The annual Electronic Entertainment Expo is gaming's main event. It's when the industry's heavyweights face off with new games and new hardware. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo (which doesn't traditionally participate in the Tokyo Game Show) all go head to head. This year's E3, in Los Angeles, provided its fair share of fireworks. Duds, too.
Microsoft was the first of the big three to kick off its announcements at E3 last week. The Xbox 360's controller-free motion control, Kinect, got a major push. Microsoft added new Kinect features, like the ability to scan your whole body, capture objects, and the addition of finger tracking. Kinect is viewed as a peripheral for casual players, something Microsoft attempted to change this E3. New games, like the bloody Ancient Rome combat title "Ryse," should appeal to hardcore gamers, and more titles, such as the popular "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon" with have Kinect support. For example, in "Ghost Recon," players will be able to customize in-game weapons through voice and gesture commands. "Star Wars Kinect," a "Stars Wars" game with Kinect controllers, however, looked absolutely horrible: laggy, dull, and ugly.
The Kinect-heavy focus turned off players who either don't own Kinect or are more interested in traditional, controller-based gaming experiences. To appeal to the core audience, Microsoft said that indie PC gaming hit, "Minecraft," was an Xbox 360 exclusive (a major coup for Microsoft); it gave an October release date for racing game "Forza Motorsport 4"; and it showed off a high-definition remake of the first "Halo" title, 2001's "Halo: Combat Evolved." Dubbed "Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition," the game is "Halo: Combat" with a fresh coat of HD paint. Increasingly, game companies are releasing HD remakes of their titles, something that is starting to feel like an HD cash-in; it's a way to release a game, but at much lower cost than developing an entirely new product from the ground up.