Greetings all!

Welcome to my first E3 2008 conference blog, kicking off with my reactions to the bizarre mixed-bag of tricks that was the Microsoft conference.

I will first, however, begin with a preface just re-iterating that I share a vested interest in ALL 3 conferences, and my ownership of a Wii, PS3 and 360 means I will be doing my best to review the announcements in a totally non-fanboy manner... the thought of it just makes me shudder... OMZG FFXIII is liek SO on 360 paystation fboys SUX!

Anyway, with that out my system, I'll start by talking about the positive, because it's always nice to kick of proceedings with pleasantries rather than alienating you with torrents of disapproval and angst!

Setting one thing straight from the offset... Gears of War 2 looks absolutely amazing. Anybody stupid or downright ignorant enough to continue labelling it as a re-hash and so on and so forth (insert all the other ridiculous fanboy BS here) must obviously have not watched the most recent footage shown off at Microsoft's conference. It looks even more polished, beautiful and epic than the original, and the variety in opponents, weapons and locations looks set to avoid it being anything but a repeat of what has come before. Naysaying towards this game truly seems to be bitterness of the highest order from the Sony or Nintendo devout camp, surely nobody can look at this game and not at least acknowledge it looks like action-packed, adrenaline-pumping gaming at it's most intense and refined? A Jewell in the seventh-gen crown, the Gears legacy looks set to continue in grand, glorious (not to mention gory) style.

Fallout impressed, and it was nice to see gameplay itself feature quite heavily. It appears it will end up being an intriguing blend of Oblivion thrown into a blender with elements of MGS4, Gears of War and heck, even Bioshock (gotta love those adverts!). Whilst it looks like another incredibly immersive and enthralling experience from Bethesda, I am growing a tad concerned that it could fall prey to that most sinister of foes, the old 'identity crisis' and end up being something of a jack-of-all-trades, but master of none. Still, that's the cynic in me and I still am greatly anticipating the title, and think regardless of what system you end up owning it on, it's shaping up to be a bold and brilliant title. Exclusive downloadable content for 360 and PC is a major plus though for hermits and lemmings, as I'm led to believe I should refer to them as... sigh...

Resi 5's shaping up beautifully. So what if it's just Resident Evil 4 for next-gen, and that it was Resi 4 that slapped the traditions of survival horror round the face with a wet fish? Survival horror was getting stale and repetitive, it need a good cod-smack and Resi 4 did that wonderfully. The fifth instalment looks like it's going to refine everything 4 did so well and add some nice bonuses on top (continuing the Resi storyline and co-op for starters).

I'm going to deliberately push Fable 2 aside because I personally saw very little that was new from the GDC trailer and all-in-all I'm not particularly overwhelmed or convinced by much of what Peter Molyneux says... ever. I'd much rather not hype the game and keep it filed under 'looks intriguing but underwhelming' so that when I'm proven wrong my slice of humble pie will be all the sweeter.

Moving onto the negative (before the inevitable... cough cough... Square Enix)... I can't help but wonder why Microsoft dedicated so much of the conference to either a) reminding everyone of how much money they squeeze from us and b) plageurising, I mean conveniently replicating, so much from the Nintendo and Sony bandwagon.

Now I'm not an ignorant swine when it comes to one console copying another - particularly in this generation of gaming where everytime I perform a system update on my PS3 I expect to see Master Chief come hula-hooping across my screen with a wiimote, but seriously, Microsoft's conference took it to an extreme. The amazing new SceneIt! game, well, I preferred it when they called it Buzz! The 'microsoft vision' camera or whatever other moniker they slapped on it in a desperate attempt to not call it the EyeToy, and of course Lips is just a souped-up version of that 4 year old beloved 'Singstar' franchise. Don't get me started on avatars, you surely don't need to, because seriously if anybody watched the same conference as I did and DIDN'T think 'lazy Mii rip-off, only one we have to supposedly pay for' then turn around, touch your toes and sign a happy song you ignorant, simple-minded peasant.

The first half-hour showed some awesome gameplay footage of some top upcoming games which any gamer worth a pinch of salt would get excited about, but then it seemed to slide into the self-congratulating pile of casual mush that made Nintendo's E3 conference suck so hard last year. Yessss... I get the fact that Microsoft want to spit on Sony's face and say 'our multimedia console offers more', Yessss... I get the fact that Microsoft want to harp on about how they too can attract the suddenly uber-revered 'casual' gamer, but seriously, Microsoft need to sit down and focus for a second, because Viva Pinata and pretty much all of Microsoft's casual attempts failed big time (mainly because the wii has casual in the bag), downloadable TV/Films etc. and so on are nowhere near ready enough to usurp DVD rentals and purchases, and no matter how much I laughed at a supersized leopard gecko chasing after that silly running lady, the Eyetoy had its time a few years back, and don't see a renaissance the size Microsoft are anticipating (judging by how much time they dedicated to it) happening any time soon.

Aaaaannnd breathe. In summary, I found the second half-hour of Microsoft's conference to be something of an underwhelming game of catch-up with different elements of Sony and Nintendo's strongest points. Yes, the new dashboard looks great and I applaud Microsoft focusing so much on a service we are paying for after all, but still, it's the games we walk into a store, slap into our console and sit down to play for a few hours that are still the crux of the market, particular where the Microsoft 'hardcore' 360 is concerned.

So where in grace's great name were the uber new IP's? Re-hash after re-hash after re-hash. The new banjoo-kazooie game looked generic to say the least, as said before Viva Pinata was purchased by no-one and their son, and on to the most criminal waste of 15 minutes so far in my life... ANOTHER rock-band and Guitar Hero game! Less than a year since the last iteration (and they're probably both still pretty high up in the charts) and I have to sit there for quarter of an hour listening to them say 'we've just added more songs' in a thousand and one different ways.

Even Square-Enix's trio of announcements (which weren't really anything but estimated release dates and some new 'last remnants' footage) did little to sway me, seeing as most of it we already knew weeks, if not months, before.

Then of course we come to the supposedly Earth-shattering and system-wars/generation ending announcement of Final Fantasy XIII coming to 360, or a 'version' at least.

Personally, I couldn't care less for the announcement at face value, I own all three consoles and will still buy the PS3 version merely because it is the console the game was built for from the ground up.

However, it does irk me about one thing in particular, and that is Microsoft's worrying trend of going around flashing their chequebook and just grabbing exclusives from Sony rather than investing in developing new, amazing, 360-exclusive IP's. At the same time, Sony sit back and just let their exclusives wander off like naughty children without apparently doing anything to keep them firmly in their grasp.

It bothers me because I fear this generation, or the next at least, is turning into a murky no-mans-but-also-everymans land, where each console is losing any sense of individuality and uniqueness. This is particularly prevalent when so many exclusives are becoming multi-platform (Final Fantasy XIII, Bioshock) and the recent trend of trophies=achievements, avatars=mii's shenanigans.

Where Microsoft could have focused on an amazing new innovative experience to end their conference on, instead they ended it by telling me I'd be able to get an inferior version of a game I was already going to be able to get at a later date...

To clarify this statement, Square Enix have announced in their discussion after the conference that the 360 version is only planned for North America and Europe, because, as we all know, the 360 is dead in Japan. In addition to this, Versus 13 is remaining PS3 exclusive, and the 'version' of 13 that they are working on for 360 will not only not begin development until after localisation for the PS3 version is completed (quelling the supposed 'multi-platform release simultaneously') but is also likely to be stretched over numerous DVD's, with compromises an inevitable necessity. Square-Enix's words, not mine.

Yes, it's a blow to Sony, congrats to Microsoft for doing that, but is that all you are concerned with nowadays? Transplanting elements of the Wii to your own console and buying out the PS3 exclusives? Lazy, predictable and not the most inspiring indicator of things to come.

Thank god for the positives, the Gears of War 2's, the lovely new dashboard and revamped Xbox Live, but this is still evolving what has come before. In fact it leads me nicely to my somewhat damning summary of a conference which could, and indeed should, have been much, much better:

"Microsoft E3 conference 2008: Taking the best of what has come before and in some cases making it even better, but for the most part just re-hashing, imitating or reproducing the innovations and originalities of elsewhere. For survival and persistence, Microsoft get a resounding thumbs up. For originality, new-grounds and innovation of their own, I'd need to severely dislocate my thumbs to get them any further down."