Microsoft E3 Press Conference Overview and Notes

by George Robinson | June 17, 2015 12:00 pm

The first thing we saw was game-play of Halo 5, which resembled a next-gen Halo. It seems like you now have control of a squad of characters instead of being by yourself. However, the multiplayer is what caught the most attention. Halo 5 Guardians: Warzone Multiplayer had traditional PvP and PvE (which looked to be like horde mode in some other games like Gears of War). In one of the round table post shows, it was revealed that the object of these games is to reach 1000 points to win the game.

Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune has an Xbox One exclusive called Recore, which had a cinematic trailer of a young girl with a robot dog walking through a wasteland scrounging for parts (sounds like fallout 4, I know) before they’re attacked by robots. The dog sacrifices himself to destroy the robots and leaves behind a giant blue orb (or… maybe it’s Core?). The young girl then takes the core and places it into a nearby robot and the robot moves, recognizing her and then the title appears. It looks great.

More Fallout news was briefly teased and game-play showed off the game, but the biggest news to come from the Microsoft conference is that PC mods will be transferable to the Xbox One version of the game.

Forza 6 showcased some really slick looking cars  featured and announced that it’ll have 24 car multiplayer races in the game. It’s announced for a September 15^th release. Looks like it’d be perfect game to play with the new Xbox Elite controller

Dark Souls 3 trailer aired…Dark and grim as ever where the Souls games are considered. Still looks really cool.

Cinematic trailer of The Division, looks incredibly cinematic. Rainbow Six Siege looks awesome, but one of those games you’ll probably need to actually have 4 other friends to play with or you’ll have a bad time playing this game. 5v5 squad battles confirmed. Also Siege comes with Rainbow Six Vegas 1 & 2 for free

In the free to play category is Fable Legends, which will be available for both PC and Xbox One, and allows you to play with characters from either system.

ID@Xbox announced several games that are coming out to the Xbox One through that program. Including Beyond Eyes, an exploration game where you play as a little blind girl who has to visualize everything that directly in front of her based on what she feels and touches. The entire screen is blank except for the little girl, and her immediate area. Cuphead (above) places you into a 1930s cartoon that plays like a 16-bit game. Not just the art style, but there’s a filter over the screen that makes it look like there’s a film grain over the gameplay. Other games part of the ID@Xbox program include Tacoma, Goat Simulator and Superhot.

Rare Replay is a collection of 30 full games from the studio Rare, so you get games like Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Battletoads and many, many more, due out in August. For about $30. That’s literally a dollar a game for the Xbox One!

Rise of The Tomb Raider showed off some gameplay at the conference, and while it was definitely just like it’s predecessor that came out in 2012 and in the definitive edition, the setting is somewhere in the mountains in contrast to the tropics in the Bermuda triangle. Also in general, the game looks gorgeous and is confirmed for a November 10^th release of this year.

And finally, Gears of War had a couple of announcements. Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is a remake of the first Gears of War for the Xbox One and the multiplayer online beta is actually already available. At the end of the announcement, they showed off game play for the next game in the series, Gears 4, due for holiday 2016

Microsoft also had several announcements about their peripherals and devices. First, an Xbox One Elite Controller with 4 extra buttons on the back of the controller, a new D-pad and control sticks that can all be interchanged and swapped out for others. The controller is not only compatible with the Xbox One, but will work on Windows 10 as well. As amazing the controller is, just one alone will set you back $150+

The Microsoft Hololense Made an appearance in a big way, showing off the ability to play games such as Minecraft using the Hololense. Not only can you play the whole game practically in first person, using the hololense to see and turn your head, but in the example above, you can recreate the entire world of the Minecraft game you’re playing and display it on your table for you to see. You can ping locations with your friends and you can even see through walls and underground.

However, probably the biggest news of them all is that the Xbox One is gaining backwards compatibility! Through an emulation program that will be available in an update later this holiday season, select games will be possible to play on your Xbox One and more will be added through periodic updates. So you’ll eventually be able to play your collection of 360 games left over from the last generation.

In the end, Microsoft’s Conference shows off many different reasons to grab an Xbox One. The games planned are nothing short of impressive and the news of backward compatibility is great. It’s a great time to have an Xbox Console.

Source URL: https://www.confreaksandgeeks.com/microsoft-e3-press-conference-overview-notes/

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