So E3 is finally here. The next few blog posts will all be about the press conferences of the show floor. Microsoft, EA and Ubisoft are all today, with Nintendo, Sony, and Konami being tomorrow. I had only planned on discussing Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony, but if I have enough reason to, I’ll discuss EA, Ubisoft and Konami as well. Also I’m going to go ahead and apologize, but these are going to be very long posts. But this is E3, so there’s a lot to cover in a press conference, so if you’re interested please read on and bare with me.
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Microsoft’s press conference opens with Call of Duty: Black Ops. Boring, boring, don’t care. I’m sure the shooter fans will love it. But I’ve seen enough helicopter crashes, wars in third-world countries, and fiery explosions to not be impressed. Crossbows are nice, and tunnel-crawling sequence was interesting enough, and the jungle environment is more interesting than the apocalypitc city ruins I'm used to (though hardly original). If it were any other point of the show, I wouldn’t mind the demo, but starting off E3 with another demo of another shooter that only somewhat stands out from the rest is a pretty dull opening if you ask me. Actually, as far as this demo is concerned, it’s more cinematic than anything. Which theoretically is good. But ultimately, a trailer is used for cinematics, and gameplay is used for gameplay. I know that he’s playing, but there’s so many scripted events that it feels like I’m just watching a first person helicopter sequence. To be fair, the footage shown off for this game wasn't bad. I just think it made for a pretty boring opening for the show.
Don Mattrick came out next, who appears to be Microsoft’s new representative as he made multiple appearances throughout the show. He was talking about Black Ops again, and how even though it’s available for more than one platform, it’s still best on Xbox because the map packs come out a little earlier. Then he mentioned their biggest blockbusters: Shooter 1, Shooter 2, and Shooter 3 and how successful they are. Then he talked a little about Project Natal, which is now called Kinect. Hideo Kojima then came out to talk about Metal Gear. Let me just say that I’m glad he tried to learn some English though. Even though he still has a very thick accent, it just shows that they care that much more to try and learn enough of the language to talk to us, instead of just hiring a translator. He introduced Metal Gear Solid: Rising, and handed the mic over to Shigenobu Matsuyama. Now here’s where things started to finally get interesting. A trailer for the new MGS was shown. That’s right, a trailer, something that is specifically designed to get people hyped. Which is something they’ve obviously done well because I don’t play Metal Gear Solid, yet Raiden, everyone’s favorite streaker, looks pretty badass in this trailer, even when sword slicing watermelons.
Phil Spencer was the next speaker to come out. Xbox has great shooters, we get it. Halo, halo, halo. Gears, gears, gears. Then he blatantly lied about how every single game shown today is only available on Xbox. Which isn’t true, because their first two titles are both going to be available for PS3. Cliffy B then came out to show off Gears of War 3, using Tina Wood and two guys I don’t care about to show off gameplay footage. I haven’t played Gears of War, but I hear it's manlier than God of War, and Marcus Fenix is the most brutally forceful character in gaming since Custer's Revenge. Somehow, although it displays just about every shooter stereotype on the market today, it still separates itself visually from the rest, so I guess I’ll have to give it a shot at some point. Cliffy B ended with the name of a new mode, beast mode I believe it was, but didn’t bother to explain what it was.
Peter Molyneux came out next with information on Fable 3. So what’s new this time with a game that’s based on being able to do “anything”. The trailer showed off somewhat of a different look to Fable this time around. It seems pirate ships will be available in this installment. Oh, and Molyneux snuck away during the trailer. Now Spencer’s back, so I guess we don’t get to know what’s new about Fable 3. Spencer proceeded to introduce a new partnership between Microsoft and Crytek with a new game codenamed Kingdoms, featuring what looked like Roman Soldiers. Nothing more than a teaser though. So I’m not excited about it at all.
Oh god, here comes Halo. But a new chapter of this so-called “amazing” story is about to unfold. Brag, boast, undeserved success, ok world premier. Here we go. Halo Reach has a new trailer (at least it’s a trailer). Space, stars, asteroids, space suits, covenant, rocks, falling meteors, shooting, shooting, shooting. You know, I thought this was a trailer, but it’s actually just pre-recorded gameplay. And it doesn’t really look that different from past titles. Oh, a woman spoke. But now she’s done. That’ll teach her. Men’s game, men’s game, men’s game. Ok, some cinematics appeared towards the end. Oh, my mistake, it was just a transition into more gameplay.
Mark Whitten was next. Brag, boast, recount of years past, broken mic. Now, they’re finally talking about Kinect. Now the show can get started. The speaker for Kinect showed of that waving at the camera will sign you in. Waving again takes you to a connect hub, featuring your games, Netflix, facebook, etc. You can use your voice to access the different features. “Xbox. Zune” takes you to your music for example. You can use your hand to select the menu buttons as well, and then to cycle through movies. “Xbox. Pause” Pauses the movie. “Xbox. Play.” Starts it up again. This is all cool and all, but pre-empting every command with the word “Xbox” I feel is going to get old quickly. But I guess that’s the only way to differentiate commands from idle chitchat.
Xbox Live will be following you around on your phone now. Friends, Achievements etc, on the go. Why? Not sure, but you can. Back to Kinect, now we’re demonstrating VideoKinect. This is basically using Kinect as a webcam. Something really cool about this is that you can watch a movie together with whoever video-chatting with. Kinect also will follow you if you are moving around. That’s pretty nifty. I can dig it. On a real note though, I really want to slap these twin sisters that were showing off the video chat. If you’re going to use scripted dialogue for the press conference, they should at least hire someone who’s good at delivering it.
More partners. Now ESPN is going to be available on Xbox. Football, baseball, basketball, etc. will now be available to watch in your living room, you know, because that capability didn’t exist before. 3500 live and on-demand events will be available on Xbox3SPN. How is this different from cable? You can “root” for a specific team, and essentially see how many people are on your side. Real time, polls, trivia, things of that nature. Though you can look up stats and records while you’re still watching the game. If I were into sports, I’d probably find that useful. Other than that, it looks pretty similar to TiVO, rewind, replay, all that technology we’ve seen for many years already.
Kudo Tsunoda was next. He’s here to demo six Kinect titles that will be available for play this holiday season. First was Kinectimals, which had a cute little girl interacting with virtual tiger Milo-style. She taught him tricks. But she had to do the tricks herself in order to make him do them. That doesn’t really make sense, but then she played hide-and-seek with him, and that was kinda cute. The interaction was neat, but her reactions were scripted so I don’t feel I’d get that real experience. Kinectimals will have forty exotic animals to play with.
Kinect Sports was next. The man playing it started off by just interacting with the audience, making them stand up, do the wave, and set off fireworks. Beh. Now the real stuff comes, they’re doing a hurdle jumping relay. After a quick freeze-up, the man, now joined be a woman, was running in a place and jumping in the air to avoid hurdles. Kinect Sports is going to have multiple track & field sports to take place in, including soccer, bowling, javelin, table tennis, boxing, and volleyball. Looks to be a more advanced version of Wii Sports.
Kinect Joy Ride, a kart racing game was their next title. I feel the same way about this as their Natal launch trailer racing title. I just can’t picture faking a wheel, and yelling “drift” to make it drift being any fun. The girl playing it literally said “boost!”, “360!”, and “flip!” to make it do tricks. It will apparently have five different gameplay modes. Kinect Adventure was the next title. This was basically a rail jumper title. He was on a pre-determined track, and had to move side-to-side, jump and duck, etc to collect objects and dodge obstacles. Halfway through his friend stood next to him, which automatically made split screen and let him joins. That looks like it will be pretty convenient. Kinect also had photo ops littered throughout the tracks to capture their play experience. Next, two girls showed off a co-op river rapids game which looked pretty similar, albeit more hectic, forcing them to make all the same movements at all the same times in order to be successful. There will be twenty different adventures available in this title.
After Kinect Adventure, a trailer was shown demonstrating Wii F-, I mean “Your Shape”, developed by Ubisoft. A woman was demonstrating the title, and it showed off her virtual silhouette, clothing and all. Even when she took her jacket off, her silhouette took one off with it. That was pretty cool. The game then proceeded to scan her and figure out all of her measurements, which will make self-conscious people very uncomfortable. A fitness instructor came out to help walk everyone through the menu-less title. This game will feature Martial Arts, Yoga, and simple gym activities, performing exercises such as crunches and squat punches. As she plays the game, she’s given calories burned, time played, score tally, and vocal instructions of what to do next. For yoga, the game recognizes when your skeleton is bending properly and keeps a checklist, checking off your arms and legs as you do them correctly. Final thoughts? Wii F-, I mean Your Shape looks interesting enough, but I do not want a Squat Punch. It sounds very uncomfortable.
Harmonix came out to demonstrate Dance Central. It was only a matter of time until something like this came out for Kinect. This game offers step-by-step dance instructions to the beat of the music. Cheesy as some of the moves may seem, it really is a great idea. Unfortunate people everywhere may finally be able to acquire rhythm via dance in their own homes. Soundtrack includes pop, hip-hop and R&B hits featuring Lady Gaga, No Doubt and Beastie Boys, just to name a few. There’s a “breakdown” mode that takes specific moves and let’s you practice them step-by-step, at your own pace. As the next guy came up, he proved that even nerdy white boys can be fly given proper instruction. There were definitely a couple of moments that Andy Dick Jr. became a G. This game has me pretty excited. DDR Mats don’t help a person acquire rhythm, but this just may.
Phil Spencer came back out with a release date. Kinect is coming out in North America on November 4th with around fifteen launch titles. All of the titles just mentioned should be among them. Next up was a trailer for LucasArts’ next Star Wars game, and it looks to finally be letting players take up a lightsaber of their own. It’s set for a 2011 release, and is of course running off of Microsoft’s Kinect. The movements in it seemed more random than skilled as the player deflected gunshots with the light saber, but it’s still got a ways before release so hopefully they’ll be able to fix that.
The last title shown was a new Forza game, continuing to show off Kinect’s capabilities. This is the stuff I’m not impressed by. The Wii-Wheel is difficult to use enough, so I don’t see how playing a racing game without a controller could be comfortable in any way. But I guess I’ll have to try it before I can say how stupid it is. It was interesting to see the car show-off though. Halfway into the demo, the man playing it was walking around, making the camera change perspective so he can look up close at any part of the car. The controls felt a little awkward as he was walking around the car, but this should be nice for major car buffs, because they can really see any aspect of the car, including how it feels to sit in a car that you’ll never have enough money to buy. I guess for once, Vehicle Modelers that spent a week modeling that muffler can finally be appreciated.
Don Mattrick came back out bragging about Kinect again. New decade, transformation, wonderful, perfect, family console, new era, brag, boast, pedestal. He then revealed the new Xbox 360 slim. It has a 250 Gig Hard drive, build in wi-fi, it’s Kinect Ready, smaller, sleaker, black color, quieter engine, and all for the same price of $299 and available at retailers within the week. He ended the show buy telling the audience that they’re all getting a free Xbox 360 slim. All those reporters that don’t even play games are getting a beautiful new 360 that they’ll only use to watch ESPN. For free. Jerks.
It’s no longer a matter of want. I WILL be at next year’s E3. Thank you Microsoft for a great press event.
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Most Impressive for Microsft: Dance Central
Least Impressive for Microsoft: Kinect Joy Ride
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