Welcome to the Official Microsoft GDC & Spring Showcase 2012 thread.
Halo 4 (X360)
343 Industries
Release Date: Holiday 2012
Fable: The Journey (X360 & Kinect)
Lionhead
Release Date: September 4th 2012
“Fable: The Journey” is a whole new way to experience the deep storyline, heart-pounding action, and picturesque world of Albion that fans have come to know and love about the “Fable” franchise. In Fable: The Journey, you will come to the aid of the ailing and mysterious Theresa, who thrusts you into an action-packed adventure full of dangerous enemies, hair-raising chases and humorous characters. Built from the ground up for Kinect for Xbox 360, Fable: The Journey gives you the power to wield magic as a deadly weapon, defend yourself in combat and solve puzzles on your journey to becoming a hero.
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Fable Heroes (XBLA)
Lionhead
Release Date: May 2nd 2012
“Fable Heroes” on Xbox LIVE Arcade is an action-packed hack-and-slash adventure set in the “Fable” universe, it is a fresh spin on the franchise, taking playful competition to the next level with four player co-op, time trials and leaderboards on Xbox LIVE. In “Fable Heroes” players work together to defeat enemies while also competing with each other to collect gold coins, which will level up their character and unlock unique items in “Fable: The Journey” when it launches later this year.
Forza Horizon (X360)
Playground Games
Release Date: Fall 2012
Forza Horizon
Windows 8 - Xbox Live Integration
Xbox Live Windows 8 Integration
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The Xbox 360 has been an undeniable slam dunk success for Microsoft, so it's natural that we'd see it making an appearance in the company's latest OS. Indeed, Xbox Live is one of the most prominent pins in the new Start menu, and once tapped you'll be prompted to sign in to your account.
After a few moments of pondering, the machine will display all your gaming habits in a presentation that's not too dissimilar to the one found on the console. Even your avatar will strut his (or her) smug little self across your screen, dressed as you remember them, and you can indeed make costume changes here -- they'll show up back on your console momentarily.
But that's just fluff. The real interesting bit comes when you start navigating through your recently played games and accessed Xbox apps. You can launch those titles directly from your Windows 8 device and, once they're up, even control them -- though there are naturally a number of restrictions.
To begin with, your controls are limited to up / down / left / right and you only have access to the four face buttons, so you can really only navigate through menus and make selections. That's just fine for cruising through the Netflix app -- less so for a round of MW3. You also are naturally limited to launching games that are downloaded to the console or are printed on a disc that's sitting in the console's tray. Sadly, Windows 8 will not get off the couch and put in a new game for you.
The interface here is a bit clunky and sluggish; we'd definitely prefer reaching for a controller or a Harmony remote or the like, but the potential is quite intriguing. We'd love to see the Netflix integration taken a step further, for example, where you choose your movie on the tablet and it plays on the console. And we can't help dreaming of Wii U-like console / tablet harmony as well, with games played on both the slate and the screen, but perhaps that's just a bit optimistic.
