E3: My Take on Microsoft’s Press Conference

Unfortunately I was stuck at work when the conference took place and word came in slowly via Auritech’s text messages and brief glimpses of the internet. The revelation of Final Fantasy XIII washed right over me. I suppose it’s a big deal to Microsoft, Sony, Square, fanboys, and Final Fantasy fans but to me, it’s a big ol’ meh.

Surprisingly, the things that excited me the most were totally un-game related. The new dashboard looks incredibly daring and can hopefully speed up navigating the growing Marketplace and my sprawling hard drive. Avatars looks cool and the style isn’t bad; a sorta mix between big heads and The Sims that feels just a bit too normal. A little more exaggeration would be nice but hopefully developers can help with that. As excited as I get when an Achievement pops up I may actually quit out of a game just to try on a S.T.A.R.S. outfit if game-specific accessories are included. I understand not going for the PlayStation Home style virtual world but I really hope they let us customize the dashboard backgrounds. It’ll look slick for approximately three days and then I’ll get tired of seeing box art sitting on top of a white background.

The Live Party feature should be fun and hopefully can keep players together better than on the current dashboard. Also, photo and Netflix sharing sound awesome and hopefully Avatar accessory swapping will be included. Speaking of Netflix, the deal is great news for us as we have a massive queue of crappy old movies just waiting to be watched. I was about to laboriously hook up my laptop to the TV but now we can while away the cold winter months watching Joe’s Apartment and Xanadu through the Xbox.

Live Primetime sounds neat as well, like the next step in game shows… if that’s a step anyone’s really been searching for. Being involved and potentially winning stuff is always fun, I just hope it can support the Big Button Controllers and that they eventually make a Live version of The Price is Right. Hard drive installs are great and I understand the need for it, but I’m just not excited about having to swap out discs. Maybe it’ll win me over when loading time in Dynasty Warriors 6 all but disappears.

Now, about those games. I’m glad to see a new Scene It? although I would’ve been happy with a cheaper DLC pack than a whole new disc. They better sell it individually. I do not need eight Big Button pads! I didn’t really care about Banjo & Kazooie until I saw it revolves around building things. It hooked me in MySims and it’ll probably do the same here. Fable 2, lookin’ good as well as its accompanying Pub Games. Gears of War 2, You’re in the Movies, Uno Rush, Too Human, and Halo Wars all get a sigh from me. The Community Games look promising, much improved from the XNA preview we all fiddled around with a few months ago. Of course, Portal: Still Alive gets my money immediately as does Galaga: Legions.

And then there’s Lips, simply because I love iNiS. I admit, I was about to give in and buy SingStar for PlayStation 3 but now there’s a better choice. Not only does Lips have cooler looking microphones (that light up and can be used as percussion accompaniment) it will allegedly be able to import music of my own, though there seems to be a conspicuous lack of details on just how this works. The press release states DRM-free music will work but it also notes that “The functionality of songs played from personal music collections will vary”.

Downloadable content is promised as well as four-player gameplay with two people on mics and another two on controllers providing backup percussion in the form of tambourines and cowbells. Between Lips and Rock Band 2 I should pretty much have my vocal chords snapped by the end of the year.

Overall, a great showing. I think Microsoft may have finally figured out their casual market with Lips, Primetime, Scene It?, and the new Dashboard while still lavishing us gamers with solid exclusives, lots of Live Arcade titles, and plenty of third-party support. Up next, Nintendo.