This Thursday sees Microsoft delivering its annual non-televised press conference, this year imaginatively called X11, where it shows off its Xbox-themed wares for the year ahead. After a quiet 12 months of First Party action, coupled with Sony’s laundry list of exclusive and new hardware announcement, Microsoft could do with a big 2011. Here’s 7 ways the big MS can win back its adoring public in style.
1.Give us Gears Of War 3, and a lot of it.
Bulletstorm is nice and all, but it’s about time we had the real deal. The world needs to see what happens to Dom and Marcus and their broad-shouldered chums, and the 360 needs a graphical showcase that can rival Killzone.
2.Remake Halo CE, use the Reach engine, make it beautiful
This is almost definitely happening, but it will be fascinating to see just how. Will whoever is handling the remake choose to disrupt the original’s fine balance in order to make use of the beefed up engine? Will is still have the same score?
3.Show off Avatar Kinect and make it the most interesting thing to happen to social media in ages
Will it be as interesting as it looks? Probably not, but it is the kind of thing that could make kids extremely excited. It probably needs to be on PC before it really takes off, but sitting in a pretend room is the first step on the ladder to a Star Trek holodeck. Make it so.
4.Give us a brand new Halo.
It doesn’t have to be a proper, canonical Halo FPS. Microsoft needs to keep that universe relevant and interesting though, especially as 2011 has approximately 14 million First Person Shooters to occupy itself with. Any sort of announcement trailer with that famous armour and orchestral swell would be enough to satiate the fanboys for a while.
5.Forza 4 to further embarrass the guys at Polyphony
After twenty seven years in development, Gran Turismo 5 turned out to be ‘alright’. Time for Microsoft to step in and get Turn10′s Forza 4 back as the number one ‘serious’ driving game. Kinect compatibility, beautiful visuals and an even denser racing engine. Oh, and online that works.
6.Gears Of War Kinect. Or anything remotely interesting on Kinect.
Nothing wrong with targeting the ‘casual’ audience for the first batch of Kinect software, but it’s about time we had something a bit more interesting to play with. Gears would be a good start, but anything that actually gets us to use that camera in an interesting or innovative way would be welcome.
7.A new franchise, something that could challenge Uncharted.
Alan Wake didn’t really fill that story-driven void. The Xbox 360 could really do with something to challenge Uncharted – not necessarily a platform/shooter, but just something with characters you can invest in and root for. Something that you can show your partner and not be mildly embarrassed by. Come on Microsoft, we know you’ve got it in you.
Tags: Gears of War 3
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