I didn't take notes during this because it was quite dark, crowded, and loud, with more video than talk content really.  But it was still a lot of fun.  The "flag waving" quotient was a little higher than usual, at times coming across more like an E3 presentation than a GDC one -- but to be honest I kind of liked that.  It was neat seeing Fable 2 and Ninja Gaiden 2 in action.

But the real news was the announcement of XNA games on Marketplace, IMO.  If MS can pull this off I think it has a lot of potential to be disruptive to the industry, in a very good way.  I've been playing around with XNA a bunch in my spare time and it is a very nice core toolset.  This announcement really makes me want to go polish up a few little game ideas and actually get them out there.

I could have lived without the goofy Gears 2 announcement though... after all that hype they at least should have showed something about the actual game...