One slight warning, though, there is no official confirmation on whether its the real deal or not. My download is 48% done and I would recommend fans to wait for this sucker to finish his download by tonight and confirm if this is the real deal. The file is, after all, 180MB.
EDIT:
The file IS the real deal. Gentlemen, start your downloads! This is definitely something you gotta see. For those that can't wait or can't download, 180MB, here's the sweet deal!
Well, it had to come. The XBox 360 unveiling video is out for download on TorrentSpy here. For those of you who want to know more, but cant download the 180MB video, here's some info and screenshots from my X-perience. The program begins with a couple of people across various countries (possibly the ones in which the XBox will be released. Country list includes the USA, France, Japan, Germany, Brazil, Switzerland, UK, Spain, South Africa, Australia, Mexico and Thailand) carrying their XBox 360s around in a sleek silver colored shoulder bag, which looks like it may come along with the console. If not, then it is definitely something to be purchased.
The show then gets under way with Elijah Wood (LOTR, The Good Son, etc.) hosting the presentation and giving a preview of what's going to come in the next 20 minutes, which includes an in-depth look into the console, the XBox Design Labs, the games, multiplayer with celebrities and pro gamers and a special performance by "The Killers."
The program first focuses on the gaming revolution and how it got there. Host Jim Schearer of MTV2 gives viewers the lowdown on how gaming has evolved from Pong all the way to the games for the XBox 360. There are some fleeting, yet mightily split-second gameplay videos of a Resident Evil-type game, NFS: Most Wanted, the new Madden NFL game, Project Gotham Racing 3 and some other FPSes (maybe Ghost Recon 3, I couldn't be sure!) While Jim talks about the gaming revolution since Pong (72), the Atari 2600 (77) and games such as PacMan, Space Invaders, Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. and the screens show even the older Nintendo GameBoy, it suddenly leaps forward to 2001 and launch of the first XBox, with absolutely no mention of the Sony PS/PS2 or the GameCube. (Of course, no big surprise there!)
Once that is complete, we fast forward to the present and Elijah Wood presents "the future of gaming", upon which the girl from the opening shots walk onto the stage with the XBox and proceeds to lovingly fix it on the central base and power up the Ring Of Light. The traditional green laser light that's the trademark of the console comes on all around it, and a top-side pan shows the entire stage, along with the lasers to be one big XBox 360 logo. The multimedia presentation starts, with the new XBox logo, and how its supposed to be always connected, personalized, etc. etc.
Then comes the mindblowingly great song and video "Mr. Brightside" from "The Killers" which is something that has to be seen to be believed. From having the Rolling Stones perform "Start Me Up!" at the Windows 95 launch, to the song that goes "...It's Killing Me!" at the XBox 360 launch, Microsoft sure knows their advertising tactics. A PlayStation "killer"? Let's wait and see!
After the performance that will leave you with a really tingling sensation and a mad adrenaline rush, Elijah Wood talks to Lil Jon (the greedy pig hopes to get a free XBox 360) and they play around with the psychedelic, transforming XBox 360 logo.
After a short commercial break, Jim Schearer talks to Tony Hawk who has new games coming out for the XBox 360, including American Wasteland, which he describes as "one seamless giant level." Huh! I don't play the game anyway, but those that do, drool, 'coz this LOOKS great! Then we are shown the other games that will be out for the XBox 360, including Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06, Need For Speed Most Wanted and Madden NFL 06.
Next up, customization of the XBox 360. Sway talks to "Pimp My Ride" customization experts Ryan and Mad Mike of West Coast Customs, who customize their XBox 360 experience. These guys are nuts and cool at the same time. They take an older XBox apart, sand it down, paint deathfaces on it, plug an LCD monitor with some flashy green LEDs and the finished product will blow your mind away! Johnathan Hayes, the lead XBox designer and Matt Day, Designer, Astro, take a tour of the XBox Headquarters at Redmond, WA. They run through the evolution of design, where they designed the whole 360 console from the original XBOx design. A whole gamut of designs (including the one that looked like the Photoshopped heatsink are all Microsoft designs that were later abandoned) The Executive Producer of the XBox 360, J Allard, talks about the skinnable faceplates and a whole range of skins and talks about the "monster inside."
First up, the Live Marketplace, the place on XBox Live like EBay, where you can actually conduct micro-transactions. Also featured are game downloads, where you can automatically download free and premium content with a single selection, say maps for Halo 2 or Perfect Dark Zero , etc. In fact, the display actually prompts that particular XBox 360 to download three new maps for Halo 2. (I guess backward compatibility is not an issue if the console can play Halo 2, huh?) After a short commercial break, its time to showcase some more games such as Kameo: Elements of Power, Gears of War, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 3, Project Gotham Racing 3, NBA 2K6, Quake IV (WOOOHOOO!), Call of Duty 2 (Double WOOOOHOOOO!), The Darkness (from Majesco of BloodRayne fame).
After the previews, four gamers (Amy Brady (AthenaPMS), Matt Leto (Yvos), Delroy Palmer (D-Mega), Estelle Ellis (Motion Capture Artist)) get a chance to try out Perfect Dark Zero deathmatch at Rare Studios, UK. First off, THEY get to try out MoCap and check out unfinished (wireframe/basic textures) sequences from the PDZ game. Here we learn some juicy information on the game, such as the game having 5000 polygons per character, about 300,000 polygons in the background, support for 50 or more players online, interaction with all the objects in the game, which includes FULLY-destructible objects, etc. The demo level that these people try out is mind boggling (2-player splitscreen) with the ability to switch to different vision modes on the fly, excellent vehicles (which seem to control like a charm) and a lot more. After completing their training in the UK, they return for a 4-on-4 team deathmatch with celebrities such as Omarion and Joseph Hahn (Linkin Park), Uzi and Wilder Valderrama. Team One wins in the end with a single leading frag. And that concludes the presentation of the XBox 360, which closes with another killer performance from "The Killers."
I have created a gallery of 40 screenshots from the video as well as some select video segments featuring upcoming games. Find them here:
MTV & XBox 360 Launch Video Photo Gallery (40 screenshots)
XBox Games Video 1 (3.25MB-xviD)
XBox Games Video 2 (3.25MB-xviD)
