Massive Announcements at X’06

I was busy working away today while X’06 was getting underway in Barcelona so I didn’t tune in to any of the live video feeds and I haven’t had my feed reader open all day. Just as I was wrapping up before dinner a press release dropped in my inbox titled “Xbox 360 Ushers in Exclusive New Worlds of Entertainment for Most-Anticipated Franchises Ever at X06“. Press releases are always over-hyped, so I opened it up with a snarky grin on my face as I rolled my eyes. That grin was slapped off my face repeatedly as I was hit with headline after headline of absolutely massive news!

Halo Wars

Halo Wars

A Real Time Strategy game set in the Halo universe is in development and you guessed it… it will be exclusive to the Xbox 360. Without so much as an image to go from, my head quickly filled with all sorts of possibilities as I imagined how rad this game could be. I figured there would be plenty of new content on the Xbox Live Marketplace so I ran to the living room, fired up my 360 and was met with a gorgeous Halo Wars promo. Sure enough, there’s a trailer online along with video to accompany all of the other big announcements. Now, I realize this is purely a cinematic, but man does it ever look great!

Not surprisingly, there’s already a website online for Halo Wars and although there’s not much there yet, you should definitely grab some of the concept and cinematic desktop wallpapers (which come in up to 1920×1200 resolutions!) and check out the FAQs for a bit more info. My favourite one…

Q: Why is Halo being made into an RTS game?
A: Warthogs are cool. Scorpions are cool. Controlling lots of Warthogs and Scorpions and sending them into battle is really, really cool.

Peter Jackson opens Interactive division of his Film studio

If that doesn’t get you excited, maybe knowing that his first project is another Halo title will? Details are slim, but I think it’s probably safe to say it will be of the RPG or MMO or MMORPG variety.

Grand Theft Auto IV to get 2 Xbox 360 exclusive download packs

At E3, Peter Moore announced that GTA IV would be heading to the 360 along side the PS3 on launch day. Big news for sure, but he also mentioned that additional content would be coming via Xbox Live following the release. Today he confirmed that 2 downloadable packs will be released within months of GTA IV’s release. They will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 version and each will be about the length of Liberty City Stories.

Spinter Cell 5 to be Xbox 360 and Windows PC exclusive

Seriously, wow. This is huge! The Splinter Cell series have been released across the board (Xbox, PS2, GameCube, PC and even some titles on the PSP, DS and GBA) from the start.

Guitar Hero II coming to Xbox 360

This has been rumored for a while, but it’s finally confirmed. I can’t wait to rock-out-with-my-cock-out. YeeeaaaAAAaaa!

DOOM added to Xbox Live Arcade library

…and you can download it right now! Dude, I shit you not… I’ve been playing it all night! It’s here, right now, go get it!

If that’s not enough for you, there’s a ton of new trailers and other content on the Marketplace up for grabs. The Assassin’s Creed and Call of Duty 3 trailers are super rad as is Kane & Lynch: Dead Men.