Dropped in from www.gamearena.com.au

Microsoft has a chance to seize the initiative at E3 by going first. With a bunch of new game announcements and a stunning hardware reveal – we think they have set the bar very high.

Here’s our play-by-play from Microsoft’s E3 briefing. It was meant to be live…but WIFI access was…awful. Anyway:

10.27: We open with footage of The Beatles: Rock Band. It’s been a Hard Day’s Night trying to get wifi working. Not a good beginning when half the people here can’t get net access, Microsoft. Epic fail.

10.29: Harmonix’ Rigopoulous and Van Toffler (MTV) comes out to talk Beatles: Rock Band. Apparently we just saw world first footage from the game.

10.31: Rigo is on drums as “the harmonix House Band” takes us through “Day Tripper”.

10.35: We’re seeing more footage from the game. It’s clear now why MS has flooded the venue with community fans – its so they get a rapturous round of applause every time someone says *anything*.

It’s an odd conflict. On one one hand you have unprecedented levels of community engagement; on the other there’s definitely moves to eliminate the same by controlling the flow of information to a chosen few. C’est la vie.

10.36: At this early stage I’m thinking BlizzCon 08′s opening intro > MS E3 conference. Crazy shout outs to Nick and Chris at Blizz AU!

10.37: Danny Harrison comes out. A key champion of Harmonix to Apple. A chip off the old block. Beautiful hair.

10.38: Uh oh here comes Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison. More applause. Once again gone in 10 seconds.

10.39: Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr out on stage. Knew it. They both look in better shape than 3/4 the audience. Ringo takes the piss out of his motion in the game. Exit to more applause.

10.41: John Schappert hits the stage. “All You Need is Love” a Xbox exclusive? Sounds like it.

10.42: “Today is all about showing and telling”. 10 games that have never before been seen. La Noire maybe?

10.43: I’m going to kill the next person who screams out some fanboy crap. I’m beginning to miss the days when Microsoft hired people to cheer at these things.

10.44: Tony Hawk comes out with the Tony Hawk: Ride skateboard controller. Tony intros a trailer. Legend Rodney Mullen is featured.

10.46: I predict many sprained ankles from Ride.

10.47: Trailer ends. Applause.

10.48: Modern Warfare 2 trailer looks crazy on a massive screen. This event just got hotter.

10.49: Jason West and Vince Zampella from Infinity Ward take the stage and get right into the gameplay. Good stuff.

10.50: Holy crap this game looks amazing. We’re on “Cliffhanger” – an ice borne mission in the tundra. No sign of Sly Stallone sadly; not even a hint of Chris O’Donnell-in-Vertical Limit.

10.51: I like MacTavish as much as any red blooded heterosexual male but staring at his backside while scaling a cliff face seems a little scary.

10.52: Skip forward. We’re using a brutally effective SMG with personnel detector.

10.54: I’m predicting the fanboy applause at the end of this demo will surpass the raucous reception Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr got. On screen: more baddies getting killed.

10.55: I’m looking at the crowd – everyone I can see is glued to the screen. With the exception of the lucky few who got net access working. Bastards.

10.56: Driving a snowmobile with one hand and firing a pistol seems a little dangerous. Game demo ends.

10.57: Infinity Ward will release two map packs FIRST on Xbox Live.

10.58: Arigato gozaimasu! The Final Fantasy team from Square Enix has hit the stage to talk FFXIII… as soon as we get a FF history lesson.

10.59: Xbox 360′s first footage of FFXIII. Expect cut scenes and floppy hair.

11.00: Wow. Actual gameplay. The new interface looks good. The hair looks floppy.

11.01: Shades of Pokemon as we summon “Odin” to massacre a monster for us.

11.02: “Spring 2010″ meaning Autumn 2010 in AU.

11.02: Schnappert: From now on every game shown will be exclusive to Xbox.

11.03: Power chords can mean only one thing: Cliff Blezinski is coming on stage…as well as Donald Mustard.

11.03: Shadow Complex is announced for Xbox Live Arcade as the microphones screw up. Think Metal Slug meets Contra meets Metal Gear Solid.

11.04: Why is Cliffy B demoing this game again? A: Because it’s an Epic game. The demo ends with the game bugging out with your in-game protagnoist walking on air.

11.06: Here comes another XBLA title: Joyride. Free to download and free to play. You can buy cars and upgrades and share racetracks you have bought with friends – who get it off you for free. Better than the old model where you get the whole game off the internet – and share it with your friends…both for free.

11.07: Waiting for something big lalalalala.

11.08: Is this Crackdown 2?

11.08: Yes, this is Crackdown 2.

11.09: Zombies. Beheadings. Arms blown off. Guess w’re not talking about XBLA anymore. Chainsaws too. Is this Dead Rising 2?

11.09: BZZT WRONG: IT IS LEFT 4 DEAD 2.

11.09: YES.

11.10: Hi Sam Fisher. No more hiding. Splinter Cell Conviction. Now being demoed.

11.14: Sam’s gone all Manhunt on us. Exclusive to Xbox 360.

11.15: Stealth is possible still, but killing people seems more fun. And noisy.

11.17: Not bad, but L4D2 is a hard act to follow.

11.18: Xbox is out to win the racing game. Forza Motorsport 3: “the definitive racing game for this generation”

11.19: Dan from Turn 10 comes out. “The definitive racing game of this generation” (DRGOTG) has been now mentioned three times. No prizes for guessing who this is being aimed at.

11.20: 60fps. 400 cars from 50 manufacturers. Gameplay rewind. DRGOTG mention #4.

11.21: Artists, tuners and directors talk of their love for Forza.

11.23: Some pretty sweet video sequences are shown used via the Forza video editor. Very fast and the Furious.

11.24: DRG mentioned once again. Bye bye Dan.

11.25: Fanboys just creamed themselves: Joe Staten from Bungie hit the stage and intro a video for Halo 3 ODST.

11.26: Gameplay begins. The visor – low light vision mode – looks sweet. The rest looks decent.

11.28: You flash back to different ODSTs throughout the game. (ODST sounds too close to STD for my liking).

11.30: Halo 3: ODST out September 22.

11.31: New Bungie game. Guess it won’t be a Halo MMO! Halo Reach. Just a trailer. 2010.

11.32: Remedy pops out to talk Alan Wake. Trailer begins. Damn this looks good. Then again, so did Duke Nukem Forever.

11.33: “Previously on Alan Wake”/”Tonight on Alan Wake” text doesn’t do anything to deter serialisation/episodic format rumours.

11.39: After a lengthy chunk of gameplay, “spring 2010″ (Autumn) is announced as the release date.

11.40: Onto Xbox Live Last FM coming for free. Hurrah.

11.40: Netflix. Yawn, US centric. Sky TV doing live TV and movies to the UK and Ireland. “Live TV through a gaming console with no additional hardware needed”.

11.42: Video on demand. 1080P is the new HD standard. Doubling the countries we’re in – WE ARE INCLUDED. “Instant on 1080P [video]. Worldwide this fall – meaning this Spring. Let’s see if it makes it to AU then.

11.43: Simultaneous movies with Live Party. Hesitant applause. Fanboys hands getting sore.

11.44: Facebook partnership. Whoa. Nerds go wild: Felicia Day of The Guild comes on stage.

11.47: Facebook connect. Post screenshot and text to your profile from games.

11.47: Twitter integration on Xbox Live.

11.48: My camera battery is about out of juice and still no real EA love beyond the Beatles. I feel like my battery is about to die as something huge is announced.

11.49: Out comes Xboss Don “Hair” Mattrick. ZOMG Metal Gear coming to Xbox 360.

11.50: Out comes Hideo Kojima. Metal Gear Solid Rising coming on Xbox 360. Mattrick just about dry humps Kojima. No Solid Snake – Rising looks to be Raiden’s gig.

11.52: New hardware announcement incoming? “Dream the next dream,” urges mattrick. “Lose that fringe,” urges my inner stylist.

11.53: Motion controller? The controller is a barrier separating gamers from everyone else. That and hygiene. Full motion control is go.

11.54: This will be interesting to see how devs pull it off. We see a kid scan in his skateboard deck and import in game. Sick!

11.57: You can cross dress on Xbox as well. Girls swap e-clothing and try it on-screen.

11.57: Facial recognition. Voice recognition. Looks sweet.

11.58: Project Natal is the name. Controller free gaming is the name.

12.00: Steven Spielberg comes out just as my camera dies. Awesome timing in a fml way. He’s here to talk Project Natalâ. Actually he’s here just to say its awesome and leave. Bye SS.

12.02: Project Director of Project Natal: Kudo Tsunoda. He wears women’s sunglasses on stage. I’d normally say cough *wanker* but I want to interview this guy sometime this millennia. So I’ll modify that to “lovable wanker in a Kanye West sort of way”.

12.03: Facial and body recognition: logs him in auto and reflects movement in a on screen model. Wave hands to work through menus. This is some Eye Toy meets Minority Report style shit.

12.05: Developers who get hold of this tech and master it will have a ball. We’re seeing Ricochet, a tech demo where you kick balls at things. It picks up body motion – head, torso, arms, legs exceptionally well.

12.06: Cheers as Tsunoda disses “sitting on the sofa playing waggle games.” An easy score – shooting fish in a barrel to this crowd.

12.07: Now we’re seeing Splat. A guy “buckets” paint with both arms and its reflected on screen. He speaks a colour and the paint colour changes.

The paint overlays as he throws it on and has nice stencil effects too. Note: the silhouette style avatar is reflecting his entire body’s range of motion on screen.

12.10: Now he and an assistant are making a stencil by doing a elephant silhouette. I’ seriously laughing at this demo, it’s great.

12.11: Partners are getting Project Natal kits today. Natal will work with all Xbox 360s. The ones that work in the first place, that is.

12.12: Peter Molyneux comes out to mess with Natal. This will be good. Moly intros a film of the team using it. As usual, it’s a measured dissertation free of any hyperbole.

12.13: Milo is a fable 2-esque virtual boy on TV with Claire, a Lionhead staffer (or model) talking to the TV / Project Natal. Milo’s facial and body language is eerie. Things that happen: Milo’s head tracks Claire. Claire runs her hand through a pond and her reflection and ripples are visible. Claire draws a picture on a piece of paper, holds it up to the Natal bar, Milo picks it up on screen.

It’s freaky, like watching a virtual friendship. There’s too many easy jokes to make but they’re all way too gratuitous – so we will say it looks amazing.

12.17: Waiting for Mattrick to wrap things up. Is there another surprise? (no)

12.18: Conference ends.