Sony E3 2012 Press Conference
Sony's press conference started with a long montage of all kinds of games that are on Sony's platforms. Kind of too long, if you ask me. And then Jack Tretton kind of talks even longer. I kind of felt that that was the main problem with this years event for Sony. Lots and lots of talk.
Beyond: Two Souls, new game from Heavy Rain developers. Ellen Page plays the lead role. Face detail is very nice, but it's hard to gauge anything else from the short and rather simple demo. Not really sure what to make of it at all really, what kind of game is it.
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is a terrible terrible name, and I guess that works out all right because it looks just like Super Smash Bros Melee, and that's terrible as well, right? The game doesn't appear to have a traditional health meter, winner is determined by scores, and you grab scores by using your supermove to kill other players. Two new playable characters unveiled, Nathan Drake and Big Daddy. Out on holiday this year.
The Oprah moment was a little weird I think. They gave a year of PSN+ for everyone in the conference. Way to juice the crowd in the middle of the conference. Back when Microsoft gave away those slim Xbox360's they at least had the class to wait right up until the end of the event.
Call of Duty Black Ops: Classified for Vita, an all new CoD experience on your handheld system, just the way you want to play your big triple A titles, right? Uh huh.
Assassin's Creed III: Liberation for Vita, first lady assassin as the lead character in the series, they promise a proper AC experience for the handheld, and some connectivity between this and PS3 console game with unlocks and other nonsense like that.
Assassin's Creed III PS3 demonstration, BOATS. They demo a sea battle event, you steer the boat around and fire some cannons at other boats. At least it's not tower defense minigame. Looks great, they talk about the weather system and it starts raining during the demo. How convenient, but it looks really nice. AC3 will also get its own PS3 hardware bundle and some exclusive DLC.
FarCry 3 multiplayer demo. First thing I really notice is the really ugly and heavy shadow pop-in. It's really noticeable. The gameplay itself seems a little messy. 4 player co-op campaign, map editor, and free exclusive DLC.
Wonderbook, augmented reality nonsense. Some kind of Harry Potter related Spell Book will the first released book. You learn spells and stuff, uses Sony's Eye camera and Move controller.
God of War: Ascension, yep, it's another God of War game. I mean it looks great, but man, it's just another God of War game. Of course if you like those games, I allow you to excited. Dated for March 12, 2013.
The Last of Us, looks pretty great. Impressive faces, but hard to say anything about the rest. Seems really brutal, survival seems like a key concept.
It's a little funny how much Tretton talks about innovation and creativity, and then the only games developed internally at Sony (if I caught this all right) are another God of War game, PlayStation Smash Brothers clone and an augmented reality book. Even the Sony exclusives from Naughty Dog and Quantic Dream, look totally fine, but are certainly not grabbing any innovation awards.
on June 04th 2012 at 10:35pm
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Ubisoft E3 2012 Press Conference, Ubisoft E3 Media Briefing
Ubisoft E3 Media Briefing ended a little later than the schedule said, so I'm also a little late. Yes, that's my excuse, it's not that I went to have a snack after the conference or anything.
Ubi started with Just Dance 4, and brought out a bunch of sexy dancers. Okay, I'm not into dance games but if you want to get my attention anyway, I guess that's one way to do it. The dance performance turned into a live performance by some artist I don't know. Turn out it was some guy called Flo Rida, and his mike was popping really bad.
Also, Aisha Tyler is the host of this. That seems odd. But anything is better than Mr. Caffeine, so I'll give her a chance. And apparently there's also a co-host of sorts, some guy called Tobuscus. No idea who that is either.
FarCry 3, the island has changed the protagonist, the hunted becomes the hunter. Whoa digital boobs. Okay, they just totally started the FarCry 3 section with a sex scene between the protagonist, and some chick, and they didn't even censor the boobs. Radical. Also, after they stop and the camera pans around, you see an audience. Yep, that's a little weird. Game looks great though, best digital boobs I've seen this E3 so far. Bunch of gameplay, guns, stabbings, releasing tigers (TIGERS!), watching tigers kill some dudes and then the dude kills the tigers. Some kind of really weird dream sequence, dude is tripping bad. Coming soon. Big world to explore, also a multiplayer mode. This might turn out to be a real weird game.
Splinter Cell: Blacklist, co-op mode from Conviction is back. Also the fan favorite Spies vs Mercs mode. Welcome to the 4th Echelon trailer. I still can't quite figure out if this is a reboot. My Splinter Cell knowledge is weak.
Then they showed a bunch of WiiU stuff.
Avengers: Battle for Earth, some kind of superhero game. Milking that sizzling hot Avengers name right now, though the style is very clearly based on the comics. Also coming for Kinect.
Rayman Legends looks a lot like Rayman Origins, just with added WiiU functionality. One player was using the special controller to cut ropes and lift things while others were doing more traditional platforming. They showed and interesting and kind of funny music level, totally reminded me of this autoplay Super Mario World youtube videos.
ZombiU, what a terrible terrible name for a game. Just, really bad. So a zombie survival game exclusively for WiiU, but only a CGI trailer was shown, so no idea what the game actually is.
And to close the WiiU section, they had a short montage that showed at least Rabbids game, random sports activities, fitness, some kart racing game and Just Dance 4.
Assassin's Creed III, looks absolutely gorgeous. They made a special point to mention that this is American history with very well known characters, during a conflict that shaped the country and in essence affected the entire world. Connor is wrecking some redcoats in a trailer, with the final target being a Templar who also happens to be a redcoat general or something. Showing a lot of gameplay, bunch of snow in New England. Oh my god, the tree parkour looks glorious. All the faces seem to be looking great. I know that's a weird thing to mention specifically, but for some reason the faces in AC series have always bothered me. They have gotten better with each iteration, and Revelation looked great already, so I'm glad that this remains true. Horses are back, and there's also deep snow. Looks splendid. I can not wait for this game. I'm ready now, give it to me.
Shootmania: Storm, oh god no, gamergirls on stage. Apparently they can actually play, based on the merits the hosts give them, but the fact that they were all wearing short shorts (while the dudes in the other team were wearing, you know, pants) kind of made it weird. They were all pretty hot though, so damn you Ubisoft, mission accomplished. Still, the notion of "gamergirls" is a thing I'd like to go away.
Watch Dogs. Completely new game from Ubisoft, did not see this coming at all. Looks like some kind of open world digital terrorist and/or vigilante game. Looks really cool. You basically have control of the city, and can hack everything. Really digging the demo they are giving, even when it turns into a third person shooter in the end. Not really quite sure if the ending was indication of multiplayer, or multiple playable characters or what.
And that was the conference. Really impressed. And perhaps to my surprise, Aisha Tyler was a pretty good host, even though some of the over the top jokes fell a little flat. To summarize, Ubisoft brings you the tits and ass of 2012.
on June 04th 2012 at 7:28pm
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Electronic Arts E3 2012 Press Conference, Download 2012
EA conference ended 10 minutes ago as I'm writing this, and it was kind of a let down.
They called it Download 2012, and emphasized in the beginning of how the game that we play have transformed over the years from a boxed product into a service. Thus the name. Apparently we were supposed to see 10 great games from 10 great developers.
Dead Space 3. Looks great. They are promising new locations, new characters and co-op campaign. I haven't played the second game yet, so I have no idea if the second dude is new character or not. Lots and lots of action, and then they get eaten, I think. Yeah, the guy on stage makes a poop joke "they are not getting out of there the same way they went in", that's just great. But I can't help but thing that Gears of War 2 kind of did this already.
Lots of EA Sports stuff. NFL has an all new Infinity Engine that basically seems to mean that there are no fixed outcomes on physics interactions. After your dude has been tackled, depending on the tackler weight, speed, mass, all that stuff, it's entirely possible to regain your balance, also based on your speed, weight and all that. Sounds pretty cool. All kinds of snazzy connectivity things, manage your teams through all your devices. And there's also some kind of Facebook NFL game, or app.
UFC, finally coming to EA, officially.
FIFA13, social networking to the max, Your FIFA Club profile will seamlessly transfer over to FIFA13. Everything is also connected in the world of FIFA.
Maxis came on stage with two Sim City games. First, the original city builder comes to Facebook with Sim City Social, with a trailer that has multiple jabs towards Zynga's CityVille. One might even call them Zynga zingers. I know, I'm terrible. They also show a trailer for the next proper Sim City title, and date it to February 2013. First Sim City to have multiplayer, dynamic challenges (like, who builds the airport the fastest, or something I guess), so that's also connected.
Battlefield Premium service. It's kind of like CoD Elite service. You get all the DLCs, more guns, more vehicles, more everything for the subscription instead of buying things piecemeal.
Star Wars: The Old Republic. The presentation reeks of desperation. Hey guys, it's totally doing okay, we are still totally doing more content for it, hey guys, guys, please keep playing it. And then they show a trailer for some of the upcoming stuff.
Medal of Honor: Warfighter, tier 1 operators are back, beard guy included. Real world hotspots, which are probably going to be a little out-dated when the game actually comes out. Runs on Frostbite 2 and looks really good. Multiplayer campaign with a trailer that has absolutely terrible music in it.
Criterion's Need for Speed: Most Wanted. An open world game with second generation auto-log, makes competition out of everything. Looks great, looks like a Criterion game for sure. Crash camera, driving through billboards, crashing through fences. So while it's a game in the Need for Speed franchise, it seems more like a true sequel to Burnout Paradise with some Most Wanted sprinkled on top.
Last, Crysis 3. Appears to play a lot like Crysis 2, dude has a bow. 7 areas to explore, all of which are part of this urban rainforest.
And that's that. Really lackluster showing. Lots of games we already knew about, or games that came out like last year. No shockers, no sizzle, no show.
on June 04th 2012 at 4:56pm
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Microsoft E3 2012 Press Conference, Xbox Entertainment Evolved
Microsoft Press Conference ended about an hour ago and I took some notes. You are welcome. 
They called it Xbox Entertainment Evolved, and I'm really digging this music that they are playing before the actual thing starts. I think I'll talk about the games first, and the rest comes later, how would you like that? Good? Yes, okay.
And were are in it. Starting the show with the showstopper, Halo 4 live action/CGI trailer. Then going into some gameplay. Looks totally Halo, but these guys have the technology down a lot better than Bungie ever did, looks gorgeous. Master Chief kicks some ass, fights Covenant and non-Covenant bad guys, Forerunner defensive AI, picks up some Forerunner weapons (it was called Scattershot, so it's probably just a cool looking shotgun). Some story exposition, Cortana is an 8 year old AI, and AI's start deteriorating after 7 years.
Splinter Cell: Blacklist from Ubisoft. Initial disappointment, as Sam Fisher isn't voiced by Michael Ironside anymore. Prequel, reboot? No idea, looks totally cool though. Seems like there are a lot of executions, which basically looks like the game is almost playing itself on those parts. That's probably just the demo though, juiced up the execution meter to show cool shit. Climbing and stuff, seemingly has some Assassin's Creed influences. Spring 2013.
EA brings Kinect to more EA Sports titles. FIFA and Madden NFL will both have voice commands, you can change formations and substitute players on the fly on FIFA. For Madden they bring out Joe Montana on stage, apparently some kind of Hall of Fame quarterback, and he calls plays in Madden with voice commands. That's all totally cool, but I'm never going to play either of those games.
Short trailer break with back to back trailers.
Fable: The Journey, the first person Kinect magic shooter that still looks like it's on rails and also looks like garbage.
Gears of War: Judgment CGI trailer starring your favorite and mine, Beard.
Forza trailer, pretty cars, dubstep. Wub Wub.
Crystal Dynamics showed of the upcoming Tomb Raider reboot. Gameplay looks like some kind of hybrid between the old Tomb Raider exploration and kind of familiar cover based 3rd person shooter. So also kind of like Uncharted, I guess. Lara shoots dudes with a bow, shotgun and performs a pretty brutal and up close knife kill on a dude, and gets in pretty bad shape by riding down a waterfall, flying with a parachute and falling down after that. Looks good, but still not quite sure what the structure of that game is going to be, and I'm still not digging the new voice.
3 new original titles coming to Xbox 2013, short trailers for each.
Ascend: New Gods looks like a 3rd person character action with some Shadow of the Colossus thrown in there.
LocoCycle from Twisted Pixel (the makers of 'Splosion Man), maybe a racing game. They only show a slick looking bike in a very showroom like fashion.
Matter, from the director of Pirates of the Caribbean, a Kinect game.
Capcom came on stage to show some Resident Evil 6. Looks absolutely gorgeous, MT Frameworks is fucking awesome. Zombies, co-op gameplay, melee executions, cover system, grenades, sprinting. Looks like it plays well. Surprisingly lot quicktime events, hard to say if you can fail them or not. Running towards a camera sequence with shit blowing up. Looks so good. And timed DLC exclusivity for Xbox.
Short demo of Wreckateer, Kinect game that's out this summer.
South Park: The Stick of Truth. RPG game developed by Obsidian and with actual involvement by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, you know, the creators of South Park. Looks authentic. You are the new kid on the block, trying to be the 5th member of the group.
Harmonix, Dance Central 3, already. Looks like more Dance Central, and to hammer that in they have a sudden Usher live performance, showing some of the sweet new dance moves.
And last but not least, they ended the show with Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Looks miles ahead of all previous CoD games, very pretty. Future is now, unmanned war-machines, and someone stole the keys. Dude is sniping with a future sniper rifle through some big-ass concrete blocks, in the interest of time they skip to another sequence where your guy has flying unmanned robot-drones floating around him and he calls support fire from them. Really cool. Flying sequence, impossible to say how much of it was on rails.
No mention of Rare at all. Maybe they are doing the Wreckateer game. How the mighty have fallen.
Then we have the entertainment evolved message. It was kind of scattered across the entire Conference, but I'll just summarize it all here.
Xbox (the brand) brings together all entertainment, also coming to PC's, phones and tablets. Bing search by genre, expanding voice search to 12 additional countries. 35 new entertainment providers across the globe. People love sports, NBA and NHL coming to Xbox. Xbox music service, called Xbox Music. Original, right? Will also be on Windows 8 PC's, tablets and phones. Tons of songs at launch.
Future of fitness with Nike+ Kinect Training. Connected every where, pipes into the Nike+ thing, personal training programs. All that good shit.
Smart devices, getting smarter with Xbox SmartGlass. Basically, an application for your phone or tablet that communicates with your console, and provides you additional information on the things that you are doing. They used an example of watching Game of Thrones on HBO Go, and your tablet shows the map of world and other nonsense like that. Additionally they showed how you can watch a movie on a tablet, pause and just kind of throw it to the console and continue from where you left it. So it's all connected. Also works as a remote for your Xbox if that's your desire.
They stressed very much that you already have these devices, and all you need is this application and it's all golden. Works on all smart devices that you might have, iPhones, iPads, Windows 8 tablets and phones, as well as Android devices. The way they stressed that “hey, you already have these devices” makes it very clearly their answer to WiiU and its tablet controller. It seems very plausible that developers could very well take advantage of this connectivity and make very connected experiences in their games.
And that was Microsoft.
on June 04th 2012 at 2:48pm
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Nintendo's pre-E3 Nintendo Direct stream
Nintendo will have their proper E3 Press Conference on Tuesday, June 5th 9:00am-10:00am PT, but in addition to that they also decided to have a short Nintendo Direct Stream about the WiiU controller as well as some of the online functionalities of the console. Satoru Iwata stated that the reason for this was simple, there will now be more time for actual games on the actual conference. Sounds reasonable.
The controller has changed some from the prototype they showed last year. It appears even larger than before (I didn't think it would be possible), and the biggest change is probably that the 3DS like circle-pads have been replaced with more traditional looking analog sticks. Players can keep playing a game with just the controller, if TV happens to be unavailable, apparently there is no lag between the two. They will also offer a WiiU Pro controller for more traditional control methods. One thing to note about both of the controllers is that the right analog stick is above the face buttons. That's going to be a little weird, isn't it?
The rest of the stream was about the online features, but in truth they didn't really reveal a whole lot. They talked about Miis and Miiverse (that's Mii Universe if that eluded you), the home screen which is populated by Miis and stuff. Mii this and Mii that. Smiley faces. I kind of tuned out at that point. The message they were probably trying to get across is that "hey, we understand online now", but I guess that remains to be seen. There was no mention of friend-codes or system wide accounts or anything like that. And that was more or less it. Check out these images about the things I just wrote about. You know, the things.
on June 03rd 2012 at 10:12pm
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Electronic Entertainment Expo and Konami's Pre-Show
Hey guys, E3 is right around the corner (it really is, again), so I figured that I'd try and cover some of the exciting gaming news that is bound to drop from the 5 big Press Conferences and maybe from the show floor as well. No promises though, I may accidentally forget about it and play Diablo 3 instead.
The Press Conferences start rolling out on the 4th of June with Microsoft (9:30am-11:00am PT), followed by EA (1:00pm- 2:00pm), Ubisoft (3:00pm-4:00pm) and Sony (6:00pm-7:30pm). On the next day the only conference is by Nintendo (9:am-10:00am), after which the show floor opens. Or something like that. I think that's accurate, more or less. In any case, Microsoft starts the show in just about 3 days. Here's a GameSpot link for you guys who want to catch it all live. I'm sure other gaming sites have their own live streams of all the things as well, if GameSpot is not your bag.
However, Konami kind of officially got the ball rolling with E3 this year (again, the same was true last year) with their pre-recorded E3 pre-show, called Konami Pimp Reel from here on out. You can watch it yourself from here if you want, but if your time is precious and don't have 30 minutes to spare, here's what you need to know.
They start the pimp reel with social games for Facebook and mobile platforms, by introducing their fairly fresh US based studio for that stuff. It's located right at the heart of all the first party social nonsense with Apple, Google and Facebook right across the street, basically. So far they've made Frogger Pinball and Twilight Chronicle on Facebook, Frogger Pinball on iOS, and have an upcoming Frogger Frenzy. All this nonsense is published by Zynga (groan). Yes, despite all the shit that Zynga is regularly up to, other companies still strike deals with them.
Next up, Pro Evolution Soccer 2013. I haven't cared much about sports games since International SuperStar Soccer on the SNES, so uh... Better ball control, better individualized and unique top players (Christiano Ronaldo as an example, because he runs funny), better dribble control, improved passing, all the good stuff like you'd expect from an evolution of their previous game. Evolution, right? Get it? Yeah.
Zone of The Enders HD collection is next, again. They announced this at last years pre-show thing, and now it's getting closer to release, they promise its arrival for Fall 2012. I have to hand it to Konami with this one, they are definitely doing the work, the quality of the HD conversion looks more in line with the excellence of Metal Gear HD Collection, and not that shitshow that the Silent Hill HD Collection ended up being. They also created a new anime opening for the HD collection with Sunrise, apparently they are some kind of great robot anime studio. Looks pretty good. You can check out the opening over here.
Metal Gear 25 year anniversary stuff was next. Some b-roll of the Smithsonian's The Art of Video Games Exhibition. Followed by Metal Gear Rising trailer. That game looks bananas. It appears to be sufficiently Japanese with its storytelling (at least based on the trailer) and should feel right at home with the MGS fans. It's being developed by Platinum Games (this is old news, I know), which is kind of perfect match. They pin the release on early 2013, so there's still some ways to go. Also, Mega64 is back for another Konami thing, nothing to say about that really. You should probably watch that part yourself.
Lastly, some Castlevania.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 CG trailer looks pretty boss, but doesn't really reveal anything about the game. If you haven't played LoS and its DLC yet, spoilers ahead, you have been warned. Gabriel is tearing shit up as the "new Dracula", takes a drink from a soldier, turns into a smoke bat and takes on some kind of big-ass golem, and then is faced with some white haired swordsman whose face we don't see. The game is probably more of that style of gameplay they had in LoS. Though, assuming Gabriel is now the bad guy, and the white haired dude is the protagonist, sword play instead of whip play. So Devil May Cry instead of God of War.
And then there's also a small teaser for a 3DS Castlevania game, which shows even less than the LoS2 trailer.
And that was that. You know, briefly thinking back to last year, they had a Contra teaser at the end of that. I wonder if anything came out of it. Maybe the Hard Corps: Uprising was that game. Hard to say. Anyways, I'm definitely excited to see more of LoS2 at least, if nothing else.
on June 01st 2012 at 1:22pm
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You should check out this great video and interview series on the music of Mass Effect
Daniel Bloodworth put together this great video and text interview series over at GameTrailers about the music of Mass Effect series. Anyone with some interest towards game music should definitely check it out. It has bits and bobs from almost all of the composers that have been involved with the series so far.
It might also contain some slight spoilers for the series, obviously, but I don't think they delve too deep into any specific moment in any of the games that you should be worried. Assuming you are worried about spoilers to begin with. Maybe that's just me in my very special little world.
And you know what's maybe the best part about the series? We now know that Uncharted Worlds is also Jack Wall's favorite piece from all the music in Mass Effect series. I feel closer to him already. It's almost like we are best friends now.
on April 21st 2012 at 7:12pm
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Steam Holiday Sales 2011 are a go!
Hey hi!
Steam Holiday Sale started today.
It's the usual deal of bunch of games on sale for 24 hours, and then the games switch and the new set is on sale for 24 hours, and so on and so forth. These things last till the 1st of January, so prepare to say goodbye to all that money you probably saved just for this reason.
And to top that off there's of course varying publisher catalogs and pack deals that are on sale during this whole thing as well. So yeah, that's a lot of stuff on sale.
Additionally, there's The Great Gift Pile. How that works is basically like this, a lot of games got holiday updates and achievements, if you earn that achievement, you'll either get a gift or a lump of coal. Gifts seem to either be games, or some kind of coupons. With lump of coal, you can either save up and trade 7 lumps into a proper gift, or save them up and enter into the Epic Holiday Giveaway. The Grand Prize of that is EVERY SINGLE GAME ON STEAM. There's more info about that in the link few lines above this one. Go check it.
This all comes with a price though. Right now, the Steam servers are crawling. You'd think that their past sales would have taught them something, prepared them for this, but nope. It's always the same. It's probably going to take a few hours at least until the service becomes more reliable again.
Personally, I was eying that Pendulo Studios Adventure Pack a bit, that's pretty cheap. But I've played through 3 of those games already, so maybe I'll just pick the Next Big Thing on its own.
on December 19th 2011 at 2:37pm
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Electronic Arts Press Event at E3 2011
Next up, Electronic Arts.
They start the show with Mass Effect 3, awesome. Also, no mention of the dumb Kinect support, also awesome. Live gameplay, cover based shooting, some melee, looks like Mass Effect for sure. Shepard is sabotaging a Reaper base, which turns out to be an actual Reaper after they try to blow it to hell with a called in aerial bombing run. Followed by a on rails turret sequence. Closing with a release date, March 6, 2012. Neat date, 3.6.12.
Next up is some Need for Speed: The Run, developed by EA's BlackBox studio. The driving seems fast and fine I guess, but there's also sequences that are not in car, and appear to be completely scripted quick-time-events. Not really too exciting.
Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO next, Bioware doctor talks about it on stage, and then they show yet another CGI trailer. Bunch of EA Sports stuff next.
SSX, a snowboarding game makes a return, Peter Moore talks on stage about how they used NASA's satellite imagery to recreate the real world locations in the game. That's pretty impressive, but I'm not going to play that game. Also, new FIFA and a new Madden is talked about, but I tuned out on those. It's football and American football, what more do you really need to know, right? I did however tune quickly back in during the Madden thing when they started playing the Inception Trailer Music (Mind Heist by Jack Hemsey), it was weird. Like really weird. And then some social gaming with Sims Social for Facebook. Sims on Facebook. Great.
Kingdoms of Amalur: The Reckoning, dude speaks about Reckoning on the stage. Shows some video, seems like this might be a pretty neat RPG.
Insomniac, formerly a PS3 only developer, takes the stage to introduce their new multi-platform game called OverStrike. I don't know about that name, to be honest. The CGI trailer makes it seem like some kind of team based game with nice characters.
And finally, Battlefield 3. They start the demo by introducing the new Frostbyte 2 engine, which looks fucking awesome. After a quick multiplayer trailer, they start a pretty long live gameplay demo, a tank sequence in desert. So much dust in the desert. Looks so fine. Release date October 25th.
EA rocked.
on June 07th 2011 at 10:00am
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Microsoft Press Event at E3 2011
As you may or may not know, E3 is happening this year as well. Like, right now. You should know, because I just wrote a little pre-E3 thing about Konami.
Anyways, I've been watching all the live streams of various press events that happened on Monday, and here's a summary of what happened Micorsoft, who was the first. Why don't I just list all the things they talked about first? Yeah, sounds good right?
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Tomb Raider (reboot)
EA Sports
Mass Effect 3 with Kinect voice command support
Ghost Recon Future Soldier with Kinect support, plus all future Tom Clancy games would have Kinect support
New Xbox 360 dashboard that launches fall 2011 with support for Youtube, Bing, Live TV, also better Kinect support
UFC fights that you can watch on Xbox, or something like that
Cliffy B and Ice T on stage playing Gears of War 3
Kinect game from Crytek (makers of FarCry an Crysis) called Ryse. At least it's not called Cryse.
Halo Anniversary edition, a HD remastered Halo 1 basically
Forza 4, cars cars cars with Kinect support
Fable: The Journey for Kinect, on rails shooter by the looks it
Minecraft for Kinect
Disneyland Adventures for Kinect, some kind of minigame collection
Star Wars for Kinect
Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster for Kinect
Kinect Fun Labs, Microsoft's own Kinect developer environment thing
Kinect Sports Season 2
Dance Central 2 for Kinect
Halo 4, the start of a new trilogy
So that's the list. That's a lot of Kinect, which I couldn't give two shits about. Well, to be fair, a lot of the titles with Kinect support don't require it, so they could still be worth of my time. How about the other stuff then? Modern Warfare 3 looks pretty much like all modern Call of Duty titles have looked like. No surprises there at all. Mass Effect 3 with Kinect support... sure, the idea is neat I guess. But I'll talk about Mass Effect 3 more in the EA post. Same with Future Soldier, Kinect support seems okayish, but not really necessary, and I'll talk about the game more in Ubi post. Gears of War 3 looks like Gears of War, no surprises. It looks like they are upping the ante a lot, and the Unreal Engine looks better than ever. Halo Anniversary edition, well, I guess it's neat. I played through Halo way back when, and they are definitely doing a lot to this game to bring it up the HD, that's about all I can say about that. Also, Halo 4. Start of a new trilogy they say, starring Master Chief again. I guess 343 Industries had to do something. Not too excited about that.
From the games, I'm probably most interested in the Tomb Raider reboot. I like the way it looks for sure, and I'm very curious to find out more. They showed a brief cave gameplay section, but it's hard to say what the final game is going to be about, apparently it's open world jungle or something. I'm looking forward to finding out more. Still not digging the new voice actress though. I heard a rumor that it's Keira Knightley, but I honestly can't tell.
Other interesting thing is the new Dashboard that will launch in Fall 2011. Since the release of first big dash update, they have been bolting on more and more things to it, it has become this massive bloated thing and none of it really works intuitively. So it makes perfect sense that they would refresh it now. It also seems like they are trying to finish the Kinect support for dash that they started with the last update. They only showcased some of the Kinect voice command support and introduced more features like YouTube and Microsoft's own search engine Bing. And some kind of Live TV support, but that's going to be so region specific that I didn't really pay too much attention.
And I guess that's about the end of Microsoft's thing.
on June 07th 2011 at 9:06am
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Poll
How do you feel about vocal songs in the radio rotation?