The Wednesday before E3 opens is usually filled with a spattering of press conferences and pre-show parties that commence late in the day.  Not this year.  Microsoft kicked off E3 in style with an 8 AM press conference, held at the same downtown Los Angeles club that played host to Sega's events during the previous two years.  By Wednesday morning, word had already started to leak out about Microsoft's plans for Xbox -- the audience of 300 or so journalists fully expected Microsoft to announce a November launch for the console at $299.   Nevertheless, there was electricity in the air at 8 AM in the morning as most journalists also expected Microsoft to have a few surprises up its sleeves.

But as soon as the press conference started, it became readily apparent that Microsoft was going to play it safe – take, for instance, the fact that Microsoft carted out Oddworld's Lorne Lanning to kick off the press conference.  Pulling out a black stool, the pony-tailed Lanning sat down with a solemn look on his face.  Just as at every other conceivable opportunity he gets, Lanning proceeded to tell the audience how the Xbox has allowed him to realize his vision for Oddworld, something he claims is impossible to do on the PlayStation 2.  Most of the journalists had heard this pitch before, and it seemed like this time the crowd was starting to grow tired of the whole "PlayStation 2 didn't let me be the artist I can be" routine.  After all, haven't we heard this whole spiel before, both at CES and GameStock, which is Microsoft's press event in March?   It didn't help that Lanning's subsequent demo of Munch's Odyssey seemed to be largely the same thing as was shown at previous shows.  The crowd was silent…everyone was expecting something new from Microsoft.

Then again, Microsoft has spent the past six months promoting the heck out of Munch and Bungie's Halo, the two game the company hopes will be blockbusters that drive hardware sales.  Unfortunately for Microsoft, the Munch demo failed to dazzle the crowd, and the demo of Halo suffered from much the same problem: it looked just like it has the past two times it was shown.  Sure, there were some new graphical effects in Halo – bump mapping here, new lighting there – but the same ride-the-jeep-and-go-into-the-cave gameplay was shown yet again.  Halo, at one point billed as the second coming of action games, ended up looking like another generic shooter with little to differentiate itself, much less anything to turn it into the killer application for the Xbox.  There was nothing wrong with the Halo demo at the press conference, but at the same time, it ended up looking merely competent when it should have been downright dazzling.