The Microsoft press event was certainly something to write home about this year. At the briefing, Microsoft announced an addition to their growing catalog.

However, they first made it easier to access your favorite content. Bing search now has better Kinect voice controls that make it easy to find and watch content with all the new content partners and they have cleaned up the entire feel of it in the process.

If you like the NBA, NHL, ESPN, sitcoms, comedies, documentaries, cartoons or even telenovelas, then what lies in store for you is sure to be a treat. What are the new features and who is now on board with Xbox LIVE?

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Yesterday I reported on the rumored Microsoft Smart Glass technology that was expected to be shown off today. All signs pointed to a product designed to compete with Apple’s living room business strategy. The service would give the capability of streaming a video from your phone or tablet to your television through your Xbox 360. It would have been a major head start on Apple and their desire to control your life. The service that was actually announced, however, was a little different and infinitely more useful.

Xbox SmartGlass, as the service will properly be called, is an extension and major enhancement of the Xbox LIVE Connector, the app on Windows Phone and Windows 8 that allows you to control certain aspects of your Xbox through your alternative devices. There are two aspects to the service: gaming and media (big surprise there). Let’s cover gaming first. SmartGlass will allow game developers to enhance the gaming experience in a way never quite explored. It is building on the concept of services like Call of Duty: Elite, but making them part of the game. One great example shown off during their press conference was an interaction with the new Halo 4. When a new waypoint is reached, your phone or tablet can light up and let you know information about where you are, such as maps or personnel. While the game is totally capable of being played without this, an enhancement of this type is a great way to make it feel more like you are IN the game world.

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Microsoft had one more heavy hitter to round out the show this year and that was Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 which did not disappoint. The graphics looked amazing with barely any difference between cinematics and game play. Treyarch seems to have stepped it up a notch and even though no one plays Black Ops for the story. I’m not going to ruin it, except for this part where you get to fly a Harrier-looking aircraft around a decimated LA destroying drones. Way cool. According to Treyarch and Microsoft, “The Future is Black” on 11/13/2012.

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Crystal showed off a new Tomb Raider that lives up to the expectations that fans have of the game. Most notably, the transition between cinematic and game play is very smooth and keeps the action going. Lara Croft also keeps getting hotter so maybe they will bundle it with some new underwear upon release.

A few world premiers that came next were Ascend: New Gods which might make you say “God of War who?”, Lococycle and Matter which appears to be some crazy awesome Portal like game with marbles. All these are coming out sometime 2013.

Resident Evil 6 was more of the same old thing we’ve come to expect. The game play looked a little choppy but it’s still the quintessential zombie killer game.

The award for Goofiest game of the Keynote goes to Wreckateer which is a fun E for everyone Kinect game where you use your body to guide projectiles into castles and blow them into non-existence. Remember, the family that slays together, stays together. Dance Central 3 had a big showing with Usher giving a live performance but we didn’t see a lot of the actual game. I get the feeling that if you’ve played it before, you’ve played this one as well. Another goof game but for completely different reasons was South Park: The Stick of Truth which puts you in an episode of the TV show by South Parkifying your avatar. It is also an obvious Lord of the Rings parody so if you like South Park you’ll like this, too.

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It wouldn’t be a Microsoft Press Conference without some a new Splinter Cell and that’s exactly what we got with Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Sam Fisher looked great and so did his artistic killings, thanks to the “killing in action” system that blends the stealth and action elements of the game together. It makes the pace of the game much faster without losing the challenge that comes along with needing to use tact for survival. Integration with Kinect gives you the ability to interact with enemies by distracting them and taunting them, which is in itself satisfying. You can also issue voice commands to teammates which adds new life to the unique ways you can kill people. We can all look forward to staining our hands with the blood of the guilty in Spring of 2013.

We briefly saw a Fable: The Journey preview that showcased Kinect capability, Gears of War world premiere and Forza Horizon preview which were cool but there isn’t much more to say about it.

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Stefan Olander from Nike came on stage to present Nike Fit which is admittedly a pretty cool fitness video game platform that takes health and fitness to the next level. It measures real life performance with the Nike Plus Fuel Band and Nike Fuel points that provide real world feedback about your physical health and performance. The message they were trying to get across is that you can’t improve what you can’t measure. We can expect this out by Holiday 2012.

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First up to bat was the much anticipated Halo 4 and while I’m not a huge fan of the series, this is the one that might pull me in (don’t hate, it just means I’ll be an easy kill for you in multi-player). We got to see actual game play that was really impressive and the jungle environment they threw you into is rich and vibrant with both plant life and things that want to kill you. The implementation of Smart Glass is something we look forward to discussing more in detail later. I’m still not used to Master Chief talking though, hopefully that will subside by the 11/06/2012 release date.

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