Jun 012009

Here’s we go.

  • Milo The easiest way to describe this: a virtual boy in a virtual world that can talk to you, recognizes emotions. Think, Nintendogs, but with a boy. Incredible technology, but somewhat creepy.
  • The motion camera is basically a motion capture camera, like you’d see used in game production, except that it’s tied to a model that’s actually in a playable game. While impressive, I’m not sure that this’ll actually make for fun games. As an interface though, so the NXE interface, it’ll be a much welcome addition to the 360, if it’s cheap enough.
  • Project Natal revealed as the Camera, Motion Control, Thing. It’s got voice command too. It’ll work with all 360’s, ever. I like how it even works to control the NXE interface. Face recognition is there too. I don’t like signing in all the time, so I like that. Steven Spielberg is up. What are we going to see?
  • KOJIMA! Metal Gear Solid: Rising. What’s Lightning Bolt Action? No longer Stealth Action?
  • Twitter on Xbox 360. Good thing I have a chatpad. Both this and Facebook coming in the fall.
  • Facebook on Xbox 360. Screenshots and text from games! Facebook Connect. Neat.
  • XBOX Live Party is going to offer communal media experiences.
  • Instant 1080p HD TV Coming with Zune Marketplace.
  • Sky and Live in Europe. Live TV on a console without an add-on.
  • Netflix getting Better on XBOX Live. No more reliance on a PC to add movies to your viewing list. Just browse and watch.
  • Last.fm coming to XBOX Live. Bringing music to XBOX Live. Gold members get it free!
  • ALAN WAKE First Playable! Spring 2010. It looks pretty good. I think it’s the design direction. It’s got a movie feel, but it’s all in game. Good times.
  • Halo Reach looks to be real. More Halo games. Looks like more money for MS. It’s scheduled for Fall 2010, but the beta will come packed with ODST.
  • Halo 3: ODST looks way better than Halo 3. Awesome. Surpressed weapons and a low-light vision mode. Halo 1 pistol.
  • Forza 3 announced for October. Looks really, really nice. I’m not sure GT can keep up.
  • Splinter Cell: Conviction only on 360. The new design looks pretty cool. Has a… Fringe and GTAIV feel to the visuals, with text and video projected into the environment.
  • Crackdown 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 Coming to Xbox 360. Can’t really say anything here. Live feeds are down. I’ll let you know what I think later on.
  • Joy Ride, Avatar enabled XBLA Game. The game’s a racer, it’s free. They’ll be selling car upgrades and tracks though. The cool part? You can share the tracks you buy with friends.
  • Epic Announces Shadow Complex, Exclusive XBLA title. It looks kind of like Bionic Commando Rearmed, but it most reminds me of Castlevania games, with its really big map and the way its divided. Coming this summer.
  • Live demo of FFXIII running on 360! Hmm, so they have been working on it. They summon Odin in this one. It’s in English, sounds okay. The game is coming in Spring 2010.
  • Modern Warfare 2 onstage gameplay demo! We see first person climbing up the side of an ice wall, then infiltration into a camp, then an escape. There is indeed riding on snowmobiles in the game. Sure wish the feeds were working. I’d like to see.
  • Tony Hawk comes to debut final Tony Hawk Ride Board. A trailer following, showing real skaters really enjoying the game and talking about how it’ll be accessible to everyone. Skating in the living room, without the danger of real injury.
  • John is on stage. Yay, no sales charts. Instead, we’re getting 10 first ever looks at games!
  • Basically, they love the game.
  • Beatles on stage, and related surviving peoples.
  • Downloadable albums will be coming. All You Need is Love is XBOX LIVE exclusive. Well, there’s the first one.
  • I Saw Her Standing There, I Want to Hold Your Hand, I Feel Fine, Day Tripper, Taxman, I am the Walrus, Back in the U.S.S.R., Octopus’s Garden, Here Comes the Sun, Get Back revealed as songs included in the game.
  • Looks like the rumors about three people harmonizing is true. They’ve got a 6 player The Beatles Rock Band demonstration going on, three vocals, guitar, bass, and drums with cymbals set. The game screen looks to have about the same setup, except now there are three tracks going by in the vocals part.
  • They’re playing an incredibly stylish The Beatles: Rock Band trailer. Very cool. Oh, it’s the opening cinematic to the game.
Sep 292008

 

Huh. So there is a story, though, much like the game there’s a lot of gaps left in this animated short showing what happened between Street Fighter II and IV. I’d like to see what this thing is like in its original language to complement the serious tone. (Dubs make me laughs) Still, they should include cutscenes like this in the console release of Street Fighter IV and maybe allow the franchise to break new ground in fighting game stories. Ah, I can dream…

Sep 132008

360c_wanted

I picked up Castle Crashers (360) a couple week ago. It’s quite fun, though I played it alone the whole way through. Like the old TMNT, X-Men, or Simpsons game, Castle Crashers’ hordes and hordes of enemies are meant to be cut through with three other friends. I’m curious to see what it’ll be like to have four players since in other games with leveling up and adding to stats, it always sucks to have to sit and wait for the others to finish allocating skill points. On the other hand, the system is pretty simple in CC, with only four attributes to level up: strength, magic, defense, and agility.

On my playthrough, I put all my points into agility. Probably not the smartest idea, since in the later sections, my defense was so low that I could only take three or four hits, tops. Still, I think that maxing out just one thing can be a lot more fun too. My guy could shoot arrows so fast, I could knock an enemy back and then hit him with four more arrows before he hit the ground. Good times.

Anyways, yes. Need two more controllers.