Microsoft X-Box Press Conference

8AM is way too early

FiringSquad started E3 on Wednesday morning, a day before the E3 show floor opened, with Microsoft's X-Box press conference. The North American release of the console will be November 8, and it will debut for $299.

Microsoft promises to have 600,000 to 800,000 units ready on the launch date, and a total of 1 million to 1.5 million units by the time the holidays roll around. Assuming Microsoft can follow through, this should ensure that there are no PS2-style shortages when the big day arrives. MS also claimed that there will be 15-20 titles at launch, and representatives were on hand to show off the packaging - day-glo green DVD cases.

Halo

Microsoft then showed off a number of upcoming X-Box titles, including Halo, which we previewed in our earlier Gamestock 2001 article. At that time we wanted more solid content from the game, and we did see some improvement in that area at the show. The demo movie we saw had the player fly in and drop into that same beach area that was shown at Gamestock. This time around, there were plenty of Covenant enemies there to greet the player as the dropship went in.

So... where'd you park the jeep?

Flying out

There was a touch of squad based play, with AI allies covering both sides of the player's flank as the team advanced up the beach against Covenant defenders. The defenders took cover behind terrain and new energy shields. Those shields deflected most of the human squad's bullets, but ultimately couldn't stand up against the non-stop hail from multiple assault rifles, and later, a chain gun mounted on the human jeep.

We also got to see more weapons - human soldiers carried grenades and pistols, and were also able to pick up alien weapons like a rapid-fire laser rifle. The laser rifle can make short work of opponents, but has a tendency to overheat when fired for too long.

Did that hurt?	Darn shields
Fire from above	Gotta have the glamour shot

Few details were given about online multiplayer capability or game modes, but later on the show floor we played a little four on four CTF. In this mode, two X-Boxes linked together to allow for 8 players to play on two different screens, each split four ways.

There was definite chugging in this mode as framerates dipped down to about 10 or 15 fps by our best estimation. While it was still fun to run around and blast away at the other E3 attendees, we're still left wanting more from Halo, convinced that Bungie and Microsoft are keeping an ace or two up their sleeves to help the game live up to the impossible hype.

Yee-haw!

Anyone else out here?