Rounding Up E3 2010

There is a lot of exciting information coming out of E3. This is the time game companies give a tantalizing peek into the awesome gaming goodness they have in store. Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia demoed Call of Duty: Black Ops, full of spectacular explosions and grit your teeth air to ground action in the form of a helicopter strafing enemy locations. In addition, some claustrophobic Viet Nam tunnel rat action as the player explores an enemy tunnel complex. The tunnels looked incredible with bugs crawling along the walls. Call of Duty: Black Ops is looking like it may just be another blockbuster of a game. The Call of Duty franchise has been pushing onward now for some time. It will be interesting just to see how popular this franchise stays over the next several years and what they can bring to it. There was also an announcement that for the next three years, Call of Duty games and content will release first for the Xbox 360.

Speaking of the Xbox 360, the new Xbox 360 slim with a 250 gig hard drive looks sleeker and even more futuristic than its older brother does. The new consol has larger ventilation slits on the top and one side of it. The better to keep it cool my dear. It also sports three USB ports in the back, and two in the front…. a connection port for Ethernet, it does also have built in WiFi, 802.11n Wi-Fi card the fastest Wi-Fi standard at this time, and a dedicated port for the new Kinect. You know that device that makes the player the actual controller. The Kinect will work with the original Xbox 360, the only difference being that it would need an additional power supply. The new Xbox 360 Slim 250 gig version does not need an additional power supply for the Kinect device. Further, the new consol has HDMI and AVI connections, as well as an optical digital sound port. It also has a laptop lock down security feature so you can lock up this new consol with a security lock if you feel the need to. This box is a piano black with some chrome highlights. The Xbox 360 slim is sleek and futuristic though a bit of a finger print magnet. That’s ok, because this is one nice game consol. Silent running, in fact the only real noise to speak of is one a game disk spools up to be read.

The new Kinect peripheral will be launched on November 4th.

While advancements in technology are always good, some people may be a bit disappointed in that the new hard drive is internal. The hard drive is accessible by a port on one side of the consol and comes out easily. It is a new and smaller hard drive design so the hard drives for the old system and new is not interchangeable. Not all is lost; remember the hard drive migration kits? They are back. So transferring your data to the new system should be a snap.

With over 300 exhibitors at E3 it is very hard to just spot light just a few things I am looking forward too. Spiderman Shattered Dimensions looks spectacular. If the actual game play matches the concept and sneak peeks thus far, that will be one wicked cool game. It is effectively four games in one. Players will be able to play in all of the dimensions, with each gaming dimension having its own atmosphere and looks. In each dimension, each Spiderman must retrieve a piece of some mystical artifact. Those pieces have fallen into the hands of some villains and they have gained some extra powers. It will be interesting to see how this one pulls off. Being a fan of the past games, even with the mix of good and bad, we are hoping this latest incarnation maintains that feeling of being Spiderman. No matter what dimension we are in.

The latest Medal of Honor was inspired by Tier 1 operators and will be pitting players against some of the most unforgiving terrain and enemies around. Present day Afghanistan is where the bullets will fly.

Assassins Creed Brotherhood from Ubisoft particularly looks spectacular. Just check out the game footage and player walkthrough here http://impulsegamer.com/?p=6607

One wonders will this be the final chapter in this very cool series. I for one would love to see an adventure and characters in Medieval Japan. Ninjas anyone?

Killzone 3 looks impressive; too bad we have until 2011 for that title.

Well it is going to be awesome gaming coming our way.

Have fun play games.
Edwin Millheim
United States Editor
Impulse Gamer