E3 2010 – It Has Begun! – Day 0
June 14th, 2010 / No Comments » / by Atomics
Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010 has begun and we are through our first day. I’ll be highlighting the news from each of the press conferences. The first day of E3 started with Microsoft and focus mainly on the Project Natal, now offically named Kinect for Xbox360. Later in the day we heard from EA followed up Ubisoft. Not many surprises this year this year so far and the majority of reveals have already been shown online.
10am PST: The morning started off with Microsoft’s press conference. The stage was littered with Kinect setups obviously pointing to the focus of todays conference. The light fade and the show opens up with a trailer for Treyarch’s Call of Duty: Black Ops followed up by a live game play demo and we find out that all Call of Duty DLC through 2012 will be timed exclusives on the Xbox 360, but how long that would be wasn’t stated. Next up, Hideo Kojima with producer Shigenobu Matsuyama to show off Metal Gear Rising. He talks about a new gaming idea of Zen-Datsu (Cut-Take) and we see first game play trailer from Metal Gear Rising. Following that Microsoft rolls into upcoming exclusives which we already know about. Gears of Wars 3 game play, new Fable III trailer, and Halo: Reach campaign game play. Only surprise was a teaser trailer for new Crytek game currently titled, Project Kingdoms. Now the main event, Kinect (aka Project Natal).
First off, Microsoft demonstrates how Kinect interfaces with the new Dashboard will controller free operation of Zune for movies and music. Then a demonstration of the video conferencing capabilities through VideoKinect which can be used though Xbox and Window Messenger. ESPN then talks about their partnership with Xbox and how it Kinect will interface with it while offering total control while watching games and small interactive experiences such as voting and trivia. It seems that the NFL was a glaring absent for product. Next up, is the showcase of launch titles for the Kinect and the announcement that there will be 15 titles at launch including both first and third party titles. From what they show most were rehashes of Wii titles only made for HD consoles. There was a brief demo of Forza using Kinect and to finish up Microsoft unveiled the newest form-factor for the Xbox360 Slim in black w/500gig HD and WiFi-N built in.
2PM PST: The afternoon opens with the first trailer for the new Need for Speed Hot Pursuit by Criterion. They taken Need for Speed back to it roots yet modernized for this generation. John Riccitiello then promise “Ten Great Games from Ten Great Producers”. First up, Dead Space 2 with a live demo showing off the new environment of “The Sprawl” and some of Issac’s new toy to defeat the menace. Next up, Medal of Honor with Sean Decker. This debut seems to be focus on the DICE designed multi-player with a live 24-player match. This leads into EA’s new rewards program “Gun Club” which players can earn points for rewards, special unlocks, and even early beta access. Followed up quickly by the announcement of the first Bad Company 2 expansion “Vietnam“. Peter Moore now walks on stage, which mean, EA Sports announcements. EA Sports is taking a step into the MMA octagon with “EA Sports MMA” and the introduction of EA Sports Live Broadcast. In which you can create a fighter, make it look like you, live fight challenges, live commentary, for fun and prizes. More things to make you sweat, EA Sport Active 2 is up with their first trailer and explanation of new sensors and devices. This brings us to the final announcement for EA Sports which is the evolution of Madden with a new play calling engine, Gameflow, and Joe Montana is brought up to walkthrough the new features. Next up, Rob Humble, the “new” sims guy to debut the new trailer for the console launch of the Sims 3. Riccitiello then plugs some of his new EA Partners, Ted Price of Insomniac Game and Jason West and Vince Zampella of Respawn Entertainment. Cervet Yarli of Crytek then take the stages to show of Crytek 2 which also will be in 3D. We finally get to see some real game play footage and it looks impressive and thats on a console, can’t wait to see the PC version. Afterward they show a new trailer for the game, in 3D of course. Next up, CliffyB and People Can Fly with Bulletstorm and official launch of 2-22-11 was revealed. We then get have our first taste of actually campaign gameplay. Finally to close the press conference, my favorite developer of all time, Bioware. Greg Zeschuk is on stage with Mary Bihr of Lucasarts to give us some new details on Star War: The Old Republic. Every player will get their own starship which will act as their housing. Greg then reveals some long awaited PvP detail. Players will fight it out in specific warzone, the first of which is Alderaan and then comes a trailer for Alderaan.
5PM PST: The evening rolls in and Ubisoft steps up to the stage. The show open with someones back to us playing a game that looks an awful lot like Rez but using motion control to play. Actually this is Child of Eden being demoed by Tetsuya Mizuguchi which will be playable with Move or Kinect. Ubisoft theme for this years show is “Games that you Feel”, games that make you feel connect having more then standard video game experiences. The next video opens, I get giddy by the montage of Assassin’s Creed images and voices, then the trailer for Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Followed by our first game play demo featuring many more improvement in game play from Assassin’s Creed 2. Next up, Shawn White Skateboarding, a game that put a different spin on the usual skateboard game on the artsy side with elements of Jet Set Radio and Echo’s tagging game. Music, voice talking countdowns, and people running around the aisles with plastic guns. That would be Ubisoft’s new Battletag, a modern version of a laser tag system. It use PC/console to manage the data but other then that is seem self-contained within the guns and accessories. It is unknown what systems it will support but from the conversation the PC looks like one of them. Next up is Innergy, a stress relief game based on your bodies breathing and patterns. Ubisoft then shows a video how the body is being used to create new and varied experiences in gaming. Kinect game are up next with Motion Sports and another show of YourShape that was shown at the Microsoft show. Then Ubisoft brings out some of their classics franchises upcoming sequels, Raving Rabbids: Travel In Time, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier trailer and game play (part 2), and Driver: San Francisco trailer and game play. Finally to close the show president and CEO of Ubisoft Yves Guillemont steps on stage to talk about some experimental projects that are being worked on. From the creator of Another World, we see a movie for Project DUST, what type of game this will turn out to be is completely unknown but I’m thinking strategy/action. A new Rayman game developed with assets from a variety of sources, Rayman: Origins. Talk of the expansion on Uplay into the Mania (Trackmania, Shootmania, Questmania) universe with Maniaplanet. Last but not least, to end the show a Michael Jackson dancing game.
Thanks for all for today folks. Tomorrow brings us Nintendo, Sony, and the Konami pressers. Check back here tomorrow night for brief rundowns on the events.
Loading ...
