News: The details of the Xbox 360 special. Including how long the excrutiating Pimp My Xbox went on.
With all the leaks going on last weekend, at this point the only secret left was which songs The Killers and Snow Patrol would play. The Killers played "Mr. Brightside" and "Smile Like You Mean It". Snow Patrol didn't actually show up. My respect for them skyrockets.
Anyway, on to the vital important details we learned from this special:
Official name of the console: Xbox 360
Release date: They didn't say
Price: Too expensive for you. OK, I'm kidding, they didn't say.
Number of games announced: 10
Tony Hawk's American Wasteland
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06
Perfect Dark Zero
Kameo: Elements of Power
Gears of War
Project Gotham Racing 3
Saint's Row
NBA 2K6
Quake IV
Call of Duty 2
Number of games shown: 14, All of the above plus
Need For Speed Most Wanted
Madden NFL 06
The Darkness
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 3
Total screen time for The Killers: 4:46
Total screen time for annoying celebrity interviews: 0:46 (Plus 2:05 for "Pimp My Xbox" and 6:05 for a Perfect Dark Zero tournament)
Total screen time for in-game footage: 1:36 (Including 0:29 during the tournament)
Total screen time for the Xbox 360 system: 1:33
Total screen time for commericals: 8:22
Backwards Compatibility?: They didn't say
Wireless Controllers?: Yes, apparently the controllers will all be wireless. Hello dead battery during the last level of Perfect Dark Zero.
Removable Hard Drive?: Unknown
Changeable Faceplates: Hoo boy yes. Lots of them, I'm not sure anyone really demanded this feauture.
Puff Daddy sighting?: No, and P. Diddy wasn't there either.
Paris Hilton sighting?: Thank the lord, no.
Any Microsoft employee sighting?: Yes, J Allard, Xbox guru. J, the man has no first name. And Duncan Botwood of Rare.
Someone describing the Xbox 360 as "Hot"?: No, but apparently it's sexy according to J Allard.
How many times someone said "HD"?: Twice, both in commercials for Samsung
Best video games related fact: Perfect Dark Zero will feature 50 player online deathmatches. Almost makes slogging through the rest of the crap worth it. Almost.
So that's it for the vitals. Check back tomorrow afternoon for staff reaction to the special. I predict it won't be pretty.