The Microsoft Press Conference: E3 Round-Up

    

     Microsoft has finished their E3 press conference, and were my predictions correct? Yes and no. Yes, however, Microsoft focused on too much Kinect (roughly around 70%) of the conference. Good news is more third-party support from games like Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Forza Motorsport 4, and Mass Effect 3. We saw some new gameplay footage from Gears of War 3 (a game I am very excited for), and I can honestly say, it was rather bland for me. No explanation of the story (replay of the original story trailer), just a display of a big baddie and a mech you could not use. Tomb Raider was shown and it suffered similar fate as Gears of War. We see Lara Croft tortured and fighting for her life to escape an collapsing cave. There was a lot of quick-time events which reminded me a lot of it's successor Uncharted. As far as the system goes, a new feature has been added to Xbox is Bing and YouTube. While this is a fantastic idea, it is about time Microsoft provided this service to its customers, not to mention the Wii and PS3 have fully functional web browsers while Xbox does not. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 did not disappoint the audience as Sledgehammer and newly-staffed Infinity Ward showed off 10 minutes of gameplay footage of what looks like Navy Seals fighting in what looks like a destroyed New York City. What took my breath away was the unveiling of HALO 4! The only problem I have with this trailer is I would love to see what 343 studios can do now that Bungie is longer doing the franchise. All in all I was quite please with the Microsoft conference. No announcement on the new Xbox and too much emphasis on the Kinect, but great display of upcoming titles. So what do you guys think? Also, Expect a Sony review later on today after the conference


Microsoft review: B