E3 2009: Xbox 360 Media Briefing – Microsoft pulling ahead

June 2, 5:30 PMVideo Game ExaminerQuibian Salazar-Moreno

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While Xbox 360 had a quiet spring they’re stomping loudly now.

The press conference started off with a bang with the introduction of Beatles Rock Band. The opening movie of the game was shown and folks like Yoko Ono, Danny Harrisoon, and of course Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr all hit the stage to give the game a cosign. The game will contain 45 classic Beatles songs with the album, Abbey Road, being available for download shortly after its release on September 9, 2009. Here are 10 of the songs:

"I Saw Her Standing There"
"I Want to Hold Your Hand<"
"I Feel Fine"
"Day Tripper"
"Taxman"
"I am the Walrus"
"Back in the USSR"
"Octopus's Garden"
"Here Comes the Sun"
"Get Back"

After the Beatles presentation, Tony Hawk took the stage and introduced a featurette of different skateboarders trying out the game and giving them the co-sign. We all knew about the game and peripheral, so most folks are just anxious to try it out this week.

Hawk was followed by the guys from Infinity Ward where they demo’d a level from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Game looked slick as expected. One scene allows you to roll a snowmobile and fire your pistol at the same time. It’s definitely an anticipated game this fall.

There was also an announcement of a couple of Xbox Live games, Shadow Complex, from the folks at Epic Games and Joy Ride, which is a free racing game. They also showed trailers for Crackdown 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and they demo’d Final Fantasy XIII, Forza Motorsport 3 and Splinter Cell: Conviction which looked absolutely amazing. Also the long-awaited Alan Wake was demo’d and that game looked great as well. They’re saying Spring 2010 for that one. We’ll see.

And the Halo games won’t stop. Halo 3: ODST takes place a few weeks before Halo 3 and it doesn’t feature Master Chief. It follows a whole new crew with a whole new mission, but from the demo it looks just like any other Halo game. Microsoft also announced Halo: Reach. No other details on that were given.

Microsoft also announced partnerships with Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm and finally streaming HD video on Xbox Live. No longer will you have to download everything on Xbox Live, you can stream is instantly and get the 1080p HD quality.

One of the big announcements of the morning was Metal Gear Solid coming to Xbox 360. But Solid Snake isn’t involved. It’s a spinoff game called Metal Gear Solid: Rising. We didn’t get much information after that.

The other big announcement was Project Natal, a new motion sensing peripheral that doesn’t require a controller. Stephen Spielberg showed up to give the project a co-sign, but didn't announce any games for it (since, you know, he's a gamer!). Microsoft has big plans for it, but check out the video here and Peter Molyneaux offers a jaw-dropping demo for it here.

Folks were doubting Microsoft, but it from the looks of the other press conferences, they’ve pulled ahead in the offering of innovative ideas and anticipated games.