The Climaxan

If you follow the video game industry even in the slightest bit, then you should know what this week is. If not, then prepare to be enlightened. This morning began the E3 Media and Business Summit. For nearly a millennium (or less), E3 has served as the launching pad for the video game world. Once a massive bazaar of gaming goodness and half-naked women, the show has now been scaled back in grandeur. Despite the shows smaller size, the importance of this week to the video game hype machine hasn’t changed. At E3, every major game developer shows off their goodies for the next year (and sometimes years) to come. Systems debut, games are previewed, fanboy heads explode. It’s the excitement of Christmas, except without all the Christmas.

Microsoft kicked the week off with their press conference this morning, and it’s safe to say they got the party started right. Here are the highlights:

• Fallout 3 was shown off. If you have no idea what Fallout is, then imagine Oblivion set in a post-apocalyptic setting. If you don’t know what Oblivion is, then you should probably not be reading this.
• Resident Evil 5 will have two player co-op, and apparently birth my children. Release Date: Friday the 13th, March 2009.
• Fable creator, Peter Molyneux announces that Fable 2 is done and coming out in October. He then shows off a demo of a bird taking a shit on one of the characters. It was nice looking, but at the same time, completely stupid. Although I’m sure Fable will be a great game.
• It’s official, Gears of War 2 will own me, and may be one of the best looking video games I have ever laid eyes on. Cliffy B, lead designer of Gears announces a 5-player online co-op mode!!
• New Xbox 360 Dasbboard shown. Includes a complete re-design using avatars and upgraded community features. Avatars look stupid but the new interface it hot.
• Geometry Wars 2 is coming to Xbox Live Arcade next month.
• Netflix and Microsoft have partnered up to bring Netflix to the 360. It will allow you to stream movies to your 360 instantly if you’re a Netflix member at no extra charge. (You also have to have xbox live).
• Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts and Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise trailers were shown off. Banjo looks pretty interesting, albeit a little boxy.
• Original Banja-Kazooie coming to Xbox Live Arcade (awesome).
• Guitar Hero: World Tour shown will have over 85 tracks making it even more of a rip-off of rock band.
• Rock Band 2 will have lots and lots of music. Including a new track from Guns n’ Roses.
• The President of Square-Enix announced a bunch of SE stuff coming to the 360. Including Star Ocean, Last Remnant, and the mega-Sony-fanboy-tear-inducing announcement of Final Fantasy XIII coming to the 360 on the same day as the PS3. BETRAYALTON!

It had been said that 2008 would be Sony’s year, but Microsoft made a pretty strong statement to prove otherwise. Gears of War 2 is going to be very hard to beat this holiday season, and FF13 to the 360 is a HUGE deal. When it will actually come out, and how many thousands of discs it will take to hold it are still up in the air. Rock Band 2 is a timed exclusive for the 360, and add to that Fable 2, Fallout 3, Banjo, Resident Evil 5 and wow, that’s a big hole in lots-o-wallets.

Nintendo’s conference is tomorrow morning, with Sony’s shortly after that. I will do rundown’s for both of those as well. For live coverage there is a plethora of gaming sites and blogs updating in real time, and G4 is airing every press conference live. Don’t act like you’re too cool for this, because I know you’re not.