After a week of facing down the relentless onslaught of the gaming industry’s marketing jackhammer, our Xbox department has emerged alive, yet forever changed by the ordeal. What have we learned from this experience? What wisdom can we impart? Did Microsoft “Win” E3? Our team of Charles Battersby, Joe Button, Alex Martinet and Curtis Bloomfield discuss.
With the Electronic Entertainment Expo behind us, we can now all look forward to the actual release dates of the most anticipated games. Yeah sure we are all excited about Modern Warfare 3 and Halo 4, but for us Xbox owners, there’s a game you should definitely look in to. I’m sure many of you remember the movie where the Toy Soldiers came to life and saved the day, and now you can take control of these toys in the battle of a lifetime. Toy Soldiers: Cold War is an upcoming Xbox live arcade game, who’s trailer at the expo absolutely caught my attention.
OK, I admit it. I am one of those people who waited in line at launch for an I-Pad 2, me and my buddy took shifts waiting outside HMV for the 3DS, and heck, I even bought a Playstation Move on the first day (only to sell it a week later.) But for some reason, I didn’t bother with Kinnect. Every now and again I give it a second thought, but nothing has enticed me yet, and after the slightly misleading stage demo at E3 this year, I feel my decision has been vindicated.
Announced a couple of months ago, Dead Rising 2: Off the Record is essentially the director’s cut of the originalDead Rising 2. It originally started out as an upgrade with more content and Chuck as the main character but due to the fan outcry of Frank not being in the original, Capcom saw fit to make him the new lead character for Off The Record. There’s a new theme park area included as well as new combo weapons and the photography mechanic will make a return.
Bethesda’s award-wining RPG, Oblivion didn’t miss out on much. It had an epic story, a vast world to explore and dragons… No… Wait. It didn’t have dragons. But the sequel, Skyrim does, and they are looking an intriguing prospect to say the least. Many have tried and failed over the years to get these creatures right in videogames, but it seems that Bethesda has finally nailed it. They are incorporated into Skyrim with purpose, extreme technicality and grace.
This game claims to be based on ancient religious texts, but it really doesn’t matter, because the story is pretty much incomprehensible, and divine intervention won’t help make it make any more sense, if the demo released on Xbox live today is any indication. While it has gotten a lot of buzz for having an unusual design scheme, the gameplay present in the demo makes it seem like style over substance. Despite its allegedly holy inspirations, my hour with it felt like an eternity in hell.
What has always
been a dry period for big triple A releases, the summer has become the best
chance for smaller games to get some real attention. There have been some truly
amazing games released on the Xbox Live arcade and it has quickly become one of
the best features of Xbox Live. This E3 has seen a lot of titles announced to
kick off their Summer of Arcade and they all look really impressive.
