ftyards
05-20-2002, 05:31 PM
E3 2002: Microsoft's Press Conference
The mighty Xbox let's the cat out of the bag along with Counter-Strike, Ninja Gaiden and another Halo.
May 20, 2002 - Microsoft made several moves to steal the early thunder as the company kicked off the 2002 Electronic Entertainment Expo with several new game announcements and the unveiling of Xbox Live, the Xbox's online gaming service at a live presentation at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. Roughly forty Xbox and Xbox Live games were featured in the 55 minute presentation and that crop of games was highlighted by several newly announce games that should keep Xbox owners occupied throughout the 2002 holiday season and well into 2003.
Once members of the media, retailers, marketers and all other interested parties made their way to their seats, they were treated to presentations by Chief Xbox Officer, Robbie Back, Xbox General Manager J Allard and Microsoft Games Studios chief Ed Fries. Among the dozens of Xbox titles featured during his presentation, Fries made it a point to mention several, heretofore unrevealed games on their way to the system. IGN will have more information on all of these titles as E3 rolls on throughout the rest of the week, but for now feast your eyes on the future of Xbox software and the list of Xbox games mentioned at the presentation. Keep in mind some games are still under working titles and are subject to change.
the next version of a game that rhymes with J-Lo and is made by Bungie (online with Xbox Live)
Ninja Gaiden
Half Life: Counter-Strike (online Xbox Live)
Psychonauts
Blinx: The Timesweeper
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
Tork
Midtown Madness 3 (online with Xbox Live)
Phantasy Star Online (online with Xbox Live)
Splinter Cell
Project Ego
Star Wars Galaxies
Brute Force
MechAssault
Dead to Rights
Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge
Dead or Alive Extreme Volleyball
Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus
Steel Battallion
Panzer Dragoon
Project Gotham Racing (online with Xbox Live)
Amped (online with Xbox Live)
Rallisport Challenge (online with Xbox Live)
NBA Inside Drive 2003
NFL Fever 2003
Quantum RedShift
ToeJam & Earl 3
Turok Evolution
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
Kakuto Chojin
This is by no means a complete list of Xbox games but rather the cream of the crop mentioned specifically during Microsoft's presentation. Of all the games featured, including the frustratingly casual mention of a second Halo game (online no less!), Blinx could be the most innovative, industry-changing title of them all and as such we're gong to give you all we know about it right now:
Read it now and believe it -- Blinx is a revolutionary platformer. Not just for the platform genre (he's more than just a cat with vacuum cleaner and his name isn't Luigi), but for videogames as we know them. Blinx takes the Xbox hard drive and more or less makes it function like a Tivo or Ultimate TV system. Play is recorded using around 200 megs of hard drive space. When you die, the game rewinds in front of your eyes to a point where you can start again. That's not all Blinx can do, though.
Players will be able to fast forward, record, rewind, and stop time to assist them in their quest. For example, a barrel falls off a roof. You pause the game, then hop on the barrel and rewind the game, allowing you to ride the barrel to the top of the roof from where it had fallen. The title character in Blinx is not affected by the shifts in time, and can move independent of the affected environment.
Not only is the application of the hard drive in this game an amazing innovation, but has the looks of a second generation Xbox game. Created by Sonic/Nights game designer Naoto Oshima for his Artoon development house, Blinx should be bolting, as you read this, to the top tier of most wanted Xbox games.
As we said the next version of Halo (MS won't even refer to it as Halo 2) will be online but the company was not forthcoming with any details beyond this. This title of course drew the biggest cheers from the assembled crowd with Counter-Strike, Ninja Gaiden and Star Wars Galaxies splitting second place honors for the biggest ovations. Tecmo's take on volleyball featuring those oh-so-endearing women from Dead or Alive was the game that caused people to drool, shift in their seats and adjust accordingly. There was drooling with Star Wars Galaxies, but certainly no adjusting.
Beyond the multiple bomb drops of game announcements, the Xbox braintrust pointed to past successes of Xbox as well as financial plans for the future in their effort to reaffirm the strength of the company and the platform The first European sales figures from Microsoft were announced with the company claiming 500,000 units sold in that territory along with an 88% attach rate for the all-powerful Halo. That's 440,000 copies of Bungie's breakthrough first person shooter for those of you slow on the math. In fact, Halo was leading the pack of top selling Xbox games along with the four other titles that sold more than 500,000 copies. All tolled, the Xbox could boast more than 20 titles that have seen sales of 100,000 copies or more compared to the ten 100,000+ titles for the GameCube over the first five months of each system's US run.
IGN will have much more on Xbox for the rest of its natural born life. We'll be updating this main Xbox Press Conference story throughout the day as necessary so check back often.
-- Aaron Boulding
The mighty Xbox let's the cat out of the bag along with Counter-Strike, Ninja Gaiden and another Halo.
May 20, 2002 - Microsoft made several moves to steal the early thunder as the company kicked off the 2002 Electronic Entertainment Expo with several new game announcements and the unveiling of Xbox Live, the Xbox's online gaming service at a live presentation at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. Roughly forty Xbox and Xbox Live games were featured in the 55 minute presentation and that crop of games was highlighted by several newly announce games that should keep Xbox owners occupied throughout the 2002 holiday season and well into 2003.
Once members of the media, retailers, marketers and all other interested parties made their way to their seats, they were treated to presentations by Chief Xbox Officer, Robbie Back, Xbox General Manager J Allard and Microsoft Games Studios chief Ed Fries. Among the dozens of Xbox titles featured during his presentation, Fries made it a point to mention several, heretofore unrevealed games on their way to the system. IGN will have more information on all of these titles as E3 rolls on throughout the rest of the week, but for now feast your eyes on the future of Xbox software and the list of Xbox games mentioned at the presentation. Keep in mind some games are still under working titles and are subject to change.
the next version of a game that rhymes with J-Lo and is made by Bungie (online with Xbox Live)
Ninja Gaiden
Half Life: Counter-Strike (online Xbox Live)
Psychonauts
Blinx: The Timesweeper
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
Tork
Midtown Madness 3 (online with Xbox Live)
Phantasy Star Online (online with Xbox Live)
Splinter Cell
Project Ego
Star Wars Galaxies
Brute Force
MechAssault
Dead to Rights
Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge
Dead or Alive Extreme Volleyball
Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus
Steel Battallion
Panzer Dragoon
Project Gotham Racing (online with Xbox Live)
Amped (online with Xbox Live)
Rallisport Challenge (online with Xbox Live)
NBA Inside Drive 2003
NFL Fever 2003
Quantum RedShift
ToeJam & Earl 3
Turok Evolution
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
Kakuto Chojin
This is by no means a complete list of Xbox games but rather the cream of the crop mentioned specifically during Microsoft's presentation. Of all the games featured, including the frustratingly casual mention of a second Halo game (online no less!), Blinx could be the most innovative, industry-changing title of them all and as such we're gong to give you all we know about it right now:
Read it now and believe it -- Blinx is a revolutionary platformer. Not just for the platform genre (he's more than just a cat with vacuum cleaner and his name isn't Luigi), but for videogames as we know them. Blinx takes the Xbox hard drive and more or less makes it function like a Tivo or Ultimate TV system. Play is recorded using around 200 megs of hard drive space. When you die, the game rewinds in front of your eyes to a point where you can start again. That's not all Blinx can do, though.
Players will be able to fast forward, record, rewind, and stop time to assist them in their quest. For example, a barrel falls off a roof. You pause the game, then hop on the barrel and rewind the game, allowing you to ride the barrel to the top of the roof from where it had fallen. The title character in Blinx is not affected by the shifts in time, and can move independent of the affected environment.
Not only is the application of the hard drive in this game an amazing innovation, but has the looks of a second generation Xbox game. Created by Sonic/Nights game designer Naoto Oshima for his Artoon development house, Blinx should be bolting, as you read this, to the top tier of most wanted Xbox games.
As we said the next version of Halo (MS won't even refer to it as Halo 2) will be online but the company was not forthcoming with any details beyond this. This title of course drew the biggest cheers from the assembled crowd with Counter-Strike, Ninja Gaiden and Star Wars Galaxies splitting second place honors for the biggest ovations. Tecmo's take on volleyball featuring those oh-so-endearing women from Dead or Alive was the game that caused people to drool, shift in their seats and adjust accordingly. There was drooling with Star Wars Galaxies, but certainly no adjusting.
Beyond the multiple bomb drops of game announcements, the Xbox braintrust pointed to past successes of Xbox as well as financial plans for the future in their effort to reaffirm the strength of the company and the platform The first European sales figures from Microsoft were announced with the company claiming 500,000 units sold in that territory along with an 88% attach rate for the all-powerful Halo. That's 440,000 copies of Bungie's breakthrough first person shooter for those of you slow on the math. In fact, Halo was leading the pack of top selling Xbox games along with the four other titles that sold more than 500,000 copies. All tolled, the Xbox could boast more than 20 titles that have seen sales of 100,000 copies or more compared to the ten 100,000+ titles for the GameCube over the first five months of each system's US run.
IGN will have much more on Xbox for the rest of its natural born life. We'll be updating this main Xbox Press Conference story throughout the day as necessary so check back often.
-- Aaron Boulding