Microsoft was the first out of the big three to take the stage and of course just like the last three years they started out with Call of Duty. I was really unimpressed by the gameplay that they chose to show during the conference, I thought they’d pick a more attacking packed scene, instead you got a lot of swimming and only a minor number of things being blown up. Knowing a lot of Microsoft’s core audience I’m a little surprise that they didn’t just show this game the full two hours. A couple of key notes I picked up here was that they said,”there was still so much more to come.” People are already complaining that a new game every year has been really milking this series, and I’ve been hoping they’d stop and try to at least save the cow, I guess not. At this point they mention that the Call of Duty team, “are the worlds greatest storytellers.” If that’s the greatest story you have to offer me now, I’ve lost all hope in you Microsoft.
The best part is they bring out Tome Raider next- and will probably have a greater storyline than any and all the CoD series.
After this point the Conference takes a complete turn and starts really laying down what they have planned for Kinect. This is pretty grand, I’m glad that they’re not just leaving the hardware there to get dusty and sticking to it. A lot of major games are going to be featuring some Kinect. To name the one’s mentioned, Mass Effect 3, Ghost Recon, Gear of War, Fable: The Journey, and of course we all know about Starwars. The Tom Clancy series really dropped the bomb when they said that “All future Tom Clancy games will be Kinect enabled,” that’s quite a commitment.
Like last E3, Microsoft announced some of their new partnerships including youtube, live TV, some MMA/fighting matches, and bing (who would of thunk it?).
Fable has got more and more disappointing with each new game, and after I saw how they implemented the Kinect it made me wonder how this one is going to stack up. No doubt, it won’t be better than the first Fable, but will it at least top Fable 3? And will you have the option to play without the Kinect, because the gameplay looked heavily reliant on it.
Very causally they announced that Minecraft would be coming to the Xbox, and would be Kinect enabled. It was also introduced in the exclusive zone, so I’m assuming no other console will get it. How will this all work? Is this why we haven’t been getting the updates we deserve from Notch? And will players have to pay for the game all over again? Questions that could have been answered, but weren’t, thanks to them just glossing over the topic to move into a how awesome Disneyland Adventures will be for cheap parents who don’t want to pay for an actual vacation.
This conference had enough for your hardcore gamer, and even had things for your kids and you to play. But what about the in-between crowd; the casual gamers? Well they brought back Kinect Sports and Dance Central for some sequels, but if you don’t like getting up and moving the Xbox isn’t going to have your casual gaming needs, unless your huge on Minecraft.
The conference ends and they all walk out-but wait Halo Trailer, but WAIT you already showed a Halo trailer, it was the remastering of Halo, BUT WAIT THAT’S MASTER CHIEF! WHAT’S GOING ON HERE. 2012.
So review, what original games/not-based-on-a-previous-franchise/non-sequels-games did they come out with this year? Hmm, well there was this game called Ryse which looked fairly epic, and had an adorable dog in the trailer.
Then there was FunLab which I believe is just an Xbox add-on, and other than that everything else was sequels or based on a franchise. This isn’t a bad thing, bringing out their heavy hitters, I just hope I see a lot of new material from 3rd parties this year. I’m sick of a lot of the current franchises, I want new, I want innovative games, and I really don’t see that as asking too much.
Regardless if you’ve been unsure about whether you want a Kinect this is conference was a huge persuasion for me. I didn’t see a lot of titles being released on it last year, so I backed down. I was glad to see Microsoft staying behind its product and getting more developers to use it, it is a pretty handy device. So, if you been looking for an excuse to grab one I’d say you got it.
