Recap and thoughts on Microsoft’s E3 2011 Presentation

Note: The following thoughts are of Gabriel May’s and are not the overall opinion of Push-Start.

Last year’s E3 presentation from Microsoft had its moments but was letdown by the throat-shoving style announcement of Kinect (and its games), embarrassing presentations and a lack of attention to the core gamer. So lets see if Microsoft have stepped up their game or have learned nothing and will deceiver another weak E3 showing.

Remember how impressive Call of Duty: Black Ops gameplay trailer was last year? Well it was the same for Modern Warfare 3, where we saw gameplay footage of sneaking into a submarine after swimming through and past debris, kicking terrorist ass inside the sub and then seeing chaos taking place in a city (which I think was New York…a favourite place of First-Person Shooters) where missiles where bombarding buildings and gunfire was a common sight. It looked impressive and maybe, just maybe, the single player will be just as worthy as multiplayer instead of a throwaway mode.

Next up Was Tomb Raider: Uncharted…Oh sorry, it’s just Tomb Raider. But I can’t help it if it gives me Uncharted vibes, from having surviving a crash of some sorts (this time being shipwrecked) to the admittedly quite impressive set pieces that occur. Also this is being described as a reboot but the way Lara Croft sounded, it was more of a prequel, since she comes across as a teenager. Her voice does seem like it could get grating after a couple of hours.

By the time Tomb Raider had finished it’s showing Microsoft realized too much time had passed without Kinect being mentioned and they fixed that immediately with Peter Moore coming out to tell us that EA Sports will be bringing out four Xbox 360 sports games series that will have Kinect support; FIFA, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, Madden NFL and a game that EA Sports will announce later. Oh and just incase you casual gamers where feeling left behind, Moore also announced that Sims 3 Pets and Family Game Night 4 will also have Kinect support. Of the three known sports games, Tiger Woods PGA Tour makes the most sense, since it requires the least amount of effort and will be a welcome addition for golf fans who can’t afford (or be bothered) to play on a golf course. For Madden if you think what was missing from the past installments was phsycially being able to call out the plays, then the Kinect support will make sense too. Of course anything more then that and you might as well play the actual sport itself, same for FIFA. As for Sims 3 Pets and Family Game Night 4…Nothing really needs to be said other then why bother.

Mass Effect 3 was shown and wouldn’t you know it, it had Kinect features (a trend that would occur throughout Microsoft’s E3 presentation). Now instead of manually choosing dialogue you can say it outloud and instead of fussing about selecting what your AI party should do and what powers they should use, you can just shout it and Kinect will understand you instead of wondering why you sound like a dork. But hey if it helps gameplay who am I to judge. As for how the game is looking it’s looks like they just left off where Mass Effect 2 ended…and there is nothing wrong with that because just in case you forgot, Mass Effect 2 was an awesome game.

Tom Clancy Ghost Recon: Future Soldier had one of the best trailers as it started with a soldier exploding a transport vehicle and then time stops and we zoom around the area seeing other soldiers Murder Death Killing terrorists in various ways in what is a coordinated attack and while this is going on classical music is being played. Hopefully Push-Start will have it uploaded soon. The impressing didn’t stop there has we were shown how Kinect would have an impact on the game and for gun nuts, they will have a field day as the modification screen – which apparently 20 million unique weapons can be made – can be used by either gesture, voice or a combination of the two. You can even test it out which may indicate that Ubisoft may have figured out how to have a FPS game work on Kinect. Just due to the modification aspect alone I see this being a huge seller.

There was the obligatory “Kinect makes Xbox Live that much more easier to navigate”. If you saw Microsoft’s presentation last year then you get the just of how this works. Xbox now has a partnership with YouTube and Bing, the latter helping you to search for games easier. A bit handy if you can’t be bothered to move and use Google.

Dana White, President of Ultimate Fighting Championship, which is the #1 Mixed Martial organisation worldwide, came onto the stage to promote UFC features being available on Xbox 360 and Kinect. You can check out more details right here.

A Microsoft presentation wouldn’t be complete without Gears of War 3 being shown and it was a duet between Cliff Bleszinski and “legendary” rapper Ice T as we see them get down to playing some Gears 3. It didn’t look too different from the previous Gears game but if your a fan of the series (or loved the Multiplayer beta) you’ve already got this on your pre-order list. Before the Gears of War 3 presentation wrapped up, Ice T said he had a present for Bleszinski in the form of a new song for Gears of War 3. It wasn’t revealed yet so you’ll have to stay tuned for an update.

Another series that has to make it’s way to a Microsoft E3 presentation is Halo and it’s Halo Combat Evolved: Annivasary Edition, a HD remake of the very first Halo. That’s right, for the first time in ten years, you can experience the frustration of the Library level. Well according to the trailer, the campaign has been remastered but I doubt they’ll take away the rage that people experienced when going through that mission (personally I loved the seemingly neverendingness of it). In terms of how it looks, it looked like a PlayStation 2 game. Hopefully that’s due to the video quality and not the actual game quality. Well Halo being Halo it’s going to sell well regardless.

Forza Motorsport 4 gets a look at and it’s clear they are gunning for Gran Turismo’s crown in best simulation racer. If you beileve what the trailer says, all of its features are “Epic”. It looks nice but I’m neither excited nor against Forza Motorsport 4 due to  never playing any of the games in the series.

Now a new Fable game is something that would get me excited and Fable: The Journey sounded epic. Unlike 99 per cent of people who have played Fable, I enjoy Playing a Fable game where the promises are broken or half-true. But the Fable we got wasn’t Fable 4 or a extension but a Fable that has been reduced to act like a lightgun game you’d find in your local arcade. Dammit Peter, I don’t want to be sitting down pretending I’m riding a horse and then wave my hands in the air pretending I’m firing spells or slashing goblins (or were they orcs…). If I did, I would go LARPing, which would be less embarrassing quite frankly. We don’t need another Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Kinect game. For more details check out this link.

Xbox 360 owners jealous of PC owners having time to waste in building stuff out of blocks while avoiding things that explode and skeletons shooting arrows at you will be glad to hear that Minecraft (The most successful incomplete game of all-time) has come to their console. Oh and it has Kinect support. Which I would scoff at but since some clever chap actually showed it could be done back when Kinect started selling, I’ll just shrug and move on.

And now onto my favourite part of the presentation, Disney Adventures. I just love the concept of this game in that you can promise your kids that finally, they will be able to go to Disneyland and see all their favourite characters and then come the day, you whip out this badboy and the kids finally realize what you meant. So who cares if your friends and your soon to be ex-wife ask “so you can afford a Kinect and several games but not to go to Disneyland?” This game will save you so much money, time and moving energy. I’m also glad to see that Microsoft has not learned a single thing since last year’s infamous Kinectimals fiasco in that kids and kinect games do not make a good presentation. It can’t just be me with the urge to punch something or stab a pen through your hand so that your scream blocks out the children’s exaggerated response when I see stuff like this go down. Seriously who says “Oh we’ll get those coins next time”?

More Kinect promoting as we saw Kinect Star Wars and good God someone needs to sort out the attacking animation. I know Hayden Christensen’s performance was wooden in the Star Wars prequels but doesn’t mean you need to realistically incorporate. Still, Star Wars fans won’t give a damn as saying “Lightsaber…On” and becoming the new age Star Wars kid will make up for any shortcomings this game will have.

Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster actually looks like a very good Kinect game for the family and the “father and son” presenting the game actually came off really well, even if the kid looked goofy when doing a monster roar. Well I can’t be too harsh on every casual Kinect game now and it does look like it’s done a good job of incorporating the show we all know and love.

The legendary Kudo Tsunoda came on stage to promote Kinect Fun Labs and before we get onto that I gotta say that Tsunoda looked like he went through one hell of a bar crawl. I know he wears shades a lot but the ones he wore looked like he just woke up ten minutes before he was to be on stage. Also didn’t help he had a epic beard going on. Moving on, Kinect Fun Labs is Kinect tools available at the comfort of your living room couch. What we were shown were easier avatar creation (I forgot the tool name the presenter used), finger tracking and object tracker. For now they look like gimmicky, novel tools but if they can be used to make fancy Kinect games then all the better. Artists are sure to get a kick out of the tools. Oh and Kinect Fun Labs is out today!

Kinect Sports: Season Two gets a look at and it does look…cute. Maybe it’s because I liked the Baseball game on Wii Sports that makes me attracted to the game. Also the winning animation on Golf (fist pump and Michael Jackson style kick) is adorable. Still the Football presentation was just awful. Do I really have to shout and then move like a sumo wrestler or run like a bunch of killer bees are after me to actually play that? If that’s the case then Kinect Sports: Season Two only comes with four playable games in my opinion.

Second to last we get a quick look at Dance Central 2, you know the sequel to the “only reason to buy the Kinect” game. It’s more of the same really but then since Dance Central is actually fun and most of the Kinect games aren’t hitting the mark, we’ll let Harmonix off.

And Microsoft close with a teaser trailer of…HALO 4. Xbox fans all over the world have an orgasm and now forum boards are (or will soon) be flooded with analysis of the tease trailer. I would tell them it’s not being developed by Bungie but they wouldn’t be able to hear me over the furious keyboard fapping…I mean tapping.

Conclusion: Its like Microsoft left off from last year and just carried on. Kinect was again the main focus of the show, despite Microsoft trying to be subtle about it in the first half of their presentation and again a heavy focus on the main franchise players of the console (Fable, Forza, Halo, Gears, Halo, Call of Duty etc). It wasn’t horrible and despite my Kinect bashing at time there are titles and features to be excited for (Dance Central 2, Kinect Sports: Season Two, UFC  features) as well as games for the console itself which have me waiting in anticipation (Mass Effect 3). But it wasn’t great either and they made the same mistakes they did last year. if you missed it, you don’t need to kick yourself as their wasn’t anything truly memorable.