Mike Bantick
Tuesday, 15 July 2008 05:42
Opinion and Analysis
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Yep its on, well the pre-summit press releases at least, first up was Microsoft showing off a revamped Xbox 360 dashboard features and big exclusives such as Gears of War 2.
Despite the E3 Summit itself taking a more staid presentation profile, that doesn’t stop the big boys from going all glitzy during keynote address’s
And Microsoft did not disappoint with their time in the spotlight this year.
Substance wise here are the highlights of the Microsoft Xbox 360 keynote from E3.
Xbox 360 to get a new dashboard interface, influence from both within and without. First the look will be Vista Aero style, with pages being flipped on screen similar to the latest Microsoft OS.
This interface will be populated by a new Mii like 3D Avatar system, allowing clothing, and physical customisation and, using Live Pary eight users can set up a photo sharing and chat session whilst still allowing game navigation.
For [the geographically lucky and those] fans of downloadable content, Microsoft have confirmed their deal with Netflix for a Film and TV rental service exclusive to U.S Xbox 360 owners. Hooray for them, Booo for us outside of the US.
Luckily the rest of the presentation is made up of content all the world can enjoy,
except perhaps Fallout 3 – Booo number two. Fallout 3 will feature downloadable content exclusive to Microsoft platforms. In the words of Todd Howard from developer Bethesda “We love Xbox Live Marketplace and plan to release a lot of exclusive content only for Xbox 360 and GFW[Games for Windows]."
Microsoft has also taken further steps in order to attract the Japanese market to their platform. Once mainstays of competitor hardware, we will now enjoy such titles as Resident Evil 5 (Friday March 13th 2009) and [finally!] Final Fantasy XIII.
Add to this a bunch more JRPG’s (Japanese style Role Play Games) Infinite Undiscovery launches 2nd September in north America, 5th September in Europe and 11th September in Japan. Star Ocean: The Last Hope will hit the Xbox 360 in [Northern]Spring of 2009. The Last Remnant, will hit shelves 20th November.
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