In the wee small hours of this morning, Microsoft kicked off E3 with its keynote speech. Although E3 has been scaled back considerably this year in terms of attendance, it still looks like the games companies are treating it just like the spectacle it was before. One slight difference is that from the outset, it was made clear that every game on show at the keynote is due out this year.

Peter Moore got the ball rolling with a live demo of Rock Band. Harmonix members manned the drums, bass and vocals while Moore took the guitar. After some fairly disastrous screw ups, the game had to be halted while Moore hunted for the elusive pause button; to be honest though I’d have been less convinced if it had all gone off perfectly – the proof is there that the game is working, and isn’t so pathetically easy that you can pick it up mid keynote and nail it.

After announcing a new mini-game iteration of Viva Piñata, subtitled: Party Animals, Mass Effect arrived on screens. RPG development veterans BioWare are the ones behind this, and the futuristic title looks to be every bit as epic as previous games like KotOR and Jade Empire. Mass Effect is now due out in November, which is great news, but unless there’s a quite strong presence of the game at the rest of the E3 event, I’d reckon that launch date might well be missed.

Moore went on to talk up the Xbox 360 sales figures. Even in light of the recent hardware quality concerns and subsequent the warranty extension, Microsoft has little to worry about in terms of sales, which it claims as twice that of the PS3. Roughly 5.6 million units have been sold in the US alone. I wonder if you buy one, then have to send it back when I bricks on you – does that count as two units sold? Just a thought…

In another attempt to break into that ever elusive casual gaming market, Microsoft has announced that is licensing the DVD board game, ‘Scene It?’. Apparently the game will cost the same as a normal 360 title but come with four of the special, daft looking controllers. I’m guessing then that subsequent iterations of the title will be sold directly over Xbox Live.

Project Gotham Racing 4 then got an outing on stage. The motorbikes were the stars of the show, but the incredible new weather effects were also making their mark. Rainstorms, fog and snowstorms look like they’ll add some fresh challenges to racing the mix. You’ll also be able to share your screenshots and replays with other PGR4 players when the game launches in September.

It wasn’t all about the 360 though – Epic’s CliffyB was out on stage to reveal Gears of War… for Windows. Not a huge surprise there, seeing as Gamevideos already leaked the footage the other day. It has been confirmed to include extra content that the 360 version doesn’t have, consisting of new multiplayer maps and five new single player maps including the much-anticipated battle with the Brumak.

Next up was Infinity Ward with some fresh Call of Duty 4 footage. CoD4 is taking a very different approach to warfare than its WW2 orientated predecessors, which is what probably earned it the moniker: Modern Combat. Visually it looks like a really big leap forward, rivalling other very promising shooters on the horizon, Crysis and Haze. The best news for 360 fans is that there will be an exclusive beta coming soon to Live.

Unsurprisingly, GTA IV was wheeled out for the fans. Very little new here, other than that the trailers were allegedly running in real time on a 360 console. Big whoop.

One game that definitely won’t be out in 2007, despite Moore’s promises, is Resident Evil 5. Yes that’s right, Sony has lost its grip on another major franchise. Although this was first mentioned back at X05, things have been pretty quiet about it up until now. From the short trailer, it looks to be very much in the same vein as RE4, but this time set in Africa. The full trailer is due out on Live on July 26th.

Assassin’s Creed is one game I’m particularly looking forward to and I’m glad that it has been confirmed for this year, in November to be precise. Although the game still looks like it is lacking polish around the edges, it appears to be coming on nicely since it first outing at X06 – combat is looking a bit more fluid and the realistic crowd movement that captured us the first time is getting even better.

And last, but not least came the Halo news. First off there was a live-action clip, showing USNC soldiers readying for war, Warthogs on assembly lines and Pelicans loading up troops. Moore made the somewhat unwise comparison between the Halo trilogy and the Star Wars Trilogy: I guess that means that once Halo 3 caps the story off nicely, all we’ll have to look forward to is three diabolically bad prequels. Guess that makes Halo 3 the last Halo title I ever buy.

And as if the game, the limited edition and the legendary edition weren’t enough, Microsoft has unveiled a range of Halo branded accessories and a special orange and green Halo 3 Xbox 360 console to match. Do I get a Master Chief lunch box with that?

The keynote concluded with a new Halo 3 trailer. Looks the usual stuff – Master Chief looks manly on a gatling gun, Cortana gets a bad headache and goes to bed early falls down, and a sinister voice warns us all of impending doom.

Read [Team Xbox]
Read [Joystiq]
Read [Gamespot]

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