e3

Major XBOX gaming news was announced by Microsoft today at their E3 briefing.

• Project Netal adds new motion tracking accessories more powerful than Wii and allows you to play games without any controllers
• A new Halo game, Halo Reach, was announced
• Halo 3: ODST gets a release date and more
• Left 4 Dead 2 comes out this year (exclusive to PC and 360)
• Forza 3 comes out this year
• Metal Gear Solid announced for 360
• Facebook, Twitter, and Last.fm come to the New Xbox Experience
• Full XBOX 360 titles will be downloadable from XBOX Live
• Beatles for Rock Band announced
• New skateboard peripheral announced for Tony Hawk game
• Crackdown 2 announced
• Splinter Cell: Conviction announced
• Add Netflix titles to your queue via the XBOX
• Simultaneous viewing of Netflix movies
• Instant 1080p streaming for videos over the Marketplace
• Avatar marketplace
• Final Fantasy XIII releases spring 2010 for XBOX 360

Halo: Reach

A multiplayer beta of Halo: Reach will be available with the purchase of Halo 3: ODST which releases September 22nd.  Halo: Reach will be released sometime in 2010.

There’s no indication what genre this game will be although many believe it to be a prequel.

Halo 3: ODST

Narrative for Halo 3: ODST:

The year is 2552. The Covenant control the city of New Mombasa. They are searching for something beneath its darkened streets. You are an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper. Your orders: Stay alive, meet up with your scattered squad, and escape the embattled city. Stop the Covenant and we just might win this war.

Firefight is a new co-op mode available in ODST.  Form a squad and fend off the Covies.

All released Halo 3 DLC maps plus three new Halo 3 maps will ship with ODST: Heretic, Longshore, and Citadel.

Recon armor will be achievable by playing Halo 3 and ODST.

SGT. Johnson will be a unlockable character in ODST if you pre-order.

Left 4 Dead 4

New melee combat options announced. Chainsaw, frying pag, axe, baseball bat, and blunt-force objects can be used. New AI Director 2.0 announced and will direct weather effects, world objects, and pathways provided to players.

To be released November 17th.

Valve has said this game will be larger than the original game with more maps and campaigns.

Crackdown 2

Lego Rock Band 2

Beatles Rock Band

To feature harmonizing vocals.

• I Saw Her Standing There
• I Wanna Hold Your Hand
• I Feel Fine
• Day Tripper
• Tax Man
• I am the Walrus
• Back in the USSR
• Octopus's Garden
• Here Comes the Sun
• Get Back

"Abbey Road" will be the first downloadable album.

Forza 3

Screenshot:

Project Natal:

The “Project Natal” sensor is the world’s first to combine an RGB camera, depth sensor, multi-array microphone and custom processor running proprietary software all in one device.

Uses a 3D camera and a plethora of other sensors to detect emotion, the tone of your voice, recognize your face, and monitor you arm, hands, legs, feet, and body movements.

Call a play in a football game, and players will actually respond. Want to log onto Xbox LIVE? Simply step in front of the sensor

Steven Spielberg helped with the project.

Avatar Marketplace

Not only clothes, but new characters can be unlocked and purchased.  Finally.

Alan Wake

New skateboard controller

Facebook and Twitter to XBOX dashboard

A game journalist from Spike TV TwitPic'd this image from an upcoming E3 promo trailer. This may be at least part of the cast of the upcoming Halo 3 ODST game.

Update: Microsoft confirms that Bungie is working on a new Halo title.

Bungie's publisher (Microsoft Game Studios) is not allowing Bungie to reveal their new title during E3. It seems Bungie is pretty ticked at this as they've posted a statement directly from Bungie President Harold Ryan.

There's no indication that this letter is part of the "Superintendent" ARG as this letter is sincere and directly from Bungie's President. Pulling the rug out from under the fans tomorrow with the following letter would be confusing and insensitive.

**********************************
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
**********************************

Nintendo selling 200K DS’s a week. 700K Wii’s a month.

GTA: Chinatown Wars headed to DS.

A new snowboarding game is coming out – Shaun White Snowboarding. Uses Wii Fit footpad.

A new Wii Sports Resort game where you can throw a disc to a dog, ride a jetski, or sword duel. Yes, you can sword duel on a beach. WIN!

Wii Speak is a community microphone that allows you to talk to other gamers.

Wii Music: Play 50 musical instruments with your Wii remotes and footpad. This isn’t Rock Band. Create your one music as you move the instruments including drums, piano, saxophone (by blowing into the speaker on the remote), guitar, etc.

Kotaku’s poll says that 2% of votes are Psyched, 81% Pissed, and 17% Satisfied with Nintendo’s conference. Wow. That’s harsh.

Color me bored. Wake me when she rolls over. This was a lackluster E3 for Nintendo. Wii Music is going to be a great casual game. The snowboarding game will be a good buy for anyone with Wii Fit. Other than that, I see nothing that is going to make me want to go out and buy a Wii. Parents will certainly buy Wii Music for their kids.

As I’ve been saying for a while, 3rd party developers aren’t going to want to develop for the Wii because of the niche motion controls. I think this may be a reason why we didn’t see more third party games during the Nintendo demo.

I think Microsoft has made some very interesting news at this E3. Still, we have no word from Bungie or about any Halo-related titles. However, this is only the first day of E3.

Bungie has a countdown timer on Bungie.net suggesting that an announcement will be made on Tuesday Wednesday.

What do you guys think about these announcements?

XBOX UI gets a brand new dashboard with a 3D interface and Avatars this fall. You can modify your Avatars clothers, hair, accessories, etc. Download new accessories for your Avatar through XBOX Live Marketplace. Your Avatar will be a playable character in certain games. Instead of seeing a listing of Friends, you can see your friends’ Avatars on your screen and interact with them. Up to 8 friends can chat and share content in what’s called a Live Party.

XBOX Live Primetime is coming this fall. You can play game shows (like 1 vs 100) and win real prizes. This is one place where you’ll use your Avatar. Primetime games are scheduled events.

XBOX says they are bigger than the boxoffice and bigger than music. 5 million units more than PS3’s install base. XBOX 360 titles are outselling the Wii and PS3 combined. Have sold $2.2 billion in third party sales in last 12 months. A new member joins XBOX Live every 5 seconds. XBOX 360 customers have spent more than $1 billion on XBOX Live since launch. Over 10,000 movies and tv shows are on XBOX Live. Over 500 million pieces of content have been downloaded on XBOX Live.

Fall Out 3

Resident Evil 5 launches March 12, 2009 and will have online co-op.

Gears of War 2 launches November 7, 2008 . You’ll be able to ride and pilot the Brumaks. Horde mode is a 5 player coop mode where players take on waves of Locust.

Fable 2 launches in October 2008.

Uno Rush announced. You can use your Avatars in this game with a seemless transition from Live Party to Uno Rush. It looks like the standard UNO game but with Avatar support.

Geometry Wars 2 Retro Evolved is to be released in August.

Galaga Legions is announced as a true sequel to Galaga.

Portal comes to XBOX Live Arcase next month.

Portal Still Alive comes to the 360 this fall with new levels and achievements.

XBOX Live Community Games will launch this fall.

NETFLIX announces partnership with Microsoft. Instantly watch 10000 movies and episodes from your XBOX 360 with no additional cost to Netflix users. You can share Netflix movies and shows with your Live Party.

NBC/Universal begins releasing content today including TV shows like The Office and Monk.

GTA IV DLC episode coming later this year.

Viva Piñata to be released on XBOX Live Arcade. Viva Piñata sequel to have Vision Cam support and your playable Avatar. Coming later this year.

Scene It! Box Office Smash to be released and will have Avatar support. Gets Vision Camera support to allow you to be in the movie clips.

Rock Band 2 gets new drums and cymbals and a touch slide guitar. The first ever song from Guns N Roses to be released album will debut on Rock Band 2. RB2’s 84 song set list and they all are Master tracks.

Lips is a new karoke game expected to launch this holiday season. It that will feature a motion sensitive microphone.

Final Fantasy XIII is coming to XBOX 360 at the same time it launches for PS3.

Our friends at Joystiq got a better look at the Halo 3 Edition Xbox 360 announced at E3 and are reporting that it features an HDMI port and a 20GB hard drive. Whaaaa??? It appears to be a mutation of both the premium and elite systems: made from parts of both but stronger than either.

The main question on my mind is "How much can we expect to pay for a 360 with this unique set of features?" From a cost of production standpoint, I think Microsoft can definitely afford to produce this version for less than the elite, and possibly only marginally more than the premium. Click "read more" to find out why.