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Microsoft Briefing: Summary

The main points from yesterday's E3 press conference in one place

Microsoft's E3 Expo press conference yesterday was the first of the three platform-holders and as such essentially heralded the start of E3 week proper.

Here is a summary of the event as it unfolded, with links to stories published.

Core Games:

Call of Duty: Black Ops

The conference kicked off with a demo of the forthcoming Call of Duty game - Black Ops. It's another modern-day shooter, with levels set in Cuba, Vietnam and the Arctic, and the video showed some typically hectic action on-foot and in a helicopter. The game will be released on November 9 in the US.

Interestingly, Microsoft announced that it has signed a three-year deal with Activision to release any game add-ons on the Xbox 360 platform first - although no specific details on what DLC components would make up this year's iteration of CoD were forthcoming.

Metal Gear Solid Rising

Hideo Kojima was on-hand to introduce the latest incarnation of MGS - Metal Gear Solid Rising, a game which has Raiden take centre-stage and features a new cutting mechanic a little bit like Afro Samurai, called Lightning Bolt Action.

The demo, the first released footage of the game in action, showed Raiden slicing up enemies, a van and even some fruit - specifically demonstrating the 'cut anywhere' techniques.

Gears of War 3

Epic's Cliff Bleszinsky was on-stage for this one, with a lengthy co-op play-through for the first of a series of key Xbox 360 exclusives with Gears of War 3. It was hectic stuff, climaxing in Marcus chased by a Berserker - while there will also be a new mode for the game called "Beast".

Fable 3

Continuing the all-star developer cast was Microsoft's own Peter Molyneux to set up a video for Fable 3. They didn't dwell too much on this title, possibly because it wasn't a new reveal, but the release date was confirmed for October 26.

Codename: Kingdoms

This was a surprise to everybody - a new game from Crytek, exclusive to the Xbox 360. Aside from the clear gladiatorial-era setting, there wasn't much info spilled on the nature of the game, but one to watch.

Halo Reach

The climax of the core games segment of the conference was given over to a video for Halo Reach, showing some classic shooter action, but also some space-based combat too. As you'd expect, Bungie's gone to town with this one, referencing plenty of known elements, but introducing some new environments too.