June 2010 was huge. It was colossal! The month saw a major gaming convention with big reveals, game demos and much more. Console hardware was a major talking point at E3 with Kinect (previous called Project Natal) for the Xbox 360, a new Xbox 360 console, the new Nintendo 3DS, and some information on the PlayStation Move motion controller making waves around the globe.
Microsoft launched its new Xbox 360 console in black with a shorter design and a 250 GB hard drive, Activision finally came clean about its Wii-exclusive GoldenEye 007 title, Sony revealed release dates and pricing for its Move motion controller, and Crytek announced that Crysis 2 would be playable in true stereoscopic 3D. We’ll bring you in-depth coverage of the biggest and best of E3 2010 in a separate feature, so watch this space.
Besides E3 2010, there were several other things to get gamers excited in the month. Indian gamers, and more specifically, notebook gamers and enthusiasts got a boost in the month of June. MSI launched what it calls the king of gaming laptops, the GT660, in the country. The notebook comes with Intel’s i7 processor, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 285M discrete graphics card, and MSI’s TDE+ technology. The chic design and several other top-notch features of the notebook push the price to a steep Rs. 1,25,000 though. In other hardware news, Zotac and Razer teamed up for a bundle that seemed so right. The Zotac GeForce GTX 480 Amp! Edition and Razer DeathAdder bundle explains it all, doesn’t it? Also Microsoft’s Kinect controller for the Xbox 360 was finally given a price. Everybody was eagerly awaiting Microsoft to drop hints about the pricing of the new device, and the company finally updated its official Store page with a pre-order price of 149.99 USD.
Right up there with some of the month’s biggest stories is news that LittleBigPlanet 2, announced in May this year, would get a patch post-release so that users would be able to create levels, adding in the functionality of Sony’s PlayStation Move motion controller. Players will be able to traverse levels in LBP 2 using the Move controller, but this little reveal by Media Molecule’s Alex Evan confirmed that players would be able to build some of their own, and pack in Move functionality. After all, the LittleBigPlanet motto has always been “Play, Create, Share”, and what good is it if you can’t create and share what you can play. The on-disc Move levels will also serve as inspiration for users to build their own.
Those who just can’t get their appetites sated even with all things Harry Potter also had something to be jubilant about in June 2010. The EA Play label of Electronic Arts announced that it was developing two video games based on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. The first part of the game, i.e. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows – Part 1, is scheduled for an autumn release, coinciding with the release of the first part of the corresponding Harry Potter film. It will be the first in the video game series to shift focus away from Hogwarts with players on the run and fighting for their very survival.
Fans of music based games were not forgotten. June saw the reveal of some really amazing Rock Band 3 features. The game will ship with an 83 song on-disc set-list and also pack three-part vocal harmonies as well as keyboard gameplay in addition to the traditional gameplay offered. Rock Band 3 will allow up to seven players to rock out to a track at once. Fans of Green Day could not just rejoice but jam along with their idols as Green Day: Rock Band hit stores in the month. Meanwhile Activision did not take a back seat in the music video game war, and announced a new Guitar Hero title, Warriors of Rock, scheduled for a release in the fall. KISS front man Gene Simmons will lend his voice to the game’s quest mode.
In other juicy news, Activision’s first person shooter Singularity saw a release, Nickelback was poised for a Rock Band debut, Demon’s Souls was released for Europe and the PAL territories, and Capcom’s Dead Rising 2 finally got a release date.