Microsoft ushered in new trailers and announcements at their briefing as Galen Center filled with press. I ended up with a lot of foreign press and they love to smoke, everywhere and anywhere. Any foreign press I talked to explained how much they hated LA and considered awful.
It was a glorious first day of briefings.Microsoft, oh Microsoft, all in all it bored with sequel after sequel with no original title insight. If fact really no new properties were discussed at any briefing I attended for E3. Microsoft showed off many repeat titles including Dance Central 3, which had special guest Usher showcasing the game. Yeah, Usher, that was relevant to the mostly male audience. With DLC out there you'd think they'd just have massive updates and add new songs to Dance Central, but it's a good way to make money, here's another disc for $60.
The game I cared most about in the presentation was shown near the end by Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Yes, the creators of South Park made fun of Xbox SmartGlass and showed off South Park: The Stick of Truth an RPG, where you're the new kid in South Park trying to be cool. It looks like a classic battle system, but with South Park jokes and overall story that will make you fill like you're in multiple episodes of the show. Can't wait to play it!
What Matt and Trey were making fun of earlier in their presentation was Xbox SmartGlass or SmartAss to me. SmartAss connects all your media devices to your Xbox and accounts, it's nice. Having the ability to check your stats and connect with friends by mobile devices and other media devices seems fine. It never really had a "wow" moment. You can connect to different media like Hulu and Youtube and different music services through the Xbox and now Internet Explorer.
No idea how fast it will work, but it might be a standard for a while until TV's and PC's combine more. To me all these services should just be implemented already.
Game wise you got the New Halo 4, looks like every other Halo I've seen. It seems like it stole enemy designs from the Metroid series. Enemies look like angry robots with pieces of themselves that float together and robot bugs. Halo 4 had this big space ship taking off at the start and I thought gameplay or an area where you would fight would change, but no. Your gal pal Corona looks like she"ll become your enemy over the course of the story.
Nathan Drake was back with Splinter Cell: Black List. There were great new ways to kill with bullet time and an arsenal of nasty weapons. You seem to torture your enemies before taking them down breaking arms and such, before stabbing them away.
If you're into sports EA and its sports series are in full swing to make the most interactive experience possible. You connect through mobile devices and PC and check stats and what not. Gameplay and new engines for Madden make it more immersive and give the player more chances to win and lose.
Fable the Journey looked like a magic shooter. Just lame.
Nike Plus Kinect Training seems like a good way to workout. It's a simple game showing how to work out and it will remind you through Nike'a own network when to get back to exercising. It let's you connect their brand of Nike software to the Kinect and some sort of sports watch.
Watching the next Lara Croft was painful. Not because the game is bad, but because poor Laura kept falling down on the world latgest incline ever. She fell through a river, mountains and airplane and then through trees. I'll while killing people with a bow and arrow.
"Bow and arrow" the most used weapon in new games this year. Everyone in game development must have loved Robin Hood or some other joke relating to bow and arrows as every game I saw had one.
Such as Wreckateer, where you are the bow and arrow, launching weapons at castles trying to destroy them. Seems like a fun fast tile to get into...
So yeah, nothing that amazing for Xbox this year, if your into Halo have fun later this year. Other than that I guess wat until October for every other game coming out.
