Microsoft's E3 2010 Press Conference Live!

Why, hello there! It's that time of the year again — time to cover the happenings of the big E3 press conferences as they happen.

Microsoft has already unveiled Kinect (the artist formerly known as Natal) at a Cirque du Soleil extravaganza. But now is the time for cold, hard facts — and hopefully another glimpse at the Star Wars lightsaber game…

5:06 - Starting in less than half an hour, ladies and gents! If you're up, get your Milo and toast and bunker on down! You didn't put peanut butter on your toast, did you? That's just disgusting.

5:27 - Nearly there!

5:31 - Aaaaand we're away!

5:32 - Call of Duty: Black Ops trailer. "Just because they write it down and call it history, doesn't make it the truth." Take note, boys and girls.

5:34 - Dude onstage demoing Black Ops. Very similar to how last year's Modern Warfare 2 was demoed, only this time round we're in a tunnel, rather than up in the mountains.

5:36 - Pretty jungles! About to steal a helicopter...

5:37 - People be dead, into the chopper we go. Ooo, do we get to control it?

5:38 - We do! CoD fans, have you gotten to control a chopper before in the series? Looks like fun.

5:39 - And scene. Looks very arcade-y, but I'm okay with that.

5:40 - Don Mattrick onstage! "I'd like to begin today by announcing an exclusive agreement between Microsoft and Activision." What could it be? Ah, CoD map packs.

5:40 - Deal lasts for the next three years. Tepid applause!

5:41 - "This is our biggest year ever!" I've heard that before somewhere - although this year, they could well be right.

5:43 - Hideo Kojima onstage! They aren't messin' around.

5:43 - Premiering the very first footage of Metal Gear Solid: Rising. Rising's producer onstage introducing it.

5:45 - Lots of bullet on the floor of a...warehouse? Bad-lookin' dude with a big gun. Oh hey, Raiden. Wow, really slicin that poor bad guy up.

5:46 - Gameplay footage! Hey fun, you can cut a whole ton of stuff with your sword - people, pillars, cars. Now that looks like an interesting experience. Haha, you can even cut up watermelons.

5:47 - Phil Spencer onstage. Hey, it's their biggest year evar!

5:48 - "From this point on, every single game, every single experience, is available on only Xbox 360."

5:48 - Cliff Bleszinski is on. Live 4-player Gears 3 co-op demo!

5:50 - Looks like Gears (eg. pretty, bloody). Cool impaling move now available. In fact, Cliff is doing a lot of melee attacks.

5:51 - A bad guy grew big tentacles that shoot lazers! Lazers!!

5:53 - A big boss fella is onscreen. Throwing rocks at the players. Also has tentacles. Oh hey, is this a mutated version of that bad guy from the first Gears who rushes the player? I liked that one.

5:54 - Demo done. Cliff says they'll be showing off a new game mode called "Beast".

5:54 - Peter Molyneux onstage! Talkin' Fable III.

5:56 - Combat looks similar to Fable II. New environments look pretty. Hard to tell too much else really.

5:57 - "Here's Microsoft's newest partner." A new exclusive from an indie developer? Oh hey, Crytek! Intriguing. Looks like Gladiator!

5:58 - "Codename: Kingdoms". No real information, alas.

5:58 - Aaaand now they're showing off Halo: Reach! "You haven't experienced the world of Halo until you've played it from the beginning."

6:00 - Unveiling the single-player campaign! I do like that music.

6:01 - Squad has been dropped off near an under-siege base. Bad guys getting dropped in, firefight amongst pretty scenery.

6:04 - Cool melee takedown moves. This place is dripping with incidental atmosphere.

6:04 - Ship combat in space! Good times. Aaand that's a wrap.

6:05 - Talkin' 'bout Kinect. "No barriers, no learning curves."

6:07 - Ron from the Kinect team is demoing Kinect. Showing off interface. Wave to sign in!

6:08 - You can use your hand to select things, or just your voice. Be interesting to see how well that last feature works with Kiwi accents.

6:09 - Impressive - showing fine-control scrubbing of a film's timeline, all done with his hand. I like. Also, voice controls again. "Xbox, pause!" "Xbox, play!" "Autobots, roll out!"

6:10 - "Xbox, play music!" "Xbox, sit! Stay! Good boy!" How long before the Xbox rises up and kills us all??

6:11 - "This year, we're bringing Xbox Live to Windows Phone 7." Seven...is that the number of years they've been promising that? I kid! Sorta.

6:13 - Showing Video Kinect. Person onstage is calling a friend in Texas. Looks like video chat. Oh god, so peppy! Drowning in pep.

6:14 - Kinect will track you as you move around while video chatting. Again: creepy! But cool. You can also share news, sports, movies, etc.

6:16 - ESPN on Xbox. Intriguing, although not sure how it'll apply to NZ.

6:19 - Demoing ESPN on Live. American Football game on. Gah, put on some real football!

6:23 - Kinect big honcho Kudo Tsunoda is up. "We set out to build entertainment that anyone could enjoy."

6:24 - "Let me introduce you to six Kinect launch games." And Kinectimals is up. Hehe, it's cute.

6:26 - Good lord, this thing is overflowing with "awwwww". Cute demo kid is playing jump rope with cute tiger thing.

6:27 - Next up: Kinect Sports. Hah, you can wave your hand in a stadium to cause a Mexican wave in the crowd. Raise your hands and the crowd goes beserk. Narcissism is in!!

6:29 - Track running event. Two-player. Run on the spot to run forward, seems simple enough. I have to say, even if this stuff is very Wii-like, I am a sucker for things in HD. Hahaha, okay they've got me with the replay set to Chariots of Fire.

6:30 - More sports in the game: Soccer, bowling, javelin, table tennis, boxing, volleyball.

6:31 - Kinect Joy Ride now up. Use your hands to steer. Was this game originally meant to be free? Suspect that's not the case now.

6:33 - Kinect Adventures on now. Xtreme! Mr. demo man is on a rail cart platform thing, and has to duck, sidestep to avoid obstacles. Cool - someone can just come along in front of the camera and it turns into splitscreen.

6:35 - Still with Kinect Adventures, now floating down a fast river in an inflatable raft thing. Both players need to lean together to steer. Got kids? I think they'll really like this. Got alcohol? I think you'll really like this.

6:37 - Third-party Kinect games now. Ubisoft is up with a trailer for... some kind of exercise program?

6:38 - Your Shape: Fitness Evolved. Hah, I do love that name. Now for an actual demo of it.

6:40 - Scans your body before beginning. AI voice says, "Great, I can see you perfectly now." All hail our robot overlords!

6:41 - I know a couple of people who use workout video tapes. Think it's safe to assume that something like this can replace it.

6:45 - MTV Games & Harmonix are up with Dance Central. Intriguing. Hah, they're starting with actual in-game dances. Smooooth.

6:47 - Full-body dancing - no dance mat! That's certainly a bonus. Mix of pop, hip hop, r'n'b. Lady Gaga, others.

6:49 - It's official: people look silly playing Kinect. Don't care, I think I can have some fun with this thing. Is there any samba in this dance game??

6:51 - Kinect launching worldwide this holiday season. Starts with USA November 4. 15 launch titles, nearly all of which look pretty casual in nature.

6:52 - Aaaand here's the Star Wars lightsaber game! Looks cartoony like the Clone Wars series. Oh hey, it's Darth Vader. And scene. Hmm, not as impressed by that as I thought I'd be.

6:53 - Forza fullas are up, showing Kinect-controlled racing.

6:58 - Well what do you know, it's the new Xbox 360! It looks...angular. Interesting.

6:59 - It's "whisper quiet" apparently. Hurray!

7:00 - Shipping to retailers today. Whoa - everyone in the theatre is getting an Xbox 360. It's like Oprah! Way to buy the crowd, Microsoft. ;)

7:01 - And that's a wrap, folks. What did you think? Post below!