Microsoft’s E3 Conference Round Up

Microsoft today unveiled a large number of games and innovations for the Xbox 360 and primarily the Kinect today at E3. There was a large focus of the Kinect and a lot more focus on “casual” gamers and turning the system into an entertainment hub than in previous years, however, there were a number of important games for the core-gamer, such as Halo, Tomb Raid and Star Wars.

Below are the main features and game releases from Microsoft’s conference – please note that a lot of the below is opinion. Currently there is limited media available, so there are no screenshots or trailers, as and when they become available we will update. So make sure you keep your eyes peeled!

Tomb Raider – no motion control, but will have blurriness when players fall over and hurt themselves. Looks very gritty and fluid. Lara has been completely remade from what we’re used to seeing and looks similar to someone like Cheryl Cole than what we’re used to seeing.

Assassin’s Creed – will feature on the Xbox soon, again looks very fluid and as gritty as it has done in the past. There were no real release date mentioned.

Mass Effect 3 – will be Kinect voice supported. You will be able to read out the commands on the screen to select that option and be able to direct your party in different places rather than using the D-Pad; however, the traditional methods will remain intact. The series is now starting at a new point in the series so players who’ve not had the pleasure of Mass Effect 1 and 2 will be able to play.

Tom Clancey’s Ghost Recon – Again,very fluid and looks almost likelife. All Ghost Recon games available on the Xbox 360 will now have Kinect support and will feature more and more Kinect abilities moving forward.

Xbox Live – Kinect supported, being able to say Music will take you to the music dashboard. XBL will soon feature YouTube and Bing. As an example, Bing will search all Lego games by just saying Lego, or X-Men games, movies and comics just by saying X-Men, in many ways what Google’s been doing for years. Voice controls are the way forward, “You are the controller”, TV will feature a lot of voice controls with the Xbox. Live TV will be on the Xbox worldwide, although USA first and Sky in the UK.

UFC – all via Xbox Live. All TV shows and videogames will be available with Kinect support and all via the Xbox Live’s network going forward.

Gears of War 3 – graphics look very good, lots of new monsters to kill. Ice-T is featured in game and was on the stage. The GoW crew are on a ship on the ocean as the rest of the world is infected, but a sea creature manages to find them who is infected and is soon to try and infect the crew on ship.

Ryse – a good looking video set in a roman times. A short trailer was available and very little other information.

Halo CE – remade and remastered for the Xbox 360. Much fanfare around how the game “changed the world”, even though that is vastly debatable.

Forza 3 – will have Kinect support using voice commands, however, as this is a racing title it’s all about speed and timing so the Kinect system might be slightly challenging.

Fable The Journey – full Kinect support. Magic spells cast by certain hand movements and can slap your enemies up by moving your hand. Looks very good, aim looks easy and graphics are very high quality. Release in 2012.

Minecraft – will have full support for Kinect and the indie gaming scene is very important for the Kinect going forward.

Disneyland Adventures – Kinect and Disney will support one another and the Dinsey team have recreated all of the Disney for the Kinect console. Wander through the theme park with full Kinect accessibility. Kinnect-Share.com will feature timeless Disneyland merchandise. Disneyland Adventures will feature rides such as Peter Pan’s Flight and you will need to fly through the game in a similar way as you would play Just Dance – by moving your arms around. Alice in Wonderland will feature in a similar way. Release date is Christmas, however, that’s likely to be a US release date. Might not even make it over the pond seeing as we have Disneyland Paris only a few hundred miles away. Fun fact – you can get to Paris faster than Scotland from the South East.

Kinect Star Wars – a full Star Wars game featuring all of the films generations using the Kinect system to control your character, fly the cars and spaceships and even the racers from Episode 1. Looks very easy to control. Voice commands are active.

Sesame Street Once Upon a Monster – a “living book” for the Kinect where you and your child can help to fix the monsters and help them with their problems. They can grow with their monsters on the books and a lot of the original cast feature in this book. Very CGIed, which for people over 20 will be a little grating as we remember the puppets.

Kinect Fun Labs – Kinect maintained by the community and the company and will be available on the Dashboard for all Xbox Live users. The experiences were built by tools available to everyone and in the future you’ll be able to become your Avatar, similar to the way the Nintendo 3DS can automatically create your Mii. Looks very, very good and even emulates the finer points on your clothing and Kinect Finger Tracking, which is out in the US today.

Kinect Sports Season Two – Golf, US football and many other sports. The controls look very good and easy to use, although a little embarrassing. Might not be great to play in a flat…

Dance Central 2 – with added voice commands and all songs from the original will be importable into the new one. It will also feature multiple dancing at the same time using the Kinect. Apparently the game will have more music available to it than any other dance title out there.

Xbox believe they will go from being #1 in the USA to #1 worldwide – watch this space.

Halo 4 – available at Christmas 2012. Looks like a normal Halo game, lots of guns, explosions and space. Very little details were revealed although it was hinted at that this might be another trilogy – although if it’s Halo 4 surely that makes it a saga rather than two trilogies.