Monday, June 14, 2010

E3 2010 Day One: Highlights and Lowpoints

E3 is, and has been since it started, the biggest gaming event of the year. Whether it be a new console, a new major name title, or a bold new project, E3 is THE PLACE to premiere it.

The first day of the convention is over. So what's my opinion on day one? ...Meh.

Hightlights:



Everything about Natal- I'm sorry, Kinect, that wasn't a game.

"Project Natal" was the big reveal done by Microsoft at last years E3. It once again took the spotlight, now named "Kinect", during the Microsoft Press Conference this morning. And you know what? It looks nice. The technology is really impressive. For those who don't know, it's a camera which tracks you in 3D space to track your movements and lets you interact with the console without any form of controller. And the features other than, y'know, actual games are really nice. You can watch movies on it and fast forward/rewind just by reaching out and grabbing the time bar on the screen. You log in simply by waving at the screen and Kinect will find your profile by looking at you, and then log you in. The video chat is also impressive, you can video chat without any sort of headset, with anyone else with a Kinect. Then you can move around and Kinect will track you, without you having to move the camera. You can even watch a movie with whoever you're video chatting with, and a third screen will pop up with the movie on it. I'm skeptical of how well that will work, it seems like it will have latency problems, but it's a good idea. ESPN will be free to watch for anyone with Xbox Live Gold, with over 3500 different events, or whatever. I couldn't care any less about sports. Overall as a media center it looks like it'll be incredible, and probably worth getting just for that aspect for some people.


New Xbox Model - Shipping TODAY


Microsoft shocked me personally today announcing a new redesign of the 360 that is NOW SHIPPING. That's big. You can get one next week. $299 will get you a 250 gig hard drive, built in wi-fi support, and supposedly, a whisper quiet system. Which is good. I may actually get an Xbox now. Maybe. Possibly. It could happen.


Hope



I NEED THIS NOW. NOOOOOWWWWW.



Rayman!


A Rayman 2-d sidescroller that has nothing to do with rabbits? Yay!

Lowpoints:
Kinect Games

A Mario Kart Ripoff? A Mario Party Ripoff? A Nintendogs Ripoff? 4 Wii Fit Ripoffs?

The lineup of Kinect games is one of the biggest "Screw you!"s Microsoft has ever done. It shows that Microsoft has realized they can make money by ripping off the Wii, and plan to do just that. The dance game by Harmonix looked pretty okay I suppose.

Laser Tag


THIS IS A VIDEO GAME CONVENTION. STOP SHOWING US THINGS THAT DO NOT COUNT AS VIDEO GAMES. USING XBOX TO TRACK SCORES DOES NOT MAKE IT A VIDEO GAME.


Michael Jackson: The Game

No, you didn't read that wrong. Someone is making a game based on the king of pop. It's everything I hate about rhythm games. It puts you in the shoes of Michael Jackson and has you sing and dance in concert. It'll work with the Kinect for Xbox and the Move for PS3. It will also be terrible. IT'S BEEN A YEAR PEOPLE, GET OVER IT, MJ IS DEAD.


Star Wars Kinect



Ugh. This could be so good, but looks so bad. This shows all the problems with Kinect, and motion controls in gaming. It never looks authentic. Something about the movements just look off. You CANNOT swordfight without having any feedback, and those beams look TERRIBLE. This game just looks so bad.

Kinectimals Demo


I saw that Microsoft. I saw you try to convince us Kinectimals isn't garbage using an adorable little girl, and an adorable little tiger and it's named Skittles and it fell and oh my gosh it's SOOOO CUTE- Sorry, I had prolonged exposure to ADORABLE there for a second.

The Lady Showing Off the Kinect Video Chat

i r da gud public speaker durpity durp


Why No Blu-Ray?

Since they're going through all the trouble to redesign the 360, why no blu-ray? It seems like a pretty big oversight to me. Even if you don't use it for games, just the ability to play blu-ray movies would be nice.

In Soviet Russia, Kinect Controls YOU!
Here's a video of the Star Wars game being "played". Impressive how the character moves before the player, isn't it? What's that? This is proof that this Kinect demo was fraudulent and it's not that responsive? Yes. Yes it is.

Final Comments:

What an underwhelming first day for E3. Here's hoping tomorrow will be better?

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