E3: Microsoft Press Conference Summary

Jul 21 2008

E3: Microsoft Press Conference Summary

The first o f the big three, and arguably the best conference was delivered by Microsoft this year. They not only made a reasonably beefy number of announcements but also covered a lot of highly anticipated games and gave us a deeper look into them.

They also introduced the new dashboard design, along with their infamous new Avatars which are due to hit Xboxes worldwide come Autumn (delivered via the mandatory Autumn update). Don’t worry if you bought any themes before the upcoming new dashboard… Microsoft assures that they will be compatible with the new dashboard, and Gamerpics are rumoured to follow suit.

Announcements

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Lips

Lips announcement consists of the trailer of the game, along with Microsoft’s claim that this game is going to be part of the current flow of great music games. The trailer isn’t traditional game fare… In fact, it looks more like a chewing gum advertisement. It shows two young, attractive people at a party who seem to have trouble interacting. That is, of course until the man whips out his shiny rhythm stick and starts karaoke-ing his feelings to the woman. Needless to say she joins in and they start to sing a variety of genres, thus getting the party started as it were, and it somehow persuades everyone else at the party to start dancing. Funnily enough, the game is created by the man behind Elite Beat Agents and Gitaroo Man. They also promise that Lips will feature motion sensitive microphone controllers and the intriguing ability to be able to play all of your favourite songs off your 360’s hard drive or off a portable storage medium.

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Scene It: Box Office Smash and You’re In The Movies

Microsoft announced two movie-related games in one go… Scene It: Box Office Smash and You’re in the Movies. Scene It is basically a sequel to the previous scene it games on the Xbox 360, with new questions and the like - although this time with the theme of Blockbuster films. It also introduces integrated use of Microsoft’s upcoming Avatars, a Mii ripoff which will replace Gamerpics in Autumn. It also makes use of Xbox Live to deliver downloadable content in the form of new questions and film clips.

You’re in the Movies is an entirely new, original concept. I was put off at first by the people bounding about the stage. It was very silly. Then, at the end I witnessed the fruit of their labours. Let me explain. You’re in the movies is a game which gives you a set of minigames for you and your family/friends to complete using the Xbox Vision camera. This all results in the game cutting up and mishmashing the actions you performed in the Eyetoy play style minigames into actions within a predetermined film. For example, a minigame may be running on a treadmill. Once completed, the game will record your previous actions and put them on the backdrop of a film and show you running away from a monster. For a better idea of how it all works, check out the above video. This game looks like it will be a lot of fun, for family and even some of the more mature minded of adults.

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Gears of War 2

Yes, we all knew it was coming… It had even been previously announced but this is the big E3 announcement, just to make sure… and show you a little more of the game to wet your appetite of course. This trailer does more than wet the appetite though… It put to rest all previous doubts I had in the game. The graphics are more impressive, the gameplay looks completely fresh (in the sense that you use old techniques you know well and put them to use in new situations while also taking on board new tricks).

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Covered Games

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Fallout 3

Fallout 3, with it’s sights on an Autumn release date on PC, PS3 and 360 was covered in the conference with a developer walkthrough of a section of the game, showcasing it’s similarities and differences compared to the previous Fallout games. It also shows one of my favourite video game trailers ever (at the beginning, before the walkthrough). In my opinion the game looks a little underwhelming so far… then again, this is likely to be a section akin to Oblivion’s countryside… with little in the name of activity unless you’re embarking on a mission.

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Fable 2 - Peter Molyneux gives us a playtest of 360 exclusive, Fable 2. Showcasing some of it’s new features.

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Resident Evil 5 - Jun Takeuchi shows us some of the gameplay from Resident Evil 5’s Co-Op Mode.