E3 Alive and Kicking - But for how Long?

"I'm off to play illicitly with the entire Lost Planet team, back shortly."

This was one of the highlight utterances from an internet forumite created after the shockwave of arguably the best E3 we've seen in the last few years had passed. But the flippant remark is not of note because of its tongue-in-cheek intent (as eyebrow raising as it may be); more from the philosophy that prompted the forum poster to say it. Because he wasn't at the show. He wasn't playing the superb Lost Planet demo on the noisy, brain-crushing madness that often is the Expo floor.

He was sitting in the comfort of his own home. Playing via Live.

Regardless of whether you think Microsoft 'won' the event this year, there's no doubt that Xbox Live has started to truly come into its own, with no greater example than its well planned showcase during E3. The big MS revealed that over 1.5 million gamers hooked up to the online service during the week of The Greatest Gaming Show on Earth™, with its host of demos and trailers all at our fingertips. While many watched the Halo 3 teaser at the conference auditorium, even more sat in front of their TV, pressed a couple buttons and were enjoying it within minutes, Pringles in one hand, Haagen Daz in the other, and drool in-mouth. Other popular content included the Test Drive Unlimited and MotoGP '06 playable demos, the Gears of War, Spiderman 3 and Fable 2 trailers, UNO (for it is the game of Gods), and, of course, that demo of Lost Planet. While games sites everywhere were bringing you live coverage of the games, Live allowed us for the first time at great length on a console, to actually experience some of the flavours that sat in the huge tub of gelatinous gaming goo that was E3. All without leaving our front yard. And it was glorious.

It's hard to argue that Xbox's 'E3: Bringing It Home' wasn't a huge success in achieving what it set out to do; provide a little bit of the show for our homes and extend the reach of not only the games, but also the publishers, who now have the option to throw a number of extras and tidbits to users during such events. All without the distraction of booth babes, sensory overload, expensive bad food or having to walk half a mile to only end up in a queue. The potential is huge and we got a very good glimpse of it via Live.

But it's not all peaches and cream. At least, not yet.

Yes, Xbox Live is a wonderfully polished service; thoughtful and a joy to use in a world where online gaming can be and sometimes is, a logistical nightmare. It's streamlined and unified, easy to set-up, and full of lovely touches that make it the most well-devised online system yet seen (despite any undesirables you may come across on it; but that's like blaming world sporting events for racists: they're not exactly mutually inclusive).