Microsoft E3 2012 Press Conference Reaction
Abdul’s Take:
Microsoft’s press conference had a solid lineup with impressive gameplay demos of Halo 4, Tomb Raider, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Resident Evil 6 and Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Other than Splinter Cell, there weren’t any new blockbuster titles shown off. Smart Glass was the closest thing to a surprise, but even that news was leaked a few days ago. However, I am interested to see how good Smart Glass will be in practice. Its hard to fault MS for showing anything new however, as the next generation of systems is just around the corner.
Grade: B-
Ed’s Take:
Microsoft’s conference really spent it’s load very early. Forza Horizon is looking very exciting and the Tomb Raider footage was incredible. Both titles I can’t wait to get my hands on. Things dropped when the Nike + stuff was revealed. Although it isn’t something that is going to be of any interest to those in attendance or watching the live feeds but will probably heavily advertised by Nike and a hit for those in the fitness fields. I thought the Gears information was underwhelming and short for something that will be out in a year. The Fable information was skimmed over and forgotten real quick and Microsoft is trying to push more sports related content on the console, they aren’t messing around when it comes to media content. They introduced a music service that feels like it will replace the Zune marketplace and speaking of music, if Dance Central 3 can make me dance like Usher, I’ll buy 50 copies. The most interesting bit of information was the Smart Glass. Microsoft put Nintendo and Sony on notice with this feature. Instead of buying a dedicated piece of hardware or a new console. Microsoft will have you download this app and interact with your Xbox for movies, games, and finally internet web surfing. It’ll be interesting to see how well this app will work in comparison to Nintendo’s dedicated hardware. Overall the conference could have used something more but was ok.
