Bird Man

absolutely terrible way to fuck over all the fans we don't want any of this lets wave our arms around like fuckin idiots bullshit

Mac

Spartans, the time has come! The Microsoft press conference at E3 2010 just revealed squad-based footage for the new including impressive new gameplay on the ground and, better yet, the campaign takes you to the final frontier: outer space with intergalactic ship-based battles. Master Chief rides a rocket?

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Video Kinect adds a whole new dimension to your XBOX Live account, which Microsoft just revealed works with Windows Live Messenger integration for online chatting and can bring your friends virtually together by viewing videos from Bing, including movie trailers, news and sports together on screen. Even more fun is Kinect's body tracking feature, which "tracks your skeleton" around the room. Did we say fun? It's almost scary as it follows you around the room. Video Kinect will be available in every country where an Xbox is sold.

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Microsoft closed out its E3 2010 press conference with the price and the date for the Kinect device. The controller-less control system will be on sale on Nov 4th in North America. Hey, that's just in time for the holiday shopping season! At least ifteen titles will be available at launch.

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What else could Microsoft's press conference possibly have? How about something for dance-loving videogame journalists like myself? took the stage to reveal , a brand new music game that will use the Kinect technology to follow the player's body and track their motions as they follow on-screen dancing prompts.

Dance Central has more than 600 moves and 90 routines, some of them from the original music videos. Of course, it's hard to have good dancing without good music, and Dance Central promises to deliver a killer soundtrack with artists like Lady Gaga, No Doubt and the Beastie Boys. It's clear that both old and new pop music will be represented on the soundtrack, and more tunes can be downloaded via Xbox Live.

Dance Central is an exclusive Xbox 360 game and will be available this year during the holiday season.

Mac

Six launch games were announced at the Press Conference, including:

(Featuring over 40 animals and 30 activities for players to interact with.)

(Featuring activities like bowling, soccer, volleyball, track and field, and ping pong)

! (Where players drive cars with their avatar in the seat, doing tricks in both Race and Stunt modes.)

! (Featuring drop-in split screen coop just by walking in front of the camera, and games like river rafting and mine cart riding.)

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved (A fitness game from Ubisoft that tracks players bodies, scanning their specific measurements into the game. It features a personal trainer, and takes players through various fitness activities, including kickboxing and tai chi. It can also track when players remove layers of clothing.)

(A dancing game developed by . It features songs from artists like Gwen Stefani and Lady Gaga. It teaches players how to do moves if they're having trouble by slowing down dance moves).

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today announced a collaboration with Lucasarts to develop a lightsaber combat oriented title for the Kinect platform in 2011. Gameplay details were light, but the trailer itself features all of the hallmarks of Jedi combat from the Star Wars films, such as force pushes and a duel with Sith lord Darth Vader. We'll be sure to update with additional details as they become available.

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Today, announced that a new demo for the critically acclaimed would be coming to Xbox Live and PCs. This demo features the opening mission of the game, along with the quest to pick up the dangerous criminal Jack from a high-security prison ship. The demo is set to deliver 90 minutes of gameplay and will enable players to save their progress from the demo and bring in their Commander Shepard to the full game.

For those that have already purchased (and potentially beaten) Mass Effect 2, new downloadable content is on the way tomorrow. Called "Overlord," the content will introduce five new areas and two new achievements, further extending the epic sci-fi RPG. Unfortunately, no real detail is given on what these areas contain, but players can find out for themselves tomorrow for either 560 Microsoft Points or 560 BioWare Points (if you're playing on a PC).

Stay tuned for more Mass Effect coverage right here

Mac

few months ago at the Game Developer's Conference, Sony showcased the , a motion controller that offers one-to-one control in videogames. You hold the PlayStation Move, the PlayStation Eye sees it, and you control the game through your actions. The GDC trailers showcased LittleBigPlanet, a fist fighting game and more to rev up the crowd, but the demos themselves were met with mixed reactions. They were early, some of the animations weren't there, and so on.

For some, PlayStation Move became a "wait and see" thing.

Well, IGN editors Ryan Clements and Greg Miller have been waiting, and they just finished a nearly two-hour, private PlayStation Move demo. What they saw put the PlayStation Move on their hot lists, and they want to tell you why they're finally excited for Sony's next big thing.



Greg Miller: So, Ryan, I was caught off guard tonight. I never hated the PlayStation Move, but after this evening's event, I'm actually really excited about it -- about SOCOM 4 feeling great with the Move, about Start the Party being fun, and about where the tech could go. Am I crazy? What did you think?

Ryan Clements: Well, you're absolutely crazy, but I'm going to have to agree with you here. When I first tried the PlayStation Move tech out at the Game Developers Conference in March, I was totally unimpressed. The software just wasn't there. But now, the hardware is accurate and some of the games are actually a blast. Start the Party was surprisingly fun, and I actually loved . It's crazy accurate.

Greg Miller: See, that's what I dug about SOCOM 4 -- the accuracy. When I was pressed up against a car for cover, popped out, and was able to use the Move to target a bad guy's foot behind a car, I was sold. It was quick and accurate. I don't know if I could've lined that shot up as easily with a DualShock.

Ryan Clements: Do you think this will appeal to people that usually despise motion controls? Would the SOCOM veterans even give it a try or will it only be something that a few people pick up?

Greg Miller: It's tough to say. The Move is something new. It's going to take time to learn it -- to make it feel natural. That's going to turn people off. What got me behind it on the SOCOM front is that you could play it while being sprawled out on the couch. The "motion" part of it is just for aiming; it's just to make it feel like the gun is your hand. There's no pumping your arms to run and no waggling to throw a grenade. It's there to make shooting easy. I like that.

What about Sport Champions? You hate sports, why did that one stand out to you?

Call Clements the Green Arrow from now on.

Ryan Clements: Good question. I don't care for most traditional, everyday sports like football and hockey, but Sports Champions has a couple things that interest me, like archery and the gladiator duel. Although these were the only two events I played, they were both fantastic. They're perfect examples of how two different Move wands can be used in tandem to enhance the experience. When fighting someone in gladiator duel, your one arm holds a shield and the other holds a club. The shield controls were just incredible. You really had to move your arm realistically to block a strike. That's rad. Archery was even better because, as you said, it's accurate. Drawing your arm back and moving your upper body to line up a shot felt so natural it was almost eerie. Sure, you need to stand up for both of those, but it was worth it.

I think that people just need to use the PlayStation Move in order to "get it," right? I never would have thought I could like it that much until it was in my hands.

Greg Miller: I think playing with it is a big thing, but I think that it helps that the demos were farther along. I mean, how was Sports Champions running for you? I know at GDC some folks complained that there was a bit of lag in the moves.

Ryan Clements: No lag that I could notice, but I only played the two events. I mean, the character animations aren't going to win any awards, but when it comes to the raw gameplay, that's where I felt satisfied.

I totally forgot to mention this, but I got super-excited when I saw you doing the tech demo portion of the event, where you could create shapes in real 3D by moving your hands around on screen. That was some Minority Report level stuff, man. It blew my mind. Imagine controlling a super-sleek interface of some futuristic war machine like that.

I think I just blew up my brain.

Greg Miller: Exactly. Where is going to win fans is when the players see how cool the true one-for-one control is. Although it's come quite a way since GDC, still isn't as awesome as it could be. If it had the true one-for-one that has, it would be amazing, but the slower pace kind of sucks some life from it.

Swatting bugs in Start the Party and becoming a robot in the tech demo, that's the stuff that is awesome. Making that robot skeleton that did exactly what I did and dropping him into a scene was amazing. already has that green screen function where you get to make your own scenes, but imagine a PlayStation Move-enabled version of that where you could move Drake as a puppet and make your own movies. Imagine stretching out your own track in ModNation Racers or whittling your own weapon in Dynasty Warriors.



Ryan Clements: Oh man, dropping the Dynasty Warriors legacy on this? Epic. But I think you've hit on one of the extremely important topics: creation tools, and gameplay mechanics that literally evolve when you introduce an alternative control scheme.

For example, we all know that entering a PSN code with the regular DualShock is a pain in the ass, but when you add a keypad onto the controller, things suddenly become a whole lot easier. No one will argue that the D-pad and X button are better for entering text than a real keyboard.

In that same sense, the PlayStation Move could actually provide better control for certain gameplay mechanics. For example, drawing with the wand is naturally easier to do then drawing with a D-pad or analog stick. There are bound to be situations where the PlayStation Move can give us better controls, not just different controls, which is what a lot of Wii games attempt to do. Throwing a grenade by wagging a Wii Remote is not as easy as pressing a single button. It requires more energy. It's all about finding the right time and place for motion. That's when things could get brilliant.

Greg Miller: For the love of Kevin Butler, I thought you were about to pitch the Move as a keyboard option. Whew.

Anyway, you get it, and I think Sony does, too. At GDC, Sony showed a lot of brief glimpses at early games, and they looked -- at the time -- a lot like Wii games. That scared a lot of people as some Wii games seem to tack on motion because they can. If Sony's going to integrate Move support in ways that make sense, make games better and still allow me to be a fat-ass gamer, I'm all for it.

However, here's the question, Clements: when we left the demo, we were talking about how much we liked Start the Party, but then you mentioned you didn't know how much you'd play it. Is that a problem?

Ryan Clements: That's only a possible issue for that particular game. That has nothing to do with the Move support. The reason I wouldn't be compelled to go back is because there wasn't a truly rewarding system built in. The SOCOM 4 controls were good, but the game is good on its own because there's a rewarding shooter with the potential for multiple playthroughs built into it.

You need to have a fun, engaging idea that uses (smart) motion controls.

Greg Miller: True. I love Buzz, but I don't play Buzz every day. If Sony continues to give us good games that use the Move, I don't mind having one game I only play when I have people over. I just don't want a shelf filled with super-casual games I rarely play.

So, wrapping this up, it's OK to be excited about PlayStation Move? Are we going to get burned here?

The Fight's getting there, but still could use some work.

Ryan Clements: There's always that chance when you play with fire, but I think that this has a lot of potential. And there will always be brilliant minds that come up with something that taps into that potential. We just need to wait for it.

Greg Miller: "Play with fire?" Are you working on a movie trailer voiceover?

Ryan Clements: "When you take everything away from a man, he'll take everything away from you."

Greg Miller: Ah, a joke for the 12 listeners reading. Anyway, I'm excited. Today was the day that Sony really gave me some proof that it gets what it's doing with the PlayStation Move. I'm not going to be forced to jog in place when I play Uncharted 3; when Move is used, it's going to make sense.

At least as of right now. Hopefully, Sony doesn't lose sight of that as we Move forward. Ha. Ha.

Ryan Clements: Ha. Ha. *Collapses*

Mac

Ezio will be heading to Rome this coming fall.

revealed will be released on November 16, 2010 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.