Many rumours and suggestions have been flying round in regards to the price tag of Kinect, but hopefully Microsoft will put an end to that, as they have just posted a price on their official store.
According to the Kinect listing on the Microsoft Store, the $149 pack will include the Kinect sensor, power supply cable, user manual and a 'Wi-Fi extension cable'... whatever that is. The evidence is further backed-up with Amazon and US retailer, GameStop also listing Kinect at $149, despite the fact that Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg posted on Twitter that all Kinect prices are speculative. Maybe he should check his e-mails more often.
Still no mention of a European price for the motion controlled device, but are happy to guess that it’ll be around the £100 mark.
Big announcements were made at Nintendo’s E3 press conference, one of which was the exciting news of the Nintendo 3DS.
Now, Nintendo has released a full list of games that we can expect to get our hands on when the 3DS is released early next year. We already knew about Kid Icarus: Uprising and Nintendogs + cats, but now we can look forwards to Mario Kart, Star Fox 64 3D, Dead or Alive 3D, DJ Hero 3D and even Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition. But perhaps the biggest game on the list is Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Check out the full list of games by clicking the link below.
 A lot of people have been looking at the new Slim 360 and have been wondering if Microsoft where inspired by Sony‘s PS3 Slim; but Microsoft have said that simply isn’t true.
When Ryan Moore, Microsoft’s worldwide product market manager, was asked if the PS3 Slim inspired the new 360 he replied:
"I think the decision to do this was made before their announcements last year. It's part of the natural generation of a console to refine the components and make it sleeker and quieter and all that.”
"I wouldn't say it was directly related [to PS3 Slim]."
The new console is set fro release on July 16th and come with a built-in 250Gb hard drive, 5 USB ports, built-in Wi-Fi and a nice price tag of £199.
We already mentioned that Sega will be bringing the Dreamcast classics Sonic Adventure and Crazy Taxi to the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, but now Sega have revealed that more Dreamcast games are in the pipeline.
Speaking at E3, Sega West President, Mike Hayes said that we can expect to see between 18-24 Dreamcast games to hit XBLA and PSN. "With Dreamcast, we want to refocus people on that particular console. We want to make it more of a campaign, ” said Hayes. “Obviously the Dreamcast was huge for the fans.”
When asked if Sega had any plans to bring games from the Saturn’s back catalogue, Hayes said:
“No, we're focusing on Dreamcast. There's a significant catalogue there.”
It’s a shame to hear that there are no plans to bring back classic Saturn games, but at least we can look forward to the 20+ line-up of Dreamcast games.
Is there a particular Dreamcast game that you would like to see brought back? If so then let us know in the comments below. (what poetry)
Sony's confirmed that its superhero MMO DC Universe Online will charge a subscription fee for access to play the game.
Sony Online Entertainment's Scott Gulbransen has confirmed that DC Universe Online will carry a subscription fee of $14.99 a month. He didn’t mention anything about pricing for European territories, but we’re assuming that it’ll cost around £10. DC Universe Online will be released for both the PS3 and PC this November. Players will be able to join up with other people between the two platforms.
Microsoft has revealed that Crackdown 2's demo will feature ten Achievements worth 10G each when it is released next week.
The announcement wasn’t made at E3, but just outside of it at a posh game-related launch party in Los Angeles. Sadly, you'll still have to buy the full game to add your 100G Achievements to your Gamerscore. You didn’t think they'd make it that easy for you, did you?
Sony’s E3 press conference started with a very nice montage of different up-coming games for PS3, PSP and even PS2?! Afterwards, PlayStation of America President & CEO, Jack Tretton was introduced on stage. He talked about how Sony’s ten-year plan would bring a home entertainment device into thousands of home which was more than just a games console, but a device for the whole family and that they are taking great strides towards that ten-year plan goal. Tretton then introduced the President and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, Kazuo Hirai where he wanted to talk about 3D technology. “PlayStation will take both it’s innovation and it’s new content to a whole new level,” said Hirai as he claimed that the PS3 will do to 3D what it did to Blu-Ray. 20 games including the like of Pain, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift and WipEout HD will all be available in 3D via the PlayStation store. Hirai then brought out Hermun Hulst to show off the 3D capabilities of the PS3 with Killzone 3.
Hulst said that Killzone 3 will incorporate full use of the 3D technology, rather then being used as a gimmick. He showed off two scenes from the games fourth level set in the Artic North of the planet Helgan. The audience where then asked to put on their 3D glasses as the gameplay trailer started. It showed two rangers fighting against a group of jet-pack wearing enemies on what appeared to be an oil rig. We then saw the player wearing one of the jet-packs, hopping from platform to platform fighting enemies along the way. The next scene featured our player operating a gun turret whilst onboard a vehicle blowing the oil rig-like structure to bits. As the trailer ended, Hulst announced that Killzone would be available worldwide from February 2011 and will be fully functional with PlayStation Move. Hirai returned to the stage and told everyone about other 3D games like Crysis 2, Mortal Kombat, The Sly Collection and Gran Turismo 5. He then asked the audience to put their 3D glasses back on to watch a compilation video of all the 3D compatible games announced so far. Jack Tretton returned to talk about the tenth anniversary of the PlayStation 2, saying that it’s a great testament to not only the software on the console, but also the consumer support. He also mentioned that more people are buying PS3’s and connecting them to the internet, not just for online gaming but to also download movies, surf the web and to stream music. Tretton them turned his focused onto the PlayStation Move and introduced Peter Dille onto the stage to explain more about the new controller.
Dille explained how the PS Move controller worked, using the PlayStation Eye camera to track the motion of the light at the top of the Move controller, resulting in precise movement. A video was then shown featuring different developers talking about the PlayStation Move and the possibilities it held. Once the video had ended, Dille explained that because the Blu-Ray disc can hold so much data, developers are able to put two versions of one game on the same disc -one with Move compatibility and one without- offering great value to the consumer. Dille then showed off some brand new games to utilize the PlayStation Move. First up was Creative Director from The Workshop Christian Busic and his game Sorcery, where by using the Move controller the play can cast spells to defeat enemies in and action/adventure game. Next up was Andrew Wilson from EA Sports who brought Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 along with him. The game looks very nice, but as Wilson was taking a few swings, he missed the ball. Poor programming on EA’s part or rubbish skills from Wilson? Hard to say. Finally, Dille returned to show us a new game, Heroes on the Move featuring Ratchet & Klank, Jak & Daxter and Sly Raccoon in a platform game. The fans in the audience then started to cheer as Kevin Butler, the man from the American PS3 adverts, came on stage to bring some light-hearted humour to the event, basically saying how gaming on the PS3 is awesome. Dille wrapped up his PlayStation Move presentation saying that the new motion controller will be available in Europe first on September 15th , then on September 19th in America and October 21st in Japan. Jack Tretton then came back onto the stage and began to talk about the PSP and started with showing the audience a new ad campaign for North America, which was very similar to the Kevin Butler commercials expect it’s got some black kid called Marcus in it. Tretton then went through a list of various PSP titles that fans can expect to see in the near future such as Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Ace Combat: Joint Assault and God of War: Ghosts of Sparta. Things then moved swiftly on to the PlayStation Network where Tretton talked about how popular PSN has become within the past couple of years, with over 50 million registered users. He also mentioned that the Sony PlayStation booth at E3 had been replicated in PS Home, so that people who were unable to attend the show now had the chance to join in on all the fun. Attention then turned to the contend aspect of PSN, with Tretton saying that with games such as LittleBIGPlanet and ModNation Racers, players are able to bring their own ideas to life. He then introduced Alex Evans from Media Molecule to talk about LittleBIGPlanet 2. Evans talked about the new features that fans can expect to see in LBP2 along with some of mini games that are possible to create in the game. A puzzle game, a bumper car game and a free-for-all action game. It was then announced that PlayStation Network would be getting a subscription based service to work alongside the current PSN, known as PlayStation Plus. “PlayStation Plus give gamers the opportunity to expand and enhance their gaming experience,” said Tretton where exclusive content will be available for gamers including beta invitations, free themes and wallpapers and even some free PSN games. The service will launch at the end of the month and will cost $49.99 (£39.99) for a years subscription or $17.99 (£15.99) for 3 months, with the first 3 months free for everyone.
It was at this point in the press conference where it seemed as if Sony had said everything they could about the services and products that have lined up. So, for some reason, they introduced various developers on stage from different companies. EA where introduced first and talked about some of their games. Medal of Honor and Dead Space 2 where shown along with a mention of the new Need for Speed title. Following them was Valve Entertainment’s Gabe Newell who showed off a teaser trailer for Portal 2. Other games shown from third-party developers where Final Fantasy XIV, Mafia II and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, along with a trailer for inFamous 2 and a concrete release date of November 2nd for the highly anticipated Gran Turismo 5. Sony then closed the show with a surprise announcement that no-one saw coming. A brand new Twisted Metal game. Co-founders of Eat, Sleep, Play David Jaffe and Scott Campbell where on stage to show of the new game in action along with a few of the games modes. The two men also announced that Twisted Metal is exclusive for the PS3 and will be available in 2011.
Did any of your predictions come true or are there still things that you thing Sony are missing out on let us know in the comments bar below.
The Nintendo E3 conference kicked of with a nice little 10-1 countdown and some fire works, after which Reggie Fils-Aime made his way in stage, he opened up the conference by talking about how E3 was the land of technology and made some comparisons between the different types of technology and user interfaces that we would see at this years E3 “touch screens, big screens, HD, 3D, button control, motion control and no controller at all” and how Nintendo would once again be raising the bar by blending technology and game play together to bring the best gaming experience possible. We where then treat to a world premier trailer of the new Legend of Zelda game, the trailer opened up with a timeline looking back at some of the best Zelda titles such as Twilight Princess, Majoras Mask and The Wind Waker to then open up to the latest incarnation of Link, once again an adult version this time the game has all most painting like quality to it, the trailer shown Link not only using the icon sword and shield combo from games past but all so a tentative look at some of the new weapons in the game, at the end of the trailer The Legend of Zelda tri-force came up and announced the games full title to be The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. After that Shigeru Miyamoto, accompanied by the same sword and shield that he held aloft at the 2004 E3 came out to talk about his latest title, he talked about how over the years it had been a challenge to produce an effective and believe experience of sword play using controllers but after seeing how the Wii Motion Plus had made sword play so simple he had finally found his sword play mechanic using the Wii remote to move the sword freely whilst rising and the lowing the shield with the nun-chuck, we where then introduced to a very nerves guy named Bill trying to show us how to play the new Zelda title who in a rather scripted manner was of course very bad at the game forcing Shigeru Miyamoto to take to the stage and show us the game him self whilst Bill translated for him.
We saw Shigeru Miyamoto face off against several different enemies that required different sweeping directions from the sword or shield to defeat them and that this time charging the sword would require raising it up to the sky instead of simply holding down the A button like past Zelda games, he then went on to talk about how the item screen would become so intuitive to you whilst playing that you would instinctively know where every thing is at all times with out even having to look, he then demo the sling shot, bombs and bow which did not really work Shigeru Miyamoto apologized and put this glitch down to the amount of wireless interference in the conference room but explained that it worked much like the bow in Wii Sports Resort by holding down the C button then pulling the bow back, he then demo a brand new weapon in the game called the beetle that once fired you controlled using the Wii remote to pick up items of have a look ahead of you and finally a whip that worked just like the sword but for a more ranged attack, the live demo ended with a tentative release date of 2011 and an extended trailer that showed of the game and its enemies a bit more. Reggie Fils-Aime then came back on stage to talk about the wide world of sports in the gaming industry and how this year Wii players would have the opportunity to play both the realistic version of the favourite sports in titles like Madden 11 and PES 11 and the not so realistic in title like NBA Jam and a brand new Mario centric sporting title Mario Sports Mix where we will be able to play mushroom kingdom versions of volleyball, hockey, dodge ball and basketball. Reggie Fils-Aime then gave a big F you to all the people that have said the Wii is nothing more then a one day a year toy to play with by announcing record breaking sales in the USA and some independent poles that put the Wii on top of both the other two main home console produces in both play time and want ability, he then showed of the next in what he called a bridge game Wii Party that sees your Mii take to a game board and play mini games in an attempt to be the first one to the finish just like those in the Mario Party titles, he also introduced us to Ubisofts sequel to Just Dance, Just Dance 2, and then a trailer to Golden Sun: Dark Dawn for Nintendo DS, the trailer showed classic Golden Sun game play format he GBA series with the inclusion of the DS touch screen to solve puzzle and do combat.
Then with a play on the word golden Reggie Fils-Aime unveiled a trailer for a brand new Wii exclusive Goldeneye game by Activision staring the latest Bond Daniel Craig which promises all the fun and action from the original thirteen years ago along with a host of new features top of which is online multiplayer. Reggie Fils-Aime the showed off a bit of Disney Epic Mickey by inviting Warren Spector and Adam Creighton of Disney up on stage to demo the game, they showed off the key game mechanic of Epic Mickey that allows you to use paint and thinner to paint new objects into the game to aid you in your quest and erase other parts of it as well, they then demo a second level of the game that saw the perspective shift form a 3D action game to a more traditional 2D plat former based on the classic Disney Cartoon steam boat Willy. Reggie Fils-Aime next introduced us to a brand new Kirby game the Epic Yarn which on the face of it shares a lot in common with the paper Mario series (minus the RPG element) but sees Kirby and the world around him made out of yarn and fabric that Kirby can manipulate thou out the world and all so hinted at the possibility of co-op play as well. Dragon Quest 9 all so got a US release date of next month on July 11th and Metroid other M the date of August 31st, next up was the announcement of the return of Donkey Kong Country with a visual style very much in keeping with the original Rare titles slated for a holiday release date this year.
Departing the stage Reggie Fils-Aime allowed Satoru Iwata to take centre place to unveil the brand new Nintendo hand held the Nintendo 3DS, he talked about how the duel screen device had a larger wide screen at the top and how it would allow you to experience full 3D with out the need for expensive glasses, he spoke about how the device has an analogy slider on the side that allow you to control the intensity of the 3D at will with out having to go in to any menus, he all spoke about how this was not just a standard DS with a 3D screen slapped on the top but was in fact the next advancement of the hardware with improved graphical capabilities, the device all so has a built in motion sensor and gyro sensor as well an analogy joy stick, the top of the device has not one but two cameras that will allow you to take a photo and then view it in 3D on the Nintendo 3DS, Satoru Iwata all so talked about plans to bring 3D Hollywood movies to the Nintendo 3DS though partner ships with movie studios like Disney, Warner Bros and Dream Works, We where then treated to a trailer for one of the very first Nintendo 3DS games. Kid Icarus: Uprising, after the trailer had ended Satoru Iwata told us about how the Nintendo 3DS will have the ability to multitask whilst you are playing allowing the machine to connect to the internet and retrieve data about one game whilst you play another all with out the price of a monthly fee, he then all so announced several third party companies that plan on producing 3DS games including Capcom with a Resident Evil title and Konami with a Metal Gear Solid title. The conferences concluded with Reggie Fils-Aime giving us around up of every thing that he and the rest of Nintendo and the third party developers had talked about and shown off during the show, he then invited out a 100 plus booth babes with Nintedno 3DS units chained to there wastes for the audience to try out as well as several Wii systems that where playing The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Did any of your predictions come true or are there still things that you thing Nintendo are missing out on let us know in the comments bar below and if you want to watch the whole conference for your self check it out here at e3.nintendo
The conference opened up with a trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops followed by Mark Lamia of Treyarch Studios coming out on stage to give us a live demonstration of the game in action, the level he played saw him working his way through an underground tunnel though to a helicopter on a landing pad surrounded by enemy troops in the middle of a jungle that he then proceeded to assault ending up with him taking control of the helicopter both piloting and firing following a river down stream where encountered heavy enemy resistance ending up with him assaulting an enemy camp form the air. Microsoft senior vice president of interactive entrainment Don Mattrick then made his way on stage to announced that Microsoft now have a standing agreement with Activision that all future Call of Duty map packs and add on will launch exclusively first on the XBOX 360 for the next three years, and all so confirmed that Natal would be official know as Kinect, he then invited Hideo Kijima on stage to talk a little about Metal Gear Solid Rising who then intern invited Shigenbu Matsuyma on stage to talk abit more and all so show of a new trailer for the XBOX exclusive title. The trailer started out with a flashy looking cut scene of a robot having it’s arm chopped off and spinal cord ripped out by the games main character Raiden, it then showed some in game footage of how you will have the ability to cut any thing you want and in any way you want in game even showing it will be precise enough to slice up a watermelon.
After the trailer had ended the lights went up for us to hear from corporate vice president of Microsoft game studios Phil Spencer, he talked about how thought the XBOX characters like Sam Fisher, Master Chief and Marcus Fenix had broken in to pop culture, and to announce that every thing that would be shown during the conference would be an XBOX 360 exclusive title, he then invited Cliff Bleszinski on stage, who was not only was sporting a cool looking red 360 pad but all so gave us a live demo of Gears of War 3 4 player co-op. The demo showed delta squad being ambushed by locust on there way to a COG base who then them self’s where attacked by lambent, as they approach the COG base delta squad comes under attack by even more lambent who this time start mutating as they become familiar to the players play style, we also got to see a hulking spider like lambent boss that tore up the environment as well as the impressive visual of the new unreal engine we all so got to see two of the new female characters inaction though out the demo, after the demo Bleszinski announced that they would be unveiling a new game mode called beast later in the week.
Peter Molyneux was up next on stage to take us though Fable III. Set 50 years after the last title Molyneux talked about how your actions this time will not only affect those around you but those of entire kingdoms, we where then treated to some brand new Fable III footage showed off some of the new locations in Albion and the basic set plot of the game that sees you play as the youngest of two princess set on over throwing his evil older brother for the good of all Albion. After the Fable III trailer had ended the lights went back up and Phil Spencer introduced us to Marcus lehto from Bungie who of course had come to talk about Halo Reach, he then showed off some pre recorded footage of the Halo Reach campaign that saw Noble team storm a beach under siege by covenant drop pods to make there way to a UNSC strong hold that had all ready been invaded by covenant forces that UNSC troops had managed to push back, the end of the footage was Noble team board a Sabre that launched them into space where for the first time in the Halo series we will be able to participate in space combat. Next up it was the turn of corporate vice president Mark Whitten to take to the stage who with a dodge microphone took us thought of some of the things we can look forward to doing with kinect from simply waving to sign in to your 360 with a brand new controller free hub to making video calls using kinect, he also spoke about a new XBOX 360 app coming to Windows phone 7 later this year that will allow you to sign in to your profile on the move and see your achievements and what friends are online. He also went on to announce that Microsoft has been able to secure the rights to bring ESPN to the 360 giving gold subscribers the opportunity to view thousands of sporting events although no specific information was given about availability of this services we imagine that it will be a US only thing.
This was followed by a look at Kinect with Kudo Tsunoda, he showed of six Kinect only games Kinectimals, Kinectsports, Joyride, Kinect Adventures, Your Shape Fitness Evolved and Dance Central how ever the highlight Kinect title shown during the conference would have to be Star Wars Kinect which if it works like the trailer demo’s could be the Star Wars game we have all dreamed of since first seeing A New Hope. Bill Giese and Dan Greenawalt from Turn 10 studios took to the stage next with a demo of how Kinect will work on a high end racing sim like Froze being able to turn you head in the car to see the door mirrors and steer the car simply by turning a steering wheel in midair, and how using Kinect you can virtually walk around and even get into a vehicle of your choosing. Don Mattrick returned to the stage to close the conference and also to unveil the new look XBOX 360 with built in Wi-Fi 802.11N, whisper quiet running and a sleek new look with a 250GB hard drive, he unveiled it by lifting up a hollowed out XBOX 360 shell to reveal the new smaller sleeker console inside and announced that the new machine would cost exactly the same as the current model (never would there be a better time for the RROD to strike forcing you to upgrade) but the best was yet to come as he announced that the machine would be shipping to retailers world wide today and that the entire audience at the Microsoft E3 would all be able to take one home as gift to them from Microsoft. Moments later GAME announced on there official Twitter page that the new slim line 360 would available on the 16th of July 2010 in the UK. So what did you think of the conference, did any of your predictions come true or are there still things that you thing Microsoft are missing out on let us know in the comments bar below, and if you want to watch the whole conference for your self check it out here at the official XBOX face book page.
Just ahead of the big Microsoft press conference tonight Microsoft have official confirmed that Project Natal will here by be know to the world as Kinect, we assume that is some sort of play on the word kinetic as in kinetic energy as in you will be producing and using a lot of energy whilst playing with the new motion sensing camera. Microsoft are all so set to unveil a host of Kinect based games at the conference tonight and we will be bringing you the low down on all of them tomorrow So what do you think of the new name, love it or hate it let us know below.
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