What’s Going On At E3: Microsoft–Kinect, Halo 4, Dance Central 2

June 08 17:45 2011 by Alexei Rivera Print This Article

Microsoft Interactive Entertainment’s Don Mattrick takes the stage

The Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, just kicked off today with Microsoft’s Press Release held at the Los Angeles Convention Center early Monday morning. What’s an E3? It’s basically the year’s biggest show in video games – and Microsoft is starting it with a bang. A lot of new titles are leveraging Kinect, Microsoft’s controller-free gaming peripheral. However, there’s enough traditional gaming to be had. Key announcements and demos include a new Xbox Dashboard, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Mass Effect 3, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Gears of War 3, Forza 4, Minecraft(!), and a short-but-sweet Halo 4 teaser.

Clockwise from top-left, Fable: The Journey, Kinect Disneyland Adventures,
Sesame Street: Once Upon A Monster, and Kinect Star Wars

Kinect was introduced sometime last year, and it quickly became the world’s fastest selling consumer electronics gadget – 10 million units have been shipped since March 9, 2011. As such, Microsoft is showing its support by introducing new games for the controller-free peripheral. Games shown for Kinect include Star Wars, Fable: The Journey, Sesame Street: Once Upon A Monster, Kinect Fun Labs, Kinect Disneyland Adventures, Kinect Sports: Season 2, and Dance Central 2. These games feature certain body motions to play, with the Kinect accurately detecting player input. Some games also feature voice commands – like changing clubs in Kinect Sports Golf.

Dance Central 2 now supports simultaneous dancing and voice control

Traditional gaming was definitely not left out as trailers and demos for core titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Tomb Raider, Halo Anniversary, Gears of War 3, Mass Effect 3, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier were shown. Mass Effect 3 and Ghost Recon feature voice recognition as a bonus if you own a Kinect peripheral. Several EA Sports games were also announced, and they will all feature added Kinect functionalities.

Clockwise from top-left, Tomb Raider, Mass Effect 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3,
and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

Then, Microsoft announced a revamp of the Xbox Dashboard to incorporate more of Kinect’s capabilities. Voice activated search and navigation is now a big thing, and full implementation of YouTube will be included.

The Chief is back for Halo 4!

Finally, Microsoft brought out the ‘Chief from retirement – Master Chief. The protagonist from the massively popular Halo series is back, and an excellent teaser trailer for Halo 4 was shown to close the ceremonies.

Overall, the Microsoft E3 conference showed a pretty good lineup. Some Kinect features were impressive, but some weren’t compelling. However, as the fastest selling gadget of all time, there’s no doubt its here to stay. Needless to say, if you still don’t have a Kinect, this year might be a good time to pick it up. If not, there’s plenty gaming still to go around.

For more information about these games, visit Xbox.com.

Image sources: GameSpot’s E3 Coverage