E3 kicked off last night, with Microsoft's press conference, followed up by EA and Ubisoft. Here is all the noteworthy stuff that got shown by Microsoft.Pre-Conference - The Beatles: Rock BandGamespot didn't stream this, but Paul and Ringo were out on stage and Beatles: Rock Band apparently looks brilliant. And there'll be 360-exclusive DLC too, All You Need is Love.
Item One - Tony Hawk: Ride
Tony Hawk came out holding the final design of the skateboard peripheral; as Hawk said, "The best way to experience skateboarding is on a board". We then got a world exclusive look at Hawk and his pro skater friends playing the game in his house, before all of them spoke highly of the game. It looks like it could work really well, I'm definitely intrigued now.
Item Two - Modern Warfare 2
Got a good look at the gameplay of MW2, with plenty of helicopters, snowmobiles, explosions and kickass fighting. Yes, you do get to
drive a snowmobile. And shoot. At the same time. It looks very story driven and cinematic, and above all, beautiful. Oh, and it was set in an arctic-like setting, lots of snow and stuff. The gun that the player was using has a built-in motion detector, a nice touch, especially as it’s hard to see enemies through the snow. Oh, and there are two map packs launching first on Xbox Live. Cool. Oh, and by the way, it looks
amazing.Item Three – Final Fantasy XIIITwo of the cool dudes from Square Enix came out to give the first look at FF running on an Xbox 360, and man does it look good. I’ve never been a big FF fan, but XIII looks so good, I feel compelled to give it a try on release. There are now “four active time gauges” on screen at once (I have no idea what this means, but apparently it’s a good thing), and they summoned Odin. *censor*
Odin. Lots of frickin’ laser beams, and boss fight over. The demo ended there, and we got told of a Spring 2010 release.
Everything from herein is 360 exclusive content, no exceptions.Item Four – Xbox Live Arcade stuff from Epic and Big ParkCliffy B comes out to show a new arcade game, Shadow Complex, all about exploration punctuated by combat. You can pick up new weapons and abilities that allow you to unlock new areas, and throughout the game you go from being a regular guy to a killing machine. Oh, and you can encase guys in foam. It looks like Metroid meets Bionic Commando, really.
Next, we got a look at a new Avatar racing game from Big Park. It’s gonna be free to download, but extra content such as different cars and tracks will cost. This annoys the hell out of me, but it looks fun so I’ll give the free stuff a go. However, you can share race tracks with friends whether they’ve bought it or not, which is cool.
Item Five – Sequels Ahoy!The Big Park dudes leave, the lights go out, and a familiar sound is heard. Could it be… the hum of collect orbs? An even more familiar collect sound rings out, and a trailer begins. There are hints throughout as to what it could be, but it isn’t announced until the end of the trailer.
Crackdown 2 is coming. And man does it look sweet. It looks like this time, though, it’s gonna be more of a challenge. No bad thing.
Then, straight after the Crackdown 2 reveal, a second trailer started. Suddenly, everyone’s looking at New Orleans with zombies, there’s a bit of fighting, and Left 4 Dead 2 is revealed, with a November 17 release date.
Item Six – Ubisoft bring the punch.Left 4 Dead was followed by a Splinter Cell: Conviction gameplay display. It’s the first free-roaming Splinter Cell, and the objectives will be displayed on parts of the environment as you walk around. Lots of interrogation, including smashing a guy’s head on a urinal, and grinding another dude’s face along a piano. Lots of new tech, including EMP grenades, and it all looks very artistic. A Fall ’09 release is teased.
Item Seven – Track Racing Games, Why Aren’t I Bored to Death?Tim Schappert comes out to talk about Forza 3, which, despite being one of my least favourite genres, track racing (PGR4 cut me deep), looks pretty cool. You can apparently create and upload hi-def video, which is pretty cool, and it
really looks really realistic.
Really. Item Eight – The Inevitable Halo SegmentWe got an extended look at Halo: ODST, including combat which is pretty sweet. The Spartan Laser returns for this, it seems. You play the rookie, separated from his team in New Mombasa, weeks before the start of Halo 3. ODST have access to special gear including two new sound suppressed
weapons and a visor with a low light vision mode, which is nice. There is a cleaner HUD than Halo 3, and there is a new pistol. Much of the story is told in flashbacks that you access throughout the game. As long as they can integrate it right, it’ll be good. Coming September 22.
But wait, that’s not all from Halo yet. Yes, there is a new Halo game coming next year. Halo: Reach. It’s based on the book, Fall of Reach, I believe, and is set before the first Halo. The trailer shows a bunch of explosions from Earth, as seen from space. Oh, and when you buy ODST, you get an invite to the Reach multiplayer beta. So that means that this is indeed a separate
game. Halo 4, no… Halo 0, more like it.
Item Nine – Where the hell have you been?!After all the Halo fun, we finally get some Alan Wake gameplay footage, after the game going underground for so long. It’s about time too. It looks to be set mostly at night, and Wake can apparently use his flashlight to disintegrate enemies. And by the way, the logo is blatantly stolen from Dead Rising. It would seem like he’s getting attacked by shadow people that he fends off with his trusty torch and handy shotgun. Overall,
it looks really good. I’m excited.
Item Ten – Xbox Live InnovationsThat’s it for the 360 exclusives, now onto Xbox Live improvements and innovations. First up: the 360 gets Last.fm, free for all Gold users. Pretty cool, if you ask me. Secondly, you can now use Netflix directlyfrom your 360, and FINALLY some Europe love, in that 360 owners in the EU can access Sky from their little albino turd, allowing us to get live TV from our 360s with no extra hardware.
Onto the Video Marketplace, and it seems it is getting renamed Zune Video as of this fall, and going fully 1080p. If anyone wants to explain this to me, go ahead. Then, who should come out but star of the Guild, Felicia Day!
*crickets*
Anyway, the reason she is out is to show off the new Facebook and Twitter features for Xbox 360, which I must admit, look awesome. As a Last.fm, Facebook and Twitter using 360 owner from the EU, I really feel I’ve won big here. Oh, and Facebook 360 will be able to support Tiger Woods games. Yay?
Item Eleven – Haha! *bleep* YOU SONY!So, as Tim Schappert, starts to talk about how the 360 is pretty much complete, and with just one missing piece of the puzzle, a certain Japanese guy pops out of nowhere, and taps him on the back. The Metal Gear Solid “A GUARD HAS NOTICED YOU!” sound blares out.
Yes, it’s happened.
Metal Gear Solid is on 360. No Solid Snake, though, this game is all about Raiden, it seems. We aren’t getting any of the old MGS games re-released either, just this new one, Metal Gear Solid: Rising. A prequel, apparently, and a completely new MGS experience. The Xbox 360 might have just won.
Item Eleven: Haha! *bleep* YOU NINTENDO!The legend that is Don Mattrick comes out, and says that with MGS on 360, they can finally say their platform is complete. He talks about Xbox history, before asking the question, why do you need a controller for motion?
Yes, the 360 has got amotion controller, named Project Natal. However, it’s more than the Wii’s innovative design. Imagine the Wii motion sensor plus about, twenty years of technology. There is no Wiimote-like device, just the camera. Every single movement you make infront of it is reproduced in game. It shows of the device working with fighting, driving, football and quiz games. Not only is it motion sensitive, but it is also voice sensitive. It can recognise a single person’s voice, and the best example of its power is shown by a kid holding up a skateboard, saying “scan”, and hey presto, the skateboard is reproduced perfectly and instantly in-game. He plays it just by standing on the ground, though.
The sensor will have facial recognition, and just by standing in front of it, the console will know who you are. There is a 1 Vs. 100 clip, and a Minority Report-like scrolling through the dashboard just by moving one’s hands. Spielberg comes out to endorse it (hints towards a possible 360 Boom Blox game?) before a 3D-Breakout game is shown. Not Boom Blox, though.
You can’t help but notice that the woman playing the 3D breakout game looks insanely silly. Still, full body mo-cap with no suits or controllers, pretty badass.
There was then a display of a game called “Paint Party”, where you use the motion sensor to paint images. Then, the big one for this. A boy called Milo, who you talk to through the camera. He can recognise your emotions through your speech, and conduct really in-depth conversations with
the user. Hopefully there’ll be a molest option
Really though, all this camera stuff looks far too advanced to be true. Peter Molyneux was showing it, but I’m praying this is real, not Peter Molyneux real.
And thus endeth the Microsoft conference. If you ask me, it was absolutely huge, and I can’t wait for the Nintendo and Sony ones tonight. This was brought to you by the guy who was bored enough to put up the Dollar and the Gun review, and would be very surprised if you read all this. If you did though, I *censor* love you. 
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Subject: E3 Part One: Microsoft Kills Nintendo and more. 
Tue Jun 02, 2009 5:48 am
