Here’s the Xbox survey. Complete it by 5th Feb to be entered into the draw.

And here’s a nice picture of the dashboard so this post don’t look so sad and lonely.

With the Wii U promising to underwhelm with its revolutionary touchpad controller that only one player can use at a time, hi-definition Miis and another round of iterations of the exact same first party games (plus Raving Rabbids Mad Dash Touchpad Excitement!) I’m not sure I could be less excited. Microsoft and Sony throwing down their gauntlets via a mess of pre-rendered game footage, a badly mixed dubstep soundtrack and a thousand million Halo fanboys cutting their wrists as Halo 4 becomes a new platform exclusive barely registers a blip on my need to know radar.

Nintendo Wii U Controller And Console

I am interested in backwards compatibility. The Wii U is confirmed, which is hardly surprising given it’s a GPU upgrade and a touchpad. The Playstation and Xbox brands fumbled this last time around – the 360 adding a paltry representation of its back catalogue over time and the PS3 actively removing components that enabled such features. With both platforms having incredibly healthy installed user bases and wonderful back catalogues, do we once again get to abandon all that which we have purchased before? Doesn’t that seem incredibly distasteful in this new age of frugalism we live in?

I am interested in ownership rights. How will the rights to the masses of digital media across each platform be transferred across? Through the Wii Store, XBL and the PSN gamers have spent a small fortune on digitally distributed content and DLC. While it’s linked, in part, to the backwards compatability question it’s much more integrated and important than that. In my mind, the necessity for gamers to abandon their back catalogue of physical media based games and associated DLC is a painful one that impacts the concept of micro-transactions and expansions post-release. The necessity for them to abandon their back catalogue of digitally distributed titles titles in full will kill that channel dead. Why would I ever buy anything again if I know the manufacturers won’t support it in the next cycle?

I am interested in the storage solutions they’ll employ. This is aimed mainly at Microsoft and the Xbox 720 Skateboarding, given the extortionate prices associated with the hard drives on the current iteration. If I can’t get cheap and widely available USB solutions to store my backwards compatible installed games, DLC and digitally distributed titles on then I’m gonna get pissy and not buy your console. Yeah I know, piracy blah blah. That horse bolted a long time ago, stop punishing me for other peoples actions.

I am interested in motion sensor support. We know the Wii U is pretty much the same again, but what will Sony do? I can’t believe they’ll stand by the Move. What will Microsoft do? A fully integrated Kinect sensor has to be the way to go – anything short of full nex-gen support kills that add-on for this-gen in my mind.

I am interested in reliability. Both the PS3 and 360 have had issues, though the RROD had it by far the worst. What are MS doing to address this? How can they guarantee that I don’t need a 3 year guarantee on my console just to make sure it gets repaired when they deny any mass manufacturing issues?

I am interested in dates. Wii U probably hits next holiday season. I’m guessing that the 720 and PS4 will hit towards the tail end of 2013 which will have an amazing knock-on effect. The 360 still retails at the best part of £150 for the fully fledged slim. The PS3 still goes for more than that. These new consoles could lead to a massive and sudden drop in price on both.

I don’t expect any of this.

Also given the tie in with Games for Windows LIVE account, Microsoft Flight is clearly trying to make aviation more accessible and popular. According to Joshua Howard, executive producer of Microsoft Flight

Aviation can be incredibly technical, but we’ve taken great care to build an experience that makes taking to the skies thrilling and accessible for everyone.

Recently I’ve used Flight Simulator X with SE England satellite terrain add-on to practice for my Private Pilots Licence (JAR PPL) exams. I needed that high level of authenticity that Flight Simulator series has always provided.

I just hope the Microsoft Flight team haven’t forgotten those of us who don’t care about aero-caches or missions and just want to fly aircraft in the most realistic way possible outside a real cockpit.

You can still sign up to the closed Microsoft Flight beta if you can’t wait until the spring for the full release.

Microsoft Flight is currently in closed beta and will be available later on in 2012.

You can apply for the beta via Microsoft Connect. You will need to accept the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) agreement before submitting your application. It’s all fairly standard stuff for an NDA – don’t record, talk or write about anything in the beta. But I did find point 4 quite funny:

• Do not allow others to play or watch you play the beta software

So I’ll have to keep an eye on Weefz if I get selected as our PCs are in the same room. Hmmm, that could prove troublesome.

Chaps, It's Time For A Bad Weather Approach

Once you’ve accepted the NDA there’s a few basic questions to answer – Name, age, country, email address and gamertag. If you don’t have a gamertag you will have to create a new one otherwise no beta for you. The Flight team will then contact successful applicants in Jan 2012.

You can keep up to date with all the latest Microsoft Flight beta news via their website and/or Facebook page or right here on The Average Gamer.

Microsoft Flight will be released during 2012 for PC.

Out of the 21 cars on show these were my particular favourites. First off we have the completely mental Pagani Zonda (Carbon Edition) and the beautiful McLaren MP4-12C.

Next we have the unbelievably powerful Bugatti Veyron and the majestic Ferrari 458 Italia.

And finally the legendary Ferrari Enzo with the Jaguar E Type 1961 lined up alongside 3 American classics – Dodge Charger, Dodge Challenger and Pontiac Firebird Transam. There are more car photos on our Facebook page including the Koenigsegg CCX.

The was also a large Forza Motorsport 4 themed tent containing several Xbox 360′s and flat screens to test out Forza 4 including a set up in the boot of a Land Rover. This gave everyone visiting the chance to get a bit of practice in driving the Kia Cee’d – a reasonably priced car – around the Top Gear test Track before setting their single timed lap. As it turned out I set the 5th fastest time of the day, a 1:46:03 which I was pretty pleased with.

Just after 1pm owners began turning up to drive away their precious cars. I was lucky enough to film the slow but incredibly noisy exit of the quite awesome Ferrari Enzo.

Forza Motorsport 4 is out now for Xbox 360.

Missions in Microsoft Flight are designed to guide the player through the game objectives, from simple tasks like flying to a waypoint to performing challenging aerobatic routines to transporting scared passengers through bad weather at night.

The Flight team have also said that “players can fly “story-based” missions such as finding a missing person or playing a key role in an event. Another way to play is flying jobs such as carrying cargo or passengers from one location to another using piloting skills and knowledge to get them to the destination safely.”

If that all sounds like too much work then you can always “choose to fly freely without guidance in order to simply enjoy the beauty of the world, fiddle with the knobs and switches in the cockpit, or put an aircraft through its paces” say the Flight team.

According to the development team Microsoft Flight has also been “designed for a wide range of players, not just a typical simulation enthusiast” and like modern console and PC titles the game will also use “awards, achievements, and experience points to “reward” players that accomplish something in the game.”

Source: Microsoft Flight

Microsoft Flight will be released sometime in 2012.

Here’s a list of all the cars on show:

• Aston Martin DBS Coupe
• Aston Martin Vanquish
• Audi R8
• Bentley Continental GT
• BMW M5
• Bugatti Veyron
• Dodge Challenger 1970
• Dodge Charger 1969 (Hemi engine)
• Ferrari 458
• Ferrari California
• Ferrari Enzo
• Jaguar E Type 1961
• Koenigsegg CCX
• Lamborghini Galardo
• Lamborghini Murcielago
• McLaren F1
• McLaren Mercedes 2011 SLS AMG
• McLaren MP4 – 12C
• Mercedes SLS AMG
• Pagani Zonda (carbon edition)
• Pontiac Firebird Transam

You will be able to try out Forza Motorsport 4 on one of the Xbox 360 consoles in the car park and take part in a fast lap time competition, driving the ‘reasonably priced car’ around the virtual Top Gear track. Prizes on offer include an Xbox 360 250GB Kinect console bundle, a wireless speed wheel, a copy of Forza Motorsport 4 and six pairs of tickets to the London Motor Museum.

Forza Motorsport 4 is released on the 14th Oct 2011 on Xbox 360.

First up was Microsoft. Rather than holding a full press conference they decided to let us get hands-on with as many games as we could, over in the welcoming brick walls of the Vulkanhalle. Given that we only had two hours and that I took an accidental train journey to to Duren this morning (curse those fast trains), I only got to check out a few of the games.

And yes, they did call it a “play day”…

Dance Central 2

The full Dance Battle mode from Dance Central 2 was on display and it really does shake up the typical head-to-head routine. As you already know, Dance Central 2 adds side-by-side multiplayer to the franchise. In Dance Battle you compete through the same song but the normal routine is broken up at times with one player sitting out for 2 counts of 8 while the other has the chance to rack up extra points.

There’s also a new feature: Dance Any Move, where a selection of random moves will appear. Choose one and pull it off successfully to bag yourself an extra 10,000 points. If a move appears in a gold box, definitely grab that one for a 40,000 point bonus. These gold moves also appear during the normal routine.
Finishing moves now have a point to them as well. Each battle is concluded with a side-by-side shot of the two of you attempting to recreate the same pose. Thankfully, the photo is tastefully styled up with a fashionable bloom effect. No more cringing at obviously bulging guts or peeking underwear.

Today’s session also revealed the last two crews of dancers – Pictured below from left to right you have Hi Def, Riptide, Flash4ward and Lu$h Crew.

Gears of War 3

The Horde and Beast modes were on show for Gears of War 3, which is the first time Gears of War has been allowed to go on sale in Germany. On display today were the improved Horde mode and the new Beast mode.

I talked to Chris Kimmel, Executive Producer on Gears of War for Microsoft. “We call it Horde 2.0. We saw that in Gears 2, players would naturally form defensive positions together. They’d find a corner in the map where they would hunker down, so epic built gameplay on top of that idea.”

In the Gears 3 Horde mode you still have the 50 attacking waves of Locust but you build defenses around a chosen command post. Killing Locust earns money that you can use to buy fences, decoys, gun turrets, a sentry weapons and ultimately a Silverback – that exoskeleton that you may remember Marcus and Dom discovering in a recent trailer. You could also choose to forgo the defenses in fav
our of weapons – a boomshot perhaps, or the Hammer of Dawn.

Every 10 waves you’ll get attacked by a boss. Counter these by purchasing defensive upgrades. The spiked fence can be converted into barbed wire or even upgraded to a laser fence. You’ll need to time your upgrades. No sense spending money on a few feeble spikes just before a brumak comes charging into the fray.

Of course, none of these fences appear to give you any cover from incoming fire. Presumably they’re in there to slow down the charging brumak and hopefully do a bit of damage along the way. Looking at the picture, I really wouldn’t have much faith in a laser fence at all.

Beast mode is the one where you play as the Locust. In contrast to Horde mode’s defensive strategy designed to last through 50 waves, this mode only has 12 waves of attack. It’s fast-paced and extremely aggressive. You can choose from a range of Locust, including the speedy tickers (which Kimell described as “crabs on cocaine, scurrying as fast as possible”), the omnipresent drones who carry weapons, the butcher with his huge cleaver and the serapede. If you’re good enough you can unlock the Berserker and really go to town.

Age of Empires Online

AoE Online launched YESTERDAY as a free to play game available from ageofempires.com. They’ve launched with Greeks and Egyptions to start with. You can also spend real money to unlock the premium civilisations for each of these. Premium gets you access to ranked PvP, better gear and extra ambassador hall slots, which allows you to appoint new ambassadors for new skills and features. You can still play PvP without shelling out for premium, but you will not be ranked.
Civs are much more customisable than in the traditional “Age of” games. Instead of just working your way through a pre-set tech tree, you get points that you can choose to spend on, say, defensive or offensive technologies within the tree, rather like a traditional RPG skills tree.

Two more civilations will be launched later this year – Persians and Celts.
Tying ranked PvP into the premium bundle seems particularly ruthless and mercenary to me. I suppose it guarantees that people to take the game seriously HAVE to pay but there had better be some pretty in-depth tactics for this to compete with the likes of Evony, Caesary and the recently-launched Civilization on Facebook, which sticks to the tried-and-tested microtransaction model.

Orcs Must Die

Having talked about the wave-based Gears cooperative modes earlier, this XBLA/PC title seems very much a combination of the two but with plenty of things that make it unique. You play as a hero guarding a series of passages. The enemy will storm out of one door, through your room and out the other. They’ll come in a set number of waves per level and it’s your job to stop as many of them as possible. You achieve this with the aid of traps, tar pits and your trusty crossbow.

Start the level and you get about 15 seconds of door rattling before the buggers break through. Use that time to lay down your initial traps and check out the environment for handy shootable things like a chandelier that could come crashing down on them. Don’t worry if you screw up at the start. Every 3 waves you get a breather that can be used to redesign your entire trap strategy. With 25 levels, 25 different traps and a host of room-based nasties to inflict on the invaders, this game is certainly worth a look when it comes out on XBLA and Steam in October.

Other games that were on show:
Forza 4 (I’ll see if Nick can look at this)
Kinectimals (with bears. Too cutesy for my tastes even though the panda is adorable)
Kinect Sports Season 2 Tennis (bored of motion tennis games already)
The Gunstringer (huuuuge queue for this. Looks good. I’ll try and grab some time on it later this week)
Kinect Star Wars (not enough freedom of movement for me to want to try this)
Halo CE Anniversary (looks and plays like Halo but with Reach graphics and jetpacks)
Kinect Disneyland Adventures (cute and probably engaging enough for kids. Exploring for hidden coins and on-rails theme-ride sections mean there’s nothing in it for me)
Orcs Must Die (XBLA game which I will cover in more detail later)

Quick breather and then it was off to the EA press conference for us! I have just learned that German keyboards have all the punctuation in different places and the y and z keys are transposed so please forgive me if future articles are a little bit strange. It’s the kezboard!

The action starts off with the press conferences on Tuesday 16th August, a press and trade only day on Wednesday 17th August and then the show is open to the public between Thursday 18th and Sunday 21st August.

EA Press conference

• Date: 16th Aug 2011
• Time: 15:00 BST onwards (time in your city)
• Live Stream: EA @ Gamescom

EA will obviously be wheeling out the big guns at this event, so expect to see Mass Effect 3, Battlefield 3, Need For Speed: The Run, FIFA 12, SSX and Burnout: Crash and Star Wars: The Old Republic. There is talk of a new version of Bullfrog’s classic Syndicate making an surprise appearance. We shall see…

Sony Press Conference

• Date: 16th Aug 2011
• Time: 18:00 – 19:00 BST (time in your city)
• Live Stream: via Facebook

You can also watch the press conference live via the PlayStation App on iOS/Android phones, on the PlayStation Blog or within PlayStation Home which will feature a dedicated Gamescom 2011 space. If you miss the press conference then you will be able to watch video edits in the Home space later on.

Sony should be showing off more of its new PS Vita handheld console, along with many of its games like wipEout 2048, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, LittleBigPlanet and Resistance.

On the PlayStation 3 expect to see Resistance 3, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, Starhawk, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One and maybe even the Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection making an appearance.

The PS Vita

Microsoft:

Microsoft isn’t holding a press conference on the Tuesday. Instead assembled journalists and media will be getting to hands-on with their Gamescom line-up at the Xbox Play Day Event. You will be able to see clips and pictures from this event as well as keeping up to date with the rest of Gamescom 2011 via Xbox.com and Facebook page.

DotA 2

• Date: 17th – 21st Aug 2011
• Time: TBC
• Live Stream: DotA website

You will be able to watch the best Defence of the Ancients (DotA) teams in the world battling it out for the $1 million first prize live on Valve Software’s brand new DotA 2 game via the DotA 2 website. This tournament will be the first time DotA 2 has been shown in public.

Guild Wars 2

• Date: 17th – 21st Aug 2011
• Time: TBC
• Live Stream: Electronic Sports League TV (ESL TV)

NCSoft are showing off Guild Wars 2 at Gamescom. You will be able to watch the developer PvP show matches on ESL TV from the 17th Aug 2011.

Guild Wars 2 - Sylvari Race

Borderlands 2

• Date: 19th Aug 2011
• Time: 16:00 BST onwards (time in your city)
• Live Stream: 2K Games Live

2K games will be streaming a live demo of Borderlands 2 from Gamescom via its Usteam channel. This will be the first time the game will shown in public. Gearbox will also be answering questions during the live demo. If your question gets asked then you’ll get a Borderlands 2 swag bag. You can either tweet your question to @2KGames or @GearboxSoftware twitter accounts or post on the 2K Forums and the Gearbox Forums.

Nintendo:

Nintendo isn’t holding a press conference or even showing off the Wii U (as reported by Conceivably Tech). Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and most of the games shown at E3 will be playable on the show floor but Ninty isn’t showing anything that you can watch online, I’m afraid.

We’ll be reporting from Gamescom 2011. See you back here for the latest news from the show floor.

The Legend of Zelda:

Nintendo have announced that The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony will be coming to the HMV Hammersmith Apollo in London on the 25th October 2011. Tickets will go on sale at 16:00 BST on the 8th Aug 2011 on the Zelda Symphony and Ticketmaster websites and cost £33.75 each. The concert will feature a 70-piece orchestra and choir performing some classic music tracks from The Legend of Zelda games.

Zelda Symphony - Hopefully minus Navi

Minecraft:

The first Mincecraft convention, called Minecon, will take place in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay hotel on the 18th-19th Nov 2011. Convention tickets along with the website to buy them from will go on sale next week. We should also get some more information about what’s going to actually take place during the convention at the same time. (via PC Gamer)

Forza Motorsport 4:

Check out this video showing how Turn 10 Studios created the beautiful Bernese Alps track in their upcoming Forza Motorsport 4 game. This game is really, really pretty. Fortunately the driving experience is spot on too as I got to play around with Forza Motorsport 4 back at E3 2011. Enjoy the video.