Microsoft's Press Conference starts at 10am. Will we see Halo?. Will we see kinect integration with hardcore games? New IP's? Your guess is as good as mine. Stay tuned right here on Player Affinity.
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9:30
The first trailer that was shown was Modern Warfare 3. You first start off scuba diving, similar to Modern Warfare 2, slowly making your way into a submarine. The graphics look more notable than Black Ops, which had the best graphics in the series.
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9:45
Laura Croft showed up shortly later to show a demo of Tomb Raider. I wasn't impressed with the gameplay shown. Her pressing of LB and RB is major turn off to me. What impressed me was the presentation. There seems to be no drop off from the CG trailer released last week.
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10:00
Mass Effect 3 quickly made the stage after EA sports discussed Madden and Fifa without showing them. Bioware showed off their voice capture system, showing how it would be used in both dialogue and in combat. This amazed me greatly. You can still play using the controller, but the kinect interface will surely make you feel like Commander Shepard. They also showed off a quick time event that acts as a finishing move. I can't wait for this game.
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10:05
Ghost Recon showed a CG trailer that was very similar to the Ubisoft's E3 Press Conference last year. After the trailer was shown, one of the developers came out and showed how Kinect was going to be integrated into Ghost Recon. You can customize your gun and shoot without using the controller at all, using only Kinect. I was impressed, but I need to see gameplay footage before I can say that Hardcore can work with Kinect.
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10:08
The best annoucement so far was that Youtube and live TV are coming to Xbox. I wasn't surprised with Youtube but live TV such as NBC, Fox , and ABC (not confirmed but shown) will save me from my current cable bill. Im a big Netflix user, so this adds to my options for eliminating high television costs.
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10:10
Gears of War 3 was called "the best and most polished game in the series" by Cliff Bleszinski, the design director of Epic Games. Soon after, Ice-T made an appearence playing as his character in the game. Marcus and gang appear to be fighting the swamp monster and need something more than their Lancer to kill it. What do they get? No other than two robots with machine guns. This plays into having four player co-op, as you have to guard two of your friends.
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10:20
Halo: Combat Evolved HD was finally announced. Mulitplayer was the main thing shown. I wasn't impressed, as this is the first game 343 is doing, and the graphics don't look up to par for an HD remake. I will still buy it though because I'm a Halo fan, but they need to show more previews before November.
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10:25
Oh no, Fable. I'm not a Fable fan as they always fail to deliever on what they promised. The only gameplay footage was a man appearing to cast magic with his hand. Im not impressed simply because it looks like an arcade shooter since you aren't controlling your movement. You're waving your hand and watching things happen. There is nothing impressive here.
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10:30
What started off good turned out to be one of the worst things shown so far. Minecraft was released. I've never played Minecraft but I see the point of having it on Xbox Live with Kinect. I was bothered by the fact that the Kinect Disneyland experience didn't seem to end. Please, do I need to spend 60 dollars on a cheap arcade ride?
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10:35
Star Wars Kinect was finally shown with some gameplay. It looked alright, but I haven't liked the last LucasArts games. It starts off in Coruscant. We see a lot of clones from Episode 1. After you beat those awful clones from the prequals, you travel home to Bespin and in order to fight two Sith Lords. It cuts off shortly after, but they managed to show the ability to move your character, unlike Fable. I didn't mind it, but I would have laughed if it was the Star Wars kid doing the demo.
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10:45
After a short break, Microsoft showed off Kinect facial capturing, so now your avatar is finally you. Now I regret buying all that Avatar gear. They also showed the ability to capture an object and use it in Kinect. As you would expect, they showed they showed off Kinect Sports. This is something I thought I would see from EA Sports. I guess they're saving it for their press conference. It became obvious that most of the gameplay was simply being acted out.
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10:55
Halo 4, baby. I can hear the music already. There was no gameplay footage shown. It seems to pick up right after Halo 3. I'm surprised to hear that it's supposed to be released in 2012. I'd bet you anything that it's going to be pushed into 2013. It should be noted that they already announced Halo 4, 5 and 6, so there will be plenty of Halo ahead.
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Overview
It's a big mix. Many of the big games are too far down the line so we don't get a good sense of what they will be like. As such, there isn't much appeal for the hardcore gamer. Sure, Ghost Recon and Mass Effect have Kinect, but in limited quantities. I like having Youtube and live TV, which extends the Xbox past the gamer and into the living room. I can't blame a hardcore gamer for giving Microsoft's press Conference a C+. But im giving it a solid B+ because I think it pushes the Xbox in the right direction.