E3 2008 has 10 chronicles

1. Microsoft Game Studios News @ E3 2008
   

   Player Chronicle -- Posted on Jul 19 2008

   Alright, this is what people want to hear about…what’s Microsoft Game Studios doing and what’s coming to the 360, right? Well on Thursday, we were able to sit in three private demos of Halo Wars, Fable 2, and Banjo-Kazooie from this big time developer in the industry! We also caught a glimpse of a few others, so each are discussed, reviewed, and highlighted below.
   
   Halo Wars
   This is not the Halo we know and love. It does however, have the Halo elements that we’ll all appreciate and frankly, need. This game feels like it should be more of a PC game because it is such a strategy type of game, but the development team and Dave Pottinger (Lead Designer) who shared the game with us, explained how their team really focused on making Halo Wars intuitive and easy to use on the 360 controllers with a circle menu that “defines simplicity”.
   
   Bungie did not develop this game, but instead Ensemble Studios and Microsoft Game Studios. With such a shift in game play, Halo Wars focuses on large-scale combat scenarios and strategy situations. The game is beautiful. Halo Wars has very bright and detailed graphics and cinematic animations, so they’ve done a great job on that for sure.
   
   The game timeline is set 20 years before Halo 1, so get ready for some history on how this whole thing happened.
   
   While we were in the private tour, the staff was very careful that we did not video screenshots or take photos, but I still did a little bit, so look for those exclusive images on the E3 2008 GoG profile. The development team has been working for around 3 years on this game and although no specific dates were given, Dave did say they’re looking at the first half of 2009, so look for it soon enough!
   
   After the developers shared some of the highlights of the upcoming game, they handed us a controller and we had a chance to play it for ourselves. I built up the bases and arsenal, and then handed the controller over for someone else to enjoy the attacking elements. We only had 20 minutes, but it was very cool and this may be a strategy game that I pick up and you should too!
   
   Fable II
   So many of you have heard and seen the amazingly cool things associated with this project. Everything you’ve seen and heard is correct.
   
   We were able to have a lead designer on the project, show us around the game before he handed us the controller. We first got to know the game with one player, but soon added a second player and dropped into a very fun co-op mode. In multi-player, friends share the fighting challenges, combine fighting techniques, and share the spoils of kills as well. This game would be epic for your own gaming experience, but would be even more fun to waste weeks with a friend in person or online!
   
   While we were enjoying this action RPG, I saw (but was not introduced to) Peter Molaneau. I hear he’s a big deal.
   
   The Microsoft Game Studio team has been developing this bad boy for over 3 years and now it’s time to share their work, because this game comes out in October 2008. I’m sure our Referral Contest winner will be especially excited about this, because he gets the new game delivered to his door!
   
   Banjo-Kazooie
   I had heard of this series, but never played any of the games, so this was my first real tour of the game. The first thing we noticed as Dave showed us around this beautiful looking game from Rare and Microsoft Game Studios, was the amazing physics, complete world interaction, bright and beautiful graphics, and that it looks like tons of fun for families and gamers of all ages!
   
   The main element in the game that we saw was the vehicle building. This fun and very entertaining piece of this video game is awesome and amazingly customizable. You use these vehicles to complete challenges or just have fun with the,. Blue-prints are sharable and photos are downloadable over XBL, so you can always show off your crazy creations. While we were touring the game, Dave built a rocket ship, as well as, a cart car and many other fun vehicles.
   
   Although fundamental physics and engineering elements must be semi-accurate when developing your own vehicles, the company made it very easy to create and test all your ideas, even for kids. They called it “Fun Physics”, because although it needs to be accurate, you don’t need every single element to make things work. If you put a rocket engine and wings on a machine…it will fly!
   
   I’m 26, and this game looked like tons of fun, so if you’re looking for a lighter game that can allow for many hours of fun game play, you should consider this game for sure.
   
   Others
   While we were in the Microsoft private room, which was the greenest room I’ve ever seen, we also caught a glimpse of a game called Lips, the new web 2.0 look that the Xbox 360 is headed towards, Rockband 2, You’re In The Movies, Spiderman - Web of Shadows, and Gears of War 2. All would have been great to get tours and exclusive demos of, but the schedule for those games were filled up so we had to keep moving.
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   You could tell these guys were a big player at E3, because the private room here for Microsoft was amazing and all the people in the private room felt a bit more professional and intelligent as they share their games that were all above average compared to the hundreds of other games being discussed! It was a treat being in this private room for sure and I even got some sneaky footage, so check it out and get ready for even more great games from Microsoft Game Studios!

   
   

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E3 2008 has 1 comment on this chronicle.

1. Silent Bob
   Posted On Jul 20 2008

   Halo Wars looks terrific, and I'm glad they're doing what Sid Meier did for Civilization Revolution and building the game from the ground up to work best with a console controller.
   
   There are a lot of RTS players who want GOOD console RTS games, and this one looks to deliver. (Tom Clancy's EndWar from Ubisoft looks like another good RTS, and I'm really looking forward to no controller at all with it being able to run completely off voice commands).
   
   That said, I think Fable II is going to be the runaway hit. Consoles always get picked on by PC folks for not having very good RPGs (FF notwithstanding) - this one looks incredibly deep and rich. Can't wait to try it out. We've got a lot of early buzz here at the game center for it.
   
   Gears 2 is a no-brainer. It should be the standout multiplayer game when it comes out late fall/Christmas time. I'm pretty sure MLG 2009 will pick this one up too.