E3 2006 Preview #4

1. Xbox Live from E3!
2. Lost Planet headlines "60+" downloads
3. Ubisoft will publish Enchanted Arms
4. Midway reveals E3 2006 Lineup
5. Xbox Live Message Center launches

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NEWS:

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1. Xbox Live from E3!

E3 is the video game industry event, but it's an industry insider event that's the biggest place for updates and announcements of all things video game.

Of all companies, Microsoft is breaking down the boys' club and bringing the show to the people.

Remember this hopeful nugget from my Xbox Live outage notice?

"One thing they should do is make their E3 press conference videos available over Xbox Live at the same time ..."

During the Xbox Live free week (from 12:01 a.m. PST May 8 to 11:59pm PST Sunday May 14), a ton of content will be available for download to Xbox 360 Gold and Silver live members, including "A Backstage Pass to see developers preparing for E3" and (wait for it) "a flood of HD trailers from games that have yet to be announced".

A "flood"? Hmm ...

2. Lost Planet headlines "60+" downloads

Also during the Xbox Live free week (from 12:01 a.m. PST May 8 to 11:59pm PST Sunday May 14), more than 60 pieces of new downloadable content will be available to Xbox 360 Gold and Silver Live members.

Attentive gamers noticed one exciting thing from the poorly cut together Lost Planet Pre-E3 trailer downloaded from Xbox Live -- the text, "Demo May 9th". This, by itself, would rock.

However, as part of the E3/Xbox Live free week two-fer, gamers are going to get a ton of additional content -- hopefully most of it free.

Gentlemen, clear your hard drives ...

From the press release, here's the list so far:

• Playable game demos and/or trailers from highly anticipated titles like:
• Crackdown (Microsoft Game Studios)
• Dead or Alive: Xtreme 2 (Tecmo)
• The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle Earth II (EA Los Angeles)
• Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Capcom)
• Moto GP ’06 (THQ)
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega)
• Splinter Cell Double Agent (Ubisoft)
• Test Drive Unlimited (Atari)
• Viva Piñata (Microsoft Game Studios)
• Plus a flood of HD trailers from games that have yet to be announced
• Call of Duty2 – New Multiplayer Map Packs (Activision)
• The release of UNO on Xbox Live Arcade
• Game with Fame celebrity gaming sessions with stars like Jenny McCarthy, Method Man and Panic Channel (Featuring Dave Navarro, Stephen Perkins, Chris Chaney and Steve Isaacs).
• Play and Win contests with the latest Xbox 360 and Xbox Live Arcade titles
• Exclusive high-definition blockbuster movie trailer downloads
• Limited edition E3 Gamerpics and Themes
• A Backstage Pass to see developers preparing for E3

Cool stuff. The details of the ambiguous "demos and/or trailers" text is really going determine how high the "how cool" meter goes. For example, I'm seriously stoked about Crackdown, but Real Time Worlds has said how hard it is to do a demo for a sandbox game, so this may just be the (admittedly cool) trailer from The Official Xbox Magazine.

Oh, and before you get too excited about Dead or Alive: Xtreme 2 -- this is the name for the DOAX Volleyball sequel, minus the "volleyball" for type-ability and, I suspect, marketing. (Why, Itagaki-san? For the love of all that's holy, why is this your spin-off franchise?!).

3. Ubisoft will publish Enchanted Arms

Ok, there are a bunch of games that were up in the air about the when/if they'd come stateside (Lost Planet, Ninety-Nine Nights, Dead Rising, Chromehounds, and Enchanted Arms).

Well, Enchanted Arms (really, "[eM] –eNCHANT arM-") is going to be published in the United States (oh, and Europe), courtesy of mega-publisher Ubisoft.

The game is classical (read, turn-based) Japanese RPG developed by Japanese shop FromSoftware (Armored Core, Otogi) and is scheduled to ship this summer.

4. Midway reveals E3 2006 Lineup

Midway has always been cool to me. I'm not sure where a lot of industry pundits get off calling them "the publisher that was", but besides energizing Xbox Live Arcade, Midway is going to rock E3. Yes, I'm a bit bummed that I didn't get to do the voice over work I was supposed to do for them for the show, but I still wish them well. Marc, call me ... ;-)

Here's what they'll be showing (Check out the TeamXbox article for details on each):

• John Woo Presents Stranglehold (PLAYSTATION3, Xbox 360, PC; Winter 2006)
• Unreal Tournament 2007 (PC, PS3)
• Blitz: The League (Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PSP system; October 2006)
• Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (PlayStation2 computer entertainment system, Xbox; October 2006)
• Spy Hunter: Nowhere to Run (PlayStation 2, Xbox; September 2006)
• The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar (PC)
• Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War (PC; June 2006)
• Happy Feet (PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo Wii, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PC; November 2006)
• The Ant Bully (PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance, PC; July 2006 – Nintendo Wii; November 2006)
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy (PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance; November 2006)
• MLB SlugFest 2006 (PlayStation 2, Xbox; May 2006)
• RUSH (PSP system; September 2006)
• Mortal Kombat: Unchained (PSP system; September 2006)
• NBA Ballers: Rebound (PSP system; May 2006)

5. Xbox Live Message Center launches

I've mentioned my wishlist for Xbox Live/PC integration before:

I should be able to send Friend requests to play a game, or respond to requests from the Website. I should be able to group friends the way I can in Messenger, so rather than doing an "Invite all" to my entire Friends list, I can "Invite co-workers", etc. I should be able to manage alerts so I get SMSes only for the people I want to know are online, versus everybody in my friends list (during spring break, people on my list jumped on-and-off titles and Xbox Live multiple times, every day for 10 days (John ...). In one week, I exceeded by SMS limit for the month. Thanks, kids.

And I want Microsoft to integrate this functionality into MSN (Windows Live) Messenger. And I want the Web version of Messenger to be as full featured as the client version.

Well, after Tuesday's Xbox Live outage, some of that functionality has been added:

• All My Xbox users (Xbox Live Silver and Gold users as well as those who just signed up on Xbox.com) can now read text messages in the My Xbox Message Center. So someone can send you a message from their Xbox 360 console and you can read it on your PC.
• Xbox Live Gold members can compose and send messages in the My Xbox Message Center. The character limit is the same as on the Xbox 360 console: 250 characters.
• Xbox Live Gold members can send messages (up to 200 per day) to gamers who are on their friends list.
• Xbox Live Gold members can send messages (up to 25 per day) to other gamers not on their friends list.
• All My Xbox users can block communications with other gamers. Designate a gamertag as blocked and you won't get any more messages from them. Change your mind? Unblock a gamer simply by sending them a message.

Not all there, yet, but getting there.

Of course, the Windows Live Messenger beta/Xbox integration is still broken (going on two weeks, now ...)