Coverage: Microsoft Xbox 360 Fall Game Preview (Updated)

(andPOP) - Earlier this week (August 28th, 2007) I was lucky enough to have the privilege of attending Microsoft Canada’s X07. I had somewhat of an idea what games I might be playing, however when I arrived I couldn’t believe all the titles I was able to play before the general public.

An interesting side note to my experience was that when I arrived the power had been taken out by an accident down the street- so I arrived to blank screens and passed out PR representatives and more importantly no air conditioning.

I will try to elaborate on each game I discussed before the power came back on thanks to a massive generator.

Guitar Hero III: Speaking to Bryan Lam for almost a half hour I was able to gather the following information:

- The Leader boards will be staying the same; therefore there will not be specialized rankings for Expert, Hard, Medium, and Easy.
- The code input screen will show you which button you are pressing- and then the code will become selectable in options (hyperspeed will no longer be a cheat) the screen will also have musical accompaniment with a visual representation of the controller- which means you can try to “jam” with this mode.
- Tom Morello will be appearing in Guitar Hero III as a boss
- 360, PS3, and PS2 guitars are all black by default- Wii is the only white one. The WiiTar will have a sunken in slot for the wii-mote to add wireless capability- it will be sunken in enough that the controller will not interfere with your playing. The controller will be inserted through the back of the guitar.
- DLC / Online for Wii cannot be speculated. DLC (Downloadable Content) for GH3 is planned but they are unsure of the timeframe and how much it will cost (this is up to Microsoft’s discretion)
- Marcus Henderson did not work on Guitar Hero III
- Every mode will be playable online except for co-op career which is up in the air.
- Battle Mode will have a sudden death mode called death drain if you make it to end of a boss/battle song
- Pricing for additional faceplates is uncertain
- New updated website should be up in the next few weeks

Rockband: Rockband will be released during the holiday season of 2007. Pricing is unknown as of right now. Rockband has plans to release DLC every week with genres from metal to country. There is talk about a double bass pedal attachment for the drumset. Latest announcement for Rockband is Grateful Dead DLC.

Halo 3: Halo 3 has just added a Multiplayer map editor (FORGE). Up to 8 players can make a map together with constraints of pre-set landscapes- you cannot modify the ground to make hills. A fun thing to do is to play Jenga with explosive barrels. The vertical height of the levels has been increased which makes for epic banshee dog fights and with the ability to create spawn points and put territories in the sky there should be some interesting custom games, banshee surfing anyone? Vehicle properties cannot be modified but as you know the gravity can be. Open talk hasn’t been confirmed nor denied so you may have to press up to talk like Rainbow Six: Vegas or Halo2 for that matter. Halo 3 will be out in mid-September. Clan support also hasn’t been solidified- but one would speculate that Microsoft probably has plans to have a tab for clan on your friend’s list and have it apply to all games on Xbox Live.

Mass Effect: Mass Effect will be a single player game- there will be no online multiplayer- the game is a cross between Knights of The Old Republic, Final Fantasy 12, and Ghost Recon, with side-quests and the full campaign this game will prove 60-100 hours of game play. There are plans for a sequel and plans for downloadable content, which will be more than a “Metal Horse”.


My Impressions (when the power came back on)

Halo 3:

What can I say this game is incredible- it’s everything I ever wanted in a FPS- I don’t care much about realism and the gravity hammer is a nice counterpart to the covenant energy sword. I’ll definitely be buying this game come September. The map editor with the ability to upload to xbox live will ensure the replay value of this game.

Rockband:

The strum bar feels terrible I seriously hope they fix this because it needs to be perfect for it to compete with Guitar Hero 3, whose Les Paul controller is the most wonderful plastic guitar I’ve ever played on. The song list is impressive and the drums and vocals look fun but the note charts on expert seemed uninspired and bland.

Guitar Hero III:

This game is perfect! You will all buy it even if you have never played Guitar Hero. The hammer-ons are perfect I was playing the main lick to My Name is Jonas with my hand up in the air (someone asked me if I liked showing off) it’s out October 29th, 2007. Pre-order it. The Les Paul guitar feels amazing.