Team Gaming Update Diary -- E3 Day 0+2 Part 1 Microsoft Presser

Regular readers here at Gaming Update will be familiar with the extreme efforts that we go to whenever there is a major gaming event to provide coverage, with our top-notch editors and subeditors dispatching a hand-picked team of skilled news hounds with the support of Interns, and words of encouragement that even under the most stressful of times seem to have the desired effect: "Go out there and get the good stuff, or don't bother showing up at the office next week!"

It has become something of a tradition here at GU to share with you the observations and behind the scenes experiences of the GU Event Team in the form of irregular diary updates published to the site -- so to maintain that tradition, we present to you the Team Gaming Update Unofficial Diary for E3 2011!

E3 Day 0+2 -- 6th June 2011

The day began bright and early as we awoke at oh-my-God-thirty in the morning and blearily made our way down to the lobby in the lift. Fortunately our hotel was conveniently located just a stone's throw from Union Station and had a sumptuous free Continental Brekkie each morning -- unfortunately it did not start for another hour... So we made our way to Union Station to acquire life-giving coffee and meet up with the van that would transport us to the first event of the day, the Microsoft Annual Pre-E3 Presser.

The conference was a well organized and orderly event in which there was lots of green glowing light -- but it was not 'The Microsoft E3 Press Conference' we arrived at, but rather the '2011 Xbox Global Media Briefing' -- let's get that straight right now, mates.

It helped that we managed to find more coffee, and that by the time the conference began we were feeling half-human, half-orc, so when the opening quickly switched to a full-on demo and presentation of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 we were more than ready for that, and as it turned out we were having a better day than the presenter, because around 90-seconds into the presentation they lost their connection to the Xbox 360, and a bazillion people (like 10,000 games journo's in the theater and who knows how many people watching via the web and on TV) experienced what we are calling the "Plink Heard 'Round the World" and saw that error pop-up.

The presenter handled it well -- chuckling instead of gasping or swearing -- and quickly re-connected their controller, and got back to the presentation -- which we don't have to say had our full attention, right?

You could say it was a busy morning, yeah, because we did an underwater Seal insertion, planted a demo charge on a Russian sub, and blew that puppy to the surface, where we boarded it and took out the crew, got lots of secret stuff, and launched their own missiles against them with a ticking timer increasing the pucker factor on that mission -- and how was your morning?

The exit from that level was a ride on a Boeing CH-47 Chinook that was hovering in the water on the other side of the Russian fleet -- and as we headed for our ride (this is officially known as an "exfil" in military terms) we had to take out some small Russian armed patrol boats while the resulting effects of our take-over of the sub were illustrated for us in glorious explosion after explosion as the missiles from the sub gracefully came down upon the large warships, either sinking them or setting them ablaze ins a spectacular display of weapon recycling.

After the demo concluded the lights came back up and we were introduced to Infinity Ward's Robert Bolling (AKA FourZeroTwo) and Glenn Scofield from Sledgehammer Games, who spoke very briefly to tell us that the joint project was both an honor and a privilege for both of their respective companies. Scofield did all of the talking, and it truly was a brief address, as all that he had to add was that they were looking forward to the November 8th Launch Day -- and that there would be more content added to the game shortly thereafter, but in today's game release structure that is more or less a given.

It was all about Interactive Gaming

Microsoft Interactive's Don Mattrick came out onto the stage to add another official welcome and thank you declaration, and then talked for a few minutes about how gaming has changed for gamers and the industry, and in particular the interactive side of the industry.

This was actually an important part of the show, because it sealed the deal with respect to the question of whether there would be a hardware reveal today -- the answer being no, there would not. The 2011 E3 Xbox Global Media Briefing was to be Year Two of the Year of Kinect it seemed, and despite the fact that going in there was rampant speculation that Microsoft would unveil its new 8th gen console, we were actually OK with this, because it worked out well for a simple reason...

Last year was the year that the Kinect was introduced to the world -- the presser was a bit over-the-top and included the sort of eye-popping atmosphere (Cirque du Soleil and the announcement that every member of the media in attendance would be going out the door with a brand new black slimline 250GB Xbox 360 as well as a big-screen demo of Kinect) with so much distraction that only the basics were covered.

This year being the other Year of Kinect meant that we would get to see a more mature and accessible product and technology and, hopefully, learn the direction that Microsoft planned to take the controller in over the course of the coming year.

With the agenda now well defined, what followed was a long presentation of game after game -- and many of the games were titles that will not simply play well in the coming year but also define what gaming was in 2011 years from now because we are confident that 2011, like 2010, is going to be a historically important one that changes gaming forever. It certainly was not business as usual...

A Tomb Raider Prequel

The new Tomb Raider Prequel demo was not a big surprise as it was widely known that it would be part of the show, but with the well-established character from the previous games and her bigger-than-life persona fixed in the mind, encountering a Laura Croft who was not the bold, brave, and certain uber-hero was really something of a shock!

As the demo unfolds we see her gasping, hyperventilating, and talking to herself -- a Laura Croft who clearly is not the Tomb Raider we know and love, but rather the girl who existed before she became the ultimate adventurer, archeologist, anthropologist, and female Indiana Jones!

Can we be frank for a moment? This was disturbing on so many levels -- and her freaking out when an enemy grabbed her and screaming like a... Well... Like a girl?!

Even with Laura being less umph and more aayyyiiee! the game looks to be immersive, and includes all of the usual challenges to surmount -- and if the screams and moans get to be too much there is always your iPod... But you will not have to make that decision until April 2012 so it is all good, right?

There's Kinect for That!

Next out on the big stage was a bloke from EA who trumpeted the fact that Tiger Woods PGA Tour, Madden NFL, FIFA, and pretty much every Tom Clancy game ever made will all support Kinect in 2012. The Sims 3 Pets will have Kinect Voice Control, and Hasbro Family Games will also have Kinect Support.

Of course Mass Effect 3 was the first detailed game next out -- and it will fully support Kinect with voice recognition -- a fact that was featured as the star of its demo.

In place of the usual gamepad dialogue selections Kinect allows you to reply in your own voice to make the choice -- and dialogue was not the only part of the controls that were voice-aware -- combat in the game just got a lot smoother as you can simply call out the name of your teammate and give them a command!

Ubisoft's next Tom Clancy game -- Ghost Recon: Future Soldier -- presented a carefully selected set of scenes that pumped up the energy in an instant but was all too short. That transitioned to a talk on the new weapon customization system in the game -- called Gunsmith -- that showed a very impressive level of weapon tweaking that is Kinect-voice aware. The customization and optimization of weapons is not simply one of appearance, as nearly every component of a weapon can be modified or swapped out.

Simply saying the command "optimize for range" causes Gunsmith to rebuild the entire weapon for long-range shooting -- which is pretty impressive! They certainly picked the right element for the demo.

The New Living Room

As the Kinect Exposition continued the show turned to how Kinect voice control will change the way you live and play in your home -- and particularly in your Living Room -- where you use your voice to navigate through your music, video, and games menus and collection on your 360, change programming, and interface with your console.

While the currently available selection of programming on the console -- Hula, Netflix, and Zune programing -- will be augmented by YouTube as well as Bing for web searches plus a full searchable database for ALL of the entertainment options available on the 360, having full access to the catalogs for Hula, Netflix, YouTube, pretty much everything you can already watch on your 360 and what you will be watching in the future.

When we first heard that Bing was being added it really did not sound like that big a deal, but anyone who has tried to hunt down specific programming on their console can see how it is actually a big deal after all!

The addition of live TV via your Xbox -- which squarely puts Microsoft in competition with cable and satellite services -- is even more accessible when you can simply tell the console what you want to watch and it puts it on... Yeah, that is pretty cool.

More Games, some Games, and yeah, Games!

The upcoming UFC game was followed by a demo for Gears 3 that included Clif Bleszinski, Design Director at Epic and rapper turned actor Iced T, who came onstage to help out with the demo...

The demo was part of the game we have not seen before -- the Gears are on a ship in the middle of the ocean that is attacked by a sea monster that was mutated by the alien genes and appears to be very pissed at the ship... Iced T gets some good lines in this part of the game, and we get to see how it requires a bit of finesse to succeed in dealing with larger mobs, but really Gears 3 is a well-known and highly anticipated game, so it was all icing on the cake.

The next treat was the world reveal of Crytek's new Kinect-based motion control combat title set in ancient Rome -- Ryse -- with the reveal taking the form of a short video that appeared to be mix of CG and what looks like footage from the game engine. A first-person hack 'n' slash, Ryse is set in ancient Rome and has gamers fighting large scale battles by interacting directly through motions like swinging imaginary swords and the like. No official release date was offered, and no additional information was provided so this is one of the revealed games we have assigned to an Intern to keep track of for you!

The instantly recognizable music projected the next title -- Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary -- which is another reveal that we were expecting, but even so to see it on the big screens and hear the confirmation of something that gamers have been asking for from Bungee and Microsoft for so long made for good feelings. The hair on the back of our arms stood up and it was not just the air conditioning!

What it is in a nutshell is a fully remastered, completely remade from scratch retelling of the classic game which includes enhanced and updated maps, full co-op via Live, and the seven greatest maps of all time! Is it right and proper for a games journo to be excited by an announcement like this? Is it proper for them to have to battle the urge to cheer? Dood, it is Halo!

Forza Motorsport 4 is the next big thing in car racing, and like the Halo Anniversary game, it is an exclusive to the Xbox, and one of the most anticipated games of the year! The greatest directors in Hollywood could not have made a better demo video -- or made us want to play that game right here, right now! Expressed as "An Entire new Car Experience" the video was shot using the game engine and included a carefully selected series of landscapes and environments, showcasing the eclectic lineup of new cars as well as the different driving conditions.

It would not be Forza without there being some paint trading and spectacular accidents -- and they could not show us the game without including those -- and whether it was intended or not, these slices of game play also illustrated the new damage display system, which has never been more realistic in appearance. A chat with one of our contacts inside of Live assures us that the damage system we saw is not simply a cosmetic element of the game, but is actually reflected in the vehicle handling characteristics as well, which will make this year's Forza one of the most realistic of all of them!

That should make the run-up to October 11th a difficult one for most racing fans.

Tell us a Fable?

Peter Molyneux took the stage and, as he began to talk about what the Fable series has been and will be, we could not help but reflect upon all of the other times we saw him get up on a stage and reveal all of the wonderful and brilliant elements of the next Fable game, and how we would love this feature and that, as he invariably described games so packed with different innovations and play elements that you simply had to wonder how they could DO that in the normal development time that is allotted for the creation of a video game today.

The simple answer is that they cannot -- which is why every new Fable game -- EVERY TIME -- does not launch with most of the wonderful features that our good friend Peter Molyneux promises us that it will. It is not that he is a bad person, or a liar -- when he is up there telling you about the amazing things that will be in the game he clearly believes what he is saying. It is evident that he means for it to be true, that he wants it to be true, and that he will try to make it true. But it is equally evident that it is not true.

Fable the Journey is meant to be player-centric game in the series that Molyneux always wanted to make... Remember that the Hero in Albion as of the last game, Fable III, was down to a single very diluted bloodline, so if there is going to be more heroes in the realm, they are going to have to be made, because being born, maturing, and embracing your abilities as a hero is so random a process that it would force the game wizards at Lionhead to constantly embrace the same basic game premise -- and as they have done that in the last three games, it really is time for a change.

Fable the Journey is not a title that has overly impressed our colleagues at the presser -- this was evident as we listened to the comments and the conversations during and after the presser. Even the very effective motion-sensing control scheme that the game is built around -- our host on the stage was controlling the game almost entirely through hand and arm motion and gestures -- was not enough to soften the feelings of once-bitten, twice-shy that they were feeling.

"Just because we see it happening on the stage and on the screen before us does not mean it will be in the game," one games journo declared. And that is true -- but in this case unlikely, because the large scale and grandiose declarations of years past was glaringly absent here, suggesting that Molyneux may actually have learned from past mistakes... Finally.

Fable the Journey appears to have a game world that is very similar to that of the previous title in the series, and its graphics engine may well be the same from Fable III, which is not really a bad thing. As the 6th title in the series gamers were expecting it to at least maintain the same open-world format as the previous games, but the demo appeared to suggest that this was not the case...

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A Fable on a Rail?

Before the demo even concluded the muttering was audible -- concern that the game we were being shown was not only not an open-world title in keeping with the established format, but was actually a rail-based game of A+B+C, rinse and repeat, was enough to spark annoyance and even anger on the faces of some of the journo's in the audience, making it pretty simple to spot who among them also happened to be a fan of the series.

-- TIME TRAVEL WARNING --

Breaking up the narrative here, we zoom ahead to the end of the presser when a large group of journo's cornered some of the PR's and a dev from Lionhead, pitchforks and flaming brands in hand, while a pair ran towards the parked RV's to find rope and another pair picked the lamp post that would support all of their bodies to hang them from -- we heard news that almost instantly defused the situation...

The game was NOT a rail-based shooter/magic adventure. The Journey actually DID follow the established game model, it WAS open-world. It seems that a choice was made in creating the demo to remove the navigation display in order to keep it clean and make it more cinematic. The idea that this choice could backfire and bite them on the tushie had simply not occurred to them...

Unfortunately the vast majority of the journo's who saw the demo were not standing here listening to this explanation -- they were on their way to their hotels to file copy that would quickly turn what should have been a simple misunderstanding into a snowballing issue and near-crisis for the studio.

So if you have not already learned about it, the rumors that Fable the Journey is a rail-based game are simply not true.

-- AND WE ARE BACK --

The next game to take center stage was something of a surprise -- though in hindsight it seems that it was a talked about and expected announcement among the very large fan community of the game, so it was simply that we were not in that circle that explains how we were unaware that Minecraft was coming to Xbox 360 -- or that it was to be an Xbox Exclusive title for consoles.

Are you familiar with Minecraft? Our Interns are -- chances are if they are playing a game that they are not supposed to be playing in the bull pen or the pit at the office, it is Minecraft.

First released in May of 2009, the game has gone through many versions and, while it is still in Beta today, has taken what is likely to be its final form. In simple terms Minecraft is a sandbox construction game with adventure elements. If that sounds like a game that has a very large world in which you build things, explore, and craft, well then that is close enough.

The PC game includes single-player, survival single-player, and survival multi-player modes while the 360 version will be a Kinect-centric play experience. The two single-player versions can be played via your web browser (there are dedicated clients that can be used to play without the Internet), while the multi-player version requires the Internet, and gamers must host the servers themselves, as there is no official hosted structure.

Kinect Disneyland Adventures

Considering the motion-aware nature of Kinect and its many different control options, it really was just a matter of time before someone created a virtual world built around the controller's abilities -- and how sweet is it that the first such endeavor turned out to be a virtual version of the Disney theme park?

The demo footage was impressive, showing a flying tour down Main Street and through the large arch of Cinderella's Castle, before taking us on a virtual ride through Peter Pan's Flight and then down the rabbit hole into Alice in Wonderland, which are actual rides at the park, turning the rides into mini-games that feature collectibles as well as coins that can be used as money in the park.

Kinect Star Wars

It seems to us that there is no game series begging for a Kinect treatment more than Star Wars -- so the word that the upcoming title in that series was wholly-Kinect aware and fully embraces its motion-sensing controls was very well received!

Imagine swinging your light saber, jumping over an attack, dodging a blaster shot... Now stop imagining it and simply do it like the bloke on the stage who provided the meat for this demo! Yeah, it was cool. Yeah, we were impressed. Yeah, we wanted to play that game...

The all too familiar world, the Battle Droids and Droideka, the saber fights and Force Push -- the chance to get about as close to the Jedi experience as you can so far?

An Open Book

Tim Schafer from Double Fine presented Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster plays through its book-like interface, and uses the Kinext motion-sensing controls to have you -- or more likely your kids -- quickly making best mates with Elmo and Cookie Monster, and matching the challenges on the screen through dance and motion.

The game appears to be designed for play by kids and with them, which is pretty cool if you think about it because how many other games can you think of that have that approach?

Kinect Fun Labs

An upcoming addition to the Xbox 360 Dashboard is the Kinect Fun Labs -- a new interface and set of tools that give developers and gamers a tremendous amount of control over their console and, this is cool, use objects from real life (including themselves) to create a custom avatar! Finger tracking allows you to create 3D images on the console, and share the images you create with your friends...

The biggest surprise though was the new Object Capture -- an app in Fun Labs that allows you to take any object from real life, scan it into the console, and turn it into a playable avatar and object! The example was a cute stuffed animal, but they pointed out that it could just as easily have been you favorite car or your favorite skateboard, and that there will be games that allow you to then use those objects in play.

Kinect Sports Season Two served as the vehicle for demonstrating the gesture and in-game voice controls, using Football (the American type) and Golf as the examples.

In Golf the swing was picked up by the motion sensor, and the host changed their active club by voice, before using the new Gesture Sensing mechanism to line up their shot while putting. In Football it was a bit over-the-top, being a bit of silly macho play in calling out the play and then executing it. Still, the point was made -- the improvements to Kinect offer a finer level of control and increase the potential fun to be had in the Kinect-aware titles.

Dance Central 2 followed with some irritating dancing on the stage to showcase how the game and real life merge, with the new partner-dancing mode -- irritating because seriously, who can dance that well?!

The Big Reveal -- Halo 4

The presser was nearing the end, and we all expected it to end with an announce for Halo 4, which was the obvious show-closer -- and we were not to be disappointed! Don Mattrick returned to the stage and when he reached the center, he recapped all that we had just seen to keep it fresh in our minds before finally turning to the news that we were waiting for...

The most significant aspect of the Halo 4 reveal was that it was not merely a reveal for Halo 4, but for Halo 4, 5, and 6! That's right, the next Halo is game one in a planned trilogy -- and while that seemed like an obvious plan, having it confirmed so early? Yeah, that was pretty cool!

Halo 4 is planned for a Holidays 2012 release, and while the reveal appeared to be entirely CG if any of that was actual game play footage? Well, let us just say that it will be a freaking awesome eye-busting game!

Back on the Bus!

After the presser ended and, after we finally managed to get outside, there was a bus waiting from a major games studio that was there to take us to an invitation-only presentation of an upcoming game that, well, we cannot tell you about because we signed one of those pesky non-disclosure agreement thingies that I am pretty sure allows them to remove body parts with a dull machete if we violate it.

We were taken to a very large hotel in downtown LA, where we went up to a suit and where you will be proud to learn that your Gaming Update Team declined the free booze (we ate the shrimp though, man's gotta eat, we're just saying!) and where we listened and took notes on what will likely be one of the major games of 2012...

Don't you just hate it when they show you something really good that you want to write about, but only if yo agree not to write about it? Yeah, we do too!

The secret briefing for Game X ended in time for us to head down to the arts district for the Ubisoft Presser -- you can read all of the details about that in our posts on it called Edge of the Seat News at the Ubisoft E3 2011 Press Conference and you know, if you have yet to do so, do that now to see what the middle part of the day included!