As with previous years, Microsoft’s showing for Xbox 360 was all about the games at E3 2010. The lineup of first and second party exclusive games showcased this year, aside from those announced for Kinect, was quite impressive, and included titles like Halo: Reach, Crackdown 2 and Fable III, and a third party exclusive from Crytek currently called Kingdoms.
Another major exclusive showcased at Microsoft’s Media Briefing on Monday was Gears of War 3. Epic Games’ Design Director, Cliff Bleszinski, was on hand at the Briefing with some of the studio’s other team members to showcase some of its new features and gameplay. Some of the most notable new features are weapon swapping between players, the introduction of female Gears and campaign play for up to four players. Bleszinski capped off the demo by announcing, but not showing the new Beast multiplayer mode, which lets players play as Wretches, Tickers and other non-Grunt characters. To put it bluntly, it looks awesome. I can’t wait to try it at the first preview event I can attend. Gears of War 3 launches in North America and Asia on April 5, 2011, in Japan on April 7th, and everywhere else on the 8th.
