Microsoft E3 conference recap

Submitted by videogame2play.com

The Beatles: Rock Band

• Microsoft kicked off the program with the opening cinematic of The Beatles Rock Band. The game looks phenomenal, contrasting flat animations with 3D graphics as the songs become more and more psychedelic. They really seem to have captured the essence of The Beatles, down to the masses of screaming fans.
• Next they moved on to show the game live. The in-game graphics look similar to the other Rock Band titles. Demoing the game were three vocalists, one guitar and a bass. The vocalists received bonuses for harmonizing.
• The Beatles Rock Band will launch 09.09.09

• Next they announced ten of the tracks included in the game: “I Saw Her Standing There,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “I Feel Fine,” “Day Tripper,” “Taxman,” “I Am the Walrus,” “Back in the U.S.S.R,” “Octopus’s Garden,” “Here Comes the Sun” and “Get Back.” The songs span The Beatles’ entire career and their avatars evolve as their careers do the same.
• Additionally, new music will be available as full album DLC, the first being Abbey Road. Also, “All you need is Love” will be an Xbox exclusive track with all proceeds donated to Doctors without Borders.
• After seeing the game in action, we were treated with an appearance by Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney themselves. They agreed that while the game and graphics look good, they are great. And we agree. This is one case where the music makes the game.

Tony Hawk: Ride

• Next we moved onto Tony Hawk: Ride. Hawk himself was on hand to show off the finalized board peripheral. The board has two accelerometers and four IR sensors that will translate your movements onto the screen. He then introduced a video showing off the board in use. The board is available to play on the show floor and we plan on getting our feet on it later this week.

Modern Warfare 2

• After Hawk exited the stage we were treated to a new Modern Warfare 2 trailer. As everyone would expect, the game looks fantastic.
• Jason West and Vince Zampella took the stage next to show a live demo of the game. The demo began with us following captain MacTavish as he traversed a slippery cliff using ice picks.
• Once atop the cliff we began to pick off opponents, relying on their heat signals to see past the blinding snow. The stealth approach soon went south forcing us to move to plan B, blow everything to hell.
• While a somewhat morbid thing to notice, blood spray and snow mingle together on the camera crating a wet pink mist. Nice attention to detail Infinity Ward.
• Realizing the need to retreat, familiar music played as we escaped down a hill, taking out snowmobiles in hot pursuit and even using a snow axe to remove a passenger at one point in time. Hopping on the ride MacTavish informs us that stopping is instant death. But with trees toppling from explosives in front of us, neither option looks particularly good.
• After the demo ended and we learned that two Modern Warfare 2 map packs will debut first on Xbox Live.

Final Fantasy XIII

• Next onto Final Fantasy XIII, the big upset of last year. We really didn’t have a chance to see much, other than characters Lightning and Sazh fighting. They did however highlight four active time gauges implemented in the battle system. These gauges will allow consecutive attacks and wider tactics.

• They also revealed Odin for the first time and the summon made quick work of the boss they were fighting.
• Final Fantasy XIII is targeting for a spring 2010 release.

Xbox Exclusives and Debuts

• After checking out the cross-platform titles, Microsoft moved onto their exclusive brands. First they welcomed Epic staff onto the stage to talk about their next title, Shadow Complex. Their first downloadable title, Shadow Complex appears to be a platforming shooter that features tons of exploration, combat and collectables. Boasting ten hours of play, the game will hit XBLA this summer.
• Joyride was next on the agenda, a free downloadable title that will put your Avatar behind the driver’s wheel. Premium content will be available to purchase. The game plays like a cart racer and will hit XBLA this winter.
• Next Microsoft confirmed Crackdown 2 with a brief trailer.
• Without losing steam, Left for Dead 2 debuted and looks even bloodier. Melee weapons such as a chainsaw have been introduced. The game is expected to hit retail November 17.
• Also confirmed was Forza Motorsport 3, which Microsoft is boasting as “the definitive racing title of this generation.”

Splinter Cell: Conviction

• According to Microsoft, the Sam Fisher we know is dead. He is now on a quest to revenge his daughter’s death.
• The game has changed quite a bit from when it was last seen. Now the narrative and objectives unfold in real time and are projected onto Fisher’s surroundings. As he beats a man for information on his daughter’s murderer we see the location he speaks of illustrated on the wall. It’s a very interesting mechanic.
• Each environment is built like a small sandbox, allowing Fisher to choose how best to infiltrate and execute his mission.

Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach

• We next got a brief demo of Halo 3 ODST. Here we saw how the game will transition between characters in order to get the whole story. We were also told that new equipment and weaponry have been introduced to the title that are specific to the ODST..
• Just when we thought they were done, Bungie unveiled Halo: Reach which is expected to hit retail in 2010. A multiplayer beta for Reach will be included with the purchase of ODST. No other details were given.

Alan Wake

• Proving that Alan Wake is still in development, we were shown a demo of the title.
• Alan Wake is an author who goes on a vacation with his wife to get his creative juices flowing. However, she soon disappears and he realizes that his latest novel is coming to life. Considering that the work is a supernatural thriller, the things that await him aren’t very pretty.
• As Alan progresses in the story he narrates everything out loud. In a different context this could be annoying, but somehow it seems fitting.

• Little was disclosed about the dark force in the game that was born from his writing. Armed with a shotgun and a flashlight, we watched Alan search for lost manuscript pages that hold clues to his wife’s whereabouts.
• Alan Wake is expected to release spring of 2010.

Several new additions are coming to Xbox Live. The first is a partnership with Last.fm which will allow gold level subscribers to stream music for free.

• Additionally, Netflix will be refined so that you can browse movies and add them to your queue directly from your Xbox.
• Full 1080p HD video service will be implemented, and all movies and TV will be playable immediately, following the mantra “no disc, no download, no delay.”

• Next, you will be able to watch movies and TV with friends via Live parties, with your friend’s avatars sitting on a couch at the bottom of the screen.
• Facebook will also be coming to Xbox Live. Microsoft has created a “Facebook Experience” from the ground up for the new service. Users will be able to look at profiles, check out images, view news feeds and all the other standard Facebook features.
• Twitter will also be coming to Xbox Live, using a simple interface that refreshes instantly. Both Twitter and Facebook on XBL will debut this fall.

Metal Gear Solid: Rising

• Hideo Kojima then took the stage to announce that Metal Gear is coming to the 360. In doing so he also announced the next game in the franchise, Metal Gear Solid: Rising. Rising will star Raiden as the main protagonist.

Project Natal

• The last and potentially most significant announcement was the debut of Project Natal. Natal is project codename for a camera that uses movement and voice recognition to play games and navigate interfaces.
• The goal of the project is to make you the controller. In the debut trailer we witnessed several potential uses. One player fought an opponent on screen using their full body. Another held their hands on an invisible wheel to play a driving game. Another skateboarded on a phantom board.
• The camera also recognizes faces and voices, automatically loading your Xbox profile for you.
• Two tech demos were highlighted to show off the new technology. Ricochet had a player throwing balls to try and knock down blocks at the end of a long hall. The camera recognized every movement and translated it on screen surprisingly well. Next we saw a second demo that involved painting on a large canvas with full body gestures.
• Last, Peter Molyneux took the stage to show off how they have been playing with Project Natal. The demonstration featured a digital boy named Milo. In the demo a living woman interacted with the boy through the camera. Milo could detect intonation changes in her voice and would react to them. He even threw her a pair of goggles and waited for her to mime putting them on before progressing. At one point the woman drew Milo a picture and handed it to him in the digital world by holding it up to the camera.
• Steven Spielberg even took the time to stop by and express his interest and faith in Project Natal, saying that they only way to truly create an accessible product is to make the technology invisible and banish the learning curve.
• Little in terms of a debut window or price range is known yet, but we were promised that Project Natal will work with all prior and future Xbox 360 systems.

Post-Conference

• After the two-hour conference, Microsoft still had a few items to clean up. Microsoft will begin to integrate Avatar unlockables into games and introduce a premium Avatar store. Game-specific Avatar items will also be available to purchase, such as Halo ODST armor.

• They also announced that August will see the introduction of retail games on for purchase on XBL. These games will still be full price, but will allow the player the instant gratification of playing them without a trip to the store. Games slated for release include BioShock, Assassins Creed, Mass Effect, Lego Star Wars, Crackdown, Oblivion, Dirt and Call of Duty 2. A total of thirty games will be available at launch. It will be possible to purchase games with credit cards instead of Microsoft Points.
• Lastly, Microsoft will also be introducing Xbox Live landings for Guitar Hero, Rock Band and Lips.

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