Microsoft E3 Press Conference

Event just started with a performance from Corpreal, the band of high school students who played the Halo theme to some success on youtube in the past year. They played in Peter Moore, who spoke briefly about the change of venue and then announced that every game they’d show in the conference tonight will be released this year.

Then Moore introduced some of the Harmonix crew to play Rock Band. After some stumbles and Peter’s off key adlib vocals while playing guitar, they wheeled out the evenings next big gun… Viva Pinata Party Animals.

Viva Pinata Party Animals will be a party game not unlike Mario Party with… Viva Pintata characters. Yeah, I’ll leave this one to aDam.

The Mass Effect trailer.

Mass Effect will be available in November.

Moore next spoke of how the industry’s best year was 2004, led by GTA San Andreas, Halo 2, and Madden. This perfect storm of games will return this year.
Following that was a montage of games coming out this year, showcasing nearly everything on Xbox 360. Absent is Halo 3.

Then a look at the dozens of new Live Arcade games coming, revealing Bomberman, Sudoku, Tetris Splash, and Bungie’s Mac classic Marathon. Sonic The Hedgehog and Golden Axe are available NOW.

Microsoft announced Disney studios will offer HD movie downloads on xbox live video marketplace.

Video Marketplace will now be available in Canada and Europe.

Gears Of War will be out on PC… with 5 new chapters and a new boss battle. What the heck, Cliffy? This better be offered as a download to the legion of 360 players.

Old trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV, only a few seconds of a Resident Evil 5 trailer… full version will be online late July.

Now Ubisoft is showing a full on demo of Assassin’s Creed. Looks incredible of course, lots of great action, free running, stealth…

And then G4 cut off the Halo 3 trailer for a dumb ad for more of their shitty shows. I’ll never do this again. I’ll download the trailers on Xbox live marketplace now. Watch them here– Halo 3 New E3 Trailers