microsoft-february-showcase-2011
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Fifteen minutes of The Gunstringer's gunslinging gameplay
You read about it yesterday, now see Twisted Pixel's latest game (its first for Kinect) in action ... all its puppet-filled, wavy arm guy action. Oh yeah: the video contains 15 minutes of gameplay footage. Just move your hands around and make gun shooting motions to get a feel for the real thing.
Batman: Arkham City preview: Bats in the Big City
Batman: Arkham City loses the confines of its predecessor's island asylum for the more expansive slums of Gotham City. Arkham warden Quincy Sharp has been elected mayor and has requisitioned the city's downtrodden district as "Arkham City," the new holding area for all of the crazies and dangerous types from Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Prison, with Hugo Strange appointed as overseer. This prison city has been sealed tight by a heavily guarded perimeter, keeping all of that danger festering inside. In addition to the unchecked crime produced by a population composed entirely of criminals, Batman also has to deal with Two-Face, who's captured Catwoman and plans to publicly execute her within Arkham City. At a Microsoft press event this week, a reprentative from developer Rocksteady offered us our first guided demo of the city and some of Batman's enhanced gadgets, including the revamped Detective Mode.
Child of Eden supports four controllers for full-body feedback
Back at E3 2010 we learned that Tetsuya Mizuguchi's latest creation -- Child of Eden, the spiritual successor to Rez -- can be played using a standard controller, not just the Kinect sensor for which it's become a showcase title. Last night at Microsoft's preview event in San Francisco, we found out that Child of Eden can use 360 pads, plural, for more than aiming and shooting. A rep for developer Q Entertainment told Joystiq that the finished game will support vibration feedback effects spread across up to four controllers, the idea being that you can stick them in pockets, rolled-up sleeves -- anywhere, really -- to über-compensate for Kinect's lack of physical feedback. Mizuguchi himself told us "When I play the Kinect, I need some feedback" at last year's E3. It would appear that he's devised a quite novel, if not a bit absurd, way to satisfy that need -- not to mention out-crazy Rez's Trance Vibrator peripheral.
Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster preview: Tickle me, Double Fine
"One of the things that I'm personally really passionate about -- the reason I'm in this industry -- is that I want to see our medium be more than it is already," Double Fine's Nathan Martz, and project lead on Once Upon a Monster, confided in me at a Microsoft press event yesterday. "Our human experience is so broad and yet our industry deals with such a narrow slice of it." Martz explained that the project was conceived with the express purpose of generating joy. "I wanted to explore emotions," Martz said of his goal going into development. "For me, the best one is joy. The early example of this is a girl I was dating at the time. She asked me if I had a 'happy' song, a song that you hear and it just makes you feel great. Everybody has a happy song, and that was originally the name of this project: 'Happy Song.'" I'll admit it: Playing a bit of Once Upon a Monster was a happy experience, one I think would be even more so for families and kids a little younger than myself.%Gallery-116735%
The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile (in 3D) preview: The price of purty
Whenever we hear about a game running in 3D, we're always filled with questions about performance. Rendering everything twice isn't an easy prospect, especially for something as fast and frenetic as The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile. %Gallery-117545%
AC: Brotherhood 'Da Vinci Disappearance' DLC preview: Art snob
The Da Vinci Disappearance is an ambitious piece of DLC for Ubisoft, granting players access to a large chunk of single-player content, but also some new modes, skins and a map for the multipayler side. At the February Games Showcase in San Francisco, I was able to play through two missions in an Xbox 360 build. %Gallery-117567%
The Gunstringer preview: Kinect goes 'hardcore'
I just played the first "hardcore" Kinect game. Sitting down, even. Even in its incomplete state, Twisted Pixel's The Gunstringer is the best evidence that Microsoft's motion sensing tech can make possible a (so far) really fun game that already plays great and responds to subtle, natural movements with high precision. It's a game where you control a marionette with one hand and shoot with the other, and I can't imagine the experience feeling more authentic.%Gallery-117538%
Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime preview: The new school
Atari is being very careful with Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime. The game features four wannabe 'busters and takes place sometime after the events of the second film. With talk of a third film (thanks in part to positive reception of Ghostbusters: The Video Game), Atari doesn't want to back itself into a corner. Thus we get Sanctum of Slime, a dungeon-crawler with an emphasis on action.%Gallery-116772%
Windows Phone 7 getting six weeks of 'Must Have Games' this Spring, Fable Coin Golf in March
Microsoft is treating its phone platform like a console, planning a release "event" for its Xbox Live games on Windows Phone 7. This spring, Microsoft's mobile platform will get six weeks of "Must Have Games," including Plants vs. Zombies, Hydro Thunder, Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1, Doodle Jump and more. The press release reiterates that the games, like all Xbox Live games on the platform, include Achievements and leaderboards. The platform will also be the exclusive home to Fable Coin Golf. Available in March, Coin Golf will let you transfer gold earned in the game to either the PC or console versions of Fable 3. Connecting the console and mobile game will also unlock "three exclusive weapons that can be used in the Traitor's Keep game add-on." The announcement coincides with the expansion of the Windows Phone platform to another carrier in the US. Sprint's HTC Arrive is the first WP7 device for the carrier, and will be available in March. Update: WinRumors indicates that Angry Birds will be among the WP7 releases during the "Must Have Games" promotion.
Fable 3 'Traitor's Keep' DLC arrives March 1 on Xbox Live
If you're still enjoying the Xbox version of Fable 3, there's some more DLC headed your way. The "Traitor's Keep" pack adds three new levels, all with fairly awesome names: Ravenscar Keep, Clockwork Island and the Godwin Estate. Apparently you'll run into a "mysterious prisoner" -- and you'll also run into 250 additional Gamerscore. The Traitor's Keep add-on is due March 1 on Xbox Live for $7 (560 points).%Gallery-117543%
The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile gets 3D support [update: new trailer and screens]
Microsoft's February Showcase is underway in San Francisco, and with it comes news that upcoming XBLA action title The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile is getting the 3D treatment. MS hasn't released details on exactly how the tech will be implemented, though it's worth noting that the game itself uses 2D sprites. We've got boots on the ground at the showcase, so hopefully we'll get a chance to see it first hand. Update: Find new screens in the gallery below and a trailer after the break. %Gallery-117545%
The Gunstringer confirmed as Kinect XBLA title
Alongside releasing a batch of new, explosion-filled screens, Twisted Pixel announced that its first Kinect game, The Gunstringer, will be heading to Xbox Live Arcade, rather than brick-and-mortar stores. This confirms what we suspected when the game was listed on Xbox.com with "Xbox Live Arcade" as its publisher -- a detail that was quickly removed by Microsoft. As promised, below you'll find a herd of new screens, and we're told a new trailer will be coming shortly.%Gallery-117538%
Gears of War 3 beta launching mid-April, will feature 4 maps
Who wouldn't want to test that out? Microsoft today announced that the Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta will start in mid-April -- presumably for early-access Bulletstorm owners. The public tryout will feature three, "new" versus modes and four maps (to be decided by a community vote this month). No end date for the beta was given. Voting for the beta maps opens today on the Gears of War Facebook page and ends Monday, February 28. %Gallery-117485%
Halo: Reach Defiant maps coming March 15
Beware the Ides of March! Actually, you might not need to "beware" it, though you may want to consider calling in sick from work or school -- Halo: Reach's second major expansion, a three-map DLC pack titled "Defiant," will arrive on the Xbox Live Marketplace on March 15 for 800 Microsoft Points ($10). Check out the gallery below and the trailer posted after the break to get an idea of what the three new arenas -- named Condemned, Highlands and Unearthed -- look like! We really, really hope they come with the aforementioned trailer's gruff-voiced narrator. "Way to totally shoot that dude," the narrator would say, gruffly. %Gallery-117547%
