E3 Microsoft conference

Microsoft were working on improving the Kinect and developing more Kinect compatible games. They showed family-friendly games such as "Sesame Street: Once upon a Monster" and "Disneyland Adventures", both co-op games. They also showed how Kinect can make a photo of a person and turn this photo into a 3d avatar. The same can be done with objects like plushies to bring them into the game.

"Ghost Recon: Future Soldier" will use Kinect to fire a weapon by doing a motion, like you're actually holding a weapon. I find it difficult to explain, so I will show you a video of it instead:

I think it looks quite interesting, but I am not sure if aiming a gun like this wouldn't be too difficult.

Furthermore, Microsoft unveiled the new Halo 4, developed not by Bungie but a different team. They only showed the teaser so we don't have too much information about this. They also plan on re-releasing Halo: Combat Evolved in HD, with fully upgraded graphics!

Another game is the new Gears of War 3, where they delivered a gameplay demo during their conference:

These were the big highlights for me! Stay tuned for the other developers' summaries!

E3!!!!

E3 is almost over, but they delivered quite a show! I will write about it soon but it's just so much! Stay tuned!

E3 starting in a few hours!

Microsoft's E3 conference is starting in a few hours! I can't wait to see what their presentation is like and I will voice my humble opinion on it after it's over! Stay tuned!

Spelunky!

Spelunky is a popular freeware indie platformer by Derek Yu. If by any chance you haven't heard of it, I made a video to show what it looks like:

While I'm not very good at this game, I shall try and reach the end and post about it if that happens!

Konami's E3 Conference

Last night Konami put their pre-E3 conference online. People had the chance to catch a glimpse at upcoming Konami games. Here's a quick summary of what happened:

They of course talked about Metal Gear Solid 3 for the 3DS and showed a trailer for it. I looked slightly better than the PS2 version from what I could see, but of course it is not a new game at all. I'll probably get it anyway, since I'm a huge MGS fan.

They also showed their new Pro Evolution Soccer 2012. While I'm not a big fan of football, the graphics seemed nice and it looked like it will certainly appeal to football fans.

After that, they described their new game, Never Dead, whose trailer was shown at last E3 already. You play as an immortal guy who continues to live even after getting his head and limbs cut off and he's able to reattach them. Konami mentioned this would be utilized to get through places where a full-sized human wouldn't be able to go normally. I think it might be worth looking out for this game, it could be great.

Then Konami showed a trailer for the new Silent Hill Downpour, and mentioned that they will re-release some older Silent Hill titles with updated graphics.

The big announcement they made after that is their new service "TransFARring", and that's not a typo. Since they plan to re-release Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 along with Peace Walker in HD for the Playstation 3, players will be able to transfer their savegames from PS3 to PSP (and later NGP) and vice versa. It seems they have put some considerable effort into this and might be worth keeping in mind if they plan to do this with their other games.

One of the last things they mentioned is that they are working on a new engine for their games, but haven't said too many details about it.

And that's pretty much it! It certainly put me in E3 mood and I can't wait to see what the other developers have to offer.

Stronghold

My little brother found this game called Stronghold the other day. I only heard little about it and started playing it without expecting much, but I was proven wrong.

In this RTS, you have fewer individual units that cancel each other out in a rock-paper-scissors like gameplay. Archers shoot pikemen down before they get too close, while macemen are a little tougher and should be attacked by crossbowmen. Furthermore, you have a number of specialty units like engineers, who are able to build catapults, and diggers, who dig tunnels to make destroy fortifications.

As the lord of you stronghold, you are expected by your people to bless them with low taxes, a lot of food and religion. Doing so will increase the number of people who move in your stronghold which you can use to staff farms, quarries, mines, etc. with. You also need manpower to build units to defend your castle with.

The campaign starts of rather easy, explaining what to do and what to build. The game becomes more and more difficult later on which could make the player try different strategies if he isn't too successful with his current one. A change from a macemen-heavy army to an army that consisted solely of archers helped me in several missions.

I hope I was able to give you a rough idea about the game.

Big Money Rustlas

My Bro Simon brought the Juggalo movie "Big Money Rustlas" over yesterday. Wasn't as bad as I expected, but still very bad. The concept of glocks in a western seemed kind of appealing though.