Well this year E3 started off again with Microsoft presenting their highlights of what they will be showing at this years show.

Microsoft opened the show with a bang and some explosive footage from Call of Duty: Black Ops shown by Mark Lamia from Treyarch. The gameplay started out in what looks to be the jungles of South Asia. The player is crawling through some pretty close quarter tunnels and encountering enemies in close range combat. Once he reaches the end of the tunnel an encampment full of enemy soldiers, heavy tanks and a chopper is revealed. After a couple of grenades and combat with the remaining soldiers the player commandeers the chopper with a co-pilot and takes to the air. Some amazing visuals of the jungle are shown and then air combat begins. The chopper armed with missiles and what appeared to be a machine gun on its nose, starts taking out enemy choppers, bridges, and some kind of pipeline. The explosions were amazing, the air combat was impressive and this appears to be Treyarch’s best CoD to date. You can check out the footage here: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-call-of/101273

Next, Don Mattrick takes the stage to announce that Microsoft has signed an exclusive contract with Activision that will allow all Call of Duty add-ons to be released on Xbox 360 first through the year 2012. He then brings out Hideo Kojima to the stage to reveal something new and unique. Mr. Kojima didn’t spend too much time on the stage as he passed the torch to Shigenobu Matsuyama the producer of Metal Gear Solid: Rising who is here to show of the first ever footage of the game. The trailer opens with the camera panning a sword from hilt to blade. The Kojima logo appears and we are taken to footage of Raiden slicing an enemy soldier up. He then picks up the soldiers spine and seems to draw power from it. We are then treated to a montage of Raiden’s sword skills as he slices up things from vehicles to enemies. The word “Cut” appears on screen followed by the phrases “Cut at will” “Cut what you will” and “What will you cut?” The trailer ends with a very comedic performance of Raiden cutting up a watermelon into hand-sized chunks. See the footage for yourself here: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-metal-gear/101271

Out walks Cliffy B. with his red controller to present the new four player co-op mode in Gears of War 3. Live gameplay footage from the game including the two female Gears characters Anya and Sam were shown. The demo takes place in Anvil’s Gate where the Gears have a base of operations located. Standing between them and the base is a bunch of angry Lambent enemies which can come up from the ground, breath fire, spit out smaller enemies, and use their multiple limbs to throw objects at you. At one point you see a Lambent Berserker throw a car at Marcus which he uses for cover for a brief moment until the berserker charges at him. The team races to the base where they regroup with more Gears characters, thinking they are safe. The Berserker jumps over the fence and down into the camera where the demo comes to the end. See the demo footage here: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-gears-of-war/101281

Next on stage is Peter Molyneaux from Lionhead Studios to present the debut trailer of Fable 3. The game takes place 5 decades after Fable 2 and will feature exciting new content and storyline. He announces that the game will release October 26^th. From the trailer we can see that the story is about 2 siblings. One is the ruler f Albion and the other and adventurer. The player’s choices will decide the fate of Albion by helping them rise against the ruler or siding with their sibling’s tyranny. The choice is yours to decide. Debut Trailer: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-fable-iii/101279

After that wonderful debut trailer we are treated to another debut from Crytek’s new game for Xbox 360 called Codename Kingdoms. See it here: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-kingdoms/101275

Marcus Lehto from Bungie came out to present us with new gameplay footage from Halo Reach. He stated that this is the most ambitious Halo game to date. The demo footage started off with a space view of the planet Reach. Next we see a dropship dropping off four Spartans Soldiers. Incoming is a Covenant ship that begins to eject drop pods carrying Elite Covenant soldiers. Battle ensues and the Spartans work their way to the base showing a variety of weapons and grenades. Inside the base we get to see some close quarters combat and the player is ordered to get to the Sabre before the Covenant destroy it. The Sabre turns out to be a multistage ship that the Spartan boards and launches into space. Once out of Reach’s atmosphere the boosters eject and the Sabre turns into a maneuverable ship that is used to fire upon oncoming Covenant ships. It appears that air battle will be possible in the game. The game ships in September, but you can check out the footage here: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-halo-reach/101277

Marc Whitten comes out and states that Xbox Live has 25 million members as of today and starts the presentation on Xbox Live and Kinect (formerly known as Project Natal). He introduces Ron who shows us how useful Kinect will be with the dashboard. The camera will pick up movement and sound, watch a movie without a remote or play a game without a controller. To login all you need to do is wave, wave a second time and it brings you to the hub. He states “If you can see it, just say it” You can choose to watch a movie using just your voice. Tell it to play, pause, stop or tell your Xbox to play music and your play list will start playing. Kinect and Xbox Live will be available to all countries where Xbox 360 is sold. Xbox Live will also be available on the Windows Phone.

Kinect will also allow you to video chat with out the use of a headset. You can connect with your friends on Xbox Live or Windows Messenger. Once connected with friends or family through chat you can choose to watch movies together, check the news and other activities. The camera will be able to track you as you move around so you will always be centered.

Microsoft has now partnered with ESPN bringing over 3500 live and on demand sporting events, including College Football, College Basketball, Soccer, NBA, MLB and NFL. ESPN will also be Kinect compatible with the ability to replay, choose the team you are rooting for and playing trivia.

Kudo Tsunoda came out to present Kinect in gaming. Kinect will let you play games the way you want to play them. The first game that was shown is called Kinectimals. This game is basically a virtual pet that you can take care of, play with and train. It will include 40 animals from around the world with 30 different activities you can do with your pet. A young girl is brought on stage to show us her pet tiger, Skittles. In the demo you see her pet the tiger, tell it to go get its toy, play jump rope, and how the animal responds when you are out of its view. See actual gameplay here: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-kinectimals/101291

The next game shown is called Kinect Sports, an interactive sports game that truly puts you in the game. You are able to interact with the crowd of spectators, play Soccer, Table Tennis, Volleyball, Boxing, Track and Field, and Boxing. Game will be available this holiday, check it out: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-kinect-sports/101325

Kinect Joyride and Kinect Adventures were the next two games shown. Joyride was shown at last year’s conference and this year it is Kinect compatible. The game is a racing game with 5 gameplay modes and a stunt mode to show off your skills. Adventures will feature 20 adventure modes where you will dodge, jump, and collect using only your body. Throughout you adventures there will be photo ops that you can view and upload to Facebook or share with friends. Two modes were demoed; the first was a railway type adventure where you collected buttons while avoiding obstacles by dodging and jumping. The second was a water rapids adventure where you steer a raft through a river and jump to collect buttons on the water, land and even in the clouds. See what the excitement is all about: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-kinect-adventures/101344  http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-kinect-joy/101389

Exclusively for Xbox 360 comes a new version of Your Shape called Your Shape Fitness Evolved by UbiSoft. The camera scans your body to get your measurements so the game can customize your menus and workouts just for you. You can choose from Personal Trainer, Gym Activity, or Fitness Class modes. In personal trainer you can workout with your own trainer and get pointers from them on what you need to improve. Gym activity is a variety of fun fitness games for the whole family. In class mode you can chose to do yoga, martial arts, or Zen classes. In the demo the player is portrayed as an avatar that looks like it’s made of Jell-O. This seems an unflattering way to portray a person who is using a fitness game to get into shape. See it for yourself: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-your-shape/101376

Harmonix and MTV Games are collaborating on a Kinect compatible game called Dance Central. Alex Rigopulos from Harmonix said this was the next generation of dance games. This is a dance game with real body immersive dancing. The game boasts over 600 dance moves and 90 choreographed routines. Some of the artists named or previewed in the demo were Lady GaGa, “Poison” by Bell Biv Devoe, “Hella Good” by No Doubt, Beastie Boys and “Galang” by M.I.A.  Your character is displayed by a stylish looking avatar that appears as it may either be customizable or chosen through a variety of choices. Moves are shown on cards to the right of your avatar with the current move highlighted and moves queued above it. The move is rated and how you do is displayed at the avatar’s feet in a ring. If you need more help on a move the game goes into training mode and the music is rewound and slowed down until you hit the move correctly. No dance pad is needed, just the player and a Kinect camera. Get your groove on while viewing the demo: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-dance-central/101297

Phil Spencer comes out on stage to announce the Kinect will be available on November 4^th with 15 launch title games available also. No price was announced, but the camera will be compatible with all existing and future Xbox 360 consoles. One last Kinect game was shown coming from LucasArts that will be available in 2011. The game is being called just Kinect Star Wars for now and you can see it for yourself: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-kinect-star/101301

From Turn 10 Studios, Dan Greenswalt and Bill Griese were here to announce Forza 4. The game will be compatible with the Kinect camera, but wasn’t stated that it was only playable that way. In the demo shown you can walk around your car and actual open the door to sit inside. Racing was shown using the camera and the game is scheduled to be released in 2011. Check it out: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-forza-4/101303

Finally, Don Mattrick was back on stage for the final and most exciting announcement of the show. Since Xbox is celebrating its 10th year, they feel its time for something new; by bringing interactive entertainment and a whole new era for Xbox Live to everyone. He then revealed the new re-designed, sleeker, slimmer Xbox 360 console. The new console will come with a 250 GB hard drive, built in Wi-Fi, Ethernet port, and be Kinect ready. The new system will retail for the existing price of $299 and will be shipping today, so it will be available at your local retailer later this week. He then pulled an Oprah move and stated that everyone in the audience will have the new Xbox 360 console shipped directly to them.

With that the conference came to a close. This wraps up another Microsoft conference and kicks off an exciting week of E3 ahead. So what are your thoughts on the announcements, trailers shown, and technologies revealed? I for one was actually pretty amazed with the new name for Project Natal, Fable 3, Gears of War 3, Dance Central, and the addition of ESPN on Live.

** Post and Pre-Show Announcements**

Before the Microsoft Conference, Game Trailers held its own pre-show with some interesting announcements. On July 27^th the first DLC for Alan wake will be available called “The Signal”. On July 13^th, Season 4 of Felicia Day’s “The Guild” will begin with new surprise guests and surprise pairings. On July 14^th the game version of Deadliest Warriors will be available through the XBLA service. Trailers were shown for two new XBLA games, Limbo from PlayDead and Dust: An Elysian Tail by Humble Hearts the winner of the Dream, Play, Build contest.

Post show announcements were the line up of games for Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade event on XBLA. Upcoming titles are Limbo, Monday Night Combat, Hydro Thunder Hurricane, Laura Croft and the Guardian of Light, and Castlevania: Harmony of Despair. See the announcement here: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-xbox-live/101417

Also, some more info about the new Xbox 360 console was clarified. The System will have a new smaller internal hard drive inside the bottom of the system, 5 USB ports (2 in front and 3 in back), a TOS Link slot, a Kensington Security slot, Kinect port, and an Ethernet port for those who still want to use a wired connection. The system is 15% smaller than the original and will have a smaller, cooler power brick. The whisper quiet feature will include the fan and the disc drive.

Existing systems will be price dropped and phased out. The Arcade will be priced at $149, the Elite at $249 and the new Slim at $299. The Kinect will be available separately and in a bundle available for the holidays. See the Slim un-boxing here: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-xbox-360/101403

Let me start off by saying, I LOVE THIS GAME! This has to be the best in the My Sims series.

My Sims Agents is the newest addition to the My Sims series on the Wii and DS systems. This game actually had me hooked from its opening cut scenes. For those that are familiar with the series know that past games had you socializing and building up your town or kingdom. Well My Sims Agents changes all that! Gone are the building mechanics, essence gathering and working to build your friendship levels. These are replaced with crime solving, mini games/puzzles, adventure, traveling to far off places, and delegating missions.

The game starts out with your customized My Sims character as a small town detective working out of Gino’s Pizzeria. You are equipped with basic crime- solving tools. Your main cases consist of finding lost pets, tracking down secret admirers, and your average run of the mill town problems. Then you meet true evil in My Sims form. The Sims Protection Agency decides to open a local branch in your town and promotes you to Special Agent. You then get your own headquarters that you can decorate, recruits to hire as junior agents, and some upgraded crime-solving gadgets.

To solve your cases you need to hack, repair, salvage, lock pick and analyze substances by completing mini games. You will also use your ability to seek out clues by talking to suspects, tracking footprints, and finding clues in peculiar places. While your character works on solving the main storyline case and having a global adventure, you can assign your junior agents to solve other minor cases for you. These minor cases net you unlockable rewards for your character  or headquarters and trophies.

EA has done a wonderful job veering away from the Sims equation by making this more of an adventure game that is sure to delight the entire family. This game is suitable for all ages and has lots of comical humor, favorite characters from past games, and brain teasing puzzles. The graphics are delightful and the music is pleasing while setting the mood for the areas.  The game controls work really well for this type of game and it has a great tutorial for those who have never played a My Sims game before this one.

You can continue playing the game even after you solve the main case. Replayabilty is somewhat good due to the fun puzzles to solve and wanting to find or earn everything. The ending leaves you wondering if there will be a sequel to the game or even a My Sims Agents series of games.

Go out and pick up this game for the Nintendo Wii. This is fun for the whole family!

Overall Score: 8/10

Graphics: 9/10
Soundtrack/Music: 9/10
Replayability: 7/10
Gameplay: 10/10  (I loved the puzzles! They made you use your brain. )
Family Friendly: 9/10
System: Nintendo Wii
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Rating: ‘E’ – Everyone {Comic Mischief}

Right so as the gaming community is now chewing on the speech by President Obama with his usual comment regarding video games, I had a conversation the other day with Epi on this issue. So like anything else in the world that pings my brain for longer then 5 seconds I’m going to write it up.

Let me start off by saying that I do not in any way have a problem with the idea of play in moderation. I do think many times kids are left to much to their own devices by parents and many spend way to much time gaming. I know I certainly did as a kid and even today it can still be a bit tricky to put the game down to get work done. However, like most arguments by the anti-video game lobby I disagree with most of their tired old bullshit. Not that I count the Pres in that segment but when it comes to certain times, he does come off a bit overboard when he mentions video games in his speeches, or perhaps makes the reference far to often.

But I’m going to look at the other side of things this time around, I don’t feel like ripping the anti game establishment a new one right now. Let’s look at our children, our education system and our society, and take some things into accounting.

Consider the pressure our kids are under from day to day, and for those of us able to remember it hasn’t changed all that much in the last 50 years though perhaps the pressures themselves are different to some extent. (Yes I know as adults we are under pressure in our own lives but that’s a story for another day hmmm?)

Our kids start school usually at 5 years old, though around here they’ve started including some four year olds, and holy shit has primary changed from when I was a kid. They have homework and start on the fundamentals a lot sooner then we did. Most of what I remember from Primary was reviewing the ABCs, counting, playing with blocks and chasing cute girls around the playground. Now kids come home with homework that range from printing, spelling, basic math, reading and so on.

Now that in and of itself isn’t anything overburden some I suppose if the kids are prepared for it, but parents may not be bothering unaware of it, or plainly to busy. (Again a story for another day) So now kids are faced with this whole new environment, learning new things, concepts and in an enclosed world/social ecosystem. Now look at the fact that from start to finish in most cases kids are in school for the next 13 years of their life. Facing new challenges of learning every day save summer and Christmas vacation.

Add into that they are growing up, going through puberty, first loves, first enemies, changing world perceptions, and all the extra activities they are either willingly or by parental directive joining after school.

When you take a step back and look at the situation objectively, kids have a whole lot of shit thrown at them from a young age till they are nearly adult. Now add in during (usually) the teenage years they become drivers at 16, they deal with sexual issues starting anywhere from 10 and older these days (Scary as that is but I digress), and all that noise they get from their peers and family.

From their parents they will hear how they have to have good high grades, get into this university or that, find a good job, go to the Olympics or some other big dream plan dreamed up (usually) by the parent(s). Hell of a lot of pressure to put on a young individual still coming down off of hormonal turmoil, changing life perceptions and sexual awareness.

From their peers, we know what that all entails, sex, drugs, everything else under the sun that kids might experience to get them into trouble. Even more pressure atop from school, physical changes, emotional changes, and parental/family/cultural pressures.

It’s no small wonder kids can implode sometimes and why they turn to things like drugs, gangs, and other things that are far removed from parents expectations. People complain about video games like their something evil, yet video games are often one of the few pressure valves kids have. Sure some kids go outside and play, and that’s all well and good, but the video games also provide cerebral experiences that can relax a weary brain, assist in hand/eye coordination, and with online games, kids who deal with social anxiety/awkwardness/shyness might blossom into their own personality online more readily then in more physical social environments.

As I parent I certainly try to make sure my children have a balanced amount of video games vs. outdoor/indoor play, physical activity, and study homework time.

Do I think video games lead to children becoming violent mass murderers?

In some rare cases perhaps, though in many cases I suspect where the games not available to these few kids their violent outburst/explosion would likely have happened sooner rather then later.

We as a society need to look at the amount of pressures we place on our children, teenagers, and even our selves and think long and hard about how we can work to take some of the stress out of our day to day lives. Provide children with the love, encouragement and support to deal with their own pressures give them the room they need to grow and guide them towards the future.

Allow them what they need to relieve their pressures in a safe environment. If a couple hours of daily video game playing help your child wind down after the hell we know as School, then what’s wrong with that? After some time cooling off on some good fun playing games they enjoy (though you all know well I don’t advocate violent or mature games for kids their not intended for so don’t give me any shit on that) They’re more likely to be refreshed enough to tackle their homework either following some relaxation time or knowing they’re entitled to it upon completion.

Everything in moderation is true, be it play, or be it work and stress/pressures. We should be more forthright with our kids and involve them in serious discussions. We expect kids to grow up way to fast and we stuff so much “adult” information on math, sciences, and other subjects in school, yet we don’t hold real discussions with them because their “just kids”

The differences between their education and the way we treat them outside of school borders on naked hypocrisy.

We expect our kids to learn their biology, physics, chemistry, calculus and so on and get high grades, but we can’t seriously discuss important subjects like sex, drugs, and balancing their work and play time?

We allow kids to learn how to handle cars at 16-17 but we stumble over the idea of actually involving them in choosing or finding a direction in our lives?

I’ve covered some of this before so I won’t harp on it, video games and violence, video games and drugs, video games and gangs, video games and sex. All hot topics with the anti video game lobby, yet has anyone pointed out to these paper-asshats that Violence, Drugs, Gangs, and Sex has been around a helluva lot longer than video games. All these evil things video games cause in kids, predate video games by something in the way of oh I don’t know, most of human civilization.

But enough ranting from me, my closing points are simple.

Everything in moderation is a good idea, especially, the “Everything” part.

Our kids are under immense pressure all through school, then university especially when they dive right from one to the other. We need to look hard and long at our education systems.

Video Games won’t cause anarchy amongst our youth, but they might keep our youth from going bonkers.

I find it interesting that while there is elements that could be considered “gamer” fashion, it’s not really a style per se. Certainly we have brand name t-shirts and the like from various companies, or representing various games, they run between t-shirts, hoodies, jackets and other fairly basic clothing forms without any actual variance in style. Then of course we have cosplay which isn’t exactly as fashion so much as a passion to dress up as characters from various games/movies/anime/etc.

Is there room in the world for a true gamer fashion style, I believe so and sometimes I’ve kicked around the idea of building one. Taking accounting of what we have and finding a hybrid middle ground to which we can show both our passion for the games we play and our loyalty for the companies that make and publish those games.

I’ve had the images in my head of course of taking game inspired designs and turning them into a real fashion line. No I don’t mean as costumes for Halloween or for cons and various other events. I mean a true blue fashion line that can range from everyday wear to formal wear that isn’t so far left field but something far enough out from the mainstream that the ‘core will appreciate it and the casuals can choice as easily as they wish amongst their other “normal” wear.

I’m certainly not talking about freakish monster creations but fashions and clothing that show a brilliance of creativity and take inspiration and ideas from the games and characters we’ve grown up with and loved. We have people designing clothing for their characters and avatars, all manner of fan art depicting characters we enjoy or in game worlds we might wish to live in. So it stands to reason we can turn those creations and designs into real clothes. Maybe a steampunk line that while not overly tech heavy but has a charm and elegance that seems to be missing amongst current day fashions. We could bring some things to the normal market and start our own couture just for the sake of doing so.

We see the stereotypic forms of clothing that identify “cliques” in movies and we all know that the atypical gamer is some overweight, usually underdressed dork who needs a makeover. Why don’t we break these stereotypes by bringing the creativity we have within the game community from artists and character designers, designers and players to make our own mark on the fashion world; and present something we can wear as we like? Showing both our passion but that we in fact are not fashion tragedies but fashion forward moving into our own space as the growth of games spreads across the entertainment markets of the world.

We always talk about how we are pegged by the mainstream for being this or that, our representation in movies and television is lacking to show how diverse and non idiotic we actually are.

We are gamers and there’s no reason we cannot stand proudly and reflect that using the creativity and passion we all possess as a common trait amongst us. We’re already taking over the entertainment industry, might as well break into the fashion industry with our creations, create our own style, our own trends, and rock it hard.

So who’s with me?