Microsoft 2010 E3 Press Conference

Call of Duty: Black Ops

They opened up the conference with Call of Duty: Black Ops. Odd that they started with a third party title. The announcement of DLC first is interesting, but I'm not sure how much it will help attract gamers to the platform. It didn't seem to help all that much with the Grand Theft Auto franchise, and they payed quite a bit for that exclusive window. Time will tell.

Metal Gear Solid: Rising

Next up is Metal Gear Solid: Rising. When I first seen this, I thought "Sweet! This will be a really good exclusive!" but come to find out, it's also on PlayStation 3. Again, odd that they show a third party title if it's not exclusive. The swordplay does look cool. And is that Gordon Freeman from Half-Life that he's slicing up?

From here on it's stated that all titles shown will be exclusive to Xbox 360.

Gears of War 3

Now to get things in gear! Cool four player coop. It's looking good! New being able to play as a female, again cool. Interesting plant like creatures reminding me of "Feed me, Seymour!" ;P With a new enemy being enemies to everyone, I wonder how many "Mexican Standoff" moments there will be? I've always found such moments in games to be a lot of fun, especially if the enemies truly will attack you as often as they attack the other enemies. Uh oh! A worm-like Lambent spits out out a large monstrosity. It's...it's...

Rosie O'Donnell!!!

Firing at it but not doing much damage, they run away and try to nuke it from orbit (the only way to be sure now!). Hiding behind massive doors in a base, they wonder "Did we fry that 'female dog'?" Massive pounding on the door soon answers that question. Rosie...erm, the creature...leaps on top of the wall, then in the base as the camera goes black. Are they doomed? We shall see!

On a side note, the creature does also greatly resemble D'Compose from the Inhumanoids cartoon from the '80's. Interesting, no?

Fable III

Peter Molyneux talks of the setting and storyline of Fable III. Announcing it will release on October 26th, he shows a video. It does look interesting. I had wished he'd show some of Kinect's (formerly Project Natal) controls for it, but that will have to be shown at some future date.

Codename Kingdoms

A live action trailer for this Crytek game has me curious. Showing several different warriors, it makes me wonder what type of game it's going to be. My guess is a third person action game, but maybe perhaps a strategy title, hmm? I think that'd be cool. But time will tell.

Halo: Reach

They show some campaign footage. Yes! I was hoping to see some campaign info. And it sounds like the Spartan that's we're watching is female. They did mention that you'll be able to customize your Spartan and have it carry across all modes. And space combat! That does look really cool. It's a campaign only feature which some might balk at. I think it's a good idea, as gives players incentive to play the campaign whom might otherwise just be interested in the multiplayer.

Kinect Zune Controls

They talk about Kinect and how it will enhance your Xbox experience. Using ones hand, they can sign in and manipulate the dashboard. They further mention you can even use your voice to control your Xbox. They show controlling Zune movies and music. Hopefully you'll be able to control any and all videos and music that are on your system or accessible through Media Center. Interesting, although I think most Xbox users have better tastes than to have Justin Beiber on their Xbox. ;)

VideoKinect

They demo video chat using Kinect. They show being able to watch videos together, in this case the trailer for "The Last Airbender". As an aside, they also mention "Avatar: The Last Airbender" game and people using it just to boost their Gamerscore as one could get 1000 points in just a few minutes time. I thought that was really funny how they put that in there. I can say I've not done so. Like the girl demoing the VideoKinect states, my Gamerscore is legit. but there are quite a few who have. I do think it's cool that you can watch stuff together. Hopefully you can make the movie fullscreen. They also show the tracking of the user by Kinect. You can also talk to anyone on the Microsoft Live Network. Video chat anyone in the world for the price of a year of Live? Yea, pretty neat.

Another aside, I did notice Bing on the bottom. Are they finally going to add a browser to the Dashboard? Let's hope!

ESPN Sports

I'm not much of a sports fan, but I can see how this would draw a lot of people in. Encompassing over 3500 events, it does seem quite a lot. They do fail to mention NFL coverage, and that's a huge draw (at least in the United States) for many. I'm not sure how that will play out. They demo some Kinect compatibility with ESPN such as replay and choosing sides on a team. I will say that it does seem that these guys are more excited and have more energy and fun in their presentation than anyone else during the entirety of the press conference. It seems to put the mood of the whole Microsoft Press Conference in perspective.

Kinectimals

One of the launch titles, a little girl demos Kinectimals, playing with a tiger cub. This game does look excruciatingly cute. :) I can see it doing well with kids as well as fans of such games as Nintendogs and the Petz series of games. It will have 40 different animals. From the screenshots given it looks to be mostly wild animals. Curious if they'll have domesticated animals as well.

Kinect Sports

Showing hundreds of avatars in an audience, the presenter gets 'em all cheering and such. They soon demo, eventually, hurdles. It does look like it has a bit of lag however. After the race, the people demoing the game walk off and the presenter starts clapping while the audience has little reaction. I just get the feeling that the audience isn't really into it so far. It just seems like and that Microsoft is trying really hard to rally the audience but failing miserably. Kinect Sports comes off to be a HD version of Wii Sports basically, albeit with more events.

Kinect Joy Ride

Originally Joyride was to be a game free for Gold members, but now looks like that is no longer the case. It is now a launch title for Kinect. It looks like a cross between Mario Kart and Cruisin' USA. I do wonder how long it'd take for ones arms to get tired holding them out like the lady demoing the game. It ends with the presenter clapping again and the audience seemingly less than thrilled.

Kinect Adventures

After commenting how the presenter looks like Lorenzo Lamas (and getting more response from the crowd than the presenter), the guy demoing the starts dodging and reaching out while riding on a platform on rails. Here the lag is really noticeable. Hopefully they're able to minimize that by the launch date. They also show a river rafting type of game. Two players are cooperating to jump and reach different objects. Working together they'll be able to reach more distant targets.

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved

This 'game' shows more of Kinect than anything they've shown during this press conference. Kinect scans the presenter, and gets her measurements and height. It is odd, that during the Ubisoft conference, it shows her as two inches shorter. In this one it shows her as 5'8", and during the Ubisoft event it shows her at 5'6". This minor difference does raise some doubt as to the accuracy of Kinect, but it also disproves a theory among some that this game was 'prerecorded' and the presenter just went through the motions making it look like it was real. If it was prerecorded, both shows would show her at the same height. So while it does raise some concerns about Kinect, it does prove this was a real demo.

Going back to the game, such as it is, I am curious why it doesn't 'skin' her avatar using the camera. It just shoes her as an orange figure. Again, the lag is pretty noticeable. I do see though, that this game could be really popular with those that intend to use Kinect for a workout. It also has combat training, and I could see people wanting to learn that. Even though it's an exercise game, it'd be neat if it could teach you judo or karate moves. Just to be clear, they don't show such training in the demo. I'm just thinking out loud here. :) And as one who's had to go to physical training for an injury, I could see a possible use of this game to help motivate one to work through the pain.

Dance Central

I'm not into dance games. However, a lot of people are. DDR and such games have done quite well. Heck, Just Dance has outperformed Call of Duty in Europe. So this game could do quite well. The presenter mentions that there will be a mix of **** like pop, hip hop, and r&b **** from artists such as No Doubt, the Beastie Boys, and Americas favorite hermaphrodite, Lady Gaga. Though that last artist makes many (including myself) want to shout "Noooooooo!!!" like Vader at the end of Episode III, having No Doubt and the Beastie Boys is a smart move. They mention having many choreographed moves, including some from the music videos the songs are from. That does sound cool. Just imagine, dancing to the "Safety Dance!" Bring on the Renfest and let's boogie! :P Or even Michael Jacksons moves, but...later on something shown puts doubts on whether or not you'd be able to dance such moves in this game. Another presenter comes on and starts dancing to the game. I feel sorry for the dude because you can tell he's going to be put in YouTube videos for the foreseeable future. :P I mean at times he looks like Michael Flatley dancing to the songs. The lag isn't as noticeable as in some of the other games, but it is still there.

Kinect Launch Details

They state that there will be fifteen titles at launch which is November 4th. Unfortunately, no details on price given. They do also show a Star Wars game, but it won't be available at launch. It looks cool enough, using the Force to move tanks and such. However, when using the lightsaber to slice into Stormtroopers, it looks more like you're knocking over cardboard cutouts than slicing into an enemy. Whether this is due to it being an early look at the game, or LucasArts tendency to show minimal gore remains to be seen. Nevertheless, a Star Wars game is what I think a lot of people have been hoping to see on Kinect/Natal.

Forza III

Next they show some driving of a Ferrari and an intimate look at one using connect. It says coming 2011, so how far into 2011 this will be patched into Forza III is unknown. Will it be an expansion? A patch? Time will tell.

360 Slim

The 360 Slim is finally unveiled. Everyone knew this was coming, so it was good to see it finally unveiled. A bit smaller than the current Xbox, it's a glossy black design reminiscent of Alienware computers. Looking like the design mainly caters to the standing upright, it is capable of laying horizontally. Sporting a 250 GB hard drive and integrated wireless networking (finally! And Wifi N to boot!), and coming in at $299.99, it definitely has some advantages over the Elite that it's replacing. The presenter states it's also whisper quiet, I have heard reports that this isn't the case. There are conflicting reports, so until I hear one spinning up a disc myself, I'm on the fence.

Closing Thoughts

Unfortunately due to size limitations, my thoughts must be mentioned in my next blog.

Until then, may the Schwartz be with you! :D

Mooplaid