Xbox Live launch titles for Windows Phone 7 finally revealed, we’ve got the whole preview

We’ve known that proper Xbox Live gaming (powered by XNA) was coming to Windows Phone 7 devices, but we’d yet to work out any of that thumb-spraining goodness in action besides a short lived demo and a couple of developer videos. Well, Microsoft has finally come clean with details about its launch strategy for the platform, and from where we sit, it’s definitely looking pretty promising. First of all, the company has announced a whole list of launch titles for WP7 handsets, including some familiar names and franchises like Castlevania, Halo: Waypoint, Star Wars, Crackdown, and Guitar Hero, alongside a handful of newer properties like the ultra-cute ilomilo, produced in-house by Microsoft Game Studios. In total, the company will launch with over 60 game titles, with new offerings appearing per week within the Xbox Live Marketplace, almost like its big brother console version. We’ve got the complete details, an entire list of the launch titles, and our hands-on preview after the break — so read on to get the news!

Besides just announcing some games today, Microsoft has also shown off the whole feature set of Xbox Live integration in Windows Phone 7, and users of the service must be pleased to check that there’s not much missing from the version they know and love. Survive WP7 will allow for full avatar integration (we’re talking fully rendered, interactive avatars) in conjunction with customization (clothes, accessories, and more). The company has even crafted an avatar-centric version of familiar phone utilities like flashlight apps and levels, adding some whimsy to what would typically be pretty staid affairs. Additionally, messaging, friend lists / status, achievements, and leaderboards (with friend comparisons) are all here in addition, making for a good looking complete mobile Xbox Live experience. And likewise identical to the console, every game can have a try-before-you buy demo to try before spending your hard-earned cash.

We had a bet to sit and play one of the most new games (Rocket Riot, Crackdown 2: Project Sunburst, The Harvest, ilomilo, Bejeweled, Max and the Magic Marker, and Uno) in addition as have a look at the Live feature-set, and listed below are our first impressions:

We’ll preface this by saying that both the hardware and software we demoed was still unfinished (the latter being the Samsung Taylor dev phone and the LG QWERTY model we broke news of on the Engadget Show). Regardless, the gameplay for the arcade titles seemed excellent, with frame rates holding fast even during graphically intensive 3D sequences (similar to the chaotic, scattered-pixel play of Rocket Riot). The Harvest, while a bit familiar to our eyes, still showed the graphic promise of the platform. Gameplay was definitely like minded to a touchscreen device, though Microsoft’s Kevin Unangst told us that developers could target controls for both touch and QWERTY-equipped phones (on condition that a bit version was always present). The screen response seemed accurate and sensitive, reacting quickly to our input. Particularly within the Crackdown title — a tower defense game ” set within the Crackdown universe” — pinch zooming, rotation, and finger tracking was excellent.

Besides just standard gaming, it looks as if Microsoft will attempt to leverage some other components of the platform. Within the aforementioned Crackdown 2: Project Sunburst, the game utilizes Bing maps to create levels (not unlike the PSN title The Last Guy), and logic inside the software is in a position to recognize things like roads for enemies to make their way down. a novel concept needless to say, and the type of thinking we hope we’ll see more of on this platform. Though we didn’t get to look plenty of titles (we particularly would have liked to work out something like Castlevania), the polish and speed of the games we played was definitely competitive with iPhone or Palm Pre gaming.

We didn’t get a big gamble to peruse the Live Marketplace because the phones were offline, but we did get to play around with cached elements, and we felt right at home. Updating and tweaking your avatar was fast and easy, as was finding friends and checking up on achievements or messages. Unfortunately, for the launch of Windows Phone 7 there won’t be any true multiplayer options besides turn-based games, though Kevin perceived to indicate that head-to-head gaming (whether over a neighborhood or wide network) was within the roadmap. It only is sensible considering it truly is Xbox Live we’re talking about, and it kind of feels like something that may were baked in from the beginning. We can be a bit spoiled from the range of multiplayer titles on the iOS platform, but that was one knock against Microsoft here. An additional small issue we noticed was that game load times seemed long — a bit too long. Again, Microsoft says things are still unfinished, so we’re hoping this can be a side effect of debugging and non-optimized builds.

All in all, it’s a promising picture for Microsoft. The company has the clout, the community, and most importantly the money to tug this off, but as with every modern smartphone platforms, success can’t be judged on one aspect alone. To make Windows Phone 7 really work, the oldsters in Redmond should hit an appropriate note on not just gaming, but the fundamental user experience, hardware, applications, and carrier partnerships. Based on what we’ve seen of Xbox Live to tell the tale these devices, we expect the company can check a minimum of a kind of boxes off.

Source

This post is tagged: launch, live, phone, preview, Titles, Windows, xbox