Aaaaaaand Microsoft Hits BIG!!!

Image from Kotaku

And just like that, Microsoft Press Conference has come and gone. (You can view the full video here.)

Thanks to the conference and ever so thankful live streaming services (especially IGN.com), today's productivity at work has been utterly pathetic--The whole thing was two-full-hours long!

The conference had Splinter Cell: Conviction, Modern Warfare 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Forza Motorsport 3, working demo of Final Fantasy XIII (and it's surprisingly early release window, Spring 2010), and... Hideo Kojima's appearance and the introduction of a brand new title, Metal Gear Rising! (If you thought Raiden looked awesome in MGS 4, you're gonna love this--it's a whole seperate title with him as the main character!)

There were many, many more announcements and videos and demos, and my head's just mesmerized with all those goodies right now. My response to the conference is basically written out at Gamasutra.

PS. Today isn't exactly E3; it's pre-E3 conferences with E3 starting on Wednesday. Still, I can already tell, it's going to be a hell of a fun week. Now, I have to make sure I do get some work done...

EDIT: Games shown at Microsoft Press Conference @ E3 2009 (that I care about):

• Modern Warfare 2
• Final Fantasy XIII
• Shadow Complex
• Crackdown 2
• Left 4 Dead 2
• Splinter Cell: Conviction (!!!)
• Forza Motorsport 3
• Halo 3: ODST
• Halo Reach
• Alan Wake
• Metal Gear Solid: Rising
• Possible future title by Steven Spielberg...?

Non-Game features shown at the conference that I care about:

• Project Natal (mo-cap feature add-on for Xbox360)
• Nilo (Lionhead's Virtual Intelligence boy)
• Last.fm
• Netflix sharing
• Facebook extension
• Tweeter(!)