So, the most wonderful time of the year for gamers has arrived and Microsoft was given the duty of kicking off this year’s festivities with their press conference this year. In my opinion, last year Microsoft “won” E3 in a big way with their press conference, even though I’m always rooting for Nintendo deep down. Hopefully Nintendo has something insanely huge up their sleeves, because Microsoft again had a pretty good showing this year. Read on for the highlights.
(all of the highlights are accompanied by pictures that you can click to see larger versions)
The new Xbox 360 dashboard that will automatically be activated in every console that updates itself this fall was unveiled. It features an AppleTV/Front Row/Coverflow-like style that is very Apple-inspired. When you hit the Xbox button you get a plethora of options now as showcased in the second picture, and thus it acts almost like a mini-version of the current tabbed system. Along with the design makeover, the community of Xbox Live gets a graphical overall with a “My5” kind of idea coming across. You can have 8 of your closest friends added into your “party” through which you can share photos and even videos over the network, which is pretty snazzy. It also makes playing games together a little more intuitive for the technically declined. Overall, for the ingenuity, the will to change, and the general coolness, this gets a “sweet”.
Next in the line of Microsoft’s stolen ideas comes their take on Miis, avatars. Avatar is the English word appropriate for such representations, but its ripping off Miis, The Sims, Second Life, and PS Home all at the same time. You can’t say that they’re not gutsy for continually making their moves with disregard for everything, but I think that this is a pretty dumb idea. This gets a “:P”.
From what we can currently tell, this is to be a “director’s cut” version of Portal with new levels/achievements and the like. Needless to say, I’m terribly excited because Portal is one of the single greatest, yet tragically short games ever made. Microsoft also announced some additional XBLA sequels including Geometry Wars 2 and a sequel to the original Galaga called Galaga Legions.
As a quick side-note after the presentation of some more gameplay from the new and skepticism-drawing Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts, Rare mentioned that the original Banjo Kazooie is coming to XBLA. It’s going to be interesting to see how this turns out and what, if anything, is changed in the game for its new release.
Sony was shot and pissed on today personally by Square Enix as they announced that Final Fantasy XIII will be launched on Xbox 360 at the same time as the PS3 version. Now Sony has maybe one (Killzone 2) system-selling exclusive game on the way, otherwise there isn’t much hope. This gets an enthusiastic “Mwahaha!”.
Duffy, who already was a singer that I despise, gave her #1 worst performance ever today at the Microsoft E3 Press Conference. Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, had her headlining track playing on the screen behind her in the game “Lips” (made by the Elite Beat Agents and Gitaroo Man guy) (it still looks crappy) at full blast while expecting her to give an actual performance on stage at the same time. Needless to say, singing over yourself at different times is rather a nuisance and ended up being horrid for all those involved. This gets a “blarf”.
Overall, this year’s Microsoft E3 Press Conference gets an:
8.5/10