Microsoft had a launch party today in Canada, showing off Kinect at a downtown Toronto club. I spent the last 3 hours there checking out Kinect...but more importantly playing all the upcoming 360 games. Was one of the lucky ones to attend.
Some impressions -
F3AR - appart from hurting on the visual side, the game plays very solid. They took out the floating feeling you had in FEAR 2 and the game feels a lot like modern warfare or any other current shooter. Slow mo is still there, as is coop...which is split screen and online. They also implemented a solid cover system. Looks pretty good from what I saw. Impression rating: B+
Fable 3 - Not a lot of interest for this game for some reason. 3 stations set up and 2 were empty at all times. The game looks beter than Fable 2 visually and combat is more flowing, but I didn't see anything thats groundbreaking from the rest of the series. Impression rating: B
Halo Reach - got around to playing a round firefight in Reach and the game is looking exceptional. The size of the maps has increased and the game really takes advantage of the whole area with spawning enemies all over the place. Its pure chaos after 4-5 enemy drops... Impression rating: A
Kinect adventures - Pretty fun social game. This is going to be the Wii sports for Kinect. If only the booth guys weren't there to bug you while you played...lol. Impression rating: B+
Mortal Kombat - The game takes inspirations from old school titles visually and story wise, but this is no old school mortal kombat. The controls remind me of any of the 3D Mortal Kombat games I've played before the MK vs DC mashup. It is on the 2D plane, but its slower and chunkier compared to MK2 and MK3... Its still good, but it seems that its hard to make a fast 2D fighter using polygons. I wouldn't really call it a rebot... Impression rating: B-
Sonic 4 - Platforming elements are back and the game is not all speed anymore but controls are still a little buggy. The game is implementing a control mechanism which requires you to push a to jump, double tap a to dash forward and push B when a target appears to home in on an enemy or object. I couldn't believe howmany people struggled with this concept. I loved it personally...its slightly more challenging but anyone should find sonic easy at this point. First boss in the game is classic... Impression rating: B
Vanquish: Best game at the party. The game just owns. Its about 2X as fast as Gears of War series, but it actually gives you more control somehow. Action is fast paced and there is so much variety even in the 5 minutes I got to play the game. Visually its also exceptional...runs at a very stable frame rate with a shitload of things happening on screen. Impression rating: A+
Other games were there as well, like DEad Space 2, NFS, Assasisns Creed Brotherhood...but I did not have time to test those out.
I have to say that after checking these early builds, I will surely buy Vanquish, Kinect, Halo Reach (not that playing it here had any influence on my decision) Sonic and F3AR. Good times ahead...
