The Games
Microsoft demo’ed several games at the Briefing, and made several world premieres along the way.
-The Beatles: Rock Band – The show began with the opening cutscene of the upcoming Beatles Rock Band game, which is set to launch on September 9th, 2009, on the tenth anniversary of the US Sega Dreamcast release, and also on the day that thirteen Beatles’ albums are being re-released on CD. Anyway, the game is shaping up well from the live gameplay footage we witnessed. A group of players came out and performed Day Tripper as well. Several of the available tracks were made known too:
I Saw Her Standing There
I Want To Hold Your Hand
I Feel Fine
Day Tripper
Taxman
I Am the Walrus
Back In the USSR
Octopus’s Garden
Here Comes the Sun
Get Back
As all of these songs were announced, they were also being shown in game, complete with unique background images for all the songs.
Also announced was that soon after launch, the Abbey Road album from the Beatles will be made available through XBL DLC. Additionally, the song All You Need Is Love is going to be an XBL exclusive, and all proceeds from the sale of said song will go directly to the Doctors Without Borders Foundation.
Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr even made an appearance and that was quite a cool surprise; check out our free HD video tonight for their appearance and the rest of the Briefing.
–Tony Hawk: Ride – Tony Hawk was introduced by the VP of Microsoft. He talked about his new game, Tony Hawk: Ride. Ride’s biggest feature is the innovative skateboard controller. The controller looks just like a skateboard, sans the wheels. The controller uses IR to communicate with the 360, and contains gyro sensors and accelerometers. Ollies, grinding, grabbing the board with your hand, and even pushing your board along (but running your foot along the side of it, just like you would on a real one) are all said to be capable with this new controller. They showed a video of several professional skaters playing Ride with this new controller. The game promises to make it easy for newcomers to skating and yet interesting and challenging enough for experts. Watch for it to skate into stores this Fall.
-Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – More Modern Warfare 2 footage was shown, including an expanded trailer and then a couple of developers from Infinity Ward, Jason West and Vince S. played part of a mission. The mission was set in Kazakhstan, with much snow and ice. The player at the outset of this mission is following a gruff looking Captain, which reminded me of the stalking/sniping mission from the first game. In what we saw of MW2, players used ice picks to scale the icy walls of a cliff in Kazakhstan. One thing that impressed me during this demo was the detail of the snow; the high winds and falling snow hindered your ability to see and it created quite an atmosphere. After this sequence of scaling and shimmying along the icy rock face, the demo skipped ahead to a base that it was your objective to damage or destroy. Players were required to set a few charges to destroy a fuel depot. Rather than see the entire sequence play out, the developers skipped ahead to show how the objective fell through, and Jason mentioned that not everything goes as planned. So after this objective fails, players hop onto a snowmobile, and are able to fire their pistol while riding it.
The game is shaping up well and as we all know, is set to be released on November 10th. The first two map packs for the game are coming to XBL first, before PSN, too.
-Final Fantasy XIII – After Modern Warfare 2 was shown, the Director and Producer of Final Fantasy XIII came out to share a little more about the game than we know thus far. The trailer featuring the scorpion-robot was shown, but new gameplay features were also demoed that had not been seen before. As the Director talked about the game (with an English translator), the Producer showed us a new mechanic in the scorpion-robot fight. They mentioned that this ability wouldn’t be available this early in the game in the final product, but that they had given the player this ability just for the sake of this demo. The ability was to use a ‘super move,’ although that isn’t the proper term for it. What happened was that the player, making use of the four time slots in the new combat interface, called upon the help of an warrior, Odin. It looked pretty cool, but not being familiar with Final Fantasy, I would advise you to check out our Free HD video for all the details.
-Shadow Complex – Two folks from Epic Games were up next to show us Shadow Complex, a new title being created by Epic Games exclusively for the XBLA. The game is sort of a third person platformer, with a focus on exploration and action. The player views the action from the side; again, for details, check out our HD video. That said, CliffyB from Epic made it point to tell us that the game has a large exploration element to it, with some 120 items to find. You can also use the environment to your advantage to help dispatch your enemies, which at least for the purposes of this demo included large robots and human targets. I thought the Foam Gun was particularly cool; check it out in the video, but the jist is that players can use it to create impromptu ‘stairs’ and shields. They showed the ‘stair’ ability of the gun by blasting it on a wall, and then jumping on the foam they just plastered on the wall to get up to the next level of the ‘arena’ or game world. I think Shadow Complex is shaping up very well and we’ll be looking forward to it this Fall.
-Joyride – Joyride is being developed by one of Microsoft’s new XBL partners. It’s actually a totally free game that allows players to enjoy the wacky fun of kart racing with their Xbox Avatars. Players can purchase different vehicles and paint for their vehicles (and I would assume different clothing for their Avatars), but the actual game itself is free. Joyride features colorful, cartoony graphics and even though it’s free, could make for an interesting distraction for some 360 gamers.
-Crackdown 2 – This was one of the most exciting parts of the Briefing for me, as a huge fan of the original Crackdown. There was no demo of this game unfortunately, just a trailer, but it looks great — players once again resume the role of a cop who is extremely agile. The trailer was pretty basic, and I don’t even think any in game footage was shown (check our video) but everyone at the Briefing was happy to see it.
-Left 4 Dead 2 – Up next was a trailer for Left 4 Dead 2 — again no demo, but the trailer looks promising. The game appears to be set in Louisiana this time and should feature all of the zombie blasting we can handle. Melee weapons including chainsaws and axes are available this time around too. It’s set for a November 7th release on 360 and PC only.
-Splinter Cell: Conviction – One of Ubi’s biggest franchises is coming exclusively to the 360 now in the form of Splinter Cell: Conviction. This new adventure has changed from what was seen in years past; Sam Fisher has gotten a haircut now but his new mission in life now is still the same: find out who killed his daughter and why. A couple of the developers, Beland and Parazeu, came out to demo the experience. A cutscene reveals that Sam is no longer part of Echelon, but its evident that his leaving the organization isn’t pleasing those that run it. Cut loose from the constraints of Echelon, Sam is now free to be more violent than before. Quick, brutal kills are sure to be plentiful and look really good. Interrogations are still included, too. At one point in the demo that was shown, players interrogate an NPC in a bathroom by bashing him up against the wall and into a mirror; great stuff. Sam will still need to make every use darkness too get the jump on his enemies. A new weapon was also shown, the EMP grenade; this grenade can disable lights and other electronics within a small radius.
Another interesting and cool element to the game is how the devs are focusing on making it a very seamless experience. Most of the story is played out seamlessly within the game world in a way I haven’t quite seen before; for example, what would normally be a cutscene video (in this case, showing the car wreck that killed Sam’s daughter) was instead shown on a wall, in the game world. No character in the game can see this, but the player can, and doing this way gives players the best of both worlds — seamless play with cutscenes that add to the story (but without having to disrupt the flow of the game). Mission objectives are similiarly displayed; rather than popping up on screen in your HUD, your objectives are simply plastered on a wall; check out our video to see what I mean.
-Forza Motorsport 3 – Touted as the most complete and best racer in our generation, Forza 3 is coming to 360s this Fall. Featuring 50 manufacturers and some 400 vehicles, Forza is huge, and looks incredible; the new graphics engine will also run at 60fps. One Button Driving and the ability to Rewind are also being added to the Forza experience. Developers are also expanding the experience once again with help from tuners and painters online, which further expands the game for consumers.
-HALO 3 ODST – Orbital Drop Shock Trooper was shown by Joe Staten, Creative Director at Bungie. This new experience takes place several weeks before those in HALO 3 and have the player controlling several different Shock Troopers throughout the story’s mysterious campaign. These sequences take place through flashbacks that players experience as they explore the game world, which is set on one of the planet’s of the HALO universe, the name of which I cannot recall or find in my notes. Anyway, being able to play different Shock Troopers at different times to unlock various details on the same mysterious story should be intriguing.
Additionally, a very brief teaser of HALO: Reach was shown. Details are very few, but if you buy ODST, you will get a beta invite to Reach.
-Alan Wake – It’s been a long time since Alan Wake was first shown, but Remedy has come a long way. The story driven third person adventure game features plenty of action and supernatural aspects. The story is about Alan Wake, and the search for his wife. The two of them went on vacation to a remote town, but Alan’s wife has gone missing. Alan, a writer, is working on his latest novel, which involves the supernatural. Unfortunately, the events Alan is writing about are unfolding before his eyes. The gameplay we were shown had Alan using a flashlight to help destroy these bizarre supernatural beings that were attempting to kill him. The enemies looked a lot like zombies with melee weapons. The flashlight and flares, along with a trusty six shooter and pump shotgun, were used by Alan to kill the beings.
In terms of presentation, Alan Wake looks and sounds amazing. The lighting effects with the flashlight and the spooky setting rocked; I also really liked the use of voiceovers by Alan’s character to help further the story along, without disrupting game play. So while you are running about in the game world, Alan’s voice will chime in to help advance the story, although cutscenes will be used as well of course. The flare effects were particularly awesome on a side note; when used, the game slowed down (by design) to allow players to more fully take in the power of these flares against these particular enemies, who shriek back in pain from the brilliant light of the flare.
Alan Wake is due out in the Spring of 2010, exclusively for the 360.
-Metal Gear Solid: Rising – Kojima came out to let everyone know that Metal Gear Solid is indeed coming to the 360. I don’t now that they will bring 4 or others to the 360, but a new one that was very briefly teased, Rising, is coming at some point. No in game footage was shown, but Rising stars Raiden. The game title showed ‘Lightning Bolt Action’ as opposed to ‘Espionage Action,’ making the announcement all the more interesting.
More XBL Experiences
Several major changes and additions are coming to XBL as well. Announced was a partnership with Last.fm, so now you can experience music straight from your 360. This partnership will give XBL users access to thousands of songs and many internet based radio stations. Users can browse by genre and by station name; artwork is also included. This service will be free to Gold members.
The Netflix-360 video service has been something that lots of XBL users have enjoyed, but it too is seeing some major changes. Now, videos will be on demand, in 1080p, and it’s expanding to another ten countries, bringing the total number of countries that can use the service to eighteen. This means no more downloading, and no more discs; I am personally not one that uses this service, but for those that do, this is huge news.
Additionally, for UK and Irish XBL users, Microsoft announced a partnership with Sky TV.
Microsoft didn’t stop there however; announcements of Twitter and Facebook integration were made too. These changes will appear in the dashboard and will allow you to view photos, leave comments, and check on your friends’ status. One particularly cool feature is a window that shows your friends’ Gamertags and their corresponding Facebook names. It’s easy to add one to the other from this screen.
Natal
The biggest announcement of the Briefing came at the end, which wasn’t surprising. It also wasn’t that surprising that it was a motion controller, but the type of motion controller, and its capabilities shocked everyone. Project Natal is the current name of a product Microsoft has been developing for several months. This fascinating sensor mounts to your TV, although exact details on this were not at all mentioned. What its capable of, however, was made rather clear. The idea was that controllers have only become more complicated over the years, and for gaming to really go to the next level in our culture, the controller must be taken out of the equation.
With Natal, you are the controller. The 3D sensor picks up your motions and even your voice, in real time. Facial recognition is also part of the functionality of this cleary exciting technology. Steven Spielberg and Peter Molyneux came out to add their glowing early reviews of the product, which has no release date nor price. Several demos were shown too, including a 3D version Blaster, known as Richochet. In Ricochet, players are tasked with destroying a wall down a hallway by ‘thwackiing’ balls towards it. You do this by moving your legs, arms, head. These balls bounce off of the wall and come back at you, requiring you to react by hitting them again. The game definitely gets you moving and looks like fun — what’s even better is that no controller is required.
The next demo game shown was Splat, a painting game. In Splat, you start with a basic canvas and are free to paint as you please. Controls in Splat are intentionally basic and far from precise — you simply move your arms in different ways to simulate slinging paint or throwing buckets. To change colors, you just say the color you want. This seemed perfectly seamless too; the developer demo’ing the game was able to talk to the audience and then seamlessly just tell the game, out loud, what color he wanted, all without using a controller.
In the demo shown, the developer was working on a landscape scene that featured and elephant. To create the elephant, he asked the girl that played the Ricochet game earlier to join him. Together, the two posed in such a manner that their silhouette looked a lot like an elephant. Splat has a Pose feature to it where players can take snapshot of their pose; the resulting image is then shown on the canvas, where it can be painted separately (it acts as a stencil).
Several other demos were shown in passing too, via a trailer. A racing game controlled by moving your hands as though they were holding a steering wheel was featured. Players can also shift gears by moving their hands in the proper motion. This particular racing game was also shown to be multiplayer in that after the driver pulled into a pit stop, their local friend was able to simulate replacing their tires.
The most impressive demo shown was that of Milo. At Lionhead Studios, Peter and his crew have been hard at work in the past few months creating a virtual character known as Milo. The demo showed Claire, a real person at Lionhead, talking to Milo. Milo’s reactions were incredibly realistic; first of all, he was able to tell it was Claire by using Project Natal’s facial recognition. Secondly, he recognized her voice, too, and reacted to what she said beautifully. Claire was even able to draw a basic picture of a fish on a piece of paper, hold it up to Natal, and move her hands in such a way as to pass the paper to Milo, who then immediately grabbed it and was able to look at it. Everyone in the audience seemed fascinated…
Another part of the video that was really amazing had Milo throwing a pair of goggles to Claire. The goggles flew towards the screen, and then Claire reacted with a catching motion; the game, or demo, immediately recognized what happened and reacted accordingly — truly amazing.
Natal also allows for navigating the dashboard of the 360. You can scroll through the menu by sliding your hand to the left, right, up, or down. By pushing in towards the screen, you are selecting the highlighted option on screen. Additionally, the dash recognizes your voice and face, too. Voice commands can be used to start and stop movies too from Netflix.
Project Natal has a ridiculous amount of promise and potential — development kits are going to the hands of developers now, and hopefully we’ll hear about a price and release date soon. Natal is only being shown to a select few this year at E3, but if we’re able to get our hands on it, you can be sure we’ll post an article on it.
