Xbox Living

At Microsoft’s pre-E3 media briefing, the company unveiled its audio-video motion-tracking controller, previously known as Project Natal. The new control system for the Xbox 360 is now known as Kinect.

Kinect sits in front of you and responds to your body’s movements and vocal commands to control games, chat and media features within the Xbox 360.

A number of Kinect games were announced. Kinect Sports is obviously an answer to Wii Sports, but does offer the improvements that come with the full motion tracking of Kinect. Kinectamals, meanwhile, gives kids a virtual pet that they can play with. The animals respond to kids’ vocal commands and movements. Kinect Adventures, meanwhile, puts you on a moving platform where you need to move your entire body to dodge obstacles and collect tokens.

MTV Games and Harmonix are bringing Dance Central to Kinect, a dancing game that removes the pads of DDR and replaces them with full body tracking. Ubisoft also showed off a Kinect title. Your Shape: Fitness Evolved will provide a workout that watches your entire body’s movements to provide tips on improving your form. A new Forza racing game was also announced, one to drive simply by placing their hands at a ten-and-two position.

Last but not least in terms of games, a new Star Wars game was announced from Microsoft and LucasArts, showing off both lightsaber battling and force moves that are done without a controller in hand.

Microsoft showed off the communications benefits of Kinect, with a webcam chat that took place between two Kinect users. Besides the obvious voice and video chat, people can watch movies, sports or news content together while in video chat. Also a neat feature: Kinect follows you around the room, panning the video so that you don’t wander off screen.

Zune features are being extended in the Xbox 360 with Kinect. Now, audio and video can be selected, played and controlled using Kinect. Simple gestures can be used to move between tracks or pause/fast-forward/rewind videos. Alternatively, voice commands like “Xbox Pause” and “Xbox Rewind” can be used to control media.

Alongside the new Zune media controls is an announced partnership with ESPN to bring sports coverage. Recorded and live games will be streamed to the Xbox 360 console through the service, which will be available to Xbox Live Gold subscribers at no additional cost. A neat feature: say “Xbox Replay” to get your own instant replays on demand. (As a Canadian, I’ve got to say the noticeable absence of NHL content was a bit of a let-down — though I’m not sure if the ESPN coverage will even be available outside of the U.S.)

Microsoft’s Kinect will be launching on November 4. 15 Kinect titles will be available at launch.

If you’re not a Beatles fan you may not be too excited about The Beatles: Rock Band next month.  Then there’s LEGO Rock Band in November, which is bound to be a good party game, but may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

But Harmonix has confirmed that another mainstream Rock Band game is in the works:

“The Harmonix development team are working on what is effectively the next game, or ‘Rock Band 3′. We arent standing still we will keep moving into new areas and look at new technologies that our platform holder partners are also developing, such as Project Natal from Microsoft. We’re working with them to pull some things together.”

The company also said that they’re considering doing another Rock Band title focused on a specific artist, like the Beatles title due out September 9.  Rock on!

A statement on Bungie’s website has revealled that the upcoming Halo 3 expansion, Halo 3: ODST, will include all of the downloadable map packs released for Halo 3, as well as a few bonus maps exclusive to the game.

“All twenty-four Halo 3 Multiplayer maps will be in the box. All shipping maps: The Heroic Map Pack, The Legendary Map Pack, Cold Storage, The Mythic Map Pack, and three brand new exclusive maps are included.”

Anyone who hasn’t been buying the paid map packs so far will be able to get them all in one shot with ODST.  Presumably, all of your online Halo 3 gaming can also be played directly off of the Halo 3: ODST disc.

Halo 3: ODST (formerly Halo 3: Recon) is due out this Fall, and will tell the story of an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper during the events of Halo 2 (leading up to Halo 3).  Bungie has said that the game will not be a full-price, full-length title.

Meanwhile, the Mythic Map Pack will itself first become available with the release of Halo Wars in less than a month, and then as a seperate download later in the spring.

If you’re eagerly awaiting Halo’s upcoming RTS incarnation, Halo Wars, you’ll be able to get an early taste.  February 5, nearly a month before the game’s release, has been given as the planned release of a demo for the game.

Halo Wars is a real-time strategy game set in the Halo Universe.  The game is the last project for Microsoft’s Ensemble Studios, the group behind the Age of Empires series of RTS games.  Ensemble will close shortly after the release of Halo Wars.

Microsoft also cleared up the release date for the game, as there was a bit of confusion recently.  Halo Wars will be out on February 27 in Europe and March 3 in North America.  [See the Xbox 360 Release Calendar]

We’re about to bid 2008 farewell, so it’s natural to take a look back at what’s happened in the past year.  In the Xbox 360 world, the year was heavily weighted towards the last few months, with only a few notable titles showing up before the summer.

This is my personal top-5 list of Xbox 360 games.  It is by no means objective; I’m not going to create one based on reviews or sales numbers.  Naturally, I’m sure many will disagree with my placements, but these are the games that I’ve had the most fun with this year.

5. Mirror’s Edge

I wrote a review of Mirror’s Edge on this blog, and my biggest complaint was that it was too short.  Mirror’s Edge brings a new take on the first-person video game, actually cutting the violence down to a minimum.  The game brings bright visuals and an upbeat soundtrack to a world dominated by the likes of Gears of War and Fallout.  This alone is as refreshing as the new gameplay.  Because of its apparent insignificance and brievity, I wasn’t sure if Mirror’s Edge should be in my top five… but I just had to count it in.  It’s just plain delightful.

4. Gears of War 2

Gears of War 2 brought the blockbuster series from Epic and Microsoft back in a big way.  Gears 2 had huge sales numbers and quickly climbed the charts.

I have to say, I don’t care for Gears multiplayer.  I’ve played a number of rounds in both titles, and it’s sometimes fun, but it’s not my style.  I had much more fun with the campaign, which was a huge improvement over the storyline in the first Gears of War.  I’m not likely to play online much beyond the story, but the campaign is enough to earn Gears of War 2 my #4 spot.

3. Fable II

The first Fable suffered from a huge amount of hype and failed to deliver on its promises.  Fable II, however, delivers a more polished RPG.  I enjoyed just about every moment of this game and I’m hoping for more in the upcoming DLC.  With an epic storyline, free exploration and side quests, and with a healthy dose of comedy, Fable II comes in at #3.

2. Fallout 3

I’ve not yet played Fallout 3 in its entirety yet — it’s a long game and a busy year-end has kept me from it.  But from what I’ve played, I’m certain it deserves its spot.  I’m a fan of Bethesda, especially their The Elder Scrolls series.  Fallout 3 takes their western RPG style and revitalizes the Fallout universe.  The game can please the Oblivion and Gears of War fans alike.

1. Battlefield: Bad Company

Battlefield: Bad Company is my favourite game right now.  It’s not nearly as popular as it should be, in my opinion.  As much as I enjoy the ever-popular multiplayer in Call of Duty and Halo games (and respect the popularity of Gears), Battlefield is the series that keeps me coming back for more.

Back in May, I was a bit hesitant about Bad Company at first.  The game lacked Battlefield‘s defining Conquest game mode, and brought in some changes that I wasn’t too sure about.  Despite this, I loved it when it came out, and since then EA’s DICE studio has made good on it promises of Conquest and new maps.  The campaign is fun, too, but Battlefield is all about multiplayer.  I continue to play Battlefield regularly (I played it today!), and probably will until they release another one.  BF:BC gets my #1, if only because it’s brought me countless hours of entertainment throughout 2008 — way more than any other game.

Notable mentions include Left 4 Dead, CoD: World at War and Guitar Hero: World Tour.  The Last Remnant may make my list shortly, since I’m a big Square Enix fan, but I haven’t had a chance to play it yet!

I’ve seen a few of these 2008 Top Games lists already, and Grand Theft Auto IV has been at the top of a lot of them.  I enjoyed playing with GTA IV for a little while, but I wasn’t impressed.  Feel free to argue me on this, but I got bored of it pretty quickly.

So that’s my list!  To kick off the new year, I’ll have a list of games to watch for in 2009, but first, let’s hear your top games of 2008!

This list is out-dated, and is only for the 2008 holiday season. To see a more current and complete list, see our full Xbox 360 Release Schedule.

There are so many games coming up between now and the holidays, it’s a little tough to keep track. I thought I’d compile a quick release calendar to show the schedule for the rest of the year. This isn’t 100% complete, but it includes all the major games.

Game	North America	Europe	Preorder (Amazon)
October
FIFA 09	October 14	October 3
Saints Row 2	October 14	October 17
Far Cry 2	October 21	October 24
Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon	October 21	November 14
Spider-man: Web of Shadows	October 21
Guitar Hero World Tour	October 26	November 7
Fable II	Ocboter 21	October 24
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3	October 28
Fallout 3	October 28	October 31
November
Tom Clancy’s EndWar	November 4	November 7
Quantum of Solace	November 4	October 31
Gears of War 2	November 7
WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009	November 9	November 7
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe	November 10	TBA
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts	November 11	November 14
Call of Duty: World at War	November 11	November 14
Mirror’s Edge	November 11	November 14
Pro Evolution Soccer 2009	November 12	October 17
Tomb Raider: Underworld	November 18	November 21
Need for Speed: Undercover	November 18	November 21
Sonic Unleashed	November 18	November (TBA)
Left 4 Dead	November 19	November 21
The Last Remnant	November 20
The Lord of the Rings: Conquest	November 24
December
Prince of Persia	December 2	December 4

It’s a busy holiday release schedule, to be sure. Let me know if you think I’ve left out anything worth mentioning.

Fallout 3 and Mirror’s Edge are the ones I’m most interested in, although I’ll probably play Call of Duty: World at War, Gears of War 2 and some others as well.  Which games are you looking forward to this Fall/Winter?

UPDATE: I’ll now be maintaining an Xbox 360 Release Calendar, so that new page for updates on Xbox 360 release dates and releases beyond 2008.