Microsoft: 360... or 180?

While Microsoft may have officially unveiled their next-generation game console — the Xbox 360 — at a celebrity-laden event on MTV last week, the boys from Redmond were back at E3 with a press conference that can only be described as surreal. Without batting an eyelash, Microsoft representatives routinely spouted terms like "the zen of gaming" during their heavily choreographed speeches, and claimed they would reach one-billion customers this generation. That's billion, with a B. With faux cheers from the faux metro shills in the crowd, the event came across as Microsoft desperately -- and unnecessarily -- trying to pull the wool over the eyes of an audience that can smell bullshit from a billion miles away.

Online features will be a huge part of the new console's capabilities, and the company plans to expand the integration of its Xbox Live service into all aspects of the Xbox 360 operating system. The large Xbox logo on the joypad activates the Xbox UI at any time, allowing you to keep track of friends no matter which game you're playing. Other network features were discussed, such as community content sharing and microtransactions that could potentially change the way people view online gaming. Microsoft's desire to bring these features to a broader audience is certainly curious however, as casual adopters are not the audience that Microsoft needs to capture in order to build marketshare advantage over Sony's next console.

The company showed off a variety of Xbox 360 games, only one of which — the Unreal-based Gears of War — looked the part of a sophisticated next-generation game title. Photorealistic vistas, hyper-detailed monsters and gritty apocalyptic art direction highlighted the brief demo of this shooter-meets-horror title. An Xbox 360 exclusive, Gears of War looks the be the only killer app out of an initial game offering that offered little to be excited about. With no flagship titles from Microsoft Game Studios (like Halo), Gears of War will likely have to carry the load in convincing game players to adopt the platform out of the gate.

The other games that were shown didn't fare so well and looked outdated by comparison. Ghost Recon 3 seemed to be a current-generation PC title, Project Gotham 3 looked like a pre-rendered intro, Perfect Dark Zero was noticeably absent and Kameo... well, the less said about that the better. Even the next iteration of Dead or Alive -- from outspoken Xbox graphics powerhouse Team Ninja -- failed to illustrate the leap in technology between current Xbox games and future 360 titles. Dead or Alive 4 looked almost exactly like Dead or Alive Ultimate: same character models, same lifeless plastic skin, same weird joint problems, same five-year-old animations... same old game.

Far from a disaster, Microsoft's E3 press conference still left me feeling utterly apathetic about their next-generation console plans. By the time the Sony conference was over, I was even more more underwhelmed with Microsoft's confusing double-speak and tepid game demos, Gears of War notwithstanding. There was precious little to convince me to upgrade to the Xbox 360 this fall, especially considering that high-powered games like Half-Life 2 are coming to the Xbox I already own. Even with the notable advantage of having playable game demos on the expo floor, Microsoft is on much shakier ground than anyone would have thought going into E3.

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