At Microsoft’s pre-E3 media briefing, the company unveiled its audio-video motion-tracking controller, previously known as Project Natal. The new control system for the Xbox 360 is now known as Kinect.

Kinect sits in front of you and responds to your body’s movements and vocal commands to control games, chat and media features within the Xbox 360.

A number of Kinect games were announced. Kinect Sports is obviously an answer to Wii Sports, but does offer the improvements that come with the full motion tracking of Kinect. Kinectamals, meanwhile, gives kids a virtual pet that they can play with. The animals respond to kids’ vocal commands and movements. Kinect Adventures, meanwhile, puts you on a moving platform where you need to move your entire body to dodge obstacles and collect tokens.

MTV Games and Harmonix are bringing Dance Central to Kinect, a dancing game that removes the pads of DDR and replaces them with full body tracking. Ubisoft also showed off a Kinect title. Your Shape: Fitness Evolved will provide a workout that watches your entire body’s movements to provide tips on improving your form. A new Forza racing game was also announced, one to drive simply by placing their hands at a ten-and-two position.

Last but not least in terms of games, a new Star Wars game was announced from Microsoft and LucasArts, showing off both lightsaber battling and force moves that are done without a controller in hand.

Microsoft showed off the communications benefits of Kinect, with a webcam chat that took place between two Kinect users. Besides the obvious voice and video chat, people can watch movies, sports or news content together while in video chat. Also a neat feature: Kinect follows you around the room, panning the video so that you don’t wander off screen.

Zune features are being extended in the Xbox 360 with Kinect. Now, audio and video can be selected, played and controlled using Kinect. Simple gestures can be used to move between tracks or pause/fast-forward/rewind videos. Alternatively, voice commands like “Xbox Pause” and “Xbox Rewind” can be used to control media.

Alongside the new Zune media controls is an announced partnership with ESPN to bring sports coverage. Recorded and live games will be streamed to the Xbox 360 console through the service, which will be available to Xbox Live Gold subscribers at no additional cost. A neat feature: say “Xbox Replay” to get your own instant replays on demand. (As a Canadian, I’ve got to say the noticeable absence of NHL content was a bit of a let-down — though I’m not sure if the ESPN coverage will even be available outside of the U.S.)

Microsoft’s Kinect will be launching on November 4. 15 Kinect titles will be available at launch.

Changes are underway at Microsoft as both Robbie Bach, the president of Microsoft’s entertainment & devices division, and J. Allard, CTO of the same group, are leaving the Xbox team.

Robbie Bach has been with Microsoft for 22 years, and has most recently headed up the division that manages the Xbox line. Bach is retiring from Microsoft, with the aim of leaving on a high note. His recent projects, such as Project Natal, are promising upcoming releases. Bach will stay on with Microsoft until the fall.

Meanwhile, J. Allard, who co-created the original Xbox and was a big part of the Xbox 360 team, is also making his departure from Microsoft. Allard has recently been missing from much of the Xbox 360 news scene, reportedly on sabbatical. Allard has spent 15 years with Microsoft, and will continue to serve as an advisor to Steve Ballmer.

Both roles have been instrumental in the creation of the Xbox 360 platform, and no doubt Microsoft will have a bit of struggling to do as they reorganize their Xbox division and look to fill the void left by these departures.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Oh, the wit. The wit of that headline. Superb.

Anyways, on September 14, 2010, Halo: Reach will be released everywhere except Japan, where the game will be released on September 15.

Chances are, it’ll sell well. In the 18 days that the Halo: Reach beta was live, 2.7 million players logged in and spent 16 million hours playing the game. People who bought Halo 3: ODST were invited to participate in the beta.

Halo: Reach is Bungie’s last Halo game, as the company is moving on to work on a new series with Activision. More on Reach as it comes.

Happy Star Wars Day! Oh, puns. You make life so beautiful.

Anyways, I’m not just here to assault your intelligence with something you’ve probably already heard today. There’s actual news. And it concerns Star Wars. That is, The Force Unleashed II has been dated.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II is now due out October 26.

What’s more, I actually got around to updating the release schedule with current Xbox 360 release dates, so you can see when The Force Unleashed II comes out, if your memory is so bad that you’ve already forgotten, and you can see when other things come out, too.

This is my bestest writing ever!

How did this happen?

Activision recently fired some two execs from Infinity Ward for supposed “breaches of contract and insubordination”, and now word comes in that Activision is taking the Call of Duty line away from the company, who developed the series from day one. Infinity Ward will continue to support the hugely-successful Modern Warfare 2, providing new map packs for the game. Not sure what to make of this, but rumour has it they will not develop any new titles in the Call of Duty franchise.

Instead, Sledgehammer Games, made up of former EA employees, will take over the series. Their first Call of Duty title is planned for Fall 2001.

Meanwhile, my preferred FPS series, Battlefield, released its latest title, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 yesterday. Bad Company 2 is another step forward for the Battlefield franchise and puts EA’s Digital Illusions CE in a position to take on Call of Duty. With this news, it looks like the franchise is vulnerable.  Move in for the kill, DICE.

Battlefield veterans have the option to bring some guns over from Battlefield 1943 when they play Battlefield: Bad Company 2 next month, EA DICE has announced.

For those players that purchase both games, you’ll be able to receive exclusive codes to unlock three World War II-era guns in Bad Company 2. The guns are the M1 Garand rifle, the Thompson machine gun and the M1911 pistol.

In order to do so, you’ll need to register both Battlefield 1943 and Bad Company 2 at veteran.battlefield.com — although you still can’t register Battlefield 1943 on the site, you can also register copies of any Battlefield game since the original Battlefield 1942. Hopefully that site will be fully-functional in time.

Meanwhile, EA product manager Will Graham has been building up hype for Bad Company 2, bragging that EA’s DICE studio is positioned to take over the FPS genre, which has recently been dominated by Activision’s Call of Duty franchise.

“We genuinely believe there isn’t a developer out there that competes with DICE in this space, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is going cement that,” Graham says. “The use of vehicles in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 sets it apart from the competition and no one else in the industry does this better.”

Having played the demo for Bad Company 2, I’m inclined to agree, though I’ve long-since favoured Battlefield over the Call of Duty games. Bad Company 2 certainly seems to take the better parts of Call of Duty and put them into the masterful Battlefield gameplay style, so Activision does have a solid contender to worry about.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 comes out March 2 in North America, and March 3 in Europe.

Microsoft has announced that Crackdown 2 will be out this June.

Crackdown 2 again has you working for the Agency, hunting down criminals and forcing order back upon Pacific City. This time, though, the city is being overrun by mutants in addition to the regular breed of criminals, offering a greater challenge to the super-powered Agents.

Better customization and even more augmented powers for the Agent are promised in the sequel.  The co-op is back in Crackdown 2, but has been extended to allow four players. Additionally, a multiplayer mode allows up to sixteen players to compete together.

Crackdown 2 is being developed by Ruffian Games and will be published by Microsoft in June.

Just a quick heads up for other Battlefield junkies out there — in case you haven’t noticed, the demo for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is now available on Xbox Live.

The new demo lets you play online on the Port Valdez in Rush Mode, which is similar to the Gold Rush mode of the first Bad Company. The demo allows you to try out some of the new changes to the gameplay style. My first impressions: Some nice changes, though a little more in the style of Call of Duty, this definitely feels like a Battlefield title to me so far.

The demo will be available until February 25. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 drops in just 30 days, on March 2, 2010.

The second installment in the Mass Effect trilogy, Mass Effect 2, has been released worldwide. EA reports this weekend already passed the 2 million sales mark.

Ray Muyzka, who heads up the EA-controlled BioWare studio, had this to say: “Mass Effect 2 is poised to be one of the biggest games of 2010. We could not be more proud of the game’s universal acclaim and early commercial success.”

EA has also announced that it will be showing off new BioWare titles at E3 this spring, no doubt building off of the instant success of Mass Effect 2, along with Dragon Age: Origins late last year. Meanwhile, the Mass Effect has confirmed that work has begun on the final installation in the trilogy, Mass Effect 3.

I don’t know what happened to 2009. I honestly don’t, it went by quickly for me. But there were games, and some of them were good. But for New Year’s Eve, here’s my take on Xbox 360 gaming in 2009.

I’ll be the first to admit that this round-up is a little thin. It’s been a busy year, and I didn’t get nearly as much gaming time in as I’d like. So, I can’t say much about many of the games that came out this year. I didn’t get to play Resident Evil 5, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Dragon Age: Origins or Borderlands yet. I also didn’t get much time with either Assassin’s Creed II (which I’ll be playing in full very soon) or Call of Duty: Modern Combat 2. (MC2 looks and plays great, but I’m a Battlefield junkie, so I’m not the typical 360 player who is stuck on MC2 right now.)

Ok, that said, I actually did play some games this year! Here are the ones I feel that I can actually talk about:

Halo 3: ODST

ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) began as an expansion for Halo 3, called Halo 3: Recon, which was to be released as a budget, stand-alone expansion offering a short campaign played as a different sort of character. What emerged was a full-scale (and full-price) game.

In ODST, you play as regular soldiers during the events of Halo 2 and Halo 3. These soldiers don’t have the strength or agility of spartans like Master Chief, giving ODST a very different feel than what Halo has become, focusing more on strategy and stealth.

ODST also came with a complete Halo 3 multiplayer disc, featuring all of the Halo 3 DLC maps as well as 3 new ones, giving an expanded multiplayer experience to anyone already enjoying Halo 3′s multiplayer.

Fallout 3 DLC

Fallout 3 came out last year, but this year the game grew with five DLC expansions.

I didn’t play Operation: Anchorage, the first one, but I did play the other four: The Pitt, Broken Steel, Point Lookout and Mothership Zeta.  The Pitt was a bit underwhelming, but Broken Steel turned things around with a nice extension to the main storyline. Point Lookout was my favourite of them all, with Mothership Zeta a close second.

Overall I think Fallout 3 did their game justice with the DLC expansions, and I recommend them to anyone who enjoyed the game enough to be considering them.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope

I’m on Disc 3 of 3 of Star Ocean as I write this — I had rented the game back when it came out, and just got it for Christmas from my wife in order to finish it. Star Ocean: The Last Hope is a fun game, but  I have a few issues with it.

The usual cultural difference in terms of, let’s say, “artistic direction” that comes with any Japanese RPG is chief among these issues. When translated into English, the dialogue of Star Ocean is a little ridiculous. The characters are caricatures of either naivety or emoness (for lack of an actual word), and if I get the supposed moral of this story, that we’re all friends and we have to keep moving forward together, shoved in my face one more time I may need to buy a new TV, having thrown my controller through my current one. Some of the characters are almost intolerably annoying. If you’ve played this game, you know what I mean, kay?

All of that said, I can’t put my controller down. The story overall is decent, and the gameplay is fun. I like JRPGs for the play style and the gameplay. There’s a lot of running around for quests and whatnot, but there are moments in which that becomes a zen-like experience. If that’s not your thing, you can advance through the storyline more directly at a relatively quick pace.

I’m looking forward to Mass Effect 2 to bring me some believable dialogue, but Star Ocean is a great fix for the RPG junkie and generally an enjoyable game.

Battlefield 1943

As I mentioned, and have mentioned a number of times on this blog, I’m a big fan of DICE’s Battlefield series. I’ve been playing Battlefield: Bad Company since it’s release in 2008 and I’m eagerly awaiting Bad Company 2 next March. So when I heard that a “sequel” to the original Battlefield 1942 was in the works, naturally I was on board.

Battlefield 1943 takes place during World War 2, and focuses exclusively on multiplayer. The game has four multiplayer maps that mimic Pacific Rim battles of the era: Iwo Jima, Wake Island, Guadalcanal and Coral Sea. The first three of these maps focus on ground combat and play much like other Battlefield games. The Coral Sea map is exclusively used for aerial combat.

For a mere 1200 Microsoft Points, which works out to about $15, Battlefield 1943 has given me hours upon hours of fun and was well worth the money.

A short list, I know. As I mentioned, I have to catch up on quite a few games. Hopefully I’ll be tackling some of them before long, and I can add some new reviews… but with the games coming up next year, I’m not sure how I’ll fit it all in. I also just updated the Xbox 360 release calendar with what’s to come in 2010.

I hope everyone has a good time celebrating the countdown tonight, and I wish you all a safe and happy new year!