E3 2011: Microsoft press conference roundup

Microsoft held its annual E3 mega-press conference today, revealing heaps of new features for Xbox 360 and Kinect, along with some long-awaited game announcements--we're talking multiple Haloes. Here's all that happened of note.

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The first of the giant E3 2011 press conferences has come and gone, with Microsoft revealing a whole host of new games and features for Xbox 360--no PC presence. If you weren't glued to the live streams, here's what you missed:

  • Kinect support is coming to four EA Sports games, including the Tiger Woods, Madden and FIFA series.

  • Mass Effect 3 will support Kinect voice control for selecting conversation options and commanding squad members in combat.

  • The new Tomb Raider veered wildly into the realm of 'torture porn' in a demo section shown on stage.

  • Youtube and Bing search are coming to Xbox Live.

  • All future games in Ubisoft's assorted Tom Clancy franchises will "leverage" Kinect on Xbox 360, as was demonstrated with Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.

  • Live streaming TV is coming to Xbox Live this fall.

  • Ice-T has reformed his thrash metal band Body Count to record a song for Gears of War 3. Yup.

  • The oft-rumoured prettied-up remaster of the original Halo: Combat Evolved was confirmed for a November 15 launch.

  • Little "gadgets" and toys for Kinect are coming free through the Kinect Fun Labs.

  • Crytek's mysterious Xbox 360 exclusive has been revealed as an Ancient Roman Kinect-controlled first-person melee game, named Ryse.

  • Minecraft is coming to Xbox 360 this winter with Kinect support.

  • Lionhead's Kinect exclusive Fable: The Journey was announced.

  • Double Fine's Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster is completely adorable.

  • Kinect will let you virtually visit the Magic Kingdom in Disneyland Adventures.

  • Exercise substitute sequel Kinect Sports Season Two was announced.

  • Dance Central 2 was announced, boasting multiplayer.

  • A new Halo trilogy is planned, kicking off with Halo 4 in the 2012 holiday season.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    June 6, 2011 11:24 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, E3 2011: Microsoft press conference wrapup.

    Microsoft held its annual E3 mega-press conference today, revealing heaps of new features for Xbox 360 and Kinect, along with some long-awaited game announcements--we're talking multiple Haloes. Here's all that happened of note.

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      June 6, 2011 11:38 AM

      "The new Tomb Raider veered wildly into the realm of 'torture porn' in a demo section shown on stage."
      0.o Explain! The only thing I can picture is Lara Croft being savagely whipped by tribal people or something.

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        June 6, 2011 11:57 AM

        After being gooped up and then thoroughly impaled so hard that she was limping for the rest of the demo, the noises that she made were... not the kind of thing I'd call 'work-safe' without at least a bit of explanation to anyone passing by.

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          June 6, 2011 12:08 PM

          Wow. My co-worker and I were watching this in one of the conference rooms and we used the term torture porn too, as soon as she fell down and had to pull that shard of metal out of her side.

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            June 6, 2011 12:25 PM

            plus a guy pops out of nowhere, grabs her by the legs, and yanks her towards him as the player does a QTE. twice. very rapey demo.

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              June 6, 2011 1:06 PM

              Wow...I can't wait to play this game and own potential rapists in the face!

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        June 6, 2011 2:07 PM

        I have a video and don't know if I should post it.

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        June 6, 2011 2:19 PM

        I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought the new tomb raider was sort of uncomfortable to watch.

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          June 6, 2011 2:39 PM

          And that is probably why I will buy it. I never was really captivated by any of the other Tomb Raiders, so this is a very good sign.

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            June 6, 2011 4:33 PM

            You know, I think it really depends on what they do with it. If they go the Metroid route and make her an insufferable pushover in addition to committing violence against her then you can count me out.

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          June 6, 2011 3:07 PM

          I saw maybe a minute and quit, because it was fuckin awesome and didn't want to spoil the game. Media embargo : commencing.

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            June 6, 2011 3:48 PM

            It did looks very very good.. my only concern was that it looks like it could be a bit too... single path.. few choices.. overly cinematic. But.. I have a feeling that was just how the intro to the game is and that it opens up a bit more once you get going. (I hope)

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      June 6, 2011 11:42 AM

      As someone who does 90% of their gaming on the 360, this was kind of a let down, but I knew it was going to be. Too much Kinect (and yes I do own that as well), not enough 1st party exclusives that were not Kinect focused. As much as I can't wait to get Gears 3, claiming that it tops anything Sony has to offer was kind of laughable.

      If they could combine Kinect with Football, Hockey, Basketball etc. instead of just the UFC I think that would be awesome though.

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        June 6, 2011 12:08 PM

        what is wrong with you third-person shoot gamers? Gears blows..christ, if anything the Halo CE remake was the only thing worth talking about. Halo 4 = Fail though

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          June 6, 2011 1:28 PM

          Out of everything I wrote, you decided to say my taste in games suck because they are different then yours? I imagine you are looking forward to Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3, and that is fine. Doesn't mean anything, just that you enjoy a different type of game. The only reason I mentioned Gears at all was because I really do want the best games on the 360, however after this press conference, I think my PS3 will get more use this fall.

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      June 6, 2011 11:48 AM

      Xbox 3-Shi***

      boycott! haha..

      Sony's conference will be amazing.

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      June 6, 2011 12:05 PM

      Halo4, Kinect Labs and multimedia are what I found interesting, I found everything else more or less disappointing. I don't really care about Sony's conference so I hope Nintendo can cheer me up.

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      June 6, 2011 12:41 PM

      I never listened to Metal until Body Count. I just curious because I wondered what the hell Ice T was doing. It led me to lots of other bands. Not a huge fan of the genre but I can't work out to anything else.

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        June 6, 2011 1:16 PM

        I've never listened to Body Count...now I'm curious...my first reaction to hearing this was "Holy shit...Ice T has a Thrash Metal band...I listen to Thrash Metal somtimes (though lately I've been more into Death Metal, Doom Metal, and Black Metal)...I should check that out".

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          June 6, 2011 1:17 PM

          Also, does Ice T do a cookie monster growling thing...that would be amazing?

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          June 6, 2011 1:26 PM

          There was one questionably OK single. However, I don't think they aged well. It's interesting because of who he is and the timeframe that album was released. "Cop Killer" got a lot of notoriety because of the content, but the song isn't all that remarkable. The single "Body Count" is kinda fun, if only for the whimsical intro. However, I don't think I've listened to the whole album more than once.

          The first introduction was at the first Lollapalooza. Ice-T would do a short set of his hip hop ("colors", "OG", etc) and then he'd come out with crazy fucking thrash metal and all the kids would provide an epic unanimous "What the fuck!"

          Good times.



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          June 6, 2011 3:22 PM

          It's like a sped up Black Sabbath with Ice T yelling. It's not the growling speed metal stuff that you can't understand a word of. It wasn't great but prior to this I considered Rock of that time to be hair bands from the 80's.

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      June 6, 2011 2:01 PM

      Boring, boring, boring. I'm tired of sequels that all look the same as the previous game in the series, and I have no interest in Kinect at all. MS, you fucked up by not announcing a new console. Nintendo has my full attention tomorrow, but they will probably blow it by not advancing the hardware enough and releasing a "me too" console that has about the same power as the 360 and PS3.

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      June 6, 2011 2:10 PM

      No Mechwarrior 5.....FUCK!!!!

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        June 6, 2011 2:27 PM

        I'm pretty certain that game never got started.

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          June 6, 2011 4:02 PM

          yeah, I'm pretty sure its still being worked on (I've been following the devs blog) but I'm wondering if theyre still searching for a publisher

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      June 6, 2011 2:27 PM

      Shadowrun, if only...

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      June 6, 2011 2:40 PM

      Is the full conference video posted anywhere?

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        June 6, 2011 3:46 PM

        I watched it over at G4. Just click on the live streaming for Microsoft Conference and it plays the whole things from the beginning.

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      June 6, 2011 2:43 PM

      Here's my wrapup: Tim Schafer was the only non robot on stage the entire time. The only innovation on show at all was him and video streaming stuff.

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        June 6, 2011 3:46 PM

        He was the best part of the whole show. He brought class to the joint.

        That Ghost Recon gun thing was pretty bad ass I thought.

        Head tracking in Forza 4 has be VERY excited. Actually the whole things sounds awesome.

        Kinect Voice commands in ME3... is actually pretty cool. I would use that.

        Tomb Raider looks graphically gorgeous... Lara looks incredibly hot.

        MW3... kind of impressive I guess.. but those games don't really do much for me. They make for a pretty sweet E3 trailer though.

        Gears... looked like Gears. It'll be good I'm sure. I generally don't get excited about Gears games until one week before they come out, then I buy them and have fun with them.

        Star Wars had some cool stuff going on... looked a bit laggy at time.. looked a bit too 'on rails' at time. But there was something there... something which could be cool.

        Those kids were NOT playing those Disney games.. they hands were not even on the same planet as what was happening on screen.

        That 'dad' and that kid playing Tim Shafer's game were annoying the FUCK out of me. But the game looks like it could be cool for kids.

        Oh... and the stuff from the labs like... 3d finger drawing, clothes and face scanning for Avatars.. and scanning random objects into the game. That stuff was very cool... it starts to get me excited about Kinect again.

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      June 7, 2011 6:04 PM

      I must say this was the weakest conference of the bunch, by far...

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      June 8, 2011 9:24 AM

      This was a snore fest man. M$ was hurling chunks. They aspire to be a cable company. They have a piece of shit hardware they don't know what to do with it. So they pay everyone and their mother to support it (that's Kinects by the way, the HD/DVD of this gen).
      and now the biggest announcement is ANOTHER HALO....hey M$, go fuck yourself!

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