Motion controls were the real highlight of this year’s E3, from the Sony Move to the Microsoft Kinetic, it was a battle for supremacy.  With the Kinetic, Microsoft had also revealed a new, slimmer Xbox 360 model that would rid of the infamous Red Ring of Death. It seemed all too good to be true nonetheless, it was an exciting double conference for Microsoft.

With the motion sensing of the  Kinetic, players would literally become the controller as dreamed in sci-fi literature and this holds true. Kinetic would capture the player’s movements and work with the games supported for it but also with added convenience of browsing and using the Xbox 360 dashboard without the need of a controller. Although, the Kinetic performs as it was intended to, there was a bit of a downside about the library of games that are compatible for the peripheral.  Unlike the Wii Motion Controller and Sony Move, the Kinetic was made in mind for “Kinetic only” games: ones that are developed exclusively for the peripheral. Speculation of a high priced motion camera device seemed to pricey for the casual gamer demographic which has yet to be announced.

Expected from many, Microsoft had introduced the brand new Xbox 360 Slim that has slimmed into an hourglass shape. The new 360′s would be on shelves days after E3 and were priced at the original 360 price of $300 while lowering the price of the original 360 models buy $50. A clever marketing act by Microsoft claimed that these newer, slimmer 360 models wouldn’t have the RROD (Red Ring of Death) but instead a flashing red light that has been stated by a Microsoft representative that it has nothing to do with the prior RROD error. And be warned, the system does not like being shaken with a disc inside…

After the showing of both Kinetic and the Slim 360, Microsoft had revealed the games coming to their console. The following are my opinion about the games with the most impact were shown at Microsoft’s conference.

Metal Gear Solid: Rising

Veteran video game developer, Hideo Kojima appeared to show everyone the new Metal Gear Solid title MGS: Rising that stars MGS 2′s protaganist, Raiden. The trailer showcases that gameplay will be sword-based, most likely meaning close quarters and shows that many of the things in the game can be chopped by Raiden’s sword from soldiers to brick columns. A key gameplay element in the game is entitled Zan-Detsu meaning to cut and take referring to actions that can be done in the game from dismembering enemies to taking their leftover supplies. The trailer ends with a humorous watermelon cutting by Raiden which is something expected from Kojima who has always used wacky and comedic actions whilst previewing his titles.

Gears of War 3

It was expected that Epic Games would pull out the big guns and showcase Gears of War 3. As it would seem, the action is still over-the-top and as epic as it can be if not more. Epic Games’ Cliff Bleszinski had previewed a demo which had the COGS pitted against the locust army and the new threat of mutated locusts, The Lambent. Gameplay seemed smooth and crazy as ever with new moves added such as physically attack enemies against cover and planting a live grenade on a locust to use as a trap for nearby enemies. Cliff also revealed four player co-op and a new online mode known as Beast for GOW3 which plays sort of like a 3rd-person real-time strategy game. The player would control different classes of locusts to try and kill the COG soldiers in order to win which seemed like a cool new and original development.  The game has been set for a release on April 5th, 2011 in North America.

Halo Reach

As always Halo has been an extremely popular franchise created by Bungie and their new game, Halo Reach has proved itself the potential of besting the disappointing campaign that was in Halo 3. From normal Halo combat to added armor abilities and to 3D shoot-em-up space combat, Halo Reach is setting up to be the best in the franchise and one of the best shooters on the 36o.

Microsoft has had quite a strong aura at the beginning of E3 but Sony and Nintendo also had their share of the spotlight…(part 2 Coming soon)