Kinect Four

Yes, yes a few hours ago Microsoft unveiled (through the theatrics of Cirque du Soleil and whatever’s happening in the picture above) Project Natal’s official name to be Kinect. There’s a few Kin names out there. The Microsoft phone Kin and Amazon’s Kindle to name a couple. A slew of games were also announced for Kinect; all which include Kinect Sports, (sound familiar? Its exactly the same as Wii Sports) Kinect Adventures, and Kinectimals for the cat person (yeah, sounds creepy). Another game which doesn’t have Kinect in the name is a Star Wars game. Yeah! Now that's good news. Its also a lightsaber game, Finally a something good to come out of all this. However you call this Motion [Free] control society now, we finally get a Star Wars game. Also previewed was Minority Report like screens to be seen in the Xbox 360 dashboard sometime when Kinect comes out.

Time to Compare:

Project Natal:

Kinect:

E3 2010 (Semi) Preview

E3 is coming fast. Blazingly fast. New things are semi being announced each day. Well mostly rumors, but interesting rumors. The first up is no rumor but a simple fact. A fact which probably we live by everyday being gamers or using the computer and whatnot. That fact is no one is going to look good playing [Project] Natal. No one. We look silly already using controllers or seeing someone type on a computer (like me). When we saw it being played last year most assumed it would involve flailing. It is. Unless you think its too embarrassing to be caught on film doing the act, well it is:

It will be another thing to probably not worry about in the future as it already looks awkward what we do everyday. This is a bit different too, but try not to be in front of a mirror or stand in back of someone using a Natal.

Here’s the rumor:

Some people have been saying that the 3DS (yeah its still happening) that it will probably have Gamecube graphics, which would sound awesome, but a little unrealistic really; for our technology era anyway. Well, how about I take that up a few notches and say that may be an understatement. IGN claims, off record, that it could exceed Nintendo Wii capabilities and close to having HD capabilities, about the same processing power as an Xbox 360. Now that’s unrealistic, and probably an exaggeration on both IGN’s and where ever they get their sources. Sure its probably not even close to being real, but I could buy the Gamecube rumor somehow. Nintendo has surprised us in the past for how they will utilize their next console systems. Although not crazy on the 3D part…

Sure, E3 is within a week, and what I’m about to talk about comes out within days, but even though some people aren’t happy about the HD port; its still one of my favorite Super Nintendo games:

Groovy. Earthworm Jim has been remade in HD. Actually they announced this long ago, and its been ages since its announcement (see the 2009?). But so far everything looks swell, including a few bonuses: (as sampled above) HD improvement, difficulty levels, “Big Bruty” level which was only included in the Sega CD and PC editions of the older game, and 4 player co-op. That’s right. Not versus, but co-op which is even more awesome. But somewhat weird. Well anyways, I’ll be sure to pick this up soon. Comes out on the Xbox 360 June 6th and the PSN, a bit later on. More HD screens here.

Picture of the day:

Found this while browsing through pictures of Star Wars Weekends at Disneyland. I’m not entirely sure why, but part of me made me laugh when I saw this. For the life of me, I don’t know how she is doing that autograph:

Oh and by the way. For some reason, and unknown reason, video game makers decided to get dark and actually decide on something kinda cool by doing a Third-Person [wand] shooter for the Harry Potter Deathly Hallows video game. I might actually think about getting it. I actually want this to be good:

E3 2009: Part 1 – Microsoft Coverage

Its that time of year again, where video game developers come together to announce awesome new things coming to the video game market. Today was not so different. Microsoft’s conference is long and gone, but did you missed what they announced? Oh boy, what a mix of good things to come for the Xbox 360’s now evolving system. Here is something big you may not have seen called; Project Natal:

Not much at first, until you see the demonstration:

More Gear Videos at IGN.com

And a small clip of that game I mentioned called “Milo” I believe:

Just seeing the live presentation makes me want to get this even more. This is nothing compared to the Wii nor Playstation’s EyeToy. Especially just watching Natal’s demo, it looks like its come a long way from this, almost perfecting this type of technology. Take a look at the Live Conference Demo:

Looks a little silly yes, like most of Wii’s commercials, but looks like it can be very fun once experienced. Although this confuses me as to why Xbox will have such peripherals such as the GameTrak Freedom and Tony Hawk Ride’s skateboard like controller.

Other big announcements included Modern Warfare’s 2 demo, another Splinter Cell; although it looks awesome too, Left for Dead 2, Forza Motorsport 3, Crackdown 2, The Beatles: Rock Band and---wait for it----not one, but 2 new Halo Games incoming.

The first, which already announced Halo 3: ODST with a new gameplay trailer:

Its an interesting new take on Halo, I’ll give it that. We will just have to wait when it comes out later this year. The other Halo game is called Halo: Reach. So far, nothing has yet to be revealed about this, what looks like, small addition to the Halo franchise. It looks like it can be quite big for it to have a Multiplayer demo. Ah, Bungie with its Multiplayer demo’s and it in general. When will it end? Not a bad thing necessarily, but that’s a lot of Multiplayer Halo’s now. Watch the Reach trailer teaser:

What’s It about? A prequel? I don’t know really. Its Halo!

The biggest news of the day? Not only will a new Metal Gear Solid Starring Raiden appear on the Xbox 360 called “Metal Gear Rising'’, but the whole Metal Gear Solid franchise is moving exclusively to the Xbox 360(!) A pun yes. Another triumph for 360 has come. Does it mean a substance like game of Metal Gear Solid 4 to be coming to the Xbox 360? It is more likely. Most people expected a game starring Raiden would be coming, but the whole franchise? Now that’s big. The Metal Gear series has been since only been exclusively for the Playstation. Well we did get a few Metal Gear games with extra stuff for the Xbox, but now having it exclusively is certainly a win for the Xbox.

Is E3 over? Of course not. Tomorrow will be both Nintendo and Sony’s conference. Watch both live on G4TV or look for updates on www.ign.com or www.gamespot.com starting at 9am with Nintendo’s Conference and Sony’s at 11am. What will Nintendo reveal? A new Zelda game? A new Mario game? Watch tomorrow for the results. Can’t wait on either one. Sony, don’t disappoint us, like you have already and in the past.

Also be sure to catch history in the making as Steve Wiebe of The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters fame, try to reclaim his title as be tries to break the Donkey Kong world record live again tomorrow. He should be given full support and if you haven’t seen the King of Kong documentary you got to soon. Anyways, good luck Wiebe!

Extra E3:

This is cool: