I’ll be honest with you, I’m technically impartial to all systems, though I do tend to prefer the 360 as Nicole and I have a supreme appreciation for achievement points. Bearing that in mind, I was most interested to see if Microsoft would unveil anything noteworthy at today’s press conference and boy, did they deliver. Some of their offerings piqued my interest more than others, but generally speaking it was a much stronger show than last year and there’s a lot to take in here. Read on for a nearly complete list of what I felt were the high points of the show today.
Starting off they spoke a bit about The Beatles Rock Band, which I confess, I couldn’t stream the video fast enough to check out, but I’m sure you can find it on YouTube shortly. You can also watch a great trailer for it over at the official website here. I’ll admit, I was skeptical about this title at first, but after seeing the trailer I know I won’t have a choice in the matter. The visuals look bright and colorful and gameplay appears to revolve around The Beetles in their various incarnations through the years. The character models look spot-on and I’m sure this will end up being a big seller to those that are rhythm-game inclined (or rabid Beatles fans) This isn’t exclusive to the 360 though, and should also satisfy all of you Sony fanboys out there whenever it debuts this September.
There was a short gameplay video for Modern Warfare 2, which is arguably a better working title than Call of Duty 4: 2 Modern Warfare Delta Strike Force. All jokes aside though, it looks positively fantastic. The level saw you running side by side with a commanding officer through a snow-laden territory with plenty of onscreen action not missing a beat. Everything from snow mobile combat to explosions looked terrific and the animation was simply superb. At one point your character must slide down a snowy embankment and as your comrades do the same, they all realistically regain their balance and hesitate just enough to find sure footing before emptying their next clip. It really was a joy to watch.
Exclusives Abound
It was at this point during the conference that the announcer made it clear that each of the remaining games would be a 360 exclusive, touting over 10 different properties. Below I’ll do my best to give a quick glance into each one.
Shortly thereafter, Cliff Blezinsky took the stage with Donald Mustard to announce a new XBLA side-scroller, Shadow Complex. By their own admission, it plays and feels very much like Metroid or Castlevania, complete with a white-outlined 2D map showing what rooms you’ve explored and haven’t. Powered by the Unreal 3 engine, it’s no slouch with crisp graphics and plenty of grandiose particle effects. It features some enormous boss fights, one of which showcased had you fighting against a WSA2 Tarantula IFV mech robot that took up nearly the entire screen. There are triple-jumps and a grappling hook featured for exploring high areas and the game is heralded to have over 120 hidden collectibles and a 10+ hour campaign. While it certainly looks like a good game, it was very impressive for an XBLA title.
Also announced on the xbla front was a cart racer, Joy Ride, which uses your avatars as the drivers and will be free to all Xbox Live subscribers. It looks pretty generic if you as me, but between the downloadable cars and customization options, it’s not bad for a freebie, especially if it’s got some of that sweet, sweet achievement point gravy.
Next up a short cinematic trailer was shown for Crackdown 2. At first I’d dismissed the original Crackdown, thinking it was trying to ride on the success of the hype surrounding the Halo 3 multiplayer beta that came included, but was pleasantly surprised to find a ridiculously fun shooter with tasty graphics. I’ve no reason to believe that won’t be the case with Crackdown 2, but it would have been nice to see some actual gameplay rather than a pre-rendered marketing piece.
Audible cries of joy could be heard from the audience as another pre-rendered video was shown of the forthcoming follow-up to Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2 was shown. While this also didn’t show any real gameplay, it was hinted at very strongly that this new game would feature melee weapons including chainsaws, frying pans, and the like with which to dispatch your undead pursuers. It’s slated to come out November 17th and you can bet your bottom dollar Nicole and I will be all over it with a review coming shortly thereafter.
After the excitement died down surrounding the Valve shooter, the long-wondered-about Splinter Cell: Conviction had an incredible showing of a live demo after a short cinematic video. Gone is the emo Sam Fisher we’d seen in early screenshots, instead replaced by a grizzled and weary Sam more akin to what we’d imagined on a desperate search to find his daughter’s killer. The game is the most cinematic I’ve seen with very little HUD activity and your objectives and cinematics being show in real-time through play as if projected on walls and surfaces surrounding Sam. It’s very much reminiscent of how locations are labeled in Lost or Heroes. Sam’s melee and firearm tactics are considerably more brutal than in the past, aptly echoing the desperate struggle of a conflicted protagonist. Speaking of which, Michael Ironside returns to voice Sam and as always, is a most welcome addition.
On the racing front, a Turn 10 representative was present to spend some time talking about Forza Motorsport 3 which is shaping up to be a great looking title. Realistic racers aren’t really my thing, but if you’re a fan I don’t suspect you should have anything to turn your nose up at. Forza 3 runs at a silky smooth 60 frames per second with some nice graphical touches between light flares, accumulating windshield dust, real-time damage and the same break-neck speed you’ve grown accustomed to. Also added is a deeper car customization aspect and the ability to perform HD video editing within the game.
Next up was Joseph Staten to talk about Halo 3 ODST. A few demo segments were shown of your character plummeting to the earth in his pod after an emp pulse renders your craft inoperable. The story is told from multiple perspectives as you use clues to piece together the story of your comrades. A low light visor is used to highlight your next objective and it appears a meaty campaign is in order. I’m not sure that I heard any mention of co-op, but there’s definitely a new multiplayer mode called firefight which appears to be similar to horde mode in Gears of War 2.
While Halo 3 ODST like plenty good fun, what really got fans riled up was the announcement of the next complete game, Halo Reach. This serves as a prequel to Halo 3 and while a short cinematic of a decimated planet was shown, there were no real details to speak of. But, I’m quite sure when the game is announced I’ll be first in line at my local GameStop to pick up whatever ridiculous collector’s edition they concoct.
Slated for a spring 2010 is the long awaited Alan Wake from Remedy studios. I’ve been following this title for a while and it looks like they’ve been hard at work crafting a world with an incredible weather system, physics engine, and a lush locale. It follows Alan, a horr writer in his search for his wife, Alice in the small town of Bright Falls. It’s a psychological thriller with definite Silent Hill influences and reminded me of The Secret Window. It looks like your flashlight is a weapon of sorts and there’s also some gunplay involved. If there’s one thing apparent from the demo it’s that the game positively drips with atmosphere.
Finally (and I can’t recall for certain if this is exclusive), Hideo Kojima took the stage and dropped the bomb that caused all Sony fanboys to weep in unison; the Metal Gear Solid series is making its way to the 360 with its next installment, Metal Gear Solid Rising. While only a short look was shown, Raiden is the main character and the title promises ‘lightning bolt action’. I’m not sure exactly what that means but if it’s backed by Kojima I’m sure we won’t be disappointed.
Xbox Live Enhancements
Rather than make this article longer than it already is, I’ll just give you a tasty bulleted-list of Live enhancements that were mentioned:
- Music coming to Xbox Live thanks to a partnership with last.fm
- Facebook and Twitter integration
- HD videos upgraded to 1080p on-demand to allow instant-watching (I’m skeptical as to how well this will work, but if it does, more power to them)
- Expanded video offerings from only 8 countries to 18
- Live Party now allows friends to enjoy videos, pictures, and music together remotely
- Netflix queue management from the dashboard (It’s about time isn’t it?!)
Project Natal
This was by far the most surprising announcement. Figuring that Microsoft would follow Sony and Nintendo and start manufacturing a motion controller of their own, they instead have created Project Natal; a motion sensing and capture camera device complete with face and voice recognition. Seeing it in action was stunning as you can navigate your dashboard and play games a la Minority Report with hand gestures. Also, the face recognition can be programmed to automatically sign you into your Live account when it detects you in the room. Orwellian and creepy as that might sound, it’s still a slick feature that I’m sure I’ll use. A demo was displayed where a 3D block breaking game was played while using your entire body to bounce the ball back toward the blocks. Again, while I was skeptical, the onstage demo of the technology was more than promising and appeared to be very responsive. Also shown was an incredible tech demo from Lionhead Studios whereby a digital child, Milo, interacted with the player by having her ‘hand’ him a sheet of paper with a drawing on it. While handing the real, tangible piece of paper toward the screen, the camera automatically scanned the object and re-created it digitally fast enough for it to appear in Milo’s hand onscreen as he pulled his hand back from out of frame, where he was then magically holding nearly the exact same drawing. Shortly thereafter the player looked into a body of water onscreen only to have it show her reflected image via the camera as if she were literally inside the game. It’s mind-boggling to watch, but ultimately the next evolution in digital entertainment and player interaction.
Conclusion
Microsoft delivered on all fronts today. Fantastic first-party showings and grabbing what is arguably the most coveted exclusive franchise from Sony with Kojima was a decisive blow, to say the least. Couple with a plethora of new and free Live features and an incredible new gaming avenue with Natal, I’d say this is their best showing yet. Stay tuned this week and we’ll do our best to cover the Nintendo and Sony presentations that are happening tomorrow. Did I miss anything? What were your favorite moments of Microsoft’s press conference?
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