6 Jun, 2011
The Xbox Conference has just finished streaming and I am pleased to say it looks like a good year ahead for Xbox owners. Tons of reveals, tantalising demonstrations and some shocking announcements caused the Xbox keynote kick off E3 on a high note. Below are some of the highlights from the conference.
The conference launched with a demonstration of Infinity Ward‘s highly anticipated Modern Warfare 3. The gameplay showed a part of the campaign in which American soldiers hijack a Russian Sub. It didn’t seem like much had changed in terms of gameplay, but if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. The graphics certainly seemed tweaked and gave the game a highly polished look. The gameplay showed off what Call of Duty games do best, producing an adrenaline fuelled experience on an epic scale. It was promised to be ‘The most exciting and epic Call of Duty ever‘.
The new Tomb Raider game was also demoed, showing a much gritter Lara Croft adventure than seen in previous titles. From the get-go it was clear Lara had undergone a complete overhaul, in both looks and voice. The adult-orientated experience made the game feel true to it’s roots whilst also offering a new style of adventure. The gameplay demonstrated a very interesting fire mechanic, torches were used to set things alight in order to both light the way and help with puzzles. Very much a game to look out for.
Gears of War 3 showed it’s face in the form of some campaign gameplay. The gameplay didn’t show off anything particularly new, other than the ‘Silverback’ mech which acts as both fire-support and mobile cover. Still a very impressive demonstration from Cliffy B and the folks at Epic Games.
There was a particularly heavy focus on Kinect this year. An overhaul of the dashboard will improve interface with the Xbox using Kinect. Bing will also be available to use on your Xbox and will act as an easy and efficient way to browse all media types Xbox Live has to offer. Kinect ‘Fun Labs’ was released as of today. The ‘Fun Labs’ are a way of showing off the full capabilities of Kinect without having to wait for upcoming titles. It is a great way of showing what the little black box can perform.
Kinect will also be implemented in a number of upcoming games, possibly the most shocking of which being Mass Effect 3. A demonstration of the use of Kinect and ‘Gunsmith’ in Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Future Solider really showed the capabilities of Kinect in more adult titles. Kinect: Star Wars looked somewhat clunky and didn’t really wow which was a slight disappointment. It is clear that Kinect is really being stretched this year in terms of what it can do. Some very impressive demonstrations of Kinect in various titles made the peripheral look like a must buy for the upcoming year.
Halo fans certainly won’t have been disappointed. Not only has the Original campaign from Halo: Combat Evolved had a facelift in Halo: Anniversary, but the trailer for Halo 4 (part of an upcoming trilogy of games) was also shown. The trailer is below. This was by far the biggest and most shocking announcement of the conference. I can’t wait to see what they have in store for the game in the future.
This is only a handful of what was shown by Xbox at the conference so be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for as-it-happens updates of all conferences, and to catch up on the rest of the Xbox Conference News.
Recent Comments