E3 2010 - Xbox 360 media briefing

There's loads and loads of news coming out of E3 today and it's all abut Microsofts Xbox 360 and Kinect. There's far too much from me to cover all of it but I'm gonna run over as much as possible.

News seems to be in two main area's the Xbox 360 media briefing and news on Kinect (Aka project Natal) so i'll attack it in these area's:

Xbox 360 Briefing

• Briefing Kicked off with Showing of a level on Call Of Duty - Black Opps - Look like a great game but not a Modern Warfare 2 beater.
• Introduced Kinect for Xbox 360
• Metal Gear Solid Rising - Preview video. Looked like a lot of fun. Focus on using a sword as a main weapon with great control over its use.
• Gears of War 3 - We saw a lengthy four player co-op of a mission. Didn't really see anything ground breaking but still looks like another fantastic game.
• Fable 3 - Video footage. I honestly have no interest in this one, I tuned out during this.
• Halo Reach -  1st ever footage shown of campaign mode. Oh man I'm so excited for this! Loved the footage of what I saw, I also played the beta and was very impressed.
• Demmo on Kinect for 360. Signing in by waving, showed finding a video to watch using voice and gestures. Used gestures to fast forward and voice to play and pause. Moved on to how to play music again using voice and gestures. 
• Xbox live will be on windows phone 7
• Demmo'd using Kinect to video chat with other console users and Windows Live Messenger users. Can watched movies together while using video chat as well sports and news. Also show how Kinect tracks you as you move around the room. 
• ESPN - Free with Xbox live Gold membership. Think this is USA only. Will cover College Basketball and Football (American Football to the UK), Major league baseball and NBA basketball. 
• 6 Kinect only Games 
• Kinect Star Wars game coming to Xbox announced. Not too much show game still in development 
• Forza Motorsort - Live demmo of using Kinect to drive the car, look around the interior, walk up to and around the car as if you were stood on the actual track. Even to the point where you can kneel down look at the brake and open the hood to see the engine.
• New Xbox 360 console - Smaller, quieter, built in wif-fi and 250GB HD! Released this week in USA, 14th July in Europe. Here's engadget's close up look of it. Anyone in the audience got one free!

 Keep checking the Xbox dashboard and Xbox.com for video of the entire briefing.

Kinect

Here's are some facts i've gleamed so far

• Voice recognition and gesture control
• Kinect is Compatible with current Xbox 360's (after an update over live) via USB.
• Camera Tracks your face in Video Chat
• Releases 4th November world wide
• Recognizes face and sign you into your account automatically.
• Common feature in Kinect games is having your photo taken at key points in the game then shown at the end. These can then be posted on social networks such as Facebook.
• On multiplayer games Kinect sees the 2nd player set in and it automatically put the new player into the game.
• Can be played in low light conditions.
• Camera recognizes 48 different point on your body
• It can ignore other objects in the frame such a pillow couches coffee tables.

From what i've seen of Kinect I don't think it will be a replacement for an actual game controller. Hardcore gamers will stick with the traditional way of playing your FPS's especially. I feel this is defiantly aimed at mum's who will be buying this for there kids who will then grow up being 'branded' to microsoft, talk about play the long game. Mum's will jump at this just like they did with the Wii safe in the knowledge that their kids is getting at least some exercise. With the Wii you could 'cheat' and just swing your wrist to play a game but with this you have to use your whole body to play, not sure if that a good or bad thing ;-)

Will I be getting Kinect? Erm it's not top of my gadget want list but it's on there. I'm more interested in how I can use it for video chat and to control my dashboard to play music and watch films but i'm sure me and Laura will enjoy the activity games also we've been putting of buying a Wii for a while now I have a better option.

Hope you find this helpful. Any comments welcome.

G

E3 2010

Exciting times boys and girls, E3 begins tomorrow. E3 is the biggest event of the year in the gaming world, here you will find every console manufacture and games studio all in one please ready to make their next big announcement. Most highly anticipated at this years event is the World Premier of the "Project Natal Experience" with a little help from Cirque du Soleil. So in anticipation I though I'd do a little run down on some of the big events and where you can get the news as it happens.

•  Xbox 360 media briefing - Monday June 14th at 10am PST - The media briefing will be live streamed on Xbox.com and also on Facebook if your in the UK, Spain and Itally 18:30 UK time and 19:30 Central European time. Also on Spike TV if you have it available. 
• World Premier of the “Project Natal Experience”, imagined by Cirque du Soleil - Tuesday, June 15th starting at 3:30pm PST on MTV

In addition to the official sources i'm sure there will be people streaming the big briefings on uStream.tv and Justin.tv. Twitter will no doubt be on fire with an endless source of news from the event, just search either #xboxe3 for all the xbox realated news or #e3.

I'll be making good use of xbox's Major Nelson as a constant supply of reliable info. Head over to the E3 section of his blog where you will find curated tweets directly from the project natal world premiere, Microsoft Press briefing and everything from the show floor. The page will also have a live blog running for the press briefing so if you can watch it you can still follow also in a text format. 

Here are some of the other big event scheduled at E3

• Monday June 14th at 2pm PST - EA 
• Monday June 14th at 5pm PST - Ubisoft - Very much looking forward to this one, these boys make some great games... true story
• Tuesday June 15th at 9am PST - Nintendo 
• Tuesday June 15th at 12pm PST - Sony

I will be following the event with Twit.TV where the father of the internet Leo Laporte and the entertaining Brian Brushwood will be live streaming from the show floor. Last time Leo live streamed he ended up crowd surfing at a diggnation live show during South by South West, I'm sure this will be just as entertaining especially with mischievous Brian being present this time! 

I'll be posting updates to this site as I can as the news comes to so watch this space.

G

Coming to Xbox 360... E3 Announcements round up (pt1)

Now, I know I’m a little late out of the gate here but as I’m sure most of you are aware E3 happened recently and Microsoft have announced some amazing feature coming to the Xbox 360 and Xbox live. Here’s my run down of what’s in the pipeline.

1st off Xbox announced their answer to the ever evolving world of social networking. They are teamed up with two of the big hitters in this space, Twitter and Facebook, to bring these services right into your Xbox 360 gaming experience through Xbox live.

Facebook– This addition to Xbox live will mean you will always be connected to you friends any time, any where, any couch. But this service wont only be limited to updating your status or sharing pictures. Through Facebook’s service ‘facebook connect‘ you will also be given the ability to share your in game glory monents by posting updates and screen shots directly to your account.I can’t wait to start posting pic’s of my plasma grenades going off in my buddies face!

Twitter– The guys from Twitter can add yet another Twitter client to their, already massive, list of 3rd part apps to leverage their service. Right from your 360 you’ll be able to post status’s, read all the updates from the people you are already following and reply to any direct messages you may have, meaning you’ll always have your finger on the pulse without even having to leave your arm chair.

Last.Fm –In an unexpected, but welcome, announcement the Last.Fm service will be coming to Xbox Live’s Gold members. Many of you Iphone users will be familiar with this service but this will be the 1st time its been used in such a way that it could be an integral part of your day to day entertainment. This service provides its users the ability to create personalised radio stations based on your musical taste and then music is streamed to the user, thus meaning you will have unlimited access to more music than you could ever actually listen too…sweet. All you illegal downloaders who have a guilty conscience can sleep easy knowing you have a LEGAL alternative (*you know who you are).Did I mention the best bit? this service is all free! *don’t forget you need to be a gold member of xbox live.

Movies –All you movie fans out there haven’t been left out in the cold either. Instant on movies will be available, no need for any discs or lengthy downloads, movies will simply be streamed straight to your console. All this viewing goodness will all be available in high definition, 1080p and 5.1 surround sound no less! In addition live party for movies was announced giving the ability to watch your favorite films with your xbox live friends in a party.

Personally I can’t wait to see these services come to my 360, I’m an avid user of all things in the social networking space and I find it fascinating all the ways creative ways designers bring all these different service together to make one big happy family… awe (blurr, pass the sick bag). Post your comments bellow, let me know what you think about these service, too much? clouding what the 360 is all about? great? one more excuse to pick an xbox over other consoles? Stay tuned for next part of my e3 run down coming soon…

P.s. Once these services are launched i’ll try to do a full run down of exactly what you can and can’t do with them.