with Emmet Purcell
1903:
A very, very brief Halo 4 gets everyone pretty hyped at the show’s close. “The dawn of a new trilogy” too apparently. Honestly, however, that was a pretty disappointing show. Without doubt, Microsoft shareholders will have loved what they saw – well known brands (Star Wars, Sesame Street, Disney) that will explode on Kinect but core gamers should feel a little irked at what was demonstrated.
Where are the first-party exclusives that aren’t childrens game? Why is the biggest Xbox 360 game of the year Gears of War 3, which was delayed from last 2010? Not the greatest show for gamers that were hoping for less Kinect functionality, but clearly Microsoft is following the market and following their new cuddly, family-friendly image all the way.
1856:
Don Mattrick is back onstage. Is it Halo 4 time?
1856:
Simultaneous dancing for Dance Central 2 actualy looks pretty fun.
1854:
There are no words for that Kinect Sports American Football demo. Not cool – not cool at all. Now Harmonix are here to demonstrate Dance Central 2.
1850:
Trailer for Kinect Sports: Season Two now. Tennis, American Football, Golf and Skiing are on the cards.
1848:
Object Capture is the next facet to be unveiled – similar to what was promised and then quickly forgotten about in E3 2009. Looks like a pretty impressive feature too. ‘Imagine the possibilities…’ says the onscreen lady. Imagine the opportunities for mischief…
1845:
Kinect Fun Labs now. A lot of online Kinect fatigue right now – can’t blame those that are getting a little disgruntled. Fun Labs seems to be a more advanced version of the 3DS’ avatar creation. Now we’re seeing finger-tracking – the Xbox Vitality Sensor? No, of course not.
1842:
Microsoft, can we have a word? Do you have ANY first-party games for players over the age of 12? Aside from the soon-to-be revealed Halo 4 of course. Sesame Street looks fine but not sure if E3 is the right platform for its debut.
1839:
Tim Schafer from Double Fine is here to demonstrate Sesame Street for Kinect. Ordinarily I couldn’t care less but Schafer has a great track record and is an engaging on-stage presence.
1837:
If the point of this game is to make you ‘feel’ like a Jedi, surely LucasArts should remove the cringeworthy compulsory ‘Lightsaber On’ voice command?
1836:
Very noticeable lag between the onstage player’s actions for Star Wars Kinect and the character’s representation in-game. I can see it appealing to teenage boys though and it does seem to have excellent production values… for a Kinect game anyway.
1834:
Star Wars Kinect. This might cheer me up. Already seeing hashtags for “FIST BUMP”. #fistbump
1833:
Can we go back to the Minecraft announcement, Microsoft… please? I can safely say that not even Nintendo have produced an E3 moment this embarrassing in years. “SO COOL!” “FIST BUMP!”
1831:
Oh god, the on-stage children are incredibly annoying. “OH NO! CAPTAIN HOOK!”
1831:
Wow! Minecraft coming exclusively to Xbox 360 and Kinect. And… that’s all they’re saying about it. Now we’re seeing Disneyland Adventures Kinect, which looks like an interactive game version of the theme park. “Let’s take a look…”. Let’s not…
1829:
One early criticism, however, is that this looks very much like an on-rails shooter – not surprising as we can’t think of how full 360-degree movement would work. Great tweet for @Miguel_A_Perez as the demonstrator stood up mid-game: ‘Standing up makes your spells stronger!’
1827:
Well, it certainly does look as though Microsoft are looking to court the core gamers with Kinect a lot more this year than last. The Journey looks to be a typical Fable game, though utilises a first-person viewpoint and pure motion controls.
1825:
Peter Molyneux is standing behind a Fable: The Journey logo. Hopefully we don’t go on a journey to find that irritating Milo kid…
1824:
Kanye West’s ‘Power‘ makes a second E3 2011 appearence after showing up in the new Saints Row title from GameTrailers pre-conference show. Kinect headtracking and voice commands are promised. October 11 release date.
1822:
Turn 10 are here to tell us about Forza Motorsport 4. Hopefully we can see in-game action and not just a guy walking around his car, as we saw at E3 2010 instead.
1821:
And now we’ve got a trailer for the Halo: Combat Evolved remake. A ‘fully remastered campaign’ is promised. The official title is Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.
1820:
Looks like a bloody swords and sandals-style Roman-era motion control game. No point in complaining – it’s the first new game announcement we’ve seen thus far.
1818:
Crytek games logo fills the screen – could this be the Kinect title Ryse?
1816:
Seeing a few tweets that Ice-T’s wife should be demonstrating onstage instead. Won’t argue with that. Insane tentacled boss being taken down by the rapper and Cliffy B right now.
1813:
Cliffy B and Ice-T are about to demonstrate a co-op demo. Suddenly, this press conference has became unspeakably awesome.
1812:
I spoke too soon, it would appear. Now we’re looking at Xbox 360 exclusives and first up is Epic Game’s Gears of War 3.
1810:
It should be pointed out that we’re 40 minutes into this press conference and still not a single first-party game has been shown yet.
1809:
UFC president Dana White takes to the stage next, though it doesn’t seem to be for the latest THQ title – instead we’re looking at more TV voice control it would appear.
1808:
“You say it, Xbox finds it”. “TV is more amazing when you are the controller”. Stop repeating these two lines!
1806:
Excellent derisory tweet from @stillgray: ‘It’s the NEW new Xbox experience. Control shit with your voice, just like last year. #e3?. Now you can us Bing on Kinect too. Bing is a great way to search and find Google when you’re using someone else’s computer.
1804:
Microsoft is now demoing the ‘future’ of television – shouting at your TV and not using the remote control.
1802:
Now we’re seeing the gun and sight being demonstrated with controller whatsoever. Well-deserved applause – that genuinely could be a game-changer. Guillemot finishes his presentation by saying that all future Ghost Recon titles will fully use Kinect too.
1800:
First audience whoop of the show and it’s deserved. Excellent-looking ‘Gunsmith’ motion control option for weapon creation – apparently you can create over 20m combinations.
1759:
Quick bullet time-style trailer for Ghost Recon: Future Trailer plays and now Ubisoft’s CEO Yves Guillemot is on the stage and hmm… it’s time for more Kinect voice commands.
1756:
Jeez, can you imagine if that was the only way to play the game? Now we’re seeing a combat scene in which you can issue commands. That makes more sense but we can’t really see ourselves ever using this feature.
1754:
Sheperd is speaking to Mordin Solus and the guy on-stage is literally ‘acting’ out the on-screen dialogue wheel options. This is… pretty embarrassing to be honest.
1753:
Well that is unexpected. Ray Muzyka’s onstage helper is about to showcase Kinect compatibility for voice commands in Mass Effect 3.
1752:
EA’s Peter Moore is here to talking about the possibilities of Kinect for EA Sports and its Sims titles. Oh wait, he’s already off. Now it’s BioWare time – Mass Effect 3 please…
1750:
Damn, Lara really isn’t having a lucky time of it trying to escape this cave. Excellent lighting effects on display throughout here, not to mention graphics that do show the laziness of Modern Warfare 3‘s decision to re-use the MW2 engine. Whew, she’s finally out. Very impressive, thought admittedly heavily-scripted demo – though we expect the latter will be through of every game tonight.
1747:
This is certainly a much ‘grittier’ version of Tomb Raider, to use an much-maligned cliche. Grunting, burning herself, panting – what’s not to love?
1745:
Lots of grunting from Lara…
1744:
Crystal Dynamics take to the stage to demonstrate the new reboot of Tomb Raider. Excellent start this presentation so far. Hmm… Lara doesn’t seem to be doing too well, as she’s held captive on a “mysterious island”.
1742:
Nice. Riding the dinghy right into a player for evac. A panned-out view of the Manhattan skyline ends the bombastic demo. Glen Schofield of Sledgehammer Games joins Bowling onstage for a few brief lines before exiting the stage.
1740:
And now Bowling’s character is flying across the Hudson River on a dinghy, with aircraft carriers exploding all around him. It certainly doesn’t look subtle.
1737:
Now we’re seeing a firefight on top of the submarine, with a ruined Manhattan skyline in the background. Excellent opening section, though we’re now in typical COD-mode as Bowling’s character is moving through the watery sections of the sub itself.
1735:
Looks to be a stealth-orientated mission. Dodging mines, planting mines on a giant submarine. Certainly looks impressive.
1734:
A scuba-diving section, you say? This could put paid to the ‘more of the same criticisms’ for MW3.
1733:
Not a bad way to start your press conference – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling is on stage and we’ve already had the first faux pas of the event – a ‘please reconnect controller’ on-screen message.
1731:
*Checks watch* Alright people – let’s do this!
1724:
Not much time left to go now. Intriuging reaction on Twitter to the title ‘Halo 4? – specifically because 343 Studios, as we already knew, are taking over the Halo franchise from its creator Bungie. Evidently plenty of Halo fans aren’t too happy that 343 are seemingly producing a canon entry in the series, rather than their own seperate vision that would remain in the series universe.
1718:
Oh god, the incessant deluge of self-promoting GameTrailers content on their stream is pretty ridiculous. Please Microsoft, let’s get this show going already – I’m not sure I can face another 12 minutes of this.
1713:
So probably the question many of you are wondering is, “Where can I watch the footage in addition to reading the JOE live blog?” Here are all the links you need: Xbox.com, GameTrailers, G4TV , GameSpot , IGN, GamePro. Of the six, we recommend GameTrailers, who have got started a little earlier than usual.
1704:
A few days ago, we ran through a preview of what to expect from tonight’s show. As you can imagine, if today’s leaked info is to be believed, then our guesses are probably horrendously dated. Either way, expect plenty of prominence to be given to both previously-announced heavy-hitters, Gears of War 3 and Forza Motorsport 4.
1700:
Welcome, one and all, to JOE.ie’s first ever E3 live-tracker. Tonight we’ll be covering Microsoft from 17:30-19:00 BST and tomorrow it’s Nintendo’s turn from 17:00. Sorry Sony fans, we’ll be tucked into bed by the time tonight’s conference begins at 01:00 BST.
A few days ago, it seemed as though this year’s E3, the biggest event in the entire video games industry, was going to be a two-horse race between Nintendo’s Project Café/Wii 2 announcement and Sony’s PSP 2/Playstation Vita reveal. That all changed a couple of hours ago.
If a quickly-vanished Xbox.com leak is to be believed, Microsoft is ready to show us Halo 4 and a remake of Halo: Combat Evolved at this year’s press conference, which begins in just under a half-hour. Simply put, the internet has collectively crapped its pants in the past two hours.
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