E3: Microsoft Keynote - the Good Bits

LIVE STUFF:
Right, Microsoft's keynote at E3'09 has kicked off... bearing in mind that it's being streamed live - albeit sloooowly - by Microsoft itself here, we thought you'd like the précis here.

You can also watch Joe SPOnG's live take of the keynote live on our Twitter page for even more brevity. That's over here. We've quoted some of Joe's tweets below:

And you can see Major Nelson's minions working it... mainly because that live feed WAS, well, borked.

DIGESTED STUFF

- First up - Beatles Rock Band with Yoko Ono, Olivia Harrison, Sir Paul Macca and Ringo Starrkey on stage to talk about how much they love the game.

- Joe's Twitter: "Holy crap yoko and Olivia. Walk on, wave, walk off. Odd."

- Joe's Twitter: "No charts and graphs or attach rates. 10 never before seen games = win. Wonder if Sony will have graphs?"

- Tony Hawk show's off his new board that is 'full of technology'.

- Trailer time for Tony Hawk Ride... remember that it was going to be Xbox 360 Exclusive?

- Joe's Twitter: "Tony board looks nice. Wonder if I have to buy a carpet..."

- More like it... Vince Zampella and Jason West from Infinity Ward are actually showing some new MW2 footage. Aussie accent ahoy (well, Mel Gibson Aussie).

- Joe's Twitter: "Hell yes snow modile chase scene!" And we've got to agree.

- Kitase-san, producer of Final Fantasy XIII, and Toriyama-san, director of Final Fantasy XIII. Yes, now... when?

- Final Fantasy XIII trailer - "the world's first look"...

- Right, well, Spring 2010 release.

- Only Xbox 360 exclusives from now on.

- Cliff Bleszinski, and Donald Mustard of Epic-owned Chair, showing off Shadow Complex.

- Joyride next up... "pioneers a new way to play"... let's see.

- Ahhh... in-game avatars in a racing game. A free one.

- Joe's Twitter: "Ms is going full tilt into micro transactions..."

- Apparently franchises have 'chapters'..

- Time for some Crackdown 2.

- Time for some zombies... Left 4 Dead 2... "coming soon".

- Time for some... Splinter Cell: Conviction... very pretty. "This is bigger than your daughter!"

- Max Béland and Alex Parizeau from Ubisoft Montreal take stage. Where the hell is Jade (Raymond that is)? Max and Alex are, of course, 'excited'.

- Time for the E3 demo of SCC.

- Joe's Twitter: "Cut scenes and missions projected is an awesome idea."

- Autumn release for SCC.

- Time for Forza Motorsport 3. Out this autumn. "The definitive racing game for this generation"... so, no more racing games after this one then?

- Dan Greenawalt from Turn 10 drives on stage in an Audi R8 V10.

- 400+ cars for the game.

- 60fps in a new game engine.

- "The definitive racing game of this generation" now said 192,112 times in one presentation.

- Lots of community... we refer you to Joe's earlier tweet re micro-transactions.

- Joe's Tweet: "Big words. Wonder if Gran Turismo will ever come out to compete. MS is really into talking smack this year."

- FMS3 ships on October 27th 2009.

- Time for Halo ODST and Joe Staten.

- Joe's Tweet: "Oh hell yes prequel! Fall of Reach!"

- Says Major Nelson: "ODSTs have access to special gear Spartans don't, including two, sound-suppressed weapons and the VISR – a low-light mode."

- September 22nd for ODST.

- TOP SECRET HALO PROJECT announce.

- Yup. Halo Reach... from Bungie. Out in 2010.

- "when you buy Halo 3: ODST, you’ll get an invitation to the Halo: Reach Xbox LIVE multiplayer beta!"

- Lawks! It's Alan Wake.

- Expect 'W00ts!'...

- Question.... how is Alan Wake an anagram of Stephen King?

- Lots and lots of in-game footage. They're really trying to convince us that we will see this game one day.

- That day is Spring 2010.

- Now time for Xbox Live.

- Music coming to Xbox Live with Last.fm. Free to gold members... hold on, says Tim, it already is free.

- Sky TV deal re-announced.

- John Schappert bigging up the music, video and TV stuff as a 'watershed' in the industry... "Today, we are announcing that you’ll be able to enjoy movies, TV and music with your friends on Xbox LIVE at the same time, even when you’re not in the same living room." 1080p movies, instant HD streaming.

- Facebook on Xbox 360.

- Here's Felicia Day of The Guild. She's perky and apparently knows about Facebook?

- Well, FB has been tied into NXE. My, Felicia is very perky. She may perk out...

- Facebook Connect - you'll be able to post your 'most noobish' gaming moments.

- Felicia also announces, perkily, Twitter for Xbox Live.

- She's perked off. Facebook and Twitter for Autumn this year. Beware!

- Don Mattrick now on stage. "This morning's announcements were truly historic!"

-Kojima on stage! With MGS sound!

- Metal Gear Solid to Xbox 360!

- Metal Gear Solid Rising!

- No Solid Snake?

- New motion controller? Apparently, the human body...

- It's Project Natal.

- It's "our vision" says Schappert... "It will work with every Xbox 360 sold and to be sold".

- Erm... when's that going to be? This isn't FUD, right?

- Joe Tweet "This whole presentation keeps making me think one thing. I miss Allard."

- Here comes Steven Spielberg.

- There he goes.

- Here comes do Tsunoda, the creative director of Project Natal.

- Face recognition.

- Body recognition.

- Got to be said that Natal looks bloody amazing... in this demo play.

- This is not the sort of game you play on the "sofa using pre-set waggle commands". Burn!

- Now 'Paint Party'... looks like you too can be Jackson Pollack with this Natel Full-Body control.

- As tech demos go... this is a very impressive tech demo.

- Joe Twitter: Can't stop thinking this guy looks like the boss from the I.T. Crowd.

- Project Natal kits arriving at development partners.

- Yay, it's Peter Molyneux with the phrase, "pretty revolutionary"... he's showing off Natal.

- Lionhead has had Natal for a few months.

- Sweet lawks! The Lionhead demo shows a character/kid called Milo who apparently recognises the emotion in a real person's face.

- We'd love to see what this Lionhead demo was developed on. It's bloody terrifyingly scary great looking, but there's no due date or even close to due date.

Right... we'll have more from the show floor with Joe and the crew later.