What a difference a day makes. Microsoft’s E3 Xbox Media Briefing was the true experience.

After Treyarch’s Mark Lamia walked us through Call of Duty: Black Ops – probably best described as a temperate experience (for now), Don Mattrick toplined the media briefing with a newly announced agreement between Xbox and Activision, ensuring that all Call of Duty map packs in 2010, 2011 and 2012 will arrive first on Microsoft’s console.

Lamia was succeeded by Hideo Kojima, who announced his first Xbox 360 project, Metal Gear Solid: Rising. It’s manifesto: Cut what you will.

The game features a time warping mechanic that allows the player to queue a series of sword strokes, dicing everything from foes to pillars and vans. We’ll go hands on in the next couple of days to determine its real value – looked the part, however.

Following Kojima were the Xbox-exclusive clique – Epic Games, Bungie and Lionhead. Cliff Bleszinki was in his element, calling out to and joking with the galleried gaming press. They in turn were probably responding with a bit more gusto than their quasi-professional decorum should permit. Nonetheless.

Epic demonstrated Gears of War 3’s four player co-op – solid presentation, thus far a bit light on gameplay evolution – and have promised to unveil a new mode named Beast later this week.

Peter Molyneux dated Fable III for the 26th of October, but failed to impart any details we weren’t already aware of. Possibly an opportunity missed to sell the sequel to gaming media, who by and large appear to be sitting on the fence.

Crytek followed, presenting a very brief and not particularly enlightening trailer for Codename Kingdoms – a title teased in the weeks before E3. It appears to respond to the God of War series, featuring a scantily clad Greco-Roman type wielding a sword and shield. We really can’t be sure of more until the press releases roll out.

Bungie’s Marcus Lehto premiered Halo: Reach’s singleplayer campaign, a co-op experience shared with the Spartans of Team Noble. Of particular note was Reach’s loud rock-tech soundtrack, audio that’s far removed from the series’ more understated choral pieces. Not sold.

Finally, Marc Whitten walked us through Kinect. His opening sell line left something to be desired: “Imagine a world where you can watch a movie without a remote,” (every Sunday, Marc), and that Kinect is “What happens when technology gets out of the way,” (better!).

From the Kinect-capable Xbox dashboard, simply wave at the screen and Kinect will recognise you and select your avatar. The flat Kinect menu hub features Netflix, Zune, Facebook, Kinect social features and last.fm. If you can see it, just say it. For example, “Xbox Zune” or “Xbox pause.” Cool. More impressive is using your hand as a remote, flicking through menus and selecting items. For my money, that’s where Kinect’s strength is: Simplified social features incidental to the gaming experience. It’s not a product for the core gaming market – it doesn’t want to be.

VideoKinect, the peripheral’s video chatting service, works as intended and has Windows Live Messenger interconnectivity. The service allows you to watch movies, TV, music, news and sports with your friends. A Web cam, then.

Xbox also announced and went into great elaboration on an agreement with sports network ESPN. As this service won’t be available in New Zealand, we’ll simply move right along to Kinect’s launch titles.

Surprise, surprise, it launches with something called “Kinect Sports.” Developed by Rare, Kinect Sports features javelin, soccer, ten pin bowling, long jump, table tennis, boxing and beach volleyball.

Kinect Joy Ride is a Kart Racer. It doesn’t look like anything special in the slightest, but perhaps if it ships bundled with the Kinect, you’ll get some value from it.

Kinect Adventures is designed to put your whole body to use. Featuring 20 different adventures (such as white water rafting), it also captures photos of you as you’re playing – a great way to confirm that, yes, you do look absolutely ridiculous.

Ubisoft’s Your Shape: Evolved won the presentation. Felicia Williams demonstrated what might most easily be described as incredibly innovative Wii Fit-like software. Using camera motion tracking and analysis, it essentially “records” you, then creates a tailored exercise regimen, that occurs in a 3D space. Watch a trailer.

You can choose how you want to work out, learn Tai Chi, learn a martial art.

Harmonix’s Dance Central is a kind of Dance Dance Revolution meets Guitar Hero meets PR reps trying their moves out as the global press watches on. With a pop, hip-hop and R&B suite of songs, including Lady Gaga and the Beastie Boys, it’ll find its audience.

Phil Spencer then gave Kinect a street date, November 4th, 2010. We’re marking it down much more deliberately than we might have last night.

Turn 10’s Bill Giese closed the games presentation by unveiling a Forza Motorsport title for Kinect. It’s due in 2011.

Don Mattrick confirmed our suspicions: The Xbox Slim does exist. It has a 250 gigabyte hard drive, built-in WiFi and is Kinect-ready. Then, the price: $299 USD, exactly the same as “vanilla” Xbox 360.

Mattrick paused, rhetorically asking the audience when they might expect to see it on shelves: It shipped today and will be purchasable next week. Don, you tease. Really, though, that is a masterful piece of tight-lipped corporate security. We thought we might see a prototype in the distance, but “ships today”? Well played, Microsoft.

He closed the Xbox Media Briefing by informing everyone in attendance that they would be receiving a complimentary Xbox 360 Slim – sent out today. The news was received by the ever-poised gaming media with raucous cheering and applause. Neutrality dispersed.

Achievement unlocked, Don.