E3 is over for another year so I have decided to share my thoughts on what Microsoft and other companies have announced is coming soon for the Xbox 360. These thoughts range from a slight sense of disappointment in the lack of new titles announced, to mild excitement at the new xbox live features and Project Natal.

The Games

From my perspective, the most exciting announcement was the Forza 3 was confirmed, I still play Forza 2, and the next installment looks like it builds upon what made that game great. Crackdown 2 being confirmed was also encouraging, and hopefully this game will not be saddled with being called the “Halo 3 beta with Crackdown”, which is desperately unfair given that Crackdown was actually quite a good game. I do wonder why the Halo: Reach beta is included with Halo: ODST but at least it is a natural fit. Apart from Crackdown 2, there was little in the way of surprises apart from Left for Dead 2, the response to which seems to be surprisingly muted give the positive response to the first title. There was a Metal Gear Solid title announced but I have never played and dont care about that franchise.

It was surprising that there was no mention of Mass Effect 2 or Bioshock 2 in the press conference which led me to worry in the laters case that $ony had got exclusivity rights which fortunately does not appear to be the case. In the case of ME2 it simply seemed to be a case of letting EA talk about it and from the trailer I have to admit it looks good. I do wonder what happened to DLC for the original Mass Effect as E3 would have been a good time to hype it.

Overall though I was mildly dissapointed in Microsofts line up of games at E3 with little to make me excited that I did not already know about, I expect though that news of more games will trickle out as the year progresses.

The New Xbox Live Features

When it comes to the Fall Update for Xbox 360 things look more exciting, as there are a slew of new features being added to Xbox Live. These include Twitter and Facebook dashboard intergration. One thing which is unclear at the moment is if this is for everyone or if it will be a Gold only feature.

Two things that are Gold only are the new Joyride microtransaction game, and Last FM. The Joyride game depending on what the “basic” package includes could be a fun title to play with friends, and the Last FM intergration is when taken with the delayed primetime games, starting to make the pricetag for Xbox Live Gold, even better value than it alrady is. There is part of me which wonders if the new feautures are a success we may eventually see free multiplayer on Xbox Live Silver, with Gold instead having a slew of extras to sell it. If this was the case I would anticipate a fall 2010 or 2011 implementation once Gold subscribers have had a chance to become addicted to the new features.

The 1080p film on demand feature looks nice, but I doubt I will use it that much, what I am more likely to use being based in the UK is the new Sky integration, especially for football. The extent of my use though will depend a great deal on the price of the service however, which I am still to hear.

Project Natal

The most exciting news from E3 was of course about Microsofts new motion controller, currently known as Natal. If Natal works as advertised, it makes the Wii motion control look even more primitive that the Wii console itself. The Milo demo looks like we could soon have a new genre developing in terms of interaction with computer generated characters, and I could easily see a murder mystery or RPG in a limited setting using such technology. I also anticipate Activision announcing “air-guitar hero” in the near future.

I do however foresee a few problems, first of all like most camera based systems it will need some space to work to its full potential and not everyone will be able to have a large enough area. There are also times and games where a controller or at least an additional form of control would be preferable to using body motion alone, I therefore anticipate new “mini” controllers for use in some types of games like FPS. The biggest drawback however is likely to be the cost, as the price was not announced but will probably be in the £50-£150 range, and also there was no release date announced.

Given that Microsoft stated it was just sending out development kits at E3 then if they want a decent range of launch games for Natal I cant see it being released before Fall 2010.

Overall

I think Microsoft had a fairly good E3. It could however do with some clarity on Natals price and release date, and more exclusive titles. If there are no delays to the new features though and a few surprises announced later in the year then I would not be surprised if the Xbox 360 solidifies its position above the PS3.