E3 2012: Microsoft

This article is a list of all the games that I saw footage of or heard about from this year’s E3.  It is not about how good or bad the press conference was and it isn’t simply a rundown of its announcements.  It is meant to give anyone who didn’t follow E3 a list of just about everything planned to make its way to the 360 within the next year or so, as well as any newly revealed info from the convention.  As for those who did keep up with E3 hopefully it is a convenient list of titles to keep you from forgetting about all of the announcements.

Halo 4 (November 6, 2012)

-         New enemies include Crawlers who attack in hordes, Promethian Knights (the guys with the blades) and Watchers (guys who catch grenades), who can be spawned by Promethian Knights

-         The Spartan Ops co-op campaign will have a CG episode along with 5 missions released every week throughout the season.

-         Season 1 is free and any following seasons will cost money.

-         New ability allows you to use an actual energy shield on your arm similar to that of the Jackal’s

-         Get to unlock and customize loadouts for competitive and co-operative multiplayer

-         New gametype: Infinity Slayer, which allows for ordinance weapon & vehicle drops that can be purchased using credits earned in the match

Splinter Cell Black List – Offers Kinect support:

-         Will contain co-op missions similar to those in Conviction

-         Spys vs. Mercenaries from Double Agent will return

Madden 13 – Offers Kinect support:

-         Infinity engine changes tackle physics and allows players to play through tackles as opposed to having control lost as soon as the tackle occurs

-         In depth career mode where you create and level up your player

Fifa 13 – Offers Kinect support:

-         Fifa 12 exp carries over into the new game, allows you to unlock items

-         iPad app for Football Club

Fable: The Journey (October 9, 2012) – Only with Kinect:

-         Tech from Milo was adopted to allow players to sit while playing instead of standing, so that people can partake in longer sessions

-         Quick run from one of the creators was 12-13 hours, for first time players it is expected to be at least 20h long

Gears of War: Judgment (Early 2013)

-         The campaign consists of playing Baird’s trial

o   You can chose to declassify things which will make the game harder but reveal more, which may or may not be a good thing for Baird.

-         Baird has a 4 man team like Delta Squad

-         New game mode called Overrun: a competitive 5v5 Horde vs. Beast mode with a class based system

-         More multiplayer offerings to be shown later

Forza Horizon (October 23, 2012)

-         The game has an open environment

-         Flash your lights at other racers on the road to trigger races

-         Considered a spin-off of the Forza series

-         Story and setting revolves around a music festival

-         Can import cars from Forza 4

-         Multiplayer: Cat & Mouse, Tag and so on will take place in the open world

Xbox SmartGlass (Around Christmas 2012)

-         Sends videos from tablets or smart phones to TVs and then the tablet or phone will give you details on the movie that you are watching.

-         Your tablet and phone will also have info on in game content sent to it, like weapon descriptions on your mobile device even though it could just be in the game

Xbox Live

-         Bing

o   Adding genres to your search parameters

o   Supports multiple languages

-         Adding live games from the NBA & NHL

-         ESPN now supporting 24h content through ESPN 1, 2, 3 & U

-         Update to the Music section’s interface and features

-         Nickoloden, ParamountMovies, Machinima and more on the way

-         Internet Explorer

o   Can be controlled using a tablet or phone through SmartGlass

Nike+ Fitness Training (Holiday 2012)

Tomb Raider

-         Great use of interactable environments

-         There is XP earned throughout the game but no skill trees, abilities or leveling up was shown yet

-         The first piece of DLC will be a timed exclusive for Xbox 360

Ascend: New Gods (2013) - XBLA

LocoCycle (2013) - XBLA

-         Made by Twisted Pixel

Matter (2013) – XBLA – Made for Kinect

Resident Evil 6 (October 2, 2012)

-         Timed exclusive DLC for Xbox 360

-         The game takes place a few years after RE5

-         Contains full drop-in, drop-out co-op

-         Don’t have to hop back to the beginning in order to load someone in, they just take control of your AI partner at the next checkpoint

-         Mercenaries is coming back and will be unlocked from the beginning for the first time

Summer of Arcade 2012

-         Deadlight

-         Hybrid

-         Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD

-         Wreckateer – Only for Kinect

-         Dust: An Elysian Tale

South Park: The Stick of Truth (March 5, 2013) - Offers Kinect support

-         Timed exclusive DLC for Xbox 360

Dance Central 3 (Holiday 2012)

-         Can import all songs from Dance Central 1, 2 & all of their DLC

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

-         Timed exclusive DLC for Xbox 360

-         Adding what is called Strike Force Missions to the single player campaign

o   Can take on missions and the objectives within them in whatever order you chose

o   Can hop between different soldiers in the squad as well as drones and some sort of machine hovering over the area allowing you to see everything.

o   Failure in these missions affect the geopolitical environment in the main story

-         There will be multiple story arcs running through the game due to these new missions

Dragon Ball Z: Kinect
Transformers Fall of Cybertron (August 28, 2012)

-         As Optimus you will be able to control a city sized Transformer called Metroplex in certain missions

-         You can create your own Transformers for multiplayer

Injustice: Gods Among Us

-         There will be DLC characters made available after its release

Dishonored (October 9 NA, October 12 EU)

-         You can chose how to play the game from sneaking through without killing anyone or going in and killing everyone

-         You can learn a number of abilities including possessing animals/people, teleportation, seeing through walls, double jumping and many more

-         Different end games and missions depending on your choices throughout the game

Defiance (April 2013)

-         Special Events indicated by the weather in order to alert players and unite them against giant monsters

-         While it is a MMO Shooter on multiple platforms there will be no cross-platform play

-         The game is tied into a TV show that will launch at the same time

o   The lead in the show starts as a character in the game that then leaves

o   The show will air on SyFy

-         They have been working on the game and show for 4 years

-         The show is set in St. Louis during the same time as the game, which is set in San Fransico

Borderlands 2 (September 18, 2012)

-         New Commander class, which is an upgraded version of the Solider class from the first game

-         17,750,000 guns in Borderlands, Borderlands 2 is set to top that

-         5th character, called the Mechromancer, will be downloadable, but is free if you pre-order the game

NBA 2K13

-         If you pre-order it then you get the All-Star Weekend pack free, which includes the dunk-contest, 3-point contest, rising star challenge and last year’s all-star game

-         Surprising since that used to be included in every basketball game

Assassin’s Creed 3

-         Now introducing naval combat where you captain a ship, controlling your direction and when the canons fire

o    The camera doesn’t pull back and try to add in a strategy game, but rather remains on Connor and makes the battles more intense and personal

-         It will Rain, think about it, it has never been in a previous Assassin’s Creed game

-         There are summer and winter versions of all levels

-         The combat is ridiculously fluid with between 4000-5000 new animations

-         You can now take corner-cover in order to wait for someone as they make their rounds

-         Duel wield weapons

-         Over a dozen multiplayer modes including new ones like Domination, where you capture and hold points on the map

Watch Dogs

-         You are connected to a city wide network giving you access to info on everyone and ways to hack into and interact with your environment.

-         Has a slow-mo bullet time esque ability

Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two (November 18, 2012)

Hitman: Absolution (November 20, 2012)

-         Agent 47 kills his handler Diana and the agency turns against him, so now he is a wanted man

-         Purely single player game, no multiplayer will be added to the series

Skylanders: Giants

-         Compatible with the old characters and their stats

-         $74.99

Lollipop Chainsaw (June 12, 2012)

-         Suda 51’s latest game

-         Michael Rosenbaum plays, the lead character, Juliet’s boyfriend’s head, which she carries around with her strapped to her waist

Sonic & All-Star Racing Transformed (Fall 2012)

-         Cars turn into a boat or plane when launched into the air or go into the water

Aliens Colonial Marines (February 2013)

-         Xenomorph vs. Human multiplayer

o   Xenomorphs are played in 3rd person

-         Story is the canon sequel to the Alien trilogy

XCom: Enemy Unknown (October 9, 2012)

-         Have an underground base that gets built up throughout the game

-         Can capture live enemies or bring in their corpses for experiments

-         Can level up soldiers that you take with you in each level and can give them active and passive abilities

Need for Speed Most Wanted (October 30, 2012)

-         Open World

-         Over 60 cars

-         Everything you do in the game adds to your overall score, which gets put against your friends as you all compete to become the “most wanted”

Lego: Lord of the Rings

Sleeping Dogs (August 14 NA, August 17 EU)

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Dawnguard (June 26, 2012)

-         Vampire and Werewolf perk trees

-         10-20 hours of new content

-         Adding crossbows, Dragon Bone weapons, mounted combat, and a shout that lets you rip the souls out of humans and turn them into your undead minions

Pro Evolution Soccer 2013

Dead Space 3 (February 2013)

-         2 player drop-in, drop-out co-op in the main campaign, however you can play the campaign in single player and then there will be no AI partner or secondary character whatsoever

o   Cutscenes, dialogue and even some side quests are changed because Carver (Player 2’s character) is either there or not depending on whether you choose to go through the campaign by yourself or with backup

-         In addition to the Necromorphs you will also be taking on humans

Spec Ops: The Line (June 26, 2012)

-         Separate co-op missions that show some back story for characters in the main campaign

Medal of Honor: Warfighter (October 23, 2012)

-         The multiplayer uses the buddy spawning system like Halo: Reach’s Invasion & BTB gametypes to encourage teamwork

-         Every mission comes from a real life event or takes place in a real life hotspot

o   Is that realistic or does it seem a little insensitive/inappropriate to anyone else?

-         Multiplayer lets you play as 12 different types of soldiers from 10 different countries

-         Uses Battlefield 3’s Frostbite 2 engine

Zumba Fitness Core – Only with Kinect:

Bellator: MMA Onslaught - XBLA

Crysis 3 (February 2013)

-         The game takes place 20 years after Crysis 2

Bandfuse: Rock Legends

FarCry 3

-         Has a cover system like Killzone 3

-         Contains a separate 4-player co-op campaign

-         Includes a map editor

-         Obviously includes competitive multiplayer

-         You lead an army after having sex with a woman from their tribe in front of them, need I say more?

WWE 13 (October 30, 2012)

-         Over 70 characters

-         Large focus on the Attitude era

Lost Planet 3 (Early 2013)

Darksiders 2 (August 14, 2012)

-         The game will feature more traversing than the first game because Death is a faster and more athletic character than War

-         You start the game with your horse rather than having to build to it like in the first game

DMC (January 15, 2013)

-         Limbo is where the Demon’s drag Dante when they want to fight him

-         In this series Dante is no longer half human half demon, now he is half demon half angel

F1 2012 (September 2012)

-         Contains 20 different circuits

007 Legends

-         In celebration of the franchise’s 50^th anniversary

-         Contains 5 missions based on classic films

-         A 6^th mission will be based on Skyfall and will be released as free DLC

Hawken

-         Free to play indie mech combat game

Dead or Alive 5 (September 25, 2012)

Battlefield 3 Premium

-         Includes in-game items, exclusive events, 10 new vehicles, 20 new weapons, game mods and more

-         Early access (2 weeks) to 4 new map packs as well as access to the one that is already out if you don’t own it

o   Close Quarters – June (features close quarters combat meaning no vehicles)

o   Armored Kill – September (all-out vehicle warfare)

§  Contains 4 huge maps including the largest in any Battlefield game

o   Aftermath – December (survival themed)

o   End Game – March 2013 (debut of motorcycles)

-         Costs $49.99

NBA Baller Beats – Only with Kinect

-         Rhythm dribbling game, like with an actual Basketball

Quantum Conundrum (Summer 2012)

-         Swap between fluffy, reverse gravity, regular and slow-mo dimension in order to solve puzzles

-         From the creator of Portal

Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (June 19 NA, June 22 EU)

-         Features the Justice League

-         Open Gotham City to explore

Metro: Last Light (Early 2013)

-         Worked with the author of the novel that the first game is based on in order to craft a sequel

-         They are dedicated to the single player but they will be adding a multiplayer mode

The Amazing Spider-Man

-         The game picks up after the movie rather than trying to stretch the movie’s story across a full length game

-         The web swinging looks pretty awesome and gives a great since of speed

-         Hidden comic pages throughout the city to find so you can unlock full comic books in the game

-         This year is Spidey’s 50^th anniversary and in the Stan Lee pre-order bonus you can find a manuscript for something special coming soon to honor it, the other pre-order bonus (depending on your retailer) is a Rhino challenge set where you wreck the town for points

The Cave (Early 2013)

Lord of the Rings: Guardians of Middle-earth

Star Trek

Just Dance 4 – Only with Kinect

The Avengers: Battle for Earth (Fall 2012) – Only with Kinect

-         Spider-Man, Wolverine, Venom, Storm, and Magneto were shown in the trailer in addition to The Avengers from the film

-         It appears to be some sort of fighting game

NHL 13

NBA 13

NCAA Football 13

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (September 11 NA, September 13 JP, September 14 EU)

-         If you pre-order then you will receive early access to a special level that features Snoop Dogg

-         The game will also feature an original song by Snoop Dogg called “Knock ‘em Down”
Persona 4 Arena (July 26 JP, August 7 NA, August 31 EU) 
- Fighting game based off of the Shin Megami Tensei series

If I missed anything feel free to add to this list by posting in the comments below or just let me know what you think of this line up of offerings for Microsoft and the Xbox 360.

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