E3 2010: Reporting to you LIVE from Microsoft's big pre-E3 reveal - Project Natal becomes Kinect, sporting partnerships, new 360 build, and more!
Here's something we don't often do on Atomic - a live update! We're currently in the Wiltern Theater, on Wilshire Blvd in downtown Los Angeles, and we're waiting for the big Xbox 360 press conference to start.
It's already pretty crazy. E3 events happen on a scale like you wouldn't believe - press from around the world, more people typing on laptops (like me) and updating Twitter than is normally healthy, and lines around the block waiting to get in. And that's not even mentioning the gaudily dressed (or undressed, more accurately) Cirque de Soliel performers arting it up in the foyer.
So stay tuned (if you're awake - it's 3am as we speak back home), as we update the news as it happens!
* [sexy stage voice] The briefing will begin in five minutes... Wow, how organised! Also, scary - if she had have announced some kind of self destruct sequence I would not have been surprised.
* huh. Call of Duty Black Ops trailer... wow, that looks really good! And here's Treyarch's Mark Lamia....
* And straight into a gameplay demo. A tunnel clearing operation that is genuinely impressive. And a little bit scary. Then into a mission to grab a stolen helicopter, after which we get a flying sequence. Still looking really good.
* And now the Senior VP of Entertainment at Microsoft, Don Mattrick. And his first announcement: an exclusive deal with Activision to release all their upcoming titles on Xbox first. Sucks to be a PC fan. (also sucks to to type in a dark theater!)
* Hideo Kojima!!!
* He and his producer are talking up Metal Gear Solid: Rising, a swordcutty.-based action game. Looks very cutty.
* And now Cliff Bleszinki, nad a live gameplay demo of of four player co-op in Gears of War 3. Any demo that srtarts with a badguy ripping someone's arm off and beating them to death with it is good in our books.
* We're seeing the new baddies, the Lambent. Very tentacluar, but to be perfectly honest... still looks kinda lame.
* And now Peter Molyneux... urge to crotch punch him is strong. He's talking up Fable 3 and bad jokes about British humour. Cue demo - now more cartoony than ever before, but we're a sucker for any game with black powder weapons.
* New partner studio: Crytek, and its new game, curiously titled Codename Kingdoms.
* Bungi Creative Director, and Halo Reach. Oh yeah, the campaign looks good. Covenant Elites drop podding into combat - neat. and wow - looks like some space-based vehicle action.
* Marc Whitten, Corporate VP Xbox LIVE. Talking the new kinect, the real name of Prject Natal. Stupid name or what?
Regardless, the gesture-based unit looks really interesting. It uses facial recognition to log you in when you wave at it. It uses a new interface to browse content, and it even uses voice control. Cool. And man, I wish we had Zune in Oz.
What's also cool about Kinect is that it turns the Xbox into that eat device from Bladerunner - talking at your TV has never looked so good. "Xbox, pause. Stop." Heh.
Then there's the scial side of Kinect, which makes for rather elegant social networking. Live video chatting - looks like we're living in the future. About time. Video chatting while watching movies or news is pretty smooth.
* Big news for sparts fans, too - ESPN is coming to Xbox Live. But, we're guessing only in the US. Poo. The Kinect features look really good.
* Kudo Tsunoda, Creative Director for KInect.Note; Wearing sunglasses on stage makes you look like a douchebag. And now he's joined by the world's cutest child to demo some Kinect-only games. Some kind of pet simulator... oh God, the sweetness, it hurts It's called Kinectimals. Groan.
* And now Kinect Sports - a great way to look dumb in front of your TV. Run, jump, and be an arm waving idiot to win!
* and what's a gesture-based interface without a racing game - Kinect Joyride.
* Kinect Adventure, an action puzzle-solving game.
Ubisoft's also bring a game to Kinect - Your Shape, a fitness game. It uses the full body sensing system of Kinect, scanning your body and getting full measuremtns of height and other dimensions to tailor exercises for you. Annoyingly, t looks really interesting. It even has martial arts... odd.
* And now the obligatory dancing game, Dance Central, from Harmonix.. Really, rhythm and dancing games... we just don't get them. But, with the full body sensing you do get a very unique experience.
* And now hte details... it releases on the 4th of Nevember.
* Okay, now we're excited. A deal with Lucasarts to produce an exclusive Kinect Star Wars game. Trailer shows some tasty lightsaber action. Coming in 2011. Yes.
* Big news - new Xbox 360 is shipping to retailers today - smaller, sleeker, 250GB, drive built in wifi, for $US299. Like.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012