E3 kicked off today as well as the lavish press conferences that come along with it. Microsoft opened today's events with a press conference filled with Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, Tony Hawk, Steven Spielberg, Hideo Kojima, an interactive boy named Milo, and oh yeah, some games too.
Highlights of the event include the announcement of Metal Gear Solid Rising, a spin-off starring everyone's favorite cybernetic ninja - Raiden. Also announced were Crackdown 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Forza 3, and Halo Reach. Games like Alan Wake, Halo: ODST, Final Fantasy XIII, Modern Warfare 2, and Tony Hawk Ride were also shown through brief snippets of gameplay. While it was an impressive lineup, Microsoft failed to truly set its' exclusives apart from its' competitors and truly "wow".
Microsoft had more in store though with the announcement of twitter and facebook support as well as the unveiling of Project Natal, essentially a sensor that tracks down 3D movement from the player and applies it in game. What does this mean? Well, no controller for one. Imagine steering a car in a driving game with no steering wheel but rather by mimicking the movements of turning a wheel with just your hands. Microsoft promises voice and body recognition as well as face recognition when you turn your Xbox on, whereupon the system will recognize you and automatically log you in. Despite sounding like something out of a Mission: Impossible episode, Natal's quite real with big time backing from director Steven Spielberg (and when is that guy ever wrong?) but it's yet to be seen how this interesting technology will be implemented into an actual game (or for that matter how well). If it's anything like the Wii, with all it's waggle goodness, it might turn off some gamers looking to relax after a long day of work or school and wish to take controller in hand (myself included).
Overall, it was a somewhat disappointing event this year for Microsoft. While plenty of games and do-dads were announced, it was a lack of a stronger exclusives lineup (that could only be described as "safe") and the proverbial lap dance tease that was Natal, that left this gamer wishing for a little more.
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