There have been so many leaks over the past few days that the only new games to be shown during Microsoft’s E3 conference were a handful of Xbox Live Arcade titles along with some Nike fitness software.
Even Ubisoft’s reasonably impressive looking Splinter Cell: Blacklist was ousted a few hours before the show.
Things kicked off with a live action Halo 4 video which involved a USNC ship coming under attack. Master Chief then finds himself on a jungle-like planet, which is where the footage then turned into an in-game demonstration. We saw Master Chief battling a new enemy – a bipedal scarab-like alien before then picking up a new weapon based on Forerunner technology. Halo 4 was shown later during the conference too to demonstrate Microsoft’s new Smart Glass app. This app turns “any†mobile device into a second screen for the Xbox 360, much like Wii U GamePad. We saw Halo multi-player options being selected on a touch screen device and also a list of Madden 13 team formations being played around with.
EA’s sporting titles were shown very early on with a focus on Kinect voice controls for both FIFA 13 and Madden 13, which was demonstrated by American football hall of famer Joe Montana.
You can view that Halo 4 footage here on Kotaku.
Splinter Cell: Blacklist saw Sam Fisher in a desert base and dressed in desert camo, taking out enemies with some slick melee combat. During one section the words ‘execute ready’ appeared on screen. Enemies can also be distracted by shouting into the Kinect mic. We also saw Sam Fisher climbing up a wall in a very Assassin’s Creed-style nature. Mercs vs Spies death-matches were confirmed.
Demos of Tomb Raider and Resident Evil 6 – the only Japanese-developed game on show – also impressed. Tomb Raider didn’t feature any tombs to speak of, instead opting for some Uncharted-style adventuring. Lara took down several enemies using a humble bow and arrow, and also plunged down a rapid river behind landing inside the cockpit of a wrecked airplane.
Resident Evil 6 had a very cinematic feel also – we saw Leon running from an inferno caused by an airplane crashing into a tower block. In the background of the conference we spotted a screen mention that all Resident Evil 6 DLC would be free on Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 will also be getting Tomb Raider DLC first. Let’s hope it’s not just an avatar outfit, eh?
Forza Horizon – which is being developed by staff members behind Project Gotham and Blur – has a release date of October 23rd. It’s an open world affair, just like Burnout Paradise and Test Drive Unlimited, and set in Colorado. Some of our Twitter followers are excited about the prospect of it being free roaming while others are not. Eurogamer has a very good preview available to read right now.
Fable: The Journey was shown in trailer form, which to much amusement ended with the player performing a Street Fighter-style ‘Hadouken’ move. Another Kinect game shown as Wreckateer which entails firing projectiles at castles. Visually it’s very bright and colourful. We don’t have long to wait for it either – it’s part of the Summer of Arcade line-up.
Those other previously unannounced arcade games? Racer Loco Cycle from Twisted Pixel, which had a very Tron-like look to it, and fantasy brawler Ascend: New Gods from the Toy Soldiers guys. There was also Matter, of which very little was shown. That’s for Kinect too.
Trailers for Loco Cycle and Matter can be found below:
Gears of War Judgement would have been a surprise if US publication Game Informer didn’t tell the world last week that it’s this month’s cover game. It’s set 15 years before the original and stars Cole and Baird. There’s going to be a character class-based multi-player mode much like Team Fortress 2, including mechanics, soldiers and medics. Polish developers People Can Fly are at the helm who worked on Bulletstorm. If you haven’t played that yet, then this news is the ideal reason to.
Eurogamer has the teaser trailer here.
The highlight for us was seeing South Park’s Trey Stone and Matt Parker go on stage to talk about South Park: Stick of Truth. Their speech was an impromptu performance involving some mick-taking at the expense of the only just unveiled Smart Glass app. Stick of Truth is going to have Xbox 360 exclusive DLC and also exclusive pre-order incentives. It’s out 5th March 2013.
Sticking to what they know, Harmonix also showed Dance Central 3 which was demonstrated by Usher. We wish that Harmonix would make a new Frequency or Amped for the likes of 3DS and PS Vita, but we guess there’s still money to be made from dancing games.
The conference ended with Call of Duty: Black Ops II gameplay footage. We have to say the fantasy elements about this one do appeal, even if it the storyline has more than a slight whiff of Terminator 2: Judgment Day about it.