Fallout 3 looks awesome. Xbox 360 exclusive DLC.
Resident Evil 5 online co-op Mode. March 13th, 2009 release date.
Fable II is finished. Start as little kid – boy or girl – and grow up. Can get married, have kids. Xbox Live co-op. Very easy to join co-op. October release.
Gears of War 2. 5 player co-op mode called Horde. Release November 7th.
Completely redesigned dashboard this Fall. Looks like 3D XMB. 3D customizable avatars. Avatars like a cross between Miis and PS3 Home right on the dashboard. Chat, share photos, etc. Form Avatar parties, party leader can launch the game for everyone in the party (Uno Rush, for example).
Xbox Live Primetime – Play game shows with your friends. 1 vs. 100 Xbox 360 exclusive. Game shows will offer real world prizes.
XBLA– Uno Rush. Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2 XBLA exclusive, has co-op. Galaga Legions from Pac Man CE team, XBLA exclusive. PORTAL: Still Alive XBLA exclusive. South Park gaming coming 2009. Xbox Live Community Games (XNA games) coming Fall 08.
Netflix streaming video exclusively on Xbox 360. Can share movies and TV shows with Live Avatar party to watch at the same time.
Viva Pinata 2 – Scan cards with Live Camera to get new Pinatas. New environments.
Original Banjo-Kazooie coming to XBLA.
Scene-It: Box Office Smash - Coming this Fall. Xbox Live enabled. DLC. First retail game to use Avatars.
You’re In The Movies – Minigame party game with short games, similar to Wario Ware. Uses Vision Camera. Video from playing the games is then edited into a movie. Looks very funny and very fun.
Guitar Hero World Tour – 85 songs on disc with tons of DLC. Van Halen, The Eagles exclusive to GHWT. New Metallica album will be available in its entirety as DLC for GH3 day and date with its CD release and later when GHWT is released.
Lips – Music singing game like Karaoke Revolution or SingStar. Can use music from MP3 player. Wireless, motion sensitive microphones that light up based on your performance.
Final Fantasy XIII coming to Xbox 360!!!!!
Bottom Line
The redesigned dashboard looks really, really good. And the avatars and being able to form parties and the leader launches the game for everyone is a great idea. The avatars and new dashboard seem to me like a more practical version of Sony’s Home. Why do I think that? Because I’m a Home beta tester, that’s why. The XBLA announcements were very welcome and very cool. New Portal is going to be awesome. I also have to admit I’m really looking forward to Lips and especially to You’re In The Movies. YITM looks like it is going to be amazingly fun. And the big announcement, Final Fantasy XIII coming to Xbox 360, was a completely unexpected way to end the show on a very high note. I didn’t expect that to happen in a million years. All in all, 08 was a much better E3 press conference than 07 was. They definitely are trying to take on Nintendo’s family friendly image, but also taking on Sony’s potential advantage with Home. They didn’t show a lot of games we all expected (Bungie announcement, Halo Wars, Alan Wake, more third party stuff), but it was a good showing. I’m definitely excited for what is to come.
