NEWS - Return to news section

A lot of things happening at E3, so let's not waste any time.

Microsoft have just launched Kinect Labs for all Kinect owners on the Xbox 360. It's a free to download add-on that features several free "gadgets" that allows for some new mini activities to show the potential of Kinect. In essence, Kinect Labs is the Kinect app store, with the "gadgets" being the apps. 

There is the "Kinect Me" gadget that scans your face in, and creates an Avatar of your likeness, without having to fiddle around with the Avatar editor. Then there's "Googly Eyes", which allows you to scan in an inanimate object, say your basketball, and then the software will bring life to the object (and add Googly Eyes, of course), allowing you to control it as if it were a puppet with your body. Similarly, "Build A Buddy" also allows you to scan in objects, and they're animated with several actions that you can trigger via movement. 

Other Kinect announcements include the addition of Kinect sport to some of EA's franchises, including "Tiger Woods PGA Tour," "Madden NFL," and, "FIFA." Kinect support will also be coming to "The Sims 3 Pets", and interestingly, "Mass Effect 3". In Mass Effect 3, gamers will be able to select the dialogue of the game's hero, Commander Shepard, by simply reading out loud the dialogue choice, plus issue voice squad commands as well. 

Microsoft also announced a Live TV service for the 360, along with YouTube support, Bing search, and voice control to control everything.

For Sony, the mood was more apologetic, and this was another public occasion for Sony to say sorry to supporters for the PSN hack and downtime. Apart from promoting several PS3 exclusive titles that will be coming over the next year, including 'Uncharted 3", "Resistance 3", as well as remastering older games such as "God of War" in 3D, all coming within a few month's time. Sony is also launching a PS3 branded 24" 3D TV that has the unique ability, via special glasses, to allow two gamers to play on the same TV but see different screens, thus eliminating the need for 2 player split screens. Interesting.

Sony also officially named the PSP's successor, the next generation portable, as PlayStation Vita.

Everyone will now be waiting for Nintendo's announcement of the Wii 2, now possibly named just "Nintendo", with the rumoured touch-screen based controller that also doubles as an independent portable game console. More on that soon.