Microsoft has announced a sequel to its cute, furry animal adventure game Kinectimals. The new edition titled Kinectimals Now with Bears! adds non-threatening versions of its real life counterparts. After all, I wouldn’t want to reach out to one with my “bear” hands in real life.

Only the bear necessities, the new version allows you to adopt five new bear species: Black, Grizzly, Cinnamon, Glacier, and Polar. It still bears resemblance to its original in that you’ll be teaching these animals new tricks and collecting treasures. 10 more unlockable animals are found through exploration and probably an unbearable amount through promotional items from Toys R’ Us and downloadable content.

It’ll be available as a retail product for $49.99 or as a $14.99 “Bear Island” downloadable expansion. I can’t wait for the next installment. (more…)

Microsoft is pushing hard to bring in Kinect features on its core offerings this year, including Halo Anniversary. Microsoft Game Studios manager Phil Spencer made the comment in an interview with Gamespot, “As a first party, we believe that Kinect will be important to all genres of games, be it racing games with Forza, combat games like Ryse — even games like Halo Anniversary has Kinect integration.”

The company has stated that Kinect support for Halo Anniversary is entirely optional and won’t affect the “core gameplay experience.”

Twisted Pixel’s first retail product, a Kinect exclusive The Gunslinger will make its way to store shelves in September. Microsoft is handling the publishing duties for the game.

The developer is well known for downloadable titles such as Splosion Man, Comic Jumper, The Maw, and the upcoming Ms. Splosion Man. (more…)

Q Entertainment’s spiritual successor to Rez, Child of Eden, comes out today. Ubisoft released the official launch trailer for the game which features Kinect support for the Xbox 360. The Playstation 3 version with Move support will release in September. (more…)

Oh Peter Molyneux, I was really hoping for that Milo game but you decided to come out with a Kinect-only Fable game called Fable: The Journey, taking place after the Age of Heroes in the Fable timeline. I really like the fact that I can pretend to ride carriages in a scripted on-rails sequence, engage in faux melee combat, and throw spells with my hand. That’s so cool. (more…)

At the Microsoft Press Conference earlier today, Bioware took the stage to announce that Mass Effect 3 will support Kinect, as in voice commands not motion gestures. (more…)

Actually, we just spoiled that in the title. Blame Microsoft. The US Xbox E3 website has preempted their titles early and it includes their big announcements: Halo 4, Combat Evolved HD, Dance Central 2, Kinect Sports Season 2, Kinect Star Wars, Double Fine’s Sesame Street: Once Upon a Time.

Ryse, formerly Codename Kingdoms, is listed. Kinect Fun Labs and Xbox Live voice search were also found on the page.

Thanks VG247 and NowGamer.

I decided to make a quit recap/predictions post right before E3 pops up so that I’ll be able to show how I felt about last E3 and how the big 3 delivered. I’ll admit this article is oozing with my own personal opinion so please go yell at my editor if you disagree with me since I think that will be funnier. You’ll notice I wrote a lot more for Nintendo than anyone else and that’s because I felt the strongest for them during their E3 conference and they’re the only ones who actually had more than 2 of the games they showed come out. (more…)