Microsoft E3 Media Briefing

When it comes to the next generation consoles, Microsoft has left little doubt that the Xbox 360 has the best game library around. And according to Microsoft vice president Peter Moore, the company's games lineup for the second half of 2007 will be the best ever.

During Microsoft's media briefing at E3 2007 Tuesday night, the software company played to its strengths by showing off some of the premiere titles scheduled for release in the next six months. Moore took the stage and proclaimed that the event would be the first E3 media briefing ever to only preview games that were scheduled to arrive in the same year (it wasn't exactly true, since they offered a peak at Resident Evil 5). Moore also said Microsoft's collection of new games scheduled for the second half of 2007 constituted "the greatest holiday lineup in video game history." Moore may have been using the term "holiday" loosely, since some of the titles he referred to, such as BioShock, will be out this summer rather than the fall or winter.

View The E3 2007 Microsoft Press Conference Slideshow (12 images)

Nevertheless, Microsoft certainly has a strong set of games ready for the next six months, and the company offered a glimpse of just about every one of them Tuesday night. The media briefing, which was held at Santa Monica High School's outdoor auditorium, began with a little music. Moore joined a few members of Harmonix to jam on the forthcoming game Rock Band (which looks incredible, by the way). Moore muffed a few licks on the guitar, but he kept a sense of humour about it. "There it is," he said, "the world premiere of Rock Band - performed very poorly by me!"

Rock Band was the first title Moore and Microsoft showed off on the Xbox 360. From there, he delved into Bioware's sci-fi RPG Mass Effect (coming in November), as well as Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV, Madden NFL 2008, and of course, Halo 3. Also on deck are Project Gotham Racing 4, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction, and Lost Odyssey. Some of the trailers and gameplay demos shown during the media briefing had been seen before. But there were some exciting demos for some notable games during the media briefing.

First up was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warface. I'm a huge Call of Duty fan but the last couple of sequels have left me disappointed. That should change with CoD4. The game, part of which takes place in a radioactive wasteland in the Ukraine, looks similar to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. except Call of Duty 4 has far superior graphics, animation and gameplay. Also shown was Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed, which first turned heads at last year's E3. This game looks absolutely gorgeous, and the combat gameplay was impressive.

For historical purposes, Moore looked back at some of the bigger "holiday" period for game sales. The biggest in recent memory was in 2004, when Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Madden NFL 2004 and Halo 2 hit stores. Moore said he expects this holiday season to be even bigger, calling the lineup "a perfect storm of franchises for the Xbox 360." He didn't leave out PC games, either. Microsoft promoted its Games for Windows initiative and teased titles like Crysis, Hellgate: London and John Woo's Strangehold. In addition, Epic designer Cliff Bleszinski showed off the PC version of Gears of War, which will feature new content.

So will Microsoft's lineup for the second half of the year be the best ever? Time will tell.

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