The Microsoft E3 2010 press conference was held today and showed off a ton of new footage and some new game announcements.
Here’s a list of the keynotes:
Call of Duty map packs will appear first on Xbox Live for the next 3 years.
Hideo Kojima appears on stage to show off Metal Gear Solid: Rising gameplay for the first time. This game was revealed last year but with nothing shown. You play as Raiden. Awesome, fast gameplay as you run up and “Cut anything at will”! Players completely have the power to manipulate your blade and slice and dice anything in the environment! Really impressive and actually unlike anything you’ve seen before! Super impressive
Cliffy B. comes on stage to showcase Gears of War 3 4-player co-op gameplay in action! New “Beast” Mode announced. Game looks awesome but nothing really new. Besides a female character and new nasty enemies to fight.
Peter Molyneux comes on stage to show Fable 3. They show off a new trailer for the game. Action looks smooth and almost like a movie, with great graphics.
Codename: Kingdoms is new Xbox 360 exclusive from Crytek. It looks like a gladiator title of some sort.
Halo Reach campaign mode shown for first time. Gameplay footage shown from Bungie. Game looks super slick. 3rd-person Melee attacks shown. Grenade Launcher gun. At the end he gets in a ship and takes part in space gameplay!
Microsoft execs get on stage to show off Kinect. Kinect is new official name of NATAL. They browse the Xbox System Menu using it. They show the Kinect Hub which allows you to easily navigate using your hands, controller-free. A hand cursor appears on-screen and moves with your hands. Simply hover your hand (and thus the cursor) over a menu item, like Facebook, Twitter, Marketplace, etc., to select it. They also show-off voice navigation. Pretty interesting. You can navigate with your hands as if it’s a mouse! Really cool. Voice control pauses movie by speaking “Xbox pause”. Other commands like: “Xbox play” demonstrated (plays movie). “Xbox stop” goes back to menu. “Xbox Play Music” is then demonstrated and it takes you to your Xbox Live Last.fm music playlist!
Windows Phone 7 discussed. Achievements, etc. go with you.
They show “Video Kinect”. Demo’s voice chat with friends and family as you see the person you are talking to using the Kinect camera. Chat with friends or family whether on Xbox Live or on MSN Messenger, etc. They watch a video together while video chatting! The camera will even follow you as you move around! No getting up to turn it.
ESPN comes to Zune Marketplace. NBA, NFL, Soccer, Sportcenter, MLB, more than 35,000 live sporting events and games will now be available to watch on Xbox 360 in the Community Channel. The Sport Center guys come out to discuss ESPN on Xbox 360. Most live events will be broadcast in HD. Your Avatars will be watching the sports as you watch, and you can dress them in your team colors as already available on the Avatar Marketplace. By speaking “Xbox Replay” you can re-watch a fantastic sports play that just happened, or even pause, rewind or fast forward! Other things like trivia will enhance your live sports watching. ESPN game scores, highlights, etc. will also be available right there on-screen without having to exit out of the live feed of the sports game you are watching. ESPN will be free for Gold Members.
Kinectimals is demonstrated on-stage as a cute little girl interacts with an on-screen lion cub. The lion spins when she does, jumps when she does, etc. He also follows her voice commands. She plays jump rope with him by swinging the rope and other pet games.
Kinect Sports shown. Promises to “truly put you in the game” as you move in front of the camera to play Soccer, Bowling, Tennis, Olympics, Volleyball and other sports. This is Microsoft’s answer to Wii Sports.
Kinect Joy Ride is a Kart Racer with more realistic cars. Where you drive by using your hands. Five unique gameplay modes including a Stunt/Trick Mode.
Kinect Adventures designed to get group off the couch and using their entire body to play. Each mini-game has you collecting pins with your body as you automatically move down a course, jumping and ducking to dodge obstacles while outstretching arms, legs, and using body to hit the pins. A second person can simply jump in and their character will appear on-screen in splitscreen. Cameras will appear on course and you have to “strike a pose”. The cameras will capture fun moments from your playtime and are shown at the end of the mini-game. Kinect Adventures includes photos, videos and more that you can share with friends online. “Surf On a Cloud” mini-game demonstrated. This game has you on a raft going down a course trying to collect all the pins while using your body to move the raft. Looks pretty fun. You can post the photos and such on Facebook, Twitter, etc. as well.
Ubisoft shows off Your Shape: Fitness Evolved as a trailer and then demonstrates it. Felicia Williams comes out to do a live demo on-stage. The game shows her body on-screen live and in 3D. Even her coat is modeled as she takes it off in-front of the all-male crowd to much applause! (as you can imagine) Menus and other objects follow your body movements and appear on-screen around your body. Your body moves exactly as you do, so if you pick your nose it’s reflected exactly as you do it. The game sets up to your physical dimensions by scanning your body. You then move your body along with the computer’s Avatar, your coach, which appears next to your body on-screen. You must move to match your trainer’s movements on-the screen as you perform various work outs and exercises. “Combat Training” has you breaking blocks with your body using punches, kicks, etc. “Zen Class” has you doing Tai Chi, and other exercises. You have to slowly move your body and keep your breathing in check as you match the trainer on screen next to your on-screen body that moves just as you do. Looks exciting and like it could really taken off if shown to a casual gamer. Even the graphics and effects are very cool, slick and modern as if you are inside a computer: Matrix-style
Harmonix comes on-stage to show Dance Central. You have to move your body to match body positions shown on the side of the screen that scroll as you match them. More tracks to download after launch just like with Rock Band. The developers worked with world class choreographers to include over 90 routines and 600 real-life dance moves. These include dance moves from the actual music videos that you will be dancing to in the game (including the likes of Lady Gaga, Beyonce, etc.). Designed so that anyone can play. “Break It Down” mode teaches you how to learn the routines. You do moves one at a time then stream them together. You keep doing the same moves repeatedly. Do it enough times and the moves will switch. This prepares you for the actual game.
Kinect November 4th release date in America with 15 launch titles. Kinect is fully compatible with all Xbox 360 systems.
LucasArts is making a Kinect game with Microsoft Game Studios. Trailer is shown for Star Wars game in which you use your lightsaber to reflect attacks as FMV enemies come towards you! You can even use your lightsaber to attack when they get close. Force Attacks are shown as is an end-trailer fight Darth Vader! Coming in 2011.
Turn 10 Studios comes on stage to show Forza Motorsports 3 using Kinect. You play by using your hands and you can even use your head to look around while you are inside the cockpit! You can use Kinect to walk around the car in 3D and check it out from any angle! Check out any part of the car and see stats by placing your hand over it or use your head to literally “look inside” as you pop the hood. You can use Kinect to interact with the car, open the door, sit inside, etc. Start the engine and you can start driving it. Just as if you were in the real car! Pretty awesome stuff!
Microsoft announces and then shows off on-stage the Xbox 360 Slim as they take a fake casing of the current Xbox 360 model off of a Slimline, black-colored beauty hidden underneath! It looks slick and small. Same as we already covered (Slim Xbox 360 revealed by leaked ad). Microsoft says it will be “whisper quiet”. It has built in Wi-Fi 802.11N (best wi-fi tech they say) for same price of $300. In stores THIS WEEK!
The press conference ends as the Microsoft Exec on-stage announces that they have just given an Xbox 360 Slim to everyone in the audience! Lucky bastards! And with that, the show ends on a high note as everyone is excited about the prospect of having their OWN Xbox 360 Slim. What an excellent way to end it! Great conference in my humble opinion. I give it an A.
