Although extremely late, the following and its subsequent sequels discuss the presentations of some of the larger video game publishers at this year's E3 conference, with a healthy dose of Nickhateseverything commentary.
Microsoft's press conference can essentially be summed up by two concepts: 1) Motion sensor, revealed to be the "Kinect" and 2) Expanded Xbox Live features. For sports, movie and television fans unaware of the plethora of link hub sites on the internet, Live subscribers will have access to live sports game feeds via an ESPN addition and movies/television through Zune. In an attempt to transform the Xbox from a simple gaming computer, Microsoft seems to want their console to become a one stop entertainment behemoth. The only thing separating these services from say a cable provider is the enhanced voice controls made available through the Kinect. Microsoft spent a good portion of their press conference flexing the remarkably smooth voice commands to control replays and to pause or resume whatever piece of entertainment the viewer was watching. For a skeptical consumer such as myself, a couple things struck me as awkward: there were absolutely no glitches or technical snags while operating the Kinect voice commands which is very strange behavior for a piece of unpatched or user untested Microsoft software to exhibit. It's quite possible the effects were simulated for the purposes of the conference, but regardless of user or proximity to the Kinect the ESPN sportscasters and other Microsoft conference presenters were able to flawlessly execute commands. Second, if these voice commands are truly as accurate as the main presentation would lead you to believe the potential to screw with people playing or watching a game/movie/television show is limitless. Imagine watching your home football team in the middle of a pivotal game for their season while a vindictive roommate/significant other is constantly shouting "PAUSE", or "STOP" from the other side of the room triggering the Kinect's voice commands... On the games front, Microsoft developers seemed to use preexisting Wii motion titles as the basis for the first wave of Kinect launch titles. Although the potential for creativity is much more open ended without a controller, only one title seemed to think outside the box and come up with an experience that's truly new, without the use of a controller or some kind of handheld device, however Tetsuya Mizuguchi has no concept of "The Box" to think inside of. Sure Microsoft might be playing more towards the sales end instead of trying to trump Nintendo's creativity card, but it seemed more like lazy development. And for potential naysayers, Microsoft cleverly omitted the fact that the Kinect is not compatible with Xbox units made before a certain date (i.e. the release of the 360 slim), so 360 users interested in investing in this new device will have to buy a brand new Xbox to use it. Nifty, huh?
On the game front Microsoft's new catalogue doesn't look too promising; as I'm still burned out from the endless wave of blatant first person shooter clones, about 80% of the upcoming Xbox exclusive titles almost put me to sleep. Halo is trying to be more like Battlefield which is trying to be more like Gears of War which is trying to be like Halo, continuing the derivative loop of unoriginal concepts in the first person shooter genre. I'll admit, the graphics on these games are looking great even while they're still in development, but graphics never make the game. Gears of War looked like the previous two installments with a bit of graphical polish, Halo looked like they turned gravity to 0 and made new levels, yet neither game showcased anything resembling new or innovative systems to separate these mindless clones from their earlier installments. Luckily for Microsoft, FPS fans seem to have little to no functional brain activity, so only burned out cynical Counter-Strike 1.6 veterans such as myself would make a complaint of that nature. To add to the Microsoft sequel hype, Peter Molyneux appeared to deliver the third chapter in the severely over-hyped, underdeveloped Fable franchise. However this time he seemed to realize how much shit he's full of since he wasn't making any crazy gameplay or development promises during his short speech. Instead even he seemed to concede that Fable III is yet another rehash of what fans of the series have come to expect from the franchise, with no new innovations to make Fable's fanbase feel uncomfortable. Heaven forbid any of these design teams upset their loyal fanbase or make some kind of attempt to create new fans by creating something unique...
To be fair Microsoft is not high on my list of developers to watch out for in the field of video games so my expectations were low going into minute one of their press conference, but the great thing about shows like E3 is the potential to blow the socks off of the entire gaming community with a mere 30 second snipit of some burly armor clad space marine giving a thumbs up to the audience. Microsoft decided to play it safe this year and took the route of "it was successful for these guys [Nintento] in the past, so it'll be successful for us now!" while refilling their designer wallets from their swimming pools of money. As with the movie and comic industry the almighty dollar has once again trumped brainpower and imagination to provide the general public with more brightly colored garbage supported by "BUY ME!!!" ad campaigns. Since the Xbox has significantly stronger graphical potential than the Wii why not design games to utilize this advantage instead of renaming existing games to prevent lawyer rage. If I had been in charge of launch game development for the Kinect (granted this is a HUUUUUGE "if"), I would have created an entire development team to examine the existing Wii motion game catalogue and expand on it based on the limitations of the Wii hardware, target audience and more. Why not prod Capcom to develop a Phoenix Wright game exclusively for the Kinect, where players can object with real shouting, submit evidence and pace the courtroom while interrogating witnesses, and activate lines of questioning with body gestures? Why not develop an RTS style strategy combat game where players can literally control entire armies without the use of a controller? These are just two examples of the limitless untapped potential for motion controls which will probably remain untapped since most game companies aren't willing to take a risk on new franchises or new ideas. Instead gamers will continually be fed endless waves of nearly identical activity game clones with no individuality or lasting appeal. Hopefully Tetsuya Mizuguchi will help the industry move past this standstill, but I have a feeling most gamers will be too scared of Child of Eden's uniqueness to throw off their homogeneous motion game blanket and embrace change.
