the E3 experience.

Major Nelson is already lining up exclusive interviews with bigwig industry insiders and TriXie will undoubtedly try to crash a few VIP parties. Video Monkey is ready to bring you the sights and sounds of the show, and our intrepid Inside Xbox game gurus (Ryan and Denny of This Week in Xbox) will be grabbing as many controllers as they can for hands-on impressions of all the hot games. On top of that, look for detailed coverage of the press briefings, exciting new game trailers, and sweeping panoramas from the show floor.

Of course, we'll also be blogging the show (welcome to our blog page, by the way!) with new posts around the clock, tracking down all the latest and greatest E3 has to offer. With Inside Xbox and Xbox.com, you won't miss a thing.

Stay tuned. E3 is only a few days away!