It's Tuesday at GDC 2007, or as I like to call it, "Microsoft Day." The software giant had lured many members of the games press, me included, away from the Moscone Convention Center to a nearby hotel with promises of juicy secrets and tantalizing previews of titles such as BioWare's Mass Effect and Lionhead Studios Fable 2.

The sessions started at 9 a.m. sharp and will pretty much run throughout the day. It's a bit of a grind, considering that Microsoft invited dozens of tech media members and games journalists to the hotel and packed them into very small rooms. During the waiting period this morning, there were close to 30 of us squeezed into a small foyer near the elevators of the Mezzanine level of the hotel. There was absolutely no room to move, and I couldn't stop thinking about how an earthquake at that very moment could have wiped out half of the games press in one fell swoop.

Well, an earthquake didn't strike, thankfully. And we were well rewarded for the wait. Microsoft gave us exclusive previews of Fable 2, Mass Effect, the new Conan title, and several other games for its next generation platform. More on those later.

A number of media members, myself included, remarked on how Microsoft is really turning the tide in its favor lately in the game community. Years ago, the company was catching nothing but flack for its initial Xbox effort. Hell, even after Xbox 360 launched a year ahead of the competition, people were still doubting them. Now Microsoft has assembled what is clearly is clearly the strongest library of next-generation games available today, with more titles like Halo 3 coming.

While Sony has run afoul of gamers lately with backwards compatibility issues, public relations gaffes and other eyesores, Microsoft has clearly gained momentum and credibility in the industry. To be sure, Microsoft is still a long way off from the buzz and gamer love that Nintendo is enjoying. But the software giant is leaps and bounds ahead of where they were with the first Xbox.