Project Natal - The Next Big Thing?

Microsoft unveiled Project Natal at E3 this week. It is a set of motion sensor cameras used for the 360 to detect the gamer's movements, controlling actions in the game. There's a lot of excitement surrounding this innovation.

Personally, I think it's a good thing. I've been waiting for something like this ever since I first played a motion sensing boxing arcade game(MoCap Boxing) years ago. A few more arcade games came out using the same technology(I remember a cop game), but overall it didn't seem to take off like I had hoped it would.

I can tell you one thing - those games were tiring. The boxing game made you sweat and the cop game hurt my legs from crouching so much. But I really liked the games and didn't mind the physical toil(in fact it's a nice workout).

I don't know if Project Natal games will be as tiring. But I think that if the games are fun people will play them. We already know from Wii Fit that gamers will buy games that give them a workout. It's a little less sure if gamers will keep playing them.

Project Natal will be included in all Xbox 360 bundles in the near future and Microsoft will be selling Project Natal seperately as well for all of us who already have an Xbox 360.

E3 Welcomes Back Booth Babes!

A couple of weeks ago, I got an invite and a code from the ESA for this year's E3. E3 will be June 2-4 in California. I'm still torn as to if I'm going. I've got my real job plus cost of the flight, hotel, food, etc. (Not to mention the slight manipulation of the system.) But the ESA has announced one thing today that has swayed me towards going- Booth Babes are back!

The ESA wants E3 to return to the glamor and glitz of the old days with lots of razzle-dazzle, mobs and massive consumerism. Now, they aren't requiring booth babes. They are leaving it up to the companies which will probably mean everyone will have booth babes once again! Yay!

I personally think this will be the economic stimulus we've been looking for. Now booth babe jobs will be saved and more will be created!

Rumor: E3 Changes for Next Year?

A couple years ago, the Entertainment Software Association decided that E3 was getting too big and diluted so they decided to scale it down. Many declared that this would be the end of E3. Last year was the first scaled down E3, and it was widely regarded as a disaster. This year's E3 was made a little bigger and came off better, but there were still complaints. Now a rumor has surfaced that the ESA is considering opening E3 to the public next year.

I'm all for this move. It would bring E3 back to the old days, except that now all those people who aren't really industry officials wouldn't have to pretend to be industry officials. It would make the companies take E3 more seriously again.



I understand the reasons behind the original scaling down of E3 and why some companies have stopped going. The event can place unneeded pressure on developers to throw something together. It can take time and money away from the development of the real game. Lots of money in some cases.

But it's also the best place to create a real buzz for your game. Of course, a poor showing can cause a real negative buzz for your game, earned or not. If steps aren't taken by the ESA, E3 will continue to limp its way to the grave as more and more companies will be no shows as time goes on.

But most importantly, if they opened E3 to the public, I'd know what I was doing in July next year...

No Bungie Update This Week?

Sadly Bungie won't be doing a big reveal this week. Harold Ryan has just posted the following:

From: Harold Ryan
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 7:00 PM
Subject: E3 Announce

For the last several months, we've been building toward a reveal of something exciting that Bungie is working on. We were looking forward to sharing that with our fan community during the week of E3. However, those plans were just changed by our publisher.

We realize that many of our fans are disappointed by this turn of events; members of the Bungie team share that disappointment.

When the right time comes, we look forward to sharing this exciting announcement with you. Until then, we appreciate your continued support and patience.


Harold Ryan
President
Bungie LLC

That's a little upsetting, but there is so much cool stuff coming out of E3 it will be cool to save some stuff for after the event.

But this also could be a trick. The clock is stopped at 12 hours exact. We shall see.

Update: The forums are lighting up at BNet, but it's not the "Oh shit Bungie fail". It's the "oh crap we are solving your riddles". Lots of hardcore fans are already putting pieces together and stating that the delay is to be expected as told by the Superintendent. There are messages being sent out by the Superintendent that say:

KEEP IT CLEAN
PLEASE REMAIN CALM
THERE WILL BE DELAYS

More to most likely come.

More Bungie News Coming July 14th

The Bungie Podcast yesterday spoke of big news coming next week at the beginning of E3. What could it be?

Well it's definitely going to be a game announcement, but what will they announce. Some believe it will be the Peter Jackson Halo game, while others believe it to be another arc to the Halo story since Halo 3 left us asking what planet is Master Chief heading to?

Also there is another viral marketing site out that is believed to be Bungie and/or Halo related called 1019foxfm.net/. Notice all the sevens. Well I'll definitely be tuning in Monday and I'll post whatever news and rumors are out there as they come out (unless Andy beats me to it).

IGN Has the Big E3 List for 2008

IGN has posted the list of games that have been confirmed so far to be shown this July at E3. The list is as follows.

Bethesda Softworks
Fallout 3 (PC, PS3, X360)

Capcom
Bionic Commando (PC, PS3, X360)
Bionic Commando Rearmed (PC, PS3, X360)
Capcom Project #1 [untitled] (other)
Capcom Project #2 [untitled] (other)
Dark Void (PC, PS3, X360)
MotoGP 08 (other)
Neopets Puzzle Adventure (PC, Wii)
Plunder (PC, PS3, X360)
Resident Evil 5 (PS3, X360)
Spyborgs (Wii)
Street Fighter IV (PC, PS3, X360)
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (PS3, X360)

D3 Publisher
Bangai-O Spirits (DS)
Ben 10: Alien Force -- The Game (DS, PS2, PSP, Wii)
Naruto: Clash of The Ninja Revolution 2 (Wii)
Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2 (DS)
Puzzle Quest: Galactrix (DS, PC, X360)

Deep Silver
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky (PC)

Electronic Arts
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (PC, PS3, X360)
Crysis Warhead (PC)
Dead Space (PC, PS3, X360)
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (PC, PS3, X360)
Mirror's Edge (PC, PS3, X360)
Skate It (Wii)
Spore (PC)
The Lord of the Rings: Conquest (PC, PS3, X360)
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (PC)

Microsoft
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (X360)
Fable 2 (X360)
Gears of War 2 (X360)
Halo Wars (X360)
Too Human (X360)
Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise (X360)

Namco Bandai
Soulcalibur IV (PS3, X360)

Natsume
Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness (DS)
Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility (Wii)

Sony Computer Entertainment
Killzone 2 (PS3)
LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
MotorStorm: Pacific Rift (PS3)
PixelJunk Eden (PS3)
Resistance 2 (PS3)
SIREN: Blood Curse Episode #1 [PSN] (PS3)
SOCOM: Confrontation (PS3)

Valve
Left 4 Dead (PC, X360)

XSEED Games
Little King's Story (Wii)

E3 will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center from July 14 to July 17 this year.e

Microsoft's Perfect Storm is Brewing

At E3, Microsoft promoted a "Perfect Storm" of games for the holiday season. I was looking through some release dates(one of which was added today) and it looks like November will be one of the "stormiest" months of the year.

Now, on one hand, it's fantastic. A lot of games I want to play are coming out. But on the other hand, where will I get the time or money to play them all? I understand that Microsoft wants to make a big holiday splash, but why can't they spread them out some so I'm not going through these droughts? Also, a number of these games are multi-platform so it's also a big storm for other platforms as well.

Here are the November releases I'm looking forward to. Time to start dancing on street corners again to make some extra cash.

Army of Two finally had a release date of November 15th slapped on it today. This game was made to play in co-op mode as you play one of two mercenaries out there fighting wars for money. Their use of customizable weapons and agro should make this shooter pretty fun.

Assassin's Creed is due out sometime in November. The exact date has not been announced yet. This game allows you to take the role of an assassin in Jerusalem in the year 1191 during the Third Crusade. Expect a lot of stealth, hand-to-hand combat and jumping off of stuff.

Call of Duty 4:Modern Warfare may be out November 5th, but that date hasn't been locked down yet. Take on the role of a US or British soldier to fight some rogue factions in the modern era.

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men should be out mid-November. And the game's already been optioned to be made into a movie. In the game, you get to play a "flawed" mercenary and team up with a psychopath to shoot lots of people.

Mass Effect is also due sometime in November. The epic sci-fi RPG has been a long time in the making and highly anticipated. Pick one of six classes and lead your squad on the exploration and defense of the galaxy.

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames should be out the first half of November. They made this one co-op so that should increase the fun exponentially.

Rock Band should be out around November 20th. A chance to pay $200 and rock out on guitar, bass, drums or even sing. Let's get the band back together!

Splinter Cell: Conviction is due out November 16th(although there is a foreign rumor about a delay on the nets today). Play Sam Fisher as you never have before, out in the open without all your fancy tech and sneaking around.

XYBA Podcast Ep 10.5

Josh and Andy do a post E3 show.


Download XYBA Podcast Ep 10.5

XYBA Podcast Ep 10

Better late than never, but episode 10 is finally up along with a video. That's what took so long. Join Andy, Charlie, Eric, and Josh as we talk about games, gaming news, and what we think will be at E3. I know, E3 is over, but I thought I would have this up sooner. Enjoy.

00:00 - Opening Music
00:32 - Games We're Playing: Resident Evil 4 Wii, The Darkness, Super Paper Mario, Call of Juarez, Simcity DS and Andy revisits Saints Row, Oblivion, and Crackdown, while Josh revisits Halo: CE
18:40 - Gamestop Darkness Phone # Code: 4263
26:50 - Gaming News: We have listeners and we're available on iTunes, PS3 Price Cuts, Microsoft Price Cut Rumors, Manhug 2 by Take Two, Mass Effect rated and release date rumors
36:20 - Hitler Xbox Live Subscription
36:50 - Josh's camera dies
37:07 - Andy Continues the News: Halo Wars doesn't update site on July 6th, Josh says the Halo Longsword is only in the books. Wrong! The Longsword is the aircraft that the Master Chief escapes in at the end of Halo: CE, Haze, 1-800-MAGIC ends after 4 episodes.
43:12 - E3 stuff (pre-E3 2007 info)
48:00 - Major Nelson and Series of Tubes
52:00 - What We are Looking Forward to at E3: Halo 3 Campaign, Nintendo bringing a dead franchise back, Halo Wars, Gears of War 2, Fallout 3, Mass Effect release dates, Home, and Wii Wear.
1:00:20 - Personal Problems with Xbox 360s
1:10:30 - Andy talks about banned modders purposely bricking their 360s
1:11:50 - Games We're Looking Forward To: Brothers in Arms on DS, The Office on DS, Contra 4 DS, Blue Dragon, GTA IV, Stranglehold, Zelda on DS, Fallout 3, Army of Two, Manhunt 2 unedited, Mario Galaxy, Skate, Bioshock, and Smash Brothers.
1:17:20 - Rants: Video Game Release Dates and No HUDS on games
1:20:00 - Shout Outs: Andy rigged the shout outs
1:21:09 - Outro

Download XYBA Podcast Ep 10

Nintendo E3 Press Conference Highlights

Nintendo had their press conference. I also did not watch this one, but I will give you some of the highlights.

Game Releases

* 100 US Wii games this year
* 140 US DS games this year
* Brain Age 2 - August 20 2007
* Super Mario Galaxy - November 12 2007
* Smash Brothers Brawl - December 3 2007
* Mario Kart Online - Early 2008
* WiiFit

Accessories

The Wii Zapper was premeired. It's meant to be held with two hands. Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles, Ghost Squad and Medal of Honor(up to 32 player multiplayer) will all be created with the Zapper in mind. The Wii Zapper will cost $19.99 if bought individually. Or you can buy it packaged with certain games.

Fads and Casual Gamers

Nintendo admitted they can see how some complain that the Wii is a fad, but they believe the Wii will prove the critics wrong. Nintendo also admitted that some of their games such as DS Cook Book could be a turn off for hardcore gamers, but they believe that starting gamers off with casual games will get them more used to gaming and turn them into lifetime gamers.

Sony E3 Press Conference Highlights

Sony had their press conference. Sadly, I did not watch it so I can't tell you any lows, but I will give you some of the highlights.

Game Releases

* Metal Gear Solid 4 - Early 2008 and exclusive to PS3
* Unreal Tournament 3 - 2007 Timed exclusive for PS3, UT 3 will also have some crossplatform capabilities with the PC
* Haze - 2007 Time exclusive for PS3
* Infamous - 2008
* Killzone 2 -
* Resident Evil 5 - 2008

Commitments

NC Soft has signed an agreement to produce exclusive games for the PS3.

Home

Home will include the ability to launch games from within Home. (Which I had already thought they had shown before...)

Microsoft E3 Press Conference Highlights

Okay, Microsoft's press conference has come and gone. It clocked in at around 80-90 minutes with plenty of speakers and video along with some live gameplay by developers. This is my list of the highs (and lows).

The Highs

Release Dates

Some were newly announced, others simply maintained.

* Bioshock - August 2007
* PGR 4 - September 2007
* Assassin's Creed - November 2007
* Mass Effect now has an official release month - November 2007.
* 2 GTA IV episodes - Out by Spring 2008

New Releases

* Scene It the DVD/board game will be coming exclusively to Xbox 360. The game will include four unique Scene It controllers to play the game.
* Viva Pinata: Party Animals(Xbox 360)
* Resident Evil 5 (Xbox 360)
* Viva Pinata (PC)
* Gears of War (PC) - Will include some extra content and editor

Betas

Call of Duty 4 will have a public multiplayer beta exclusively on the Xbox 360.

Xbox Live

Xbox Live membership has reached 7 million users. Membership has been increasing at a rate of almost one per eight seconds. Microsoft expects there to be 10 million users by E3 next year(if there is an E3). I don't know if these numbers are just active accounts or if they include banned and cancelled accounts.

The Lows

Price Cut

Nope. Microsoft says screw the rumors and screw Sony's PS3 price drop. Nobody ever talked about the Xbox 360 price, and it appears to be staying the same.

New Halo 3 360

There is a new version of the Xbox 360 being released at the same time and in honor of Halo 3. It's green with gold plating(instead of the normal chrome). It's controller and accessories are also green. And while they didn't give any specs on it during the conference, it turns out that the one interesting thing about its specs are that while it has a 20 GB harddrive, it has HDMI connectors.

Crowd Reaction

Other than a few hoots and hollers, the crowd reaction was very minimal. Which is to be expected from a crowd of actual journalists. It's a low because the crowd's minimal reaction seemed to throw the speakers off. I think they had gotten used to E3 press conferences of the past where a majority of the crowd would be gamers and not real journalists.

Andy's Live Impressions of Microsoft's Press Conference

This is just some of my musings about Microsoft's Press Conference at E3. I'm constantly editing this post as the conference goes. I'm watching the press conference through G4's website. Be warned: this is just kinda a stream of consciousness. Anything major from the press conference will get its own post later.
-----------------------------------------

Five Halo fans from Libertyville, IL? Never heard of it. And I've been all over Illinois. Who are these fans? Oh, they're some kind of teenage band.

Why do I have to hear this band play Halo music? I've heard the Halo theme already. Why is the violin chick so far away from the band?

Video showing fire behind Xbox 360 logo? Is that a wise idea with the overheating issues?

Okay, I don't need to see Peter Moore rocking out to Rock Band. Nice Spinal Tap joke, though. And I could use some closer camera shots.

Why is G4 going to commercial?

Viva Pinata expansion or sequel? Meh.

Mass Effect looks kick ass. Shepard looks a lot better now.

MASS EFFECT on shelves in November!!!

Moore says "We think about a lot more than just hardware." Eric and Charlie would definitely agree with that.

Peter Moore loves to talk about his tatoos.

I should play that GTA: San Andreas.

Pretty decent job with the game montage.

Scene It exclusive to Xbox 360. Who cares? Interesting new controller for Scene It. Makes me care a little more. Ooh. Four controllers come with the game for only $60. Nice.

I've watched Nauruto. I don't understand what they're doing in it. Competing Ninja clans? I have no idea.

Ok, that game trailer really told me nothing about Nauruto the game. Is it just a fighter? An adventure? I guess I understand it as much as I do the cartoon.

Sports games. *zone out*

Awkward banter between professional football player and Jim. Stepping on each other's lines. Two guys in suits playing video games against each other.

Football player scores touchdown on Jim and starts trash talking. No wonder the kids on Xbox Live are such jerks.

7,000,000 Xbox Live members. New member every 8 seconds. Predict 10 million Xbox Live members by this time next year. (Do these numbers include banned or inactive accounts?)

Classic Bomberman on XBLA. I thought that was supposed to come out two weeks ago. Still sweet.

Hexic 2?

Sonic on XBLA. Doesn't that come out tomorrow? Same with Golden Axe.

I don't know what most of these XBLA games are.

Yep. I was right about Sonic and Golden Axe.

They seem to expect bigger cheers than they're getting. Is that because of the smaller group of attendees, most of whom are actually real gaming journalists? I know when I worked in news, we never cheered for anything.

Now they're pimping the downloadable videos.

Some of the movies they're showing as downloadable suck, some I own, but most(if not all) are old. Ok, I see, they're available in HD.

"Wildly popular 360 Elite"? Might not be accurate.

Is Jim really small or Shane Kim big?

Gotta mention Halo 3 again.

Racing games. bah

The game developer playing PGR needs to stop doing wheelies on the motorcycle. I can't see the environment when his headlights are pointed in the air since it's a nighttime race and raining.

The developers say that PGR is the first racing game that will allow you to share racing videos and pictures with your friends. Burnout Revenge allowed you to share videos with friends and other gamers...

PGR in September.

I don't know about that Lost Odysey. It might be okay, but it doesn't fill me with awe.

Viva Pinata and Gears of War to Windows.

Game editor for Gears of War on Windows? Cool.

Cliffy B looks cleaned up. He must have actually showered and shaved. He looks like Sherman from the American Pie movies.

You get to fight the one big monster in the Windows Gears. I wonder how much extra content is in the Windows version. One boss fight? One level? More?

10,000,000 gamers using Windows Vista? Doubtful. Maybe 10,000,000 copies of Windows Vista sold. Maybe.

Bioshock in August.

They keep saying Call of Duty 2 and Call of Duty 4. Do we pretend that Call of Duty 3 never happened? Just like Highlander 2?

Is someone always going to be telling you what to do in Call of Duty 4?

If they're going to keep this presser at the predicted 75 minutes, they better keep an eye on the clock.

Call of Duty 4 open multiplayer beta. Need to check that out. What was that site? charliealphadelta.com? (Edit: Nope. It was http://www.charlieoscardelta.com)

GTA IV trailer 1 & 2 were captured from an Xbox 360.

2 exclusive GTA IV episodes by Spring 2008.

Resident Evil 5 coming to Xbox 360. Trailer available July 26.

I thought they said all the games they were showing would be available this year. Resident Evil 5 won't be out until 2008 at the earliest.

Assassin's Creed. He jumps off a tall building and starts shoving people around.

I think the guy playing Assassin's Creed screwed something up. Or the woman narrating doesn't know what's happening.

Why are the Assassin's Creed enemies attacking him one at a time like movie thugs? That doesn't seem realistic.

Assassin's Creed November 2007.

About 80 minutes into press conference.

Halo Wars trailer. Kinda like Starcraft II's trailer.

Halo 3 Xbox 360. It's green. Is that just a skin? Kinda lame.

Moore's wrapping it up. Hey, where's my Xbox 360 price cut?!? Boo!

Halo 3 trailer time.

Good thing I'm recording this because I need to watch that Halo 3 trailer again.

Bah. Those kids are playing music again.

We Are Not Respected Game Journalists

Ok, I guess I can only speak for myself. But I did not get an e-mail invitation to E3 and all the invites have gone out. Shame on you, gaming industry! Recognize these skills and give me some swag!



And in other non-gaming news, I'm now sporting a goatee!