The Microsoft Xbox 360 Pre-E3 2012 Press Briefing in a Nutshell

Shifting Gears

Fun and games appeared to be over as the focus of the briefing moved on to the more mundane -- but no less interesting -- elements of the upcoming changes to the Xbox 360 Dashboard, which includes new voice features like the fully-integrated Mexican/Spanish voice control, details about the refinements to the voice-search system on the Dashboard, which includes the ability to search through movies by category (about time), and the new channels that will be appearing on the Xbox 360 soon -- one of which is Unavision -- and the new apps that will be added, which includes a slew of new ESPN coverage.

When Don Mattrick took the stage to open the briefing one of the elements that he was most excited by was the fact that some of the new features that were coming up would be nearly universal, arriving not just on the Xbox but also on Windows 8, Windows Smartphones, and tablet devices, and some of that includes a new offering that is basically a re-launch of the Microsoft Music Store. Clearly Microsoft still sees a future in which it has at least the chance at a level-playing-field with iTunes, or at least the shot at a chance.

The Kinect was the next focus, with a rep from Nike taking the stage to tell us about the new Nike App that fully integrates all of the existing -- and future -- kit from the sports company, turning your 360 into the central hub of your Nike world, integrating training and statistics from the e-aware Nike products in the process. Considering the already large number of work-out related apps/games that have been released for the 360 and Kinect it is debatable that this will mean much to the average gamer, but it is certainly good news for gamers who are already into the whole Nike connection thing.

Smart Glass?

Xbox Live's Marc Whitten took the stage next and told us about the newest take on owning your media -- the Xbox SmartGlass -- which he confirmed will be available on Android, iPad, iPhone, Windows Phone and on Windows 8, and will finally allow seamless screen switching on all of your media devices. What does that mean?

Basically SmartGlass allows for screen switching -- pause a movie you are watching on one device and resume play from right where you paused on another -- but it also promises to allow any SmartGlass device to act as a "second screen" controller for games! Clearly they are ripping a page out of the innovation behind the Wii U, but with an important difference... Their version of the tech approach is not locked into a specific controller... Any tablet or smartphone will do the trick, and that may very well turn out to be the brilliance behind the move. While there was no actual demo of the tech, they did offer a concept demo for Halo 4 and Madden that got the idea across, and underscored why this will be one of the tech offerings we will be carefully tracking.

IE on 360

The very limited browser interface on the 360 is about to get a major improvement, as the next upcoming addition to the Dashboard includes a 360-version of the Internet Explorer browser -- a version that is fully Kinect-integrated, which means browsing by voice.

The implementation of the browser will not be restricted to the 360 however, though clearly it will be a major benefit for gamers and 360 owners who would like to be able to do web searches from their console -- but will include deployment on the SmartGlass spectrum as well, which means you will not only be able to surf on the 360 by voice, but also on your SmartGlass enabled devices in the usual finger-centric manner that has become the norm.

The word is that SmarGlass will debut some time in late 2012 -- but as we said, that is part of the briefing we will keep an eye on for you.

Lara Croft

While the tech-centric bit of the briefing did lead to a less enthusiastically motivated audience (not so much applause and cheering) when the blokes from Crystal Dynamics took the stage to show off the new Lara Croft that all changed. Bear in mind that the latest offering from the studio in the Tomb Raider line is a very different, and much more realistic version of the fem-fatal and no-nonsense anthropologist slash archeologist -- a much slimmer less top-heavy and more realistic rendering that is closer to the Angelina Jolie version than the Debbie-D-Cups of the past, which should cheer up a few of the more vocal female games journo's who have rather pointedly noted the unrealistic size of her... Umm... Endowment.

It seems that in addition to becoming more average human in appearance, while she is still something of a beauty, our Lara is now more human in her actions and reactions, taking damage from hard falls like the one she took parachuting over the falls in the demo, and voicing the stress she is under, though we thought she was just a little too willing to moan and groan, but hey, we are used to a rough-and-tough take-no-prisoners Lara, so this may take some getting used to for the hardcore fans, we are just saying...

Xbox 360 gamers will be pleased to learn that the first set of DLC for the new Tomb Raider will be Xbox 360 exclusives, so how about that?