For those of you who didn't catch Microsoft's big E3 press conference earlier this morning, I've taken a few notes on what was shown. Most of it you've probably heard rumblings about via leaks and rumor sites, but there's a few really interesting bits. So grab yourself a coffee, sit back and enjoy:
The Beatles: Rock Band (VIDEO courtesy of GameTrailers)
They show a short gameplay trailerPaul McCartney and Ringo Starr hop on stage to talk about it a little. Joking around..talking about the game and how excited they are.Tony Hawk: Ride (VIDEO courtesy 2313 of GameTrailers)
Gameplay Trailer with Tony Hawk on stage showing the board peripheral. Short clip of real skaters giving their fist impressions of the game and talking about how it will change gaming.Modern Warfare 2 (VIDEO courtesy of GameTrailers)
Infinity Ward take to the stage to demo MW2 live! The demo starts with you scaling a snowy mountain side. You use hooks to make your way up, with your partner climbing above you. A plane swoops by and almost knock him off the side. Very cinematic. Once you're at the top, you pull out a weapon with a small screen attached to the side of it detecting what I assume it other people...which is very useful because you're in the middle of a blizzard and cant see very far. You plant a bomb on a fuel station and all hell breaks loose. Huge firefight ensues, with a bunch of enemies rushing you. You proceed to hop on a snowmobile to get away, but the bad guys continue to chase you...their missed show even seem to knock down trees! And the demo ends.They announce that 2 map packs for MW2 will be available "first on Xbox LIVE"Final Fantasy XIII
They give a very short live demo running on Xbox 360 hardware. The demo includes english dialog, so that gives us an idea of how far along they are translating the title. The demo features a battle with a "megaboss". Square notes that the battle scene is slightly different from what they've revealed in the past. There are now four active time gauges shown. More available slots allow for more powerful skill/spell combos. The demo ends with the summoning "Oden" to help you take down the boss. Demo end. Pretty cool stuff!They are targeting a Spring 2010 release.Epic Games and Chair Entertainment Announce "Shadow Complex" (VIDEO courtesy of GameTrailers)
It's a sidescolling shooter with over 10 hours of gameplay and a ton of replayability.Massive boss battles.Over 120 hidden items.Coming to Xbox Live Arcade this Summer.Joy Ride (VIDEO courtesy of GameTrailers)
A cartoony racing title that works with your Avatars.Can "trick out" your ride and share any race track you've purchased with your friend, regardless if they've bought it or not.Free to download and play. Out in this Winter.Crackdown 2 (VIDEO courtesy of GameTrailers)
A short CG trailer of Crackdown 2 is shown, officially revealing the title.The end of the trailer shows the Ruffian logo..so I take it Realtime Worlds isn't working on it.Left 4 Dead 2 (VIDEO courtesy of GameTrailers)
A short CG trailer reveals Left 4 Dead 2!Looks like a new cast of characters.Coming November 17th for the PC and Xbox 360.Splinter Cell: Conviction
A CG trailer is shown. (VIDEO courtesy of GameTrailers)Devs walk on stage to give a live demo. It starts out in a bathroom with a clean-cut Sam Fisher attacking a guy with some BRUTAL melee moves, asking about his daughter. The name "Kobin" is dropped. Apparently he's the guy who was driving the car that hit his daughter. Very cinematic looking with objectives/narrative projected onto the in-game environments. A new mark and execute ability is briefly shown, allowing you to target guys in advance. The sandbox environments allow for many ways of approaching an objective. A new EMP grenade is shown. Tons of stealth and non-stealth moments shown. Looks amazing! (VIDEO courtesy of GameTrailers)Coming out this Fall on the Xbox 360. They don't mention the PC version...hopefully it's still coming...Forza 3
A short teaser trailer is shown. (VIDEO courtesy of GameTrailers)Devs come on stage to give a live demo. You get a cockpit view of him racing, smashing into cars and eventually flipping his vehicle..which ended the demo. lolThe game is being build on an all-new engine running at 60 frames per second.Over 400 cars from 50 different manufacturers."1 Button driving and gameplay rewind" revealed.Heavy focus on player created content including the ability to paint your cars and create your own video clips, which you can share video Xbox LIVE.Coming out this October.Halo 3: ODST (VIDEO courtesy of GameTrailers)
Wasting no time, they hop right into the live demo. It starts out with you in a pod being dropped into the battlefield. A big explosion occurs and you're separated from your team. Once he lands, he starts walking through the ruined city of New Mombasa. A sound suppressed weapon is revealed, along with a visor with a low light vision mode that helps you see better and locate important stuff in the world. The developer briefly shows a pistol for "fans of the Halo 1 pistol". In an interesting twist, there will be flashbacks in the game, where you can go back in time to fight from another character POV, piecing together clues to find out the "mysteries of new mumbossa". In the demo'd flashback, you have to blow up a bridge with enemies swarming you from all directions. And that's how it ends.A "Firefight" co-op mode is mentioned.Coming out September 22nd.Halo Reach Announced (VIDEO courtesy of GameTrailers)
No details are given really.If you buy Halo 3: ODST, you'll be invited to the Reach multiplayer beta."Falls 2010"Alan Wake (VIDEO courtesy of GameTrailers)
The Remedy guys take to the stage to give a live demo. Starts out with a brief look back at what we've seen in the past and cut to new stuff. The level takes place at night, so Alan breaks out a flashlight. He's going to meet a guy named Rusty, who's holding some pages that you're looking for. Some weird supernatural stuff going on, like objects from world start floating and then fly at you. "Use the light" is written on a wall, which seems like a gameplay hint. A bunch of people lurking in the dark start attacking you for some unknown reason. It seems like there's some kind of charge when you aim your flashlight at them then shoot. Wonder what that's about. Some slow-mo kills are shown, which should make Max Payne fans smirk. Alan pulls out some flares, which seem to scare enemies away/stun them. Ends with a cinematic scenes. Very hot stuff!Coming in Spring 2010.Xbox Live Announcements
Xbox LIVE is bringing music to your living room via a partnership with Last.fm. It will be available later this year to gold members at no addition charge.Netflix is getting a much-wanted upgrade, allowing you to order your movies right on the XBL. So you don't have to go to PC anymore. Just hit play!A partnership with Sky TV is announced. Available in the UK and Ireland this fall. Allows you to watch live tv, including test cricket and Premier League Football.Microsoft is relaunching their XBL video service this Fall, calling it "Zune Video". Their video library will now be full 1080P, with movies and shows being shown instantly. No discs or downloads. They are also expanding the service from 8 to 18 countries.They remind us of live party, which allows you to watch movies/shows with friends. Not much else is said.A partnership with Facebook is announced. Felica from "The guild" hops on stage to talk about it. Shows off the friend linker. Can see your xbox live and facebook friend profiles and invit 216c e them to either service from there. She moves on to show the photo album viewer and status updates. She then reveals "Facebook Connect", which allows you to share your gaming moments with your friends via video/photos. This feature will work with a future version of Tiger Woods PGA Tour. Facebook on XBL is coming this Fall.More community love is announced via a partnership with Twitter. Works as you'd expect. Hitting XBL this Fall. (VIDEO courtesy of GameTrailers)Metal Gear Solid on 360! (VIDEO courtesy of GameTrailers)
It's finally happened! Hideo Kojima took to the stage to announce that the next MGS...Metal Gear Solid: Rising coming to the Xbox 360.A short teaser trailer is shown. Logo says "lightning bolt action" and an image of Raiden is shown.It's a completely new MGS experience, but no other details are given.Project Natal Announced
As rumored, this is the full body motion capturing camera. It allows you to play games and navigate the Xbox dashboard with body motions and facial/voice recognition. Works with all past, present and future Xbox 360's. (VIDEO courtesy of GameTrailers)Will work with 1v100.Steven Spielberg hops on stage to praise the camera.With the dashboard, the camera will recognize your face an log in automatically. Your avatar will mimic your movements and you can navigate the menus by simply swiping your hand.A tech demo is shown called Ricochet. A girl on the stage shows how it works, hitting a bunch of balls with her feet/hands/head to break stuff. There's no limit your movements either. Pretty neat...and the developer even makes a crack about the Wii mote. ;) (VIDEO courtesy of GameTrailers)Another tech demo is shown called Paint Party. Basically you paint a picture using body motion and voice recognition. Like you can say "blue" then tosses the paint on a blank canvas usuing your hands. Didn't seem like you could do anything too detailed, but it was still neat.Lionhead's Peter Molyneux finishes things off with a trailer showing "Milo", a charater that you can interactive with via the cam using voice/facial recognition and full body motion. Milo seems to recognize emotion in your voice/face as he talks with you. They show it live, but apparently it will be demo'd behind closed doors at e3. Crazy stuff! (VIDEO courtesy of GameTrailers)I'll add videos as the pop up. So stay tuned! :D
