Microsoft kicked off E3 with a bang today, hosting a media briefing that has set the bar for others to follow.
The show kicked off with a reveal of The Beatles Rock Band, the upcoming band game from Harmonix and MTV Games. The opening cinematic trailer was suitably surreal and featured tunes such as I Am the Walrus. The Harmonix house band then took to the stage to perform a live rendition of Day Tripper in the game. 10 of the 45 songs to be included on the disc were also revealed and Harmonix announced that Abbey Road will be released as DLC shortly after launch. All You Need is Love will be released exclusively through Xbox LIVE. As a special surprise, the gathered audience were treated to a few words from Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.
Corporate VP for Xbox, John Schappert took to the stage and announced that 10 game world premiers would be made at the conference – no charts or graphs. Then onto the stage came Tony Hawk to introduce his new game, Ride – the peripheral-based game in the long-running series. Next came what will undoubtedly be one of the biggest games of the year, Modern Warfare 2. After we were shown the already released trailer for the game Infinity Ward ran through a live demo in a snow-covered level that started on a mountain side. John Schappert then announced that two Modern Warfare 2 map packs would be released first on Xbox LIVE.
Yoshinori Kitase and Motomu Toriyama from Square Enix then took centre stage to talk about Final Fantasy XIII. They showed the very first footage of the highly anticipated game running on Xbox 360 and announced that the team is targeting a spring 2010 release. Schappert then revealed that everything we’re about to see will be available only on Xbox 360.
Cliff Bleszinski and Donald Mustard were first up, revealing the Chair Entertainment developed Shadow complex, an XBLA game exclusive to Xbox 360. The acton, exploration game will feature over ten hours of gameplay and include plenty of replay value – lots of collectables. The game will be released this summer on Xbox LIVE Arcade. Next, more for XBLA. Joy Ride is an all-new Avatar adventure from BigPark. It will be free to download and play, but there seems to be an emphasis on premium DLC – buy cars, upgrades and more. The kart racer will be released this winter.
It was trailer time next, with a reel that consisted of trailers for Xbox 360 exclusive sequels. First up was Crackdown 2. Sadly it was all CGI, but there was a definite mutation vibe with what appeared to be a large monster taking on the featured agent. A trailer for Left 4 Dead 2 followed, with a release date of November 17 revealed – it’ll be released on PC and Xbox 360. Splinter Cell Conviction rounded off an exclusive trio of titles, again in CG form, but Ubisoft then took to the stage to show off a live demonstration of the game. The game has changed a lot since it was last show off, with Ubisoft’s goal being to keep you immersed at all times. It’ll be released this autumn exclusively on Xbox 360.
Back to internally developed games next, with racing studio Turn 10 next under the spotlight. Forza MotorSport 3 was announced for release in October. Turn 10’s Dan Greenawalt talked about the new Xbox 360 exclusive racer and made all manner of statements, including the rather bold claim that Forza 3 will be the ‘definitive racing game of this generation’. Forza 3 will feature a brand new graphics engine running at 60fps, it’ll reportedly be the biggest racing game of this generation in terms of content, and there will feature a large community focus, allowing users to share car designs, and create and upload HD video.
It was the biggest franchise of them all next, with Bungie’s Joe Staten demoing spin-off title Halo 3: ODST. The game takes place in New Mombassa, weeks before the start of Halo 3 and will ships September 22. Bungie then confirmed that it has been working on Halo: Reach, due autumn 2010. It’ll show gamers what happened right at the beginning. Gamers will be able to get a taste of Reach by buying ODST as it will include an invite to the Reach multiplayer beta.
Many wondered if the highly anticipated Alan Wake would ever see the light of day, so thankfully the Remedy developed title was next to receive a live gameplay demo. The quite bizarre looking supernatural action adventure game will be released in spring 2010.
Innovation was next up, in the shape of a number of announcements that are likely to go beyond the gaming press. Music is coming to Xbox LIVE through a partnership with Last.fm. It’ll be available to Gold members later this year at no additional cost, in numerous locations around the world. Improvements to Netflix are also coming to Xbox LIVE, while the Sky partnership will launch this autumn for us Brits. Zune video is to launch this autumn, bringing with it 1080p movies and the ability to watch content instantly – the service will be made available in 18 countries. InstantOn 1080p will launch this autumn. You’ll even be able to watch all the content with your friends thank to the LIVE Party system.
The big names were rolled out next, with Microsoft revealing a partnership that will bring Facebook to Xbox LIVE this autumn. The demo showed status updates and photo sharing. What’s more, current internet darling Twitter will launch on the service in the autumn too.
Rumours of Metal Gear Solid coming to Xbox 360 have been doing the rounds for years, and today legendary game designer Hideo Kojima announced that a new game in the series, Metal Gear Solid: Rising, is currently in development for Xbox 360. It’ll star Raiden and is a completely new Metal Gear Solid title. It’s currently unclear if the game will arrive on other platforms.
Next up was the least surprising announcement: the Xbox 360 full body motion control device. Codenamed Project Natal, the device is currently being sent out to developers and promises to change the way we play games. Steven Spielberg entered to talk about how he felt Natal will change the way we play games, Kudo Sinota, Creative Director of Project Natal, demonstrated a neat 3D break-out game and a painting studio, and then Peter Molyneux showed what he’s being using Natal for.
The ambitious game designer showcased a virtual boy called Milo. In what was a quite unbelievable tech demo, Milo interacted with a Lionhead employee in a way we’ve never seen in a video game, responding to gestures and words. Molyneux seemingly knew that the gathered crowd would be sceptical, so informed them that a select few would get to try it for themselves this week.
That was it. All in all a very solid line-up from Microsoft and third-parties, and Project Natal appears to offer something beyond what we’ve already got from Wii. If there was one disappointment it’s the complete no-show from massive Microsoft-owned studio Rare, whose absence is really quite baffling.
