Another x06 has come to and end. And it was a mighty impressive show for anyone intrested in the future of the Xbox 360. ALOT of nice games were shown and I will do just as i did with TGS and recap the games and pick out my personal favorites. My big favorites tho were really Peter Moore and Cliffy B for being such awesome people when speaking to a crowd. They really know how to sell a product and how to put in just the right amount of humor and personal interest into their speeches. Anyways, here´s the x06 highlights for me.
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Best Trailer: Bioshock (release 2007..)
A VERY engaging and emotianally upsetting trailer. A 50´s speakervoice explains for you the background while the camera dives to the bottom of the ocean to show the city that went horribly wrong. Rapture! The scenes after that were wonderfully disturbing. Showing everything from a first person view but all prerendered. Its all very strong and well done showing off the small girls and their Big daddies and the drug thats causing everyone to go crazy but gain powers. The video looks and sounds fantastic, the overall polish of the trailer is higher than anything else on the show and it sets the mood for the game extremely well with such a small scene. Dont miss it!
Best Gameplay: Gears of War (release Nov. 17th EU)
Epic and Cliffy B showed of quite alot of gameplay for GoW this x06 and it was pure jawdropping awesome. I saw a total of 4 different ingame videos with people from Epic playing the game and Cliffy talking about it (as well as showing of the controls in a specific video). It seems like the actiongame Ive been waiting for all my life. Its raw, its powerful, its cool as heck and its pure and full of lead! The gameplay seems to be JUST the way i hoped it would be together with some incredibly smooth controls as seen in the Cliffy controls showoff. Epic didnt hold back. They showed off cutscenes, alot of gameplay and multiplayer and I have been enjoying it all through videos and articles. I really cant wait until the release. This is already Game Of The Year, give it to me now.
Best Graphics: Gears of War (release Nov 17th EU)
To be honest. GoW didnt have as much distance to some other titles as on TGS (were they really only were there with a trailer on the MS conference). The graphical power of some of the other titles at x06 actually came pretty close to the graphical insanity that is Gears. Alan Wake for starters looked AWESOME. That games graphics really blew my mind. Assassins Creed have the potantial to look mindblowing when its all done as well as Blue Dragon, Mass Effect and Lost Planet. Lost Oddysey is also up there and almost poking at Gears but all said and done it IS Gears of War that IS the best looking game that will be release on ANY console for a great while to come. The new Unrealangine is nothing short of fantastic. x06 also showed that any framrateissues that Gears might have had as now resolved. Of course. I would expect nothing less than perfection from Cliffy, and perfection it will be.
Biggest Nice Suprise: Doom on Live Arcade (Out now)
Doom on XBLA! That was for sure the biggest and best suprise for me at the show. I love this game. Everyone should be greatful to it and its creators for making actiongaming what it is today. Im going to copy and paste a part of my previous Blogpost concerning Doom on Live Arcade: " When i got home from work this morning i instantly downloaded the game to try out Act 1 and I can tell you this is one GOOD version of Doom. Maybe the best. First off it runs perfecly and looks perfect. The graphics are intact but the square can be upsized a bit. I do however miss a widescreenmode. I dont know how well Doom would look in Widescreen tho but it would be a cool option, like in Street Fighter 2 HF. The sound has been converted into 5.1 and it sounds great. I can safely say i jumped out of my seat a bit when a pinkydemon jumped me from behind for the first time a couple of levels into the game"
Biggest Ugly Surprise: Sonic The Hedgehog (release nov 14th)
I tried out the demo and Wow this game stinks. I actually had pretty high hopes for the new Sonic. I actually thought that it would work in 3D and that it would be a nice and extremely fast experience. Instead I got poor controls and leveldesign made for a 2D game. The camera was awful and if the controls didnt make you run right into the abyss, the camera and leveldesign closed the deal for ya. You have to run slowly to see where you are supposed to go and when you think you know where to run it only results in you, off a cliff. The graphics also seemed toned down and downright ugly in some places. Some other people also talked of alof of bugs with Sonic getting stuck and things like that. Sonic dosent work in 3D, it never has and never will in my opinion. I rather go another round through Sonic Rush on my Nin DS. THATS a good Sonic game!
One game I will buy for sure: Gears of War (release nov 17th EU)
Actually I have already preordered the game. Actually everyone who owns a 360 should do so now. Those not owning a 360 yet should buy one and then order a copy of Gears of War NOW! This is probably going to be one of the most memorable actionexperiences I have ever played through with the best graphics Ive ever witnessed in a game and with the coolest and most smooth shootergameplay for years. Anyone not owning a 360 and / or considering not ordering a copy of GoW will miss the gamingexperience of the year. I pity them, I pity them all, the poor fools who cant or wont play this masterpiece. I will buy GoW, i will play through the campaign solo and co-op and I will roam the online servers for months. If the game dosent arrive in my mailbox on the day of the EU release I will knock myself unconcious with a hammer for another day. There were more games on the show that I will buy for sure ofcourse. Lost Planet, Alan Wake, DoA xtreme 2, Blue Dragon, Lost Oddysey and Assassins Creed just to name a few. But all of those can wait because first, its GEARS OF WAAAAAR!
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I have to finish this off by expressing my joy for reading that Zeschuck, Jackson and Molyneux are working together on something awesome. Everything involving Peter Molyneux is extremely interesting and seeing Jackson and Zeschuck working with him just have to turn out to something mindblowing. And of course Fable 2 will turn out to be sweet! x06 was a great show with alot of intresting stuff. I was pretty much very interested by most of the games on the floor there so to pick some of them out like this isnt completely fair. I will enjoy playing through Viva Piñata as well as Kane & Lynch and Stranglehold.I also have to underline how much Im looking forward to Mass Effect. 2007 looks to be a great year for xbox 360 owners. No, not just great, an AWESOME year!
Closing regards to Peter Moore for being a great spokesman for Microsoft!