Here’s my takeaway from Microsoft’s E3 conference.

Games I thought looked pretty cool

• Halo 4

  Gives me a serious Metroid Prime vibe; for me, that’s a good thing.

• Splinter Cell Blacklist

  High tech ninja infiltrator Sam Fisher.

• Tomb Raider

  Origins story for Lara Croft looking like a grittier Uncharted.

• Resident Evil 6

  Looks brimming with over-the-top action. Looks fun, but doesn’t look like a survival horror. This is just one of 3 campaigns in the game, however.

• South Park: The Stick of Truth

  Just like an episode. Crappy.

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

  “Blops2” Live gameplay demo

There were lots of Kinect games and integration to apps looked well done, but didn’t really interest me that much. Smart Glass looks like a great idea, but it won’t have the 100% penetration of the Wii U GamePad. Also, it seems most games simply use the microphone of Kinect. Is it possible to use a $10 mic as a replacement for most functionality?

Favourite Quote: Matt Stone and Trey Parker came out to present “South Park: Stick of Truth”, one of them mentioned how a lot of effort went into the look of the game. “It had to ‘look’ like an episode of South Park… which is pretty crappy.” I love these guys.

Biggest Surprise: Actual applause when IE was announced for XBox.

Best Music: Forza Horizon trailer