Hey all, I just wanted to check in for a bit while I actually have access to a computer here at GDC (Game Developer's Conference) here in San Francisco. I just got out of J. Allard's keynote speech talking about the HD Era. Basically, he talked a lot about how the UI for all next-generation Xbox games is going to be universal, so every Xbox game will basically have the same basic UI which will allow for customization on almost every little detail. Not only that, but he said that EVERY game will be Xbox Live-aware (at the very least), every game would feature custom soundtracks (no more EA shafting us Xbox owners), and the coolest thing to me, a gamercard.
The gamercard is not just your gamertag with a picture, it's that, with a personalized picture, stats for every single game that you've played along with achievements and stats on each that everyone can look at, a'la Bungie.net and Halo 2, but you'll be able to do it all on the Xbox. Unfortunately I did not get any video of the presentation that demo'd all of this, but trust me, it's pretty cool.
I also spent a lot of time yesterday after I got in attending a workshop that feature Marty O'Donnell of Bungie. Marty talked about some very interesting concepts concerning 3D audio and audio design and scoring in general, and it was a very informative talk, indeed. The main thing that I took away from his keynote (besides that he calls himself a pompous ass) was that games can stand to learn a lot from movies, but they seldom take the time to actually learn it. I'll probably elaborate a bit more on this during the radio show, but I hope that you get the gist of it.
I'm heading back out to the expo floor now, I just caught Reggie Fils-Aime of Nintendo around here at the Nintendo booth, and I'm really excited to catch Satoru Iwata's keynote tomorrow on the heart of a gamer. Should be very interesting.
-Jack
