Here's a quick wrap-up of the conferences today. I'll leave the opinions for the guys' podcast later tonight but in general I think Microsoft and EA came off pretty impressive with Ubisoft coming off a little dry. You can expect the same coverage from us tomorrow. In the meantime I think I might watch this rerun of Revenge of the Nerds (for the second time today).
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Microsoft
- Xbox Live soon to recieve 1080 HD streaming, Facebook/Twitter/Last.fm integration.
- Xbox peripheral Project Natal "makes you the controller". Essentially a camera that can recognize your movent.
- Beatles Rock Band looks better then expected with a unique art-style that goes through each phase of their career. Yoko, Paul and Ringo show up.
- Alan Wake is not only still being made, but looks great. Lots of lighting and slow-mo effects.
- Infinity Ward showed off some Modern Warfare 2 gameplay footage featuring some epic ice-climbing and snowmobile battles.
- Metal Gear Solid Rising will be a X360 release. It's a totally new game.
- Lionhead is working on some crazy Life-gaming with "Milo" a virtual character you can interact with through Natal.
- Halo: ODST looks like a team-based Halo game. Halo: Reach also announced but unknown as to what genre it is.
- Left 4 Dead 2 is a surprise sequel due out in the Fall.
- Tony Hawk shows off Ride, his newest game that uses a skateboard controller.
- Crackdown 2 is confirmed.
- Forza 3 is confirmed and looks a lot like Forza 2 with sharper graphics and nice skinning options.
- Shadow Complex is a metroid-like shooter that will be an arcade download game.
- Joy Ride is a free kart racer that uses your avatar's in game.
Electronic Arts
- Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic is a triple threat from BioWare. Very impressive stuff.
- Peter Moore showed off lots of Sports stuff included Fight Night Round 4, EA MMA, Madden online franchise options, and NCAA team builder.
- Need for Speed SHIFT shows off some impressive in-cockpit views. They're giving away a BMW at their booth.
- The Saboteur looks like it's coming along nicely with a unique undersaturated style.
- Crysis 2 will be released on the X360, PC and PS3.
- APB is a quasi-MMO with lots of action and morality choices.
- Brutal Legend looks pretty sweet. More gameplay show with part 2 of the Jack Black video shown.
- Littlest Pet Shop shows that EA is heavily focused on attracting a younger audience to their games.
- EA focused on fitness games for the women's market.
Ubisoft
- Assassin's Creed II cinematic shown. First game sold 8 million units. Looks great.
- Splinter Cell: Conviction one of Ubi's biggest games this year. Demo footage shown was the same as the MS conference.
- Working with James Cameron on a game based on his film Avatar. It will be a 3D game.
- R.U.S.E tabletop demo shown. Continues to look like a great hardcore strategy game.
- Ubisoft is really pushing their pairing with Hollywood to their shareholders.
- Red Steel 2 will be bundled with the Wii Motion Plus. Controls look better then the first game.
- Rabbids and TMNT are two games being targeted at the younger Wii market.
- Ubi is focusing hard on the "Tween Market". Many games targeting at girls.
- Like EA, Ubi is also focusing on fitness games.
- Working with Pele on a kid friendly soccer game called Academy of Champions.
I bet Halo: Reach is a CG movie that will be released before ODST, to explain the story a bit more. I remember seeing something like "remember reach" in the ODST trailer so idk.
Thank you very much, Snide.
great sum up...personally, i really liked crysis going to console, and im still really stoked for brutal legend ^__^
Although a very nice opening day.
I want to play Alan Wake but scare easy with games, not films only games, I played through half of deadspace, then I went to uni I tried to play it in my room, and decided against it.
Sad and girlie I know =(
Oh, and Alan Wake looks incredible.
its not going to be because odst will come with a halo reach multiplayer beta
Lolz... What a summary. Thx, would read again. Red Steel 2 looks fantastic.
Rabbids looks awesome and, even if it didn't, it would be thanks to the developers behind it. Beyond Good & Evil, Peter Jackson's King Kong, etc.