E3 doesn’t officially start until tomorrow (June 2), but Microsoft, EA, and Ubisoft got the party started today with their press conferences, and a whole plethora of third parties sent out press releases, screens, and media to keep me swamped with work. Wooo!
Probably the biggest thing to come out of E3 today was Microsoft’s Project Natal for the 360. They even talked about it on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, so it must be huge (joke). Anyway, for the uninformed, Project Natal is Microsoft’s answer to motion controllers. They had an epiphany on or before November 18, 2006 that today’s game controllers, any physical controller, was a barrier keeping the everyday person from wanting to play video games. They decided to take the controller away completely, perfect Sony’s EyeToy technology, throw in voice recognition, face recognition, and souped up artificial intelligence that can use your voice inflections and facial expressions and interpret your emotions (creepy…) into a 3D camera they’ve been calling Project Nadal.
You can control objects in game without a controller. The camera recognizes your face as you enter the room, logs you into your console, and translates all your body movements (and those of anyone else in the room) into the game. You can scan objects such as a real skateboard into the game to then use as an in-game object. Object in menus are manipulated by moving your hands through thin air, just like in Minority Report (minus the in-air holograms).
What does this have to do with Nintendo? Well, obviously Nintendo has some time to react, but if Microsoft can really get this thing working in a decent timeframe, they’ve seriously pulled out the big guns in order to catch up to the Wii and PlayStation 3, both of which have had motion control since 2006. What will Nintendo show tomorrow? Maybe Mario. Maybe Zelda. Maybe Pikmin. Any of those would be an improvement over last year’s E3. Unfortunately, you have to believe Nintendo is racking their brains right now, as their hand has been forced for their next-next generation hardware to completely blow this generation – the Wii Remote, MotionPlus, Home, Xbox Live, Project Natal – away.
General News
E3 2009: Colin McRae: DiRT 2 teaser trailer
All 84 bands in Guitar Hero 5 revealed
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 coming next year
New Mario Party crane game coming… from Capcom and Namco?
Seal is broken on Beatles: Rock Band set list
The Beatles: Rock Band gameplay trailer
The Beatles: Rock Band to support three vocalists at once
Abbey Road to be first downloadable album for The Beatles: Rock Band
Wii/DS News & Media
Ubisoft’s Red Steel 2 box art… is orange.
Weekly Nintendo Shop Update for June 1st, 2009
Tales of Monkey Island headed to WiiWare
Retro teases an upcoming, pleasant surprise
THQ: Wii is a third party nightmare
EA’s Charm Girls Club “will have girls giggling”
Crazy Mini Golf to use Wii MotionPlus
Boom Blox Bash Party trailer
Alice Cooper, Roy Orbison, and more DLC finally hit Rock Band for Wii
Bit Boy!! takes a stroll through video game history
Just a little update from Retro Studios…
Logo and screens for Spore Hero
Ubisoft confirmed as No More Heroes 2 publisher
Red Steel 2 to come bundled with Wii MotionPlus
EA Sports Active sells 600k, gets expansion pack
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers trailer
Cooking Mama 3 confirmed for Nintendo DS
Arts & Culture
Mark Hoppus loves, tweets about Bash Party
Bowser pickets through Massachusetts for our Troopas
Whoops. It’s OK, Ubisoft still has time.
“Retro Studios” Twitter was a NeoGAF hoax
