Details from the Japanese Xbox 360 conference


http://www.ga-forum.com/showthread.php?t=47061

I just got back from Roppongi Hills.

-There were free concessions. I got diet coke and a big bucket of popcorn 
for me and Andria Sang.

-We saw a slightly edited version of the MTV special (there was no concert, 
it stopped after the stupid "PDO deathmatch" segment where they DIDN'T SHOW 
THE GAME coz it was running at 15fps. The MS head poobah came out holding an 
Xbox and was mobbed by photogs. By the way, they translated "Now that is 
some serious bling" as "sugoi na."

-Okamoto from Gamers Republic came out and was like "bla bla xbox360 is cool 
and shit" and I was like "SHOW FOOTAGE OF YOUR GAME" and he didn't have any 
:(

-Mizuguchi came out and revealed that the Kingdom Under Fire dudes were 
doing 99 Nights. Korean developer dude and translator popped out. Korean 
dude looked real nervous, and then they ran the footage. HOLY FUCKING 
SHIT!!! There is this scene where there are THOUSANDS OF DUDES on screen 
fighting and then this one dude in the middle does this magic spell and it 
makes A GIANT MUSHROOM CLOUD that totally SENDS THOUSANDS OF DUDES FLYING 
INTO THE AIR IN A GIGANTIC SHOCKWAVE THE LIKES OF WHICH YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN 
BEFORE. And then the camera is zooming in and revealing that each guy has 
insano levels of bump mapping and shit. Andria Sang and I were both like "OH 
MY GOD" and totally slackjawed and were ready to applaud the guy, but nobody 
else clapped (tough audience. Dicks). This was definitely the most 
impressive thing there. EDIT: THIS WAS RUNNING AT 60FPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Sakaguchi came out and was like yo bitches, I'm back, this is Blue Dragon. 
They showed some art (zzz) and then some 60fps 720p renders of the 
characters attacking on a white background (shades of the original lame 
Kingdom Hearts animation demo). Monsters come out of each character's 
shadow, like the main hero has a dragon, the girl has a bat. I was kinda 
bugged by how the shadow monsters looked like....like furries. The music 
also was awesome and had this famicomy tinge to it. Uematsu came out and was 
like "yo I'm a pimp and doing music and shit." and everyone was like "NOBUO 
WE LOVE YUO" Then they revealed Artoon was doing it and me and Anoop looked 
at each other like "WELL SHIT."

-Lost Odyssey footage up next. This was more than character renders, there 
was some definitely realtime cutscene stuff. Looks like the detailing is 
more in texture than in geometry. Looks like a combo of FF12 and Fable 
(light bloom HOOOO!), "generic Square CG" is how I'd describe it. Imagine 
FF12 but with REALLY FRICKIN LONG draw distances and nice effects. This 
looked okay, but if you told me it was an Xbox 1 game I'd be like "okay." Oh 
yeah, the Slam Dunk guy did the character designs and he came out and was 
like "I've never played DQ or FF, I suck" and Sakagu was like "Yes you sure 
do suck." The developer is a new group called Feel Plus+ and they are 
seemingly a bunch of young overworked kids on a tight deadline and Sakagu is 
head slave driver. "That's for being slow! (crack) And that's for getting 
blood on my whip! (crack)"

After that they let everyone mob the stage to look at the Xbox 360. Then I 
went and met Yellowace for lunch and then took the train home and read GI 
Joe Special Missions comics on my PSP.

FINAL VERDICT:
What the fuck? This shit's coming out in 2005 but I don't know what the hell 
I'll be playing on it coz none of this shit is gonna be ready. Except for 99 
Nights, which was fucking awesome but everything else was like "meh."

My fingers are tired...I should have made a blog or something... I'll add 
pics later

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20050513/xbox101.jpg
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20050513/xbox102.jpg
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20050513/xbox107.jpg

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20050513/xbox1.htm