Microsoft E3 conference roundup

Sonic and Golden Axe are available now, said Bell. We weren't really listening at this point having been absorbed completely for 20 seconds by seeing the long jump bit in Track and Field.

Video Marketplace topped off the downloadable content section, with Canada and Europe to be added to the currently US-only service later this year. Disney films are currently being added, Bell announced, before showing off a reel of top movies, including Tarzan, Pooh's Heffalump Movie, Atlantis, Hercules, Emperor's New Groove, Armageddon, Sky High, Waterboy, Bad Company and Unbreakable.

Then came the Elite date for Europe. 24th August will see the black machine with its 120GB drive and HDMI output in the hands of Eurogamers. And that was that as far as Elite was concerned, with no price being announced. Interested parties please note: 24th August is the second day of Leipzig's Games Convention.

Shane 'corporate vice president and head of Microsoft Game Studios' Kim came out. "In each of the last two years, games published by Microsoft Game Studios average higher review scores than any other publisher in the videogames industry," he said, before bringing Brian Woodhouse and Craig Howard from Bizarre Creations onto the stage to talk through Project Gotham Racing 4 and its newly announced motorbikes. They showed the bike stuff playing for the first time, including new ways of getting kudos points by performing stunts while riding. Honda, Suzuki and Ducati are all signed up, they said, for licensed bikes, and more than 120 cars are to be included. You'll be able to buy it in September.

Kim talked briefly about first-party RPGs Blue Dragon, Mass Effect and Lost Odyssey before confirming Viva Piñata and Gears of War for Windows. And you can't talk about Gears of War without dragging "CliffyB" out.

So they did. He played some of the new content that's exclusive to the Windows version of the now-revered action blaster, playing co-op against the Brumak monster from the 360 version you never got to fight. Five new chapters will be included in the PC version.

After talking through more PC titles - Thrillville, Bee Movie Game, BioShock, Crysis, Universe at War Earth Assault, Blacksite, World in Conflict, Age of Conan, Lost Planet, Kane & Lynch, Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, Zoo Tycoon 2, Juiced 2 and more - Moore came back on and introduced a lengthy movie of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. This looked, in a word, bloody amazing. That's two words. But it was good enough to warrant the extra word. Anyway.

The game showed a start in Prypiat, the worker town ruined by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and Mid-Eastern sections. As Tom put it in our Live Text updates, "The limited palette and detailed, grassy camo coupled with brilliant animation give it an incredibly coherent look." Take a look at CharlieOscarDelta.com for more.

Now for the obvious one, and something of an anticlimax. GTA IV was shown, but there was no new footage, the only videos being the two previously released to the Web. Moore's only flag-waving bit of information was that the footage was captured from 360 code. He talked about the exclusive downloadable chapters, both of which will be available next spring. "Where the GTA IV experience stops on other platforms, it continues on Xbox 360," he said.

There was more. Japanese partnerships were dwelled on briefly, and a very brief trailer was shown for Resident Evil 5, with the promise of a full video on Live on 26th July.

And then Jade Raymond came out. We love Jade. She's great. She showed the Jerusalem demo of Assassin's Creed with hero Altair jumping, hanging, stabbing and generally looking fantastic, fighting using timing and crashing through crowds. Lovely stuff.

Finally, Moore showed a new Halo 3 trailer after revealing a fancy new "Halo 3 Special Edition" Xbox 360 in Spartan green and gold, to release alongside the game in September. The trailer had Cortana, Master Chief, Covenant, Warthogs, dropships and mentalist-scale gun battles. There was even an enemy that filled the whole screen.

And that was that. Take a look at Tom's Live Text updates for more detail and be sure to watch Eurogamer later today for the Nintendo and Sony conferences, plus all the screenshots and movies from the show.