Sadly I didn't get to attend, but I sat and watched the Livestream thanks to SpikeTV.
The following blog is my thoughts on what Microsoft covered.
The conference started with a live demo of Modern Warfare 3, which you can watch in full [HERE].
The set-piece they show off is fairly epic, typical Hollywood Blockbuster action stuff, with an infiltration of a submarine, the firing of missiles at enemy forces, and the destruction of Manhattan.
SpikeTV later aired another section of MW3, and it was another all out action set-piece.
They both left me with the niggling impression of being dragged along for the ride, never truly playing an important role and never doing much to change what was going on. It looks great, but a little underwhelming.
A demo of Tomb Raider was shown off next.
By far the best game (for me at least) shown during the conference, finally giving Lara Croft the game she's deserved since the rise of the PS2 and the announcement of the next generation.
Lara finally feels and looks human, and the game appears to be taking direction from the Uncharted series in making a relaistic and interesting world filled with new physics based puzzles.
The game also appears to be taking inspiration from the movie "The Descent" which was a good survival horror esque film that will be great to see in this game.
Next came Mass Effect 3 and the start of Microsoft's push for Kinect.
BioWare announced that Kinect was now compatible with ME3, giving you voice recognition (to speak to other characters), and voice commands (during combat).
All quite useful, but mostly just a bonus, given that the games have been simple enough without the use of Kinect.
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier had a brilliant trailer to show off the new tech being implemented by the soldiers you get to play as. Wheteher or not it'll look as cool is questionable, but the trailer was followed by another push for Kinect.
Future Soldier has the "Gunsmith" ability, allowing you to craft weapons using their individual pieces.
Kinect allows you to flick through all of the options, and even gives you full voice control to craft weapons for specific types of combat, or even a random craft. It all looks pretty good, and even gives you the chance to test out the weapons in a target range.
Microsoft took the stage again and spoke of the latest set of features to be added to the Xbox 360. There'll be more movies added to their streaming and download service, along with TV shows, and a newly announced Live TV Streaming system.
In addition we'll be seeing the addition of a Bing application that gives users the ability to better search the Xbox database. Kinect once again adds to all of this, with voice commands (Xbox - Bing - Lego was one of the commands, giving the user a full list of Lego related games to flick through).
Following up the announcement of Live TV streaming came the announcement of UFC streaming, again with the addition of Kinect compatability. Using Live, it's possible to pick who you think will win the UFC fight, and various other options...basically taking bets and winning points for getting correct bets.
Cliffy B and Ice-T took to the stage next to show off Gears of War 3. Not much explanation is needed behind this.
We got to see Cliffy B and Ice-T play through a level in apparently the early stages of the game, as Marcus and the rest battle against a sea monster after spending the past 2 years or so on a ship-like structure in the middle of the ocean.
A cool section with a mech type vehicle was shown off, and a big boss battle was the main focus of the demo.
Next up was a trailer for Crytek's latest game, specifically for Kinect, called "Ryse."
A first-person style on-rails game set during a rebellion in Rome, you get to battle it out flailing infront of your Kinect to attack people with sword, shield, and even with headbutts and kicks.
Looked pretty cool, but the spelling behind the name is atrocious.
This one was obvious, and had been rumoured for months. Halo: Combat Evolved is getting a remake for the 10th Anniversary.
The Halo remake was followed up by the trailer for Forza Motorsports 4, where it was said that even casual gamers could get into this game. The cars certainly looked nice and shiny, and if I were into racing games I might find this appealing...so it might be worth looking out for if these types of games are your thing.
Next up, Peter Molyneux took to the stage to announce Fable: The Journey. Another Kinect focused game (no word on whether it can be played without Kinect).
The game seems to be an on-rails shooter, set within the Fable universe, with branching exploration as you travel down the road.
Theresa once again makes an appearance, though little else has been revealed.
Minecraft has been announced exclusively for the 360, with Kinect support.
No word on whether exclusivity is timed or 100%, but given the reveal of Minecraft on Sony's Xperia Play, I wouldn't be shocked to discover it to be a timed exclusive.
Another Kinect game here, this one's for the kids. Disneyland Adventures lets you explore Disneyland in full, and play various mini-games set within the worlds.
Kinect Star Wars was announced at last years E3, along with Kinect, but this is the first time we've seen it in action.
It's essentially on-rails, with a bit of free form. Needs a bit of work, but looks kind of cool.
Tim Schaeffer took to the stage to show off Kinect's next kid-friendly game, Sesame Stree: Once Upon a Monster.
It looks cuddly and cute, and kind of fun.
Kinect Fun Labs was the next announcement from Microsoft, showing off various gadgets and tech demos for the Kinect hardware.
Fun Labs lets you play around with the latest software created by developers across the world, including avatar creation, object scanning, and all sorts of extra bits of fun.
The object scanning is a cool function, allowing you to scan in plush toys, skateboards, and all sorts of other household objects. Hopefully this won't be abused too much.
Kinect Sports - Season 2, basically Wii Sports for the 360. Looks good, the on stage demo was pretty accurate.
Dance Central 2 was shown off to the crowd here, more of the same gameplay wise, but with the promise of a campaign mode and various other gameplay styles and the ability to import tracks from the first game. This is a big bonus for anybody that really liked the first game.
Microsoft ended their conference with the first trailer for Halo 4.
Said to be the first in a new trilogy, and apparently hardcore fans of the original games will notice even more nods to the fanbase in this trailer.
It all looks pretty cool if you ask me.
The highlights of this conference have to be Tomb Raider and the Fun Labs for me, with very little else being overly impressive.
Microsoft were really keen to push Kinect this year, but it would've been nicer to see more core games using Kinect, rather than watered down games being made for it (Star Wars and Fable, I'm looking at you).
I'll be covering Sony and Nintendo as well, so look out for those when they're up!
Much thanks to Kotaku for the images above, and all the various YouTube accounts that uploaded the trailers.
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