If space invaders sacked Los Angeles right now –Independence Day style– the video game business would be knocked flatter than Will Smith laid out that alien fighter pilot.
This week LA is home to the annual Electronic Entertainent Expo, or E3, the game business’ biggest trade show, news event and excuse to party. It’s four solid days of press conferences and demos that will give us a great idea what the industry will look like over the next 12 months.
9:00 AM In my seat, no thanks to the particularly unhelpful members of the LAPD directing traffic outside the Galen Center.9:10 The keynote stage is decked out with big LCD screens showing Xbox Live avatars. There’s lots of electronic music pounding –nothing I’m happy to hear at this early hour. Here’s how it looks from my poor-quality phone cam.
9:25 Announcer says we’re about to begin. Quiet down and pay attention, fanboys.
9:30 The music goes hyper-dramatic, like the overture to a Japanese roleplaying game.
9:40 Two designers from Crystal Dynamics take the stage to show off the new Tomb Raider game. They’re trying to reinvent the franchise with this one, make Lara more modern and less cartoony.
9:43 Game begins with Lara held captive on a mysterious island, which she must escape. The gameplay looks very cinematic, moody –much more up-close and personal than past editions. It’s dirty and dark.
9:46 Lara’s got to do the typical jumping, leaping and climbing to get out of captivity, but there’s also some scattered events and gizmos to interact with — light a torch, kick to get away from a guy crawling after you in a tunnel. Meanwhile, the whole place is collapsing around you –there’s a sense of urgency and peril that’s very well conveyed.
9:49 Now Peter Moore from EA Sports takes the stage. Starts by announcing that four of their titles will feature Kinect support in 2012- Tiger Woods PGA Tour, Madden NFL, FIFA and one more TBA. Teases a few other Kinect titles, including the Sims.
9:51 Dr. Ray Muzyka from Bioware walks on stage. The video screens show Commander Shepard from the Mass Effect series, and get the biggest applause so far.
9:53 Mass Effect 3 will support Kinect, using voice recognition. We see a clip –instead of choosing a dialog quote with your controller, you can just speak the option out loud. It’s cool tech but I don’t know if it adds much, frankly. I’m already holding the controller, it’s faster for me to click a button.
9:54 Okay, this is much cooler — you can use the voice recognition to issue commands to your squad: “Mordin, move up.” Much easier than issuing them with the controller pad. Muzyka promises more at the EA briefing later today.
9:56 Now we’re on to Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. We see a trailer with some cool matrix-style bullet time. CEO of Ubisoft Yves Guillemot takes the stage. He’s talking about how they will use Kinect in their core games, via body tracking and voice.
9:59 Future Soldier’s new Gunsmith feature allows you to break down weapons all they way down the component parts (gas system, side rail, etc) and construct your own custom weapon. You can use voice or gesture to put them together, or issue commands like “optimize for close combat.” We see a demo of firing the weapon using gestures; you kind of pretend to hold a gun, and open and close your hand to fire. It’s pretty cool, but I suspect it’s just a test feature; you’d get no accuracy in-game if you aimed this way. All future titles in the Tom Clancy series will leverage Kinect.
10:01 Mark Whitten from Xbox Live. He’s here to show off content control via voice and gestures — Microsoft wants you to be able to toss your remote control, and say stuff like “Xbox, music” or “Xbox, movies” to access media.
10:03 Xbox will increase the number of partnerships this year by a factor of ten –adding tons of new video content. Whitten announces one: YouTube will come to Xbox Live.
10:04 Announces Bing on Xbox –Now you can issue voice searches, like “Xbox Bing, Lego,” and the system will show you all your Lego video game titles. No more navigating through menus — just tell the system what you want to play or watch.
10:06 Live television is coming to Xbox 360 through partnerships with TV partners around the world –some of these are already in place, like with Sky TV in the UK, but not yet in the US. The new features launch this fall. No specifics on which new partners.
10:08 Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, comes out on stage. I wonder — could he be the only person in this arena who has ever won a fist fight?
10:10 UFC fights will be available on Xbox Live –we few details, but expect some interactive live features, like the ability to bet with your friends on each match.
10:11 We move into a trailer for Gears of War 3 — this is a hugely anticipated game. Epic Games’ Cliff Bleszinki comes out on stage. He’s joined by Ice-T, himself a big gamer — they’re going to play through a battle against a nasty giant alien octopus. The game looks big and chaotic and noisy, exactly what fans are looking for.
10:15 This fight’s pretty epic, it reminds me of the famous Hydra battle from the first God of War game.
10:17 Ice-T says he’s reunited Body Count, and they’ve done a special new song for the game. The crowd seems confused –I guess a lot of gamers are too young to remember the band? Ouch.
10:18 Trailer for Ryse, a period adventure by Crytex. Combat uses Kinect –you actually punch and kick. Looks cool.
10:20 Another trailer, this one for a remastered version of Halo, which came out ten years ago. Looks great but it is treading old ground. Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary, November 15.
10:21 Now we’re on to Forza Motorsport 4. Another Kinect title. They’re promising an “entirely new racing experience.” In-game footage is killer –these cars are photorealistic, and race courses look very real. There seems to be some tie-in with the BBC program Top Gear, too. Maybe racing on their track? It’s out October 11.
10:23 Peter Molyneaux is out to make big promises about the new Fable title: “The Journey.” The trailer footage looks strong, much nicer than the last game. The tease seems to be that “the age of heroes” is over in Albion, and that you’ve got to escape –no more becoming a ruler, it appears. We see a live demo using some Kinect controls — different gestures (like rubbing hands together) fire up different spells. The game has a first person camera, too –more conducive to the Kinect interface, I guess.
This week LA is home to the annual Electronic Entertainent Expo, or E3, the game business’ biggest trade show, news event and excuse to party. It’s four solid days of press conferences and demos that will give us a great idea what the industry will look like over the next 12 months.
This morning’s big event: Microsoft‘s keynote, which is expected to feature a number of big announcements of new games, online initiatives, and the future of the game console hardware. I’ll be live blogging the news in this post as it happens.
9:00 AM In my seat, no thanks to the particularly unhelpful members of the LAPD directing traffic outside the Galen Center.9:10 The keynote stage is decked out with big LCD screens showing Xbox Live avatars. There’s lots of electronic music pounding –nothing I’m happy to hear at this early hour. Here’s how it looks from my poor-quality phone cam.
9:25 Announcer says we’re about to begin. Quiet down and pay attention, fanboys.
9:30 The music goes hyper-dramatic, like the overture to a Japanese roleplaying game.
9:35 Presentation starts with a clip from the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which comes out November 8. It’s from the point of view of a SEAL in a one-man mini-sub. Graphics look great, but the sound (even in this space) is really terrific.
9:40 Two designers from Crystal Dynamics take the stage to show off the new Tomb Raider game. They’re trying to reinvent the franchise with this one, make Lara more modern and less cartoony.
9:43 Game begins with Lara held captive on a mysterious island, which she must escape. The gameplay looks very cinematic, moody –much more up-close and personal than past editions. It’s dirty and dark.
9:46 Lara’s got to do the typical jumping, leaping and climbing to get out of captivity, but there’s also some scattered events and gizmos to interact with — light a torch, kick to get away from a guy crawling after you in a tunnel. Meanwhile, the whole place is collapsing around you –there’s a sense of urgency and peril that’s very well conveyed.
9:49 Now Peter Moore from EA Sports takes the stage. Starts by announcing that four of their titles will feature Kinect support in 2012- Tiger Woods PGA Tour, Madden NFL, FIFA and one more TBA. Teases a few other Kinect titles, including the Sims.
9:51 Dr. Ray Muzyka from Bioware walks on stage. The video screens show Commander Shepard from the Mass Effect series, and get the biggest applause so far.
9:53 Mass Effect 3 will support Kinect, using voice recognition. We see a clip –instead of choosing a dialog quote with your controller, you can just speak the option out loud. It’s cool tech but I don’t know if it adds much, frankly. I’m already holding the controller, it’s faster for me to click a button.
9:54 Okay, this is much cooler — you can use the voice recognition to issue commands to your squad: “Mordin, move up.” Much easier than issuing them with the controller pad. Muzyka promises more at the EA briefing later today.
9:56 Now we’re on to Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. We see a trailer with some cool matrix-style bullet time. CEO of Ubisoft Yves Guillemot takes the stage. He’s talking about how they will use Kinect in their core games, via body tracking and voice.
9:59 Future Soldier’s new Gunsmith feature allows you to break down weapons all they way down the component parts (gas system, side rail, etc) and construct your own custom weapon. You can use voice or gesture to put them together, or issue commands like “optimize for close combat.” We see a demo of firing the weapon using gestures; you kind of pretend to hold a gun, and open and close your hand to fire. It’s pretty cool, but I suspect it’s just a test feature; you’d get no accuracy in-game if you aimed this way. All future titles in the Tom Clancy series will leverage Kinect.
10:01 Mark Whitten from Xbox Live. He’s here to show off content control via voice and gestures — Microsoft wants you to be able to toss your remote control, and say stuff like “Xbox, music” or “Xbox, movies” to access media.
10:03 Xbox will increase the number of partnerships this year by a factor of ten –adding tons of new video content. Whitten announces one: YouTube will come to Xbox Live.
10:04 Announces Bing on Xbox –Now you can issue voice searches, like “Xbox Bing, Lego,” and the system will show you all your Lego video game titles. No more navigating through menus — just tell the system what you want to play or watch.
10:06 Live television is coming to Xbox 360 through partnerships with TV partners around the world –some of these are already in place, like with Sky TV in the UK, but not yet in the US. The new features launch this fall. No specifics on which new partners.
10:08 Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, comes out on stage. I wonder — could he be the only person in this arena who has ever won a fist fight?
10:10 UFC fights will be available on Xbox Live –we few details, but expect some interactive live features, like the ability to bet with your friends on each match.
10:11 We move into a trailer for Gears of War 3 — this is a hugely anticipated game. Epic Games’ Cliff Bleszinki comes out on stage. He’s joined by Ice-T, himself a big gamer — they’re going to play through a battle against a nasty giant alien octopus. The game looks big and chaotic and noisy, exactly what fans are looking for.
10:15 This fight’s pretty epic, it reminds me of the famous Hydra battle from the first God of War game.
10:17 Ice-T says he’s reunited Body Count, and they’ve done a special new song for the game. The crowd seems confused –I guess a lot of gamers are too young to remember the band? Ouch.
10:18 Trailer for Ryse, a period adventure by Crytex. Combat uses Kinect –you actually punch and kick. Looks cool.
10:20 Another trailer, this one for a remastered version of Halo, which came out ten years ago. Looks great but it is treading old ground. Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary, November 15.
10:21 Now we’re on to Forza Motorsport 4. Another Kinect title. They’re promising an “entirely new racing experience.” In-game footage is killer –these cars are photorealistic, and race courses look very real. There seems to be some tie-in with the BBC program Top Gear, too. Maybe racing on their track? It’s out October 11.
10:23 Peter Molyneaux is out to make big promises about the new Fable title: “The Journey.” The trailer footage looks strong, much nicer than the last game. The tease seems to be that “the age of heroes” is over in Albion, and that you’ve got to escape –no more becoming a ruler, it appears. We see a live demo using some Kinect controls — different gestures (like rubbing hands together) fire up different spells. The game has a first person camera, too –more conducive to the Kinect interface, I guess.
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