|
 Xbox gets active
By Christo van Gemert
At E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) this year, Microsoft had quite the news-making lineup. It announced the new Xbox 360 and also confirmed quite a few exclusive games for the Xbox, some due out for this coming holiday season.
Most importantly, it finally gave an official name to the Project Natal motion gaming accessory: this depth-sensing, human-detecting camera will be known as Kinect (draw your own conclusions on how they arrived at that) and will, hopefully, be on sale by December. Pricing will only be confirmed closer to that time.
Alongside Kinect, Microsoft announced and demonstrated a few games designed to be used exclusively with the new accessory. One of these titles is Kinectimals, a pet simulator with graphics unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Players can use their hands and voice commands to tickle or train a variety of wild cats.
Kinect will also have specific commands and hand gestures that can be used to navigating the Xbox menu system and control media playback.
One of the E3 announcements that went under the radar was Microsoft’s decision to introduce its Xbox Live! multiplayer gaming service to a few extra countries. Of course, South Africa crept onto the list and this is very big news – a huge portion of the gaming fun, and services, offered on the Xbox 360 comes courtesy of this connected service.
Microsoft South Africa is hesitant to give an exact date, but has confirmed the service will be launched locally in time for the holiday season. This is great news for local gamers, and new Xbox owners, since many of the games releasing in November and December will have large multiplayer components.
Now it’ll be super-easy to sign up for the service, and acquiring additional content for games will be just as simple. Previously, players had to use fake address details and perform purchases through third-party websites: hardly the ubiquitous access enjoyed by gamers in officially-supported regions. |
